Yardi Launches New Risk Management Solution

By Gail Kalinoski

Patrick Hennessey, vice president & general manager at Yardi

Yardi has launched an online solution for commercial property owners and managers looking for a way to make vendor background and insurance checks easier. VendorShield™ is an automated vendor screening platform that works for owners and managers of all property types and can be integrated with other Yardi software.

“VendorShield helps facilitate safe communities for residents, tenants, vendors and staff. The full integration of VendorShield with Yardi Voyager® and VENDORCafe® provides a convenient one-stop shop for vendor management,” Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi, said in a prepared statement.

The system will search government watch lists and other local verification sources to ensure suppliers meet the property owners’ and managers’ requirements for insurance coverage, professional licenses and background checks.

VendorShield will have regular auditing features to ensure ongoing compliance, making it easier for property staff members to do their jobs. It will also simplify management of Form W-9s, certificates of insurance, service contracts and other documents.

Patrick Hennessey, vice president & general manager at Yardi, said VendorShield helps protect property managers and owners from financial and reputational risks when dealing with service providers. This is especially important for management companies that oversee properties for institutional investors and pension funds, he said.

Reducing risk

“Accidents involving on-site service providers like landscapers, roofers, electricians, etc. are going to happen, and the goal of VendorShield is to give our clients confidence that when they do happen, the vendors involved are reputable and have sufficient, active insurance coverage,” Hennessey told Commercial Property Executive and Multi-Housing News.

Hennessy said clients provide insurance requirements for each type of vendor and invite the vendors to join VendorShield. The vendors register their information through the VendorCafe portal.

“The VendorShield team gathers the appropriate data and insurance documents, compares this information to the property’s requirements, and marks each vendor as meeting or not meeting those requirements,” Hennessey explained. “We continue to monitor each vendor’s compliance with our clients’ requirements on an ongoing basis.”

Hennessey said the VendorShield analytics dashboard gives risk management and operations executives at the client companies real-time visibility into how many and which vendors are compliant, approaching non-compliance or are no longer compliant.

“Based on how each client wants the program configured, vendors that are no longer compliant or that are very close to falling out of compliance may no longer be eligible for new purchase orders or payments until they return to a compliant position,” he said.

Yardi, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company that designs, develops and supports real estate investment management and property management software, is CPE and MHN’s parent company.

The firm has been at the forefront in the evolving technology available to the commercial real estate and multifamily industries. Several years ago, the company released Yardi Voyager 7S, a mobile-enabled version of its core SaaS real estate management platform. Compatible with all major internet browsers, it gives CRE professionals access to the platform from any mobile device. Through its Yardi® Smart Energy Suite, the firm offers products for commercial real estate and multifamily owners and managers that help them manage assets, analyze energy costs and deliver energy savings. Most of those products are built into the Yardi Voyager property management software.