Laguna Woods Village
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Home to 18,600 residents across 12,736 units
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Laguna Woods Village: A new era of Residential Real Estate Management with FlexProperty & Dynamics 365
Laguna Woods Village is one of the largest active adult communities in the United States. Spanning four square miles in Southern California, it is home to 18,600 residents across 12,736 units, including co-ops, condominiums, single-family homes, and multi-unit buildings. The community operates much like a small city, with services ranging from equestrian facilities and golf courses to transportation, security, and maintenance teams.
FlexProperty is an end-to-end real estate management solution designed to streamline and automate processes across various types of real estate, including residential real estate. Integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365, FlexProperty offers features for financial automation, asset tracking, reporting, and compliance, providing a seamless and efficient management experience.
Managing such a large and diverse community requires a highly efficient technology infrastructure. Each month, thousands of financial transactions, service requests, and maintenance tasks need to be processed while ensuring accuracy, compliance, and transparency. For years, Laguna Woods Village operated on Microsoft AX 2012, a system that was on-premises, served them well but was increasingly limiting their ability to scale, automate, and support remote work.
“When COVID hit, we were caught flat-footed. We had no way to project our AX 2012 system out into the field. We knew right away we were not set up to support remote work.”
– Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village
The need for a cloud-based, integrated solution became clear. Transitioning to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations was the logical next step. But with a complex portfolio of properties and financial processes, Laguna Woods Village needed a real estate management solution that would fit perfectly into their existing operations.
Finding the right fit: Dynamics 365 and FlexProperty
Selecting the right system meant more than upgrading software – it was about finding a solution that could support financial automation, asset tracking, reporting, and compliance in one platform. Laguna Woods Village evaluated over 20 solutions, running demos, usability tests, and internal surveys to determine the best match.
Another major factor was customisation, or the lack of it. Many systems required significant modifications to work within Laguna Woods Village’s structure, which would have led to higher costs and longer implementation timelines.
“We surveyed all employees and board members involved, and 80% of them voted for Microsoft,” says Chuck Holland. “It was about trust in the brand and familiarity with the system. FlexProperty matched how we manage our buildings: We have buildings, and we have floors, in those floors, we have manors or units. Within those units, we have residents, and within those residents, they have accounts – billing accounts, chargeable services, and assessments services.”
“Everything that FlexProperty does matches perfectly with how we manage our business - with very minimal customisation.”
– Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village
“Many of the other solutions required a lot of customisation to fit our needs, whereas FlexProperty was already aligned with how we operate.” – Steve Hormuth, Director of Finance at Laguna Woods Village
Bringing the system to life: how YAVICA helped digitise operations
ERP implementations of this scale are typically complex and resource-heavy, but Laguna Woods Village and YAVICA took a strategic, remote-first approach to ensure a smooth transition. Instead of the traditional on-site consultant model, the teams worked across multiple time zones, optimising resources, and keeping costs down.
“The resources provided by YAVICA have been fantastic - meaning they know what they are talking about, and when we have identified a need, they have been able to help us define the requirements and implement them.”
– Steve Hormuth, Director of Finance at Laguna Woods Village
“The benefit of working remotely was that we could flag something during a meeting, and by the next day, they had already addressed it.” – Steve Hormuth, Director of Finance at Laguna Woods Village.
With over 700 virtual meetings, the collaboration was highly structured. By recording sessions, Laguna Woods Village could revisit discussions to eliminate misalignment and reduce rework.
“One advantage of virtual meetings is that everything is recorded, so we can go back and review details,” says Steve Hormuth. “That’s something you don’t get in traditional in-person meetings.”
Through expert guidance from YAVICA and a well-coordinated effort, Laguna Woods Village successfully transitioned to FlexProperty within Dynamics 365, seeing immediate gains in efficiency and control.
Key benefits of FlexProperty for Laguna Woods Village
With 12,000+ homes and thousands of monthly financial transactions, Laguna Woods Village needed a system that could automate complex processes, reduce manual workload, and provide real-time insights.
One of the biggest wins came from billing automation. Running the monthly billing roll for 12,000+ homes was a time-consuming process in the past, but FlexProperty was able to deliver a 500% improvement in processing speed.
“The volume we handle every month is significant – 120,000+ lease lines that are rolled every single month. Running it in line seemed to be very time-consuming. We then decided to run the monthly billing in batch mode.” says Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village.
“What was a 24-hour process in the old system now runs in three or four hours.”
– Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village
Asset and facility management also saw major improvements. Laguna Woods Village oversees 30,000+ assets, from HVAC systems and plumbing to golf courses and park benches. With FlexProperty, all asset data is centralised, making tracking, maintenance planning, and cost control more efficient.
“We have about 2,500 different buildings and 30,000 or so different facilities. These are anything from the equestrian centre to our golf centre to our walking trails to all our park benches. Everything is an amenity; everything is an asset. So, it is super important for us to track every single asset, not just assets for buildings and structures.” – Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village
For the finance team, the ability to run reports in real time will transform the way they work. Previously, data was scattered across different systems, requiring manual consolidation. Now, everything is on one platform, allowing for faster decision-making and better financial oversight.
“Everything will be combined into one, with real-time information. One of the biggest benefits we are looking forward to is that, as work is completed in the field, I will be able to report on that information immediately rather than having to combine data from separate systems.”
– Steve Hormuth, Director of Finance at Laguna Woods Village
Looking ahead: the next phase of digital transformation
With the core system fully operational, Laguna Woods Village is preparing for the next phase of digital transformation. One priority is integrating YAVICA’s Loan Management solution. Soon, the loan management process will be fully automated, allowing seamless payments, real-time visibility into outstanding balances and better reporting.
As Chuck Holland explains, “When new members move in, there is a $7,000 membership fee. Some of those residents opt to pay cash through the escrow process, while others opt for a loan to pay those back over a certain period. Before, all of this was tracked via amortisation tables using Excel spreadsheets.”
Another priority is digitising service orders, allowing field technicians to update work orders via mobile devices instead of relying on printed forms.
“One of the things that we do at any given time – we will have about 100 to 150 people out in the field doing work in homes every single day. Currently, service requests are still largely paper-based,” says Chuck Holland.
“The goal is to manage all those service orders electronically from the field with mobile devices so technicians can access and update work orders in real-time.”
– Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village
A solid foundation for the future
Reflecting on the journey, the leadership at Laguna Woods Village emphasise the impact of having the right system and the right team.
“Working with YAVICA and the FlexProperty team was a highlight of our ERP project. They understood both our business and the software, ensuring a smooth transition.”
– Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village
“The partnership was incredibly reliable and detail-oriented – what we expected, they delivered. That saved us a lot of time and money on the implementation by not having to go back and redo work repeatedly, especially on the software development side, which we know is the costliest part of the ERP project.” – Chuck Holland, CIO at Laguna Woods Village.
With FlexProperty fully embedded in Dynamics 365, Laguna Woods Village has built a solid foundation for the future – ensuring efficiency, stability, and exceptional resident services for years to come.
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