Automation of the appraisal process

THE CHALLENGE

01 | Requirements

The Government of the Province of Cordoba needed to digitize and automate the activities carried out in the Appraisal Management Deparment. Until now these activities were carried out manually using different tools, such as: physical records, images and Office documents in shared folders, external datasources, and so on.

The Appraisal Department needed a GIS to record all property records and appraisal background information in its own application and to systematize all manual tasks on a software platform integrated with the GIS.

The client had the following needs:

• An GIS integrated with Dynamics CRM that allow the users to register the appraisal records or other information related to the properties that were helpful to the comparative process in determining the property value.
• The GIS must be integrated with several spatial datasources from other government agencies such us: cadastral information, tax records and land records.
• The soluion should provide features to optimize daily tasks such as, searching properties by any criteria, property background check, property valuation calculations.
• Help with the collaboration and task management using shared calendars
• Keep tracking of any instance of the processes.
• Keep all the information related to the real state property in one place: documents, images, spatial information, additional data provided by thirty parties, etc. Provide a centralized and simplified way to access all these records.
• Provide KPIs for all the processes.

THE SOLUTION

02 | Development of the Appraisal Management Portal with Dynamics CRM, SharePoint, and Virtual Modeler

Our team built the software by combining several technologies to create an integrated solution to all the requirements:

Dynamics CRM was the core technology for the portal and for the systematization of the appraisal processes that were previously carried out manually. Taking advantage of the power and flexibility of Dynamics CRM, the real estate property became a central entity for these processes and the CRM allowed to manage all the information that the province tracks about them, such as: procedures, administrative management, events calendar, cadastral information, tax information, and land registration.

Thanks to the integration of Virtual Modeler, our Enterprise GIS solution, with Dynamics CRM, the users now have access to all the information they need to work. Virtual Modeler integration capabilities allow the agency to synchronize and centralize all government data on real estate, avoiding manual requests for information between government agencies. The Virtual Modeler API enables seamless integration between the Dynamics CRM user interface and Virtual Modeler features such as maps and search. In this way, the users can access and interact seamlessly  with all the information they need in daily basis. In this way, users can easily access and interact with all the information they need on a daily basis. Additionally, the Virtual Modeler AutoCAD plugin allows users to use a familiar tool to maintain land map, reducing the learning curve.

In addition, our team implemented the SharePoint Document Management capabilites integrated with Dynamics, enabling the collaboration with document editing and sharing, and centralizing the documentation management for real estate properties, managing documents such us: legal records, property deed, donation certificates, photos, blueprints, etc.

03 | Data Integrations

We used VMSync, the integration tool from Virtual Modeler Enterprise GIS suite in order to centralize all real estate information maintained by various government agencies. In this way, all the map and cadastral information of the more than 2 million real estate properties are synchronized between these agencies in daily basis.

We customized Dynamics CRM by creating entities, workflows, forms, scripts, reports, etc. to support business processes. The seamless bi-directional integration between Dynamics CRM and Virtual Modeler allows the users to access and interact with all information without leaving the CRM user interface.

The native integration between Dynamics CRM and SharePoint allowed to maintain all the related documents linked with the CRM entities and, at the same time take advantage of SharePoint DMS capabilities.

04 | Results

Now the Appraisal Department of the Government of the Province of Córdoba, has all its processes systematized using Dynamics CRM, perfectly integrated with a GIS to easily access to all the spatial data. Collaboration between users and areas has greatly improved; the processes are more efficient and users more productive.

The solution manages all the information about the real estate properties providing a centralized and unique view. Thanks to our GIS and its integration with Dynamics, users can evaluate, analyze and make decisions based on updated data through the use of integrated maps.

Some of the more important results obtained are:

• We provided the client with a perfect GIS software, designed for easy use, to access all the spatial data generated by them and other government departments and agencies.
• On-the-fly documents. The system automatically generate word documents based on the CRM stored data, this allows users to work faster avoiding manual tasks.
• Centralized access to all spatial and non-spatial information and documents.
• Cost savings due to reduced manual labor and elimination of paper documents and forms.
• Better collaboration, communication and coordination.
• Improved document security, management and editing.