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If you wouldn’t use a manual screwdriver or a pocket calculator, why are you still managing the day-day admin and communications with property management companies manually? Most of the time, contractors usually have a few responses to this. “It’s too much hassle to...

Get To Know the Blockworx IT Director, Will McIlmoyle with this little snippet from his recent Blocktalk podcast. You can listen to whole podcast on Spotify, iTunes and Google. Or you can catch it on the CPL Software YouTube channel. Will, has been with CPL Software...

How do you think social media can be used to help property managers? I think social media in terms of the world of property management what comes to my head immediately is, it's a trust tool. It's 100%, a trust tool. And the more transparent you can be with people,...

What does the future of property management look like? We asked Christian Bruce, Partner at Redpath Bruce on a recent Blocktalk podcast. This is what Christian had to say about where he things the industry is going.   In a utopian world, I'd see factors and...

Have you checked out the Blocktalk podcast yet? Blockworx is a new podcast for professionals in the property management industry. Available on Spotify, iTunes and Google, you can listen to the first two episodes now. On our first episode, we welcomed a very special...

“Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.” Peter Drucker. What do you think? Do you agree? In this article, we’re going to take a look at the number one efficiency that could transform what you are already doing in your property management business, into...

Could your repairs and maintenance processes be even more efficient than it is now? After a small interruption to our scheduled series of articles on Efficiencies, we return with a look at whether your property management company could be even more efficient than it...

You will have seen by now that revisions to the Property Factors Act Scotland are being introduced (subject to approval) from16 August 2021. It replaces the original Code which applied from 1 October 2012.  “All registered property factors are required by law to...

Cumbersome. Monotonous. Time-consuming. Not words we’d want to use to describe any task we do at work. But for many tasks in a property management business, these are words that might be used to describe all manner of tasks. Because in a property management business...

Table of Contents Introduction What is efficiency? How can a property management company be more efficient? How efficient is your property management company? The end   This quarter it’s all about efficiency at Blockworx. We’re taking a deep dive into the topic...

Table of Contents Introduction Why would the property management industry want to choose good materials? How can it be done? What's already happening? Getting ahead of the good materials game   To end our mini-series looking at sustainability in repairs and...

Table of Contents Introduction First, why bother? Is your portfolio efficient? Is your portfolio renewable? Do your owners need somewhere to charge up? Is your portfolio draft proof? The end   We’re approaching the end of our series of articles looking at...

Table of Contents Introduction Waste management Less money wasted Future-proofing property management   Welcome back to our series of articles looking at sustainability in the property management industry. So far we’ve discussed outdoor spaces, urban mobility and...

We continue our sustainability in property management series with a quick look back at our last article where we began to look at urban mobility. We spoke to Derek McDonald at Newton Property Management about their initiative to install EV charging points across their...

Welcome to the second article in our ‘Sustainability in Repairs and Maintenance’ series. Last time we discussed outdoor spaces and how they can be made more sustainable. In this article we’re staying outdoors but instead of dwelling in our garden or green spaces,...

We’re kicking of this new quarter with the first in a series of articles that will be centred around sustainability in Repairs and Maintenance for property management companies and contractors. In this series, we’re going to take a look at Urbanisation, Food Waste,...

Welcome to Part II of our series where we’re looking at common queries around automating manual processes. In our last article we asked about what can come to mind we use the word 'automate'. And gave examples like robotic arms, automatic gear sticks and something as...

When we use the word 'automate' what do you think of? Robotic arms moving parts around in a factory? An automatic gear stick instead of manual? Excel instead of a clipboard? Wikipedia describes automation as “a wide range of technologies which reduce human...

When we look at how contractors and property management companies work together to manage repairs and maintenance, we see quite a disjointed, time consuming and monotonous way of working. It’s more horse and cart than TGV. But can property management companies and...

“Who shares wins: the impact of technology on building safety” – A Look Back In Order to Look Forward As we move into 2021 with a mix of eager anticipation and an underlying sense of trepidation about what lies ahead, I can’t help but try to focus on what we can do to...

Repairs and Maintenance efficiency hacks - the top 5 tasks you will likely waste time on in 2021 and how to stop Organising repairs and maintenance can be a very manual process. The ‘back and forth’, disjointed communications and information coming in and going out in...

How can you future proof your contracting or property management business in 2021? 2020 was a year like no other in our lifetime. We were thrown into a situation which none of us were prepared for – both personally and professionally. For the businesses that have...

How has 2020 been for you as a contractor? It’s been a massive challenge for the majority of businesses with hardly anyone going unscathed. This week (I write this on the 10th November), a potential COVID-19 vaccine has been announced, which, without meaning to count...

Property Managers need a variety of contractors to fulfill a range of repairs and maintenance work. Whether it’s routine maintenance work like gutter cleaning, gardening or lighting in communal areas or emergency repair work or repairs to the building or roof, the...

As if coping with the fluctuating rules and restrictions of a pandemic aren’t enough for us all, for Residential Property Managers, the dark nights are closing in, autumn is upon us, which means that winter is just around the corner. It’s the time of year when...

For contractors and Property Management businesses, the prospect of doing something new can often be so daunting a prospect that any sort of change is never implemented. This can lead to stagnant processes, becoming too comfortable with the mindset of ‘it’s how it’s...

Is there anything more damaging to a business than staying still? There are many stories of businesses that have not survived because they haven’t changed with the times. But there are also many positive stories of businesses that have done change well. In this...

For many contractors or Property Managers, staying safe and continuing to do what’s always been done is the accepted way of the office. Everything is working fine so why change it? But what if someone else comes along and does things a little differently? What if...

“Communication works for those who work at it.” John Powell In Property Management, good communication is vital to building and maintaining good relationships. And there are a lot of relationships to manage. Relationships with suppliers, relationships with...

“How technology saved contractors during the virus crisis”. Possibly not one of the most read headlines of the last few months. But one that featured on the industry leading, Construction News website. The article cites the transformation of Birmingham’s NEC into a...

Imagine this. It’s 2015. It’s Saturday night and you're getting takeaway. You search through the drawer in your kitchen for all the menus you have. You pass the menus around and make a collective decision about which restaurant you’ll go to. Then you grab a notepad...