D
anie and Johann van der Merwe are the visionaries behind WeconnectU , a rapidly growing property management software solutions company in South Africa . Founded just two-and-a-half years ago . The company already boasts over 400 000 property units being managed on its cloud-based platforms .
According to the Van der Merwe brothers , this exponential growth could not have happened without their team ’ s personal experiences in the property management industry and their commitment to solving the very real challenges they and their colleagues faced .
By the industry , for the industry
Danie says the idea for WeconnectU was born out of their own frustrations managing a large portfolio of properties .
“ We were stuck using multiple systems to handle all the elements of our business , none of which integrated with any other or was designed with the specific workflows and challenges of property management in mind ,” He says .
“ It was clumsy and inefficient for our teams , made it difficult for us to quantify and convey the value we were imparting to our clients and limited our ability to scale our business and our profits .”
Unable to find a single , end-to-end software solution that is purpose-built for property management , Johann and Danie set their minds to solving the problem themselves .
Starting with the fastest-growing sector
“ We decided to start by focussing on community management , it ’ s the fastest-growing sector in the property management industry , and one of its more complicated and heavily regulated sectors . It was a great place for us to hone our initial product offering , using our own experiences in the field to address real-world challenges with tools and workflows that would be intuitive to others in the industry .” The result was one of the first end-to-end community management solutions bringing all tasks , and all stakeholders together on one , transparent , cloud-based platform . It includes a custom-built financial module , intelligent dashboards to monitor and manage client and business KPIs , built-in ( and constantly updated )
WECONNECTU
support for compliance and an unprecedented level of comprehensive reporting .
" Unable to find a single , endto-end software solution purpose-built for property management , Johann and Danie set their minds to solving the problem themselves ."
Expanding solutions
WeconnectU ’ s Community Management solution was received with resounding approval from the industry . Blown away by the initial adoption figures , the brothers set about expanding their platform to cater to numerous requests for Rental Management and Inspection and Maintenance Management solutions as well .
The goal was an integrated ecosystem that could handle the full range of property management services , replacing outdated systems with a complete suite of reliable , userfriendly , effective and efficient cloud-based tools .
The team felt they had far more to offer the industry with a new solution for rental portfolio management that would support a more modern asset management experience , rather than just another administrative property management system .
The resulting Rental Asset Management Software addresses the entire value chain of rental portfolio management , including tenant vetting processes , bankintegrated account management , lease management , and integrated inspection and maintenance management .
“ It was important to us to make sure that we kept solving
Personal Statistics
Name : Johann van der Merwe Position : Managing Director Age : 38 Marital Status / Family : Married Education : B . Sc . Human Science Books you are currently reading : Unlocking the Bible - David Pawson What is your life motto ? “ Life is what you make of it and if you don ’ t make it , that is life . Go out and make things happen .” What would you still like to achieve ? Help every client that we engage with unlock the most value from their business .
Name : Danie van der Merwe Position : Director Age : 35 Marital Status / Family : Married with two daughters Education : B . Com . Law Books you are currently reading : How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie What is your life motto ? You can have everything in life you want , if you will just help enough other people get what they want . What would you still like to achieve ? Solve the property managers challenges on a global scale .
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 5