Client: Strangford Residence Management
Founded: 2015
Portfolio: Nearly 4,000 apartments across around 50 developments in Central London
Team: 17 employees
The business
Founded by Michael Paul in 2015, Strangford Management has grown from a one-person business into a team of 17 managing nearly 4,000 apartments across around 50 residential developments in Central London.
The company specialises in modern residential developments and has built its reputation on providing a highly personal service through dedicated micro-teams.
Each client is assigned a property manager, junior property manager and client accountant.
"The level of attention that each client is actually getting is through the roof."
The challenge
Strangford had used the same block management software since the company launched.
It had served the business well, but as the company grew, Michael and his team began to identify areas where manual processes were consuming significant amounts of time.
The biggest challenge was within accounts.
"We realised that we're spending so much time doing things in a manual way that there had to be a way that we could use automation to save a lot of time."
Contractor management and work order administration were also creating additional workload.
"There was a lot of administration around that."
One process stood out in particular.
"Our team individually, one by one, were probably spending an entire morning doing bank recs because it was all manual."
The business also found itself duplicating work across multiple communication channels.
"Everything that we were putting onto the software, we were then doubling up with emails."
"If you're doing something once, you're ending up doing it three, four times."
What Strangford was looking for
The decision to review software was not driven by a need for a resident portal or basic functionality.
Instead, the focus was on finding a platform that could support the next stage of the company's growth.
Key priorities included:
- Reducing manual administration
- Introducing more automation
- Improving communication
- Increasing transparency
- Supporting future growth
As Michael explains:
We really wanted to find a system that would align with the way we worked so that it was transparent by default.Michael Paul, Founding Director Strangford Residence Management
Why Proptimo
For Michael, the decision came down to more than software features.
The attraction was finding a platform that was continuing to evolve and investing in automation and future technologies.
"We wanted to explore what software company is looking more towards automation but also introducing elements of AI within it that could benefit us in the long run."
Just as importantly, he wanted a software provider with a clear vision for the future.
"If you're a company that wants to align with a software provider that has a genuine vision for growth and evolution of that product, Proptimo is the right fit."
The migration
Moving years of operational data from one system to another is never straightforward.
Michael is realistic about the process.
"Any data migration is painful, right?"
However, he is equally clear that the overall implementation experience has been positive.
"It's been good. It's been honestly good."
The biggest challenge was cleaning and preparing data that had accumulated over ten years.
"It's more painful to do the data clean in the first instance."
"Cleaning the data that has sat on a system for 10 years."
Throughout the process, Strangford's team worked closely with Proptimo's implementation specialists.
"Everyone has had access to your team."
"If there was a blockage, the team have said, okay, well, let's meet outside of the weekly catch ups, work on clearing that blockage so that we can move on."
Early results
The accounts team were among the first users to move across and quickly noticed the difference.
"The accountants are already saying how fast the processes are around it, which is exactly what we wanted."
The most striking example came from a task that had previously taken a significant portion of the day.
"Reconciling client accounts used to take the team half a day and now it takes them six minutes.”
The task Michael highlights is reconciling client accounts and for a business built on delivering a high level of attention to clients, reducing time spent on administration like this allows the team to focus on service delivery rather than repetitive tasks.
Key outcomes
✓ Reduced time spent on manual financial processes
✓ Faster accounts workflows
✓ Less duplication across communication channels
✓ Greater transparency for clients and stakeholders
✓ A platform designed to support future growth
Michael Paul, Founder & Managing Director, Strangford Management
"If you're a company that wants to align with a software provider that has a genuine vision for growth and evolution of that product, Proptimo is the right fit."
