Technology may not be the driving force behind the breathtaking increase of the self storehouse industry, but it sure complements the activity, adding to the capacity for generating a return in the company and increasing the possibilities in customer service. Long a dream for many self storehouse operators, the technology to operate an unmanned facility, leads the list and stands as an example of technological innovations that offer solutions. These electronic systems furnish efficient assistance aid to customers, freeing time for supervision staff members, and allow owners to originate a healthier net operating income.
The impact of the gains in technological improvements to the institution of operating self storehouse may be hard to part for each individual location, but a bird's-eye view shows the difference in the middle of the have' and the have not's. Go to the intersection of highways 24 and 28 in Anderson, South Carolina, a county seat just about halfway down Interstate 85 in the middle of Charlotte, Nc and Atlanta, Ga. From that intersection take each of the main roads--north, south, east, and west--and you'll find no less than six storehouse facilities within two miles. That's about median for most towns, it seems.
Expectedly, the oldest ramshackle construction has an office in an additional one company construction on an adjacent piece of property, not even a hint of security, and itsybitsy curb appeal. The newest, Westside Storage, right beside the area high school has great visibility for the store that has one first-phase construction complete and two further construction pads ready to be poured. Great signage calls attentiveness to the features of available storehouse with state of the art safety features. In between, there are the fenced and unfenced market that highlight "Boat and Rv Storage," especially the ones on Highway 24, the most direct route from downtown to Lake Hartwell to the south and west.
The results of your short ride will readily delineate why one or two of the properties show up on brokers' lists, ready to be sold. As in many lines of business, new competition and demographic shifts in the neighborhood dictate new approaches. In this neighborhood, the more industrial side of the town known as The galvanic City, changes come as giant corporations decide either or not their Anderson branch will stay or go. This southern city, within 20 miles of Clemson University and the study infrastructure it attracts, still holds onto names like Michelin and Honeywell, but has lost facilities and jobs for many of the old-line big names in textiles. The changes are apparent as witnessed by the difference of new sub-division signs right alongside those that indicate "This industrial Site is Now Available."
For the owner or prospective investor, the reply to how to make a go of it rests on the capability to compete. Technological innovations and improvements in the way we do things open the door to generating profits more efficiently. The changes cover the scope of all we do, even from the initial evaluation. Store witness methods, architectural and engineering processes, construction materials, construction procedures, safety systems, accounting and supervision systems, and customer services all see innovation and turn that make operating a company different. We save time and money. We make operations easier. We make our services more convenient and easy to use.
In a up-to-date Self storehouse Developer's Seminar, one of the industry's beloved consultants showed maps of up-to-date site surveys and commented, "We used to merge on the three-mile radius nearby each site under consideration. Now, with neighborhood transportation transitions, we look at a ten-minute drive. Population are more mobile and the traffic supervision manufacture for each area of the city has a principal impact on the proposed company and its capability to attract customers."
Paul McElreath works with architects, engineers, and owners to depict all the features and withhold infrastructure of wiring and conduit for the sophisticated safety systems furnished by Digitech International, specialists in safety for the self-storage industry. "Each architect used to draft drawings by hand. We would get them and have to manually add our system data to the mechanical drawings, and then move them along to the normal contractor. Counting the mailing time, that was a process that could authentically take three weeks or more." Pointing to his computer screen, he adds, "Now, it just takes a few seconds for an architect to e-mail a set of prints. We use a Cad (Computer Assisted Drawing) program to add a few lines, attach symbols, and drag'n'drop a few icons onto the drawing and we're ready to send them out again within a few hours, depicting a complete system layout. It's amazingly fast to use the tools that computers make available to us."
What he says is true in arresting data as well. Practical web-based supervision software solutions have appealed to early adopters who want to leverage the power of the Internet to make operating data available instantly and at virtually any computer terminal or laptop wherever they might be in the world. "The technology complicated in parking vital data on a remote storehouse archive in somebody's corporate server farm seems alien to some owners who think they still have to voice local operate of their operating data," says Markus Hecker of Smd Software of Raleigh, Nc. "Others, along with some of the large real estate investment trusts that own complicated properties, and are gobbling up more through consolidation purchases, see the value of having all the data available instantly for estimate back at the home office." His counterpart at Centershift, one of the first software amelioration fellowships to embrace the model, says that issues of safety and redundancy were part of the former design, so that they would never need to be a worry for owners and operators, offering full time operational reliability. These firms, along with many of their competitors, now offer some form of remote data gathering, processing, and delivery.
Timely and convenient customer assistance and the age-old drive to conserve operating capital by reducing overhead influences the rapidly evolving company of Atm-like kiosks, self-service rental stations, appearing at storehouse centers in neighborhoods nearby the country. Notables like Shurgard and public storehouse join the few early adopters in adding the devices and processes in at least a few stores. Robert Chiti, President and Ceo of Open Tech Alliance of Scottsdale, Az, says, "The self-service rental station includes a method for each expectation to launch a conversation with the home office call center, if they need to, but the tools are built in to allow each step of the process to be self-acting on the spot. With prompting and on-board video instructions, a customer can go through the steps to complete a lease and be approved for an immediate move-in." Positioned more as a manager's assistant, rather than a supervision replacement, self-service kiosks offer hope to owners who want to cut away overhead.
