AIMCO Finds Solution for Cumbersome Budgeting Process Using Clarity Systems

Brad Mauvais, Project Manager for AIMCO (Apartment Investment and Management Company), America’s largest owner and operator of apartment communities, conducted an exclusive interview with Ron Powell and the Business Intelligence Network. In this interview Mauvais explains why AIMCO needed a performance management solution and describes why they chose a Web-based solution from Clarity Systems to feed property budgets, capital planning and payroll data into a centralized repository. He also highlights the benefits received from successfully deploying Clarity 6, Clarity System’s corporate performance management solution, throughout their organization.

Since implementing the software, AIMCO has expanded their budget, adopted a forecasting system and accelerated the consolidation process with Clarity 6. “There is a level of efficiency we have realized by implementing Clarity 6 and it has allowed us to focus more on the operations rather than the process of getting the numbers where they need to be,” says Brad Mauvais, Project Manager for AIMCO. “The tool is no longer a constraint. All of the data standards are maintained because everyone is entering their information into the same Clarity 6 template. There is more consistency with our data which means we can get our budget out much faster.”

Prior to implementing Clarity 6, creating AIMCO’s yearly budget involved spending three to four days emailing and consolidating spreadsheets from each of its over 1200 properties. It took the company over two weeks to roll the data into the system, and generally they would find segments of their business that were not included in the budget. After implementing Clarity Systems, AIMCO can now consolidate the data into Clarity to create their budget in under two hours.

“Many companies are now enjoying the benefits of corporate performance management, and AIMCO’s budgeting challenges are familiar to companies everywhere,” says Ron Powell, Cofounder and Editorial Director of the Business Intelligence Network. “Using Clarity 6, AIMCO users still have an Excel-based interface, but they receive the benefits of truly unified processes and data consistency,”