How The Siegel Group protects their employees and profits with Solink

The Client:
The Siegel Group is a diversified property management company

When looking to improve security at The Siegel Group properties, Ross Siegel inquired about a custom integration with their property management solution Gearco.

“We asked Solink whether it would be possible to integrate with our property management software Gearco. When we found that was possible, we asked if Solink would be interested in working in our residential properties.” ~ Ross Siegel

Solink is currently protecting 63 of the properties in total with plans to expand to their entire portfolio.

The Challenge:
Provide remote access to all properties with custom permission levels

The Siegel Group owns and operates many properties. They need to have remote access to the security camera feeds at each property. In addition, each layer of management, from local to the VPs of Operations, needs to have custom permissions.

“We had a basic problem with our surveillance system. We lost the ability for property managers to view cameras remotely. We also have layers of management that require access to different property groups. Property managers, regional managers, and the VPs over them all need the ability to either watch in real time or pull video from specific properties. At one point, our previous surveillance system provided that, but even then it was never close to as robust or easy to use as Solink.” ~ Ross Siegel

Summary:

• The Siegel Group found themselves locked out of key cloud security features in their previous surveillance system and took that as an opportunity to upgrade to a more enterprise-level solution.
• Ross Siegel has worked closely with Gearco Inc. to ensure their property management software meets all of The Siegel Group’s needs and wanted a surveillance system that could integrate with Gearco.
• Rent and loyalty point fraud had occurred, and there was a need for accountability. Conversely, Christal Harman wanted to make sure that their high customer service standards are always being met and tenants never miss out on any of their benefits erroneously.

Why Solink?

The Siegel Group had specific issues with their previous surveillance system that necessitated a change. In addition, Ross Siegel was interested in seeing whether Solink could integrate with their property management software Gearco.

The Solution:
Solink provides better security with a custom property management software integration

The Siegel Group wasn’t satisfied with their current security system. It didn’t provide the integrated enterprise-level security that their growing business required. When sudden issues arose that locked them out of their remote monitoring capabilities, they decided to look for a new security solution.

“We had needs that weren’t being met by our security system. It couldn’t really do everything that Andrew and I would have liked to do from an enterprise solutions perspective. Then, when our security system started having some issues with their cloud portal, we decided to move on. When you offered to build a Gearco integration, we decided to put Solink in all of our properties.” ~ Ross Siegel

There had been some instances of rental fraud where finding the exact video footage would be difficult and time consuming without such an integration.

In addition to integrating with Gearco, Solink is compatible with The Siegel Group’s existing cameras. While their long-term security plans include upgrading all of their old cameras, being able to spread out that expense is an additional benefit of the Solink platform.

“There would be a lot of capital expense replacing all of our cameras. It was a huge deal that we could keep using the older cameras. If we had to go back and replace all of our cameras, it would have been a challenge. Instead, it was a much easier decision to use Solink. In the long run, we don’t want to be using those previous cameras, but being able to replace the cameras with new ones slowly as they go offline really cleared a major hurdle. That we can proceed slowly with the evolution of our security hardware really matches how we like to operate.” ~ Ross Siegel

The Siegel Group considers protecting employees and customers their top concerns. They want to be able to provide video evidence of anything that happens on their properties.

It’s important to find instances where mistakes have occurred and provide follow-up training for the staff member.

“We also use Solink for training purposes. When our staff isn’t doing their due diligence, for example, properly explaining our rewards program and benefits to our tenants, we can use video to show them this issue. If we have people who are habitually making the same mistakes, we can reach out to their regional managers and get them signed up on Solink just to prevent the issue. It’s a more proactive way to handle customer service issues.” ~ Christal Harman

The Result:
The Siegel Group has better accountability and efficiency

Another Solink feature that is providing accountability is the automatic health checks for cameras.

“From an IT perspective, Solink is providing accountability and efficiency as well. We’re constantly seeing notifications of cameras being offline now. Our conclusion is that, since moving to Solink, cameras aren’t going offline more often but we just know when it happens. Now we get the notification and can react to the cameras going offline. We’re able to address things more quickly.” ~ Ross Siegel

In The Siegel Group’s words

“With Solink, I feel like we matter as a customer, and that’s very important to us. It’s so reassuring to know that, when there is an issue, we matter and it will be resolved.” ~ Christal Harman

“Having Solink is lucrative. It really has helped our business a lot. Andrew oversees the IT department on a day-to-day basis, and he can most certainly tell you that it has helped the IT department greatly.” ~ Ross Siegel