Jefferson Shreve, the principal in storehouse Express, owner operators of more than 65 storehouse locations dotting the Midwest, built an former company model nearby operating unmanned sites. "We started out in secondary markets, challenged to withhold the cost of operation for smaller facilities. Our median investment gave us about 22,000 rentable quadrate feet, not sufficient to pay a lot of overhead. We had to find ways to compete effectively with the other properties." Shreve says they are beyond the testing stage. They invest in the Dsl or Tv Cable connections that give them high-speed access to the Internet at each site. "We have about five sites now that have the kiosks in place, with orders for an additional one five. That complements what we have been doing with access operate and safety for each location. Now we can lease properties and keep an eye on them with remote video over the Internet. The innovations have given us tools that allow us to do a great job and still keep the overhead under control."
Shelly Gibson serves as Training Coordinator for Universal supervision of Atlanta, Ga, a firm fielding more than 100 employees to staff the more than 40 market that make up its current roster of contracted clients. "When we're recruiting, all the new technology at the store level puts more pressure on us to hire right to begin with. We have to be much more careful. Computer skills are an absolute, and we need Population who can roll with what comes, because turn is constant." She details her experience, "I started out as a driver of the free move-in truck and part-time manager back in the days when our gate operate system was operated with a itsybitsy Tandy computer. The whole process is so much more in depth now. It takes a lot more training."
One of her fellow workers, a trainee, and the manager of capability Self storehouse in Roswell, Ga, Vanni Hardy, says she has seen many good changes in her twelve years in the business. "All of these things we used to have to do manually were time arresting for us and the customers. Just completing a lease took at least twenty, and regularly thirty minutes. Now, the process is more complicated and the lease includes a lot more, but we can get it done efficiently within about ten minutes." Reflecting on what some of the innovations mean to customers, Vanni continues, "People come in to the office and see the monitors on display and it makes them feel secure, even though we don't use that word "security" anywhere. We have the site graphics display as well. I show the prospects that we can authentically keep track of who is on site and which units are being used. They understand it, and it's impressive to them. It authentically makes it easier to expound why we need all the background data as we put together their customer file."
One of the demands placed on operators within our contemporary society, especially since the terrorist attacks we refer to as 9/11/01, is collecting definite tenant information. With scrutiny in our manufactures what it is, or what it has become, the liability for not discriminating in the rental process has increased dramatically. "Our customers, political leaders, and the community-at-large question a higher level of public and personal safety than previously expected," says Michael T. Scanlon, Jr., Self storehouse relationship President and Ceo. "Counter Measures is a program we introduced for our members last year that revolutionizes the process at the rental counter. It's an instant verification of personal data along with Id, prestige scoring, bankruptcy record, criminal background check, and free monthly updates on customer addresses and information." available by subscription through the Self storehouse relationship in Springfield, Va, the program requires a computer relationship by dial-up or high-speed modem. The program is designed to help owners with verification of data for both potential customers and employees.
Vanni Hardy, continuing to comment on the positive changes she has seen come through technological improvements says, "In our store, which is a multi-story climate controlled environment, we have intercoms throughout the building. That saves a lot of walking for our customers and the managers too." James Doman, manager for Secured Self storehouse in Asheville, Nc agrees. "The system we use has the intercom stations tied to the telephone system. When a tenant needs a question answered, they press the call button and it rings my cordless telephone. That way, with the long-range telephone I wear on my belt, I can be everywhere on the site, or even off the site. I can reply to them and get them the data they need." Underscoring the point of the convenience he says, "I've heard there are larger market than mine that have as many as forty-eight stations interfaced to the telephone system, but mine isn't that large. It sure makes it easier for customers though. an additional one thing that makes my life easier is that, if I need to, I can open the gate from any location on the premise by naturally hitting the estimate 9 on my cordless phone."
Mike Mead, an electrical engineer by training has been installing electronic safety systems for owners of self-storage over the State of Texas for nearly two decades. Owner of Dallas self-acting Gates, Mike says, "Some of the biggest changes we've seen are making it easier to install the safety systems quicker, and they're more approved too. The latch-type alarm palpate for individual unit door alarms is a great revision over the dual palpate switches we used to attach to the door track. They're all trustworthy when they're installed correctly, but the QuickSwitch and LatchGuard can be installed a lot quicker, saving both time and money." The activating expedient attaches to the door track. Rectangular in form, it creates a collar nearby the door latch. As the latch is moved to unlatch the door curtain, a magnetically sensitive switch embedded in the collar senses the movement. As with any of the door alarm systems, if a valid code is not entered in the access operate system, and the unit door is opened, an alarm will sound.
"The biggest contentious advantage that's new among the safety tools now available for owners of self storehouse to use is the wireless door alarms." Small, battery-powered transmitters installed at the covering of the doorway to each unit serve a similar purpose. If the door is moved without a verification code being popular ,favorite by the software system, an alarm sounds. "The fact that the system can be installed without having to enter each unit makes it an increasing that even existing facilities can use," Mead continues. "New technology may have hurt some of the itsybitsy guys a bit, but not all. We're helping any owners refurbish their older sites to keep up with the newer competition. With the wireless door alarms, new cameras, and some added curb appeal, they're able to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak."
As Jefferson Shreve and others have proved, the tools of technology make operating a smaller site more feasible. At the same time, Michael McGowan, active in acquisitions for public Storage, Inc., the nation's largest operator, says, "Maybe it's coincidence, and it has to do with the markets where we look for properties, but we just don't see properties that don't have the bells and whistles for operations and security. We're a big believer in the tools ourselves, and it looks like other owners are making them pay off as well."
Technology and innovation will continue to impact the way we do business. We want to find faster and more efficient systems, less costly materials, and great processes to achieve our behalf goals. Like they say in company and manufacture schools over the land--do it faster, cheaper, and better. You can win.
Winning With Technology In Self warehouse