ADL Developments was established in 2010 as a property developer for residential properties, bars and restaurants in the UK and Ireland with 13 properties under management and a further 55 under development. 

In a growing privately-owned property development business, operational efficiency is key. With residential tenants, it is important that issues are addressed and resolved as quickly as possible and real-time visibility into location-level issues are crucial. ADL Developments is a progressive business that was looking for ways to simplify its daily operations, see where things were falling through the cracks, and make the entire operation more transparent for all levels of the organization.  

So, how were they to achieve this when issues were being raised and managed through phone calls, emails, spreadsheets and texts?

“Intelocate provides a simple and transparent solution to issue resolution across multiple properties, vendors and sub-contractors.”

Tiernan McGowan
Director, ADL Developments Limited

The Challenge

Managing the on-going maintenance of residential and commercial establishments along with 55 new properties in development, across the UK and Ireland, is not an easy task. Residential and commercial estates vary in their needs and the type of support and maintenance they require, as well as presenting different levels of security and safety compliance requirements. Early in 2020, with a rapid growth of the business, ADL was faced with a communication challenge and the need to manage costs very efficiently.

The management of property-level issues, planned maintenance, and other ongoing projects was delegated to the individual property manager. As a result, different approaches and different vendors were involved depending on the local preference.

Controls and authorizations were in need of improvement and there was a lack of transparency of issues arising. The ADL team had a process in place but no automated system which resulted in lots of back-and-forth communication between contractors and ADL staff via email.

Management was entirely reliant on spreadsheets and email for the resolution of issues.

The most common communications were:

• Planned and reactive maintenance

• Health and Safety compliance

• Design and Decoration

• Security

• Refurbishments

“The beauty of Intelocate is in the ability to quickly review the status of every issue arising and outstanding and act to prompt the faster resolution of the issue all in the same system and to then see the steps taken to implement any action needed. Completion of the task is supported with uploaded photos and videos where relevant, and the level of transparency across the business is greatly improved.”

Paul McGowan,
Chairman, ADL Developments

The Solution

A simple solution was needed that could be used to manage the resolution of property-level issues, allow ADL to easily communicate with tenants, contractors and subcontractors, as well as gain valuable insights into the performance and execution results of every vendor or contractor. After reviewing several options, ADL found Intelocate to be the most flexible and the best-suited for the challenge.

Intelocate would enable ADL to manage any issues arising across all of its locations and to communicate with external contractors and vendors, all from one lightweight, user-friendly platform.

ADL did not want a solution that would require their head office team and property managers to undergo a long training process. Intelocate was selected as the simplest and fastest solution to implement — total onboarding and setup time took only 30 minutes. What made it appealing was that the entire organization could start using it as soon as the system was up and running. In fact, users do not even need to log in to start interacting with the system using Intelocate’s SMART e-mail feature. There is no need for users to make major changes to how they work, and all communications and information is captured in the same place, every time.

The initial success and smooth adoption of Intelocate inspired the Operations Team to expand the issue submission ability beyond General Maintenance to include other operational issues such as design and decor, refurbishments, rent payment, health and safety compliance, and other financial matters. ADL noticed a big change in their day-to-day operations. The Operations Team could now quickly and effectively assign various issues to the appropriate vendors and contractors with no need for the multiple email threads which had been so time-consuming in the past.

Fast forward 3 months and ADL has seen a significant change in its approach to daily operations across all of their estate. Thanks to the light-touch, fast deployment of Intelocate, ADL quickly reduced their daily time spent handling tasks and issues from hours daily to 10-30 minutes a day, citing an average of 60% time saved across the business, significantly reducing time spent sorting through emails, texts, voicemails, and spreadsheets.

By collating all information and communication relating to specific issues and to a specific estate, ADL now has full control of its operations. Property managers are now able to check the status of any issues raised to the ADL team and vice versa, view the progress of issues and the performance of various contractors, creating an extra layer of trust and transparency.

“The ease with which Intelocate categorizes communications makes the management of multiple issues at multiple locations much more efficient, resulting in happier tenants and cost savings at the management and maintenance level. Intelocate is a must for anyone managing multiple properties.”

Paul McGowan,
Chairman, ADL Developments

The Results

Using Intelocate, ADL Developments:

• Increased the speed of issue resolution by a factor of 10x

• Reduced time spent managing and responding to properly-level issues by more than 60%

• Achieved a 75% reduction in emails per task

• Issue-resolution speed increase and the reduction in emails per task enables ADL to create simple and clear action plans for the year, reducing the cost and time spent on managing the estate.

Today, Intelocate is being used to manage more and more areas of operations, such as task management, digitizing all forms and checklists for audits and compliance.