We are proud to announce the launch of our new real estate software: L4RE. This is the fruit of our experience of decades in the industry, and Arum Group has created a spinoff company, LORUM, to develop this breakthrough technology that meets the specific needs of companies in the real estate sector.
L4RE manages every aspect of real estate business processes, and does so from the Cloud. From accounting to workflow automation to document control to communication between departments, all tasks have been consolidated into a single application that can be adapted to any company’s needs.
Luis Ramallo and Jorge Molina are, respectively, the General Director and the Sales Director of LORUM, and we spoke to them about some of the factors that make L4RE a breakthrough product in the sector. Ramallo has more than two decades of experience integrating SAP into various businesses, most recently with Dominion and LOYIC. Molina has held Sales Director positions in several companies over the past 15 years, recently with Housers, one of the most powerful PropTech companies in the Real Estate sector.
What is L4RE and why was LORUM founded?
Luis Ramallo: L4RE is the real estate sector adaptation of the Cloud-based SAP Business ByDesign integrated management software. SAP offers the technology and constant Cloud innovation; LORUM offers its experience in real estate sector business processes and integrating solutions and SAP technology. Together, we have developed L4RE, an integrated management software for the real estate sector in the Cloud. With it, real estate businesses can be managed within a single application with maximum efficiency and an innovative approach.
Jorge Molina: Arum Group, which founded LORUM, is leading company in the real estate sector with extensive experience in the management and development of large-scale real estate projects.
After analyzing the market, we realized SAP’s ERP had enormous potential, but didn’t offer anything specific for the Real Estate sector, particularly for medium-size growing companies. Thus L4RE was born: a robust, comprehensive and easy-to-use real estate software that will bring great benefits to companies in the sector.
What technological innovations does the L4RE real estate software offer the market?
LR: The tech foundation for the solution is the SAP HANA database, which facilitates analysis of the data related to the processes, and the FIORI user interface, which is very friendly to use. Additional features of note include the integrated document management for all the business objects; the interactive Adobe Forms (to create forms with the platform