Administrative management of your telecommunications contracts is ongoing and requires consistent evaluation. Like other areas of your business, a consistent approach allows you to get the most value from your assets. The dynamic nature of these programs necessitates continual support – your portfolio changes over time, vendors merge, new technologies emerge, contracts expire, service issues arise, vendors miss marketing fee payments, resident preferences change and property management staff turn-over. These examples demonstrate where Choice will provide long-term continuity to your telecommunications program while capitalizing on the best opportunities for your communities and your residents.
Real Estate Transactions
Choice provides vendor service expertise to owners and managers when properties are being bought or sold. When you purchase a property or portfolio, Choice determines if contracts exist and whether you are required to assume existing contracts. Depending on your situation, it may or may not be advantageous to assume an existing contract. It is also crucial to determine if contract or service opportunities are available to increase your asset value and resident satisfaction. When you are selling a property, Choice offers contract management expertise and vendor insight to help you determine which contracts should be assigned to the new owner. Understanding assignment and assumption terms in telecommunication contracts allows you to avoid unintended consequences.
Construction
When developing or building a new community, Choice provides developers complete support from “will service” letters through vendor contract signature and implementation. Choice provides you with telecommunication industry knowledge and recommendations that allow you to proactively navigate the necessary decisions such as which provider(s) should be allowed on the property, how to handle mandatory access requirements, what type of wiring infrastructure should be installed and how to provide a selection of providers. Existing properties undergoing rehab present their own unique challenges and opportunities to address telecommunications infrastructure. Rehab properties may provide an opportunity to upgrade aged wired with lower cost and less disruption for residents. Existing properties may be ideal for upgraded wiring or “overbuilds”. Overbuilds may include a new provider starting to service a property to provide a selection of providers. Overbuilds also may offer vendor network upgrades with technologies such as Fiber-To-The-Property or Fiber-To-The-Unit.
Implementation
What happens after a vendor contract is executed? What are the vendor marketing and service responsibilities of your on-site property staff? How do you make these tasks easy and routine to allow your staff to prioritize leasing apartment homes? Choice trains your staff on how to best introduce a vendor’s services to a prospective resident. Training includes topics like how to identify the right time in the leasing process to address vendor services, how to direct residents to the preferred vendor(s) and how to contact the specific representatives for your property. The Choice team is also available to help your staff follow through with vendors’ service issues.
Contract Management
Throughout the life of vendor contracts, Choice provides you with a dedicated and experienced team to manage your routine and non-routine vendor service issues. Our team also monitors all contract expirations, notices to vendors to avoid unwanted automatic-renewals and auditing of vendor payments.
Account Management
Once a vendor service contract has been executed, Choice continues to track your contracts and your vendor payments. Our team monitors the number of residents purchasing services on your property then verifies that the vendor marketing fee payments are accurate, are routinely paid and are paid on time. Choice always provides you with business reviews and reporting to ensure that your telecommunication programs are running successfully.