Macquarie BankModernised a legacy platform and cut the cost of growth
The Challenge
PropertyIQ Portal gives strata professionals a single operational view of their business. It replaces a legacy portal built for Macquarie Bank. Banks, strata management firms and the other large organisations in the strata ecosystem rely on fragmented systems and manual processes, and like many enterprises they face technology challenges that grow more costly every year.
- Technology costs keep rising, and nobody can say what they buy.The legacy PropertyIQ Portal runs and stores data on-premise for each strata property, so every new client adds its own infrastructure and maintenance cost, which is hard to trace back to the value each one delivers.
- Data everywhere, no single source of truth.Owner data sits in separate portal systems across the bank’s strata clients, while maintenance and financial data are held in PropertyIQ Core. The bank has no real-time view of financial health and operational status, and lot owners with properties across different strata clients must keep multiple accounts.
- Legacy systems nobody dares to touch.Only one remaining developer understands the legacy portal’s core functionality. Enhancements are risky, because anyone else would first have to understand code built on outdated technology frameworks.
The Solution
Working with ToolTwist, the programme replaced separate on-premise deployments with a single multi-tenant platform, integrated with Macquarie Bank’s PropertyIQ Core system.
- Visible, controllable costs.All clients run on one shared platform, so the cost of running it sits in one place and onboarding a new client no longer adds infrastructure or maintenance cost. A dedicated ToolTwist team on clear commercial terms also gave the business a transparent view of what its development spend was buying.
- A single source of truth.One application and database serves all of the bank’s clients, with secure data permissions. The bank can see each client’s performance at a glance, and lot owners with several properties manage them through a single account.
- Modernising away from legacy.Replacing per-property, on-premise deployments with one modern platform retires the most fragile and expensive part of the legacy estate. ToolTwist’s developers worked across the front end and back end alongside the onshore team, so knowledge of the system is shared rather than held by a lone developer.
ToolTwist’s Role
As the designated core development team for the PropertyIQ Portal, ToolTwist worked in tight collaboration with Macquarie’s onshore product and management teams to build the platform from the ground up, moving the portal off its legacy foundations.
- Collaborative development.Our developers worked alongside the onshore team across the front-end interface and back-end business logic, including data aggregation, automation workflows and reporting.
- Quality assurance.Our testers were part of the QA process, verifying the accuracy of financial calculations, the integrity of data, and that data permissions keep each client’s information secure.
- Skills augmentation.A specialised team filled talent gaps, and development effort could scale up or down without the overhead of a large permanent team, leaving the onshore team free to focus on strategic oversight and core business logic.
Impact
The partnership delivered tangible benefits for the business and for the strata management firms it serves.
- Lower, more transparent running costs.New clients join the existing platform, so growth no longer brings a matching rise in infrastructure and maintenance cost, and the full cost of running the portal can be seen in one place.
- One trusted view of performance.With every client on one platform, management teams get real-time insight from a single application, and lot owners and committee members can see financial health and operational status as it happens.
- Increased efficiency and profitability.By automating low-value tasks, the platform lets management firms increase the number of strata managed per employee, boosting profitability.
- A platform built to last.A modern, well-tested platform with knowledge shared across the team reduces dependence on legacy systems and on a few key individuals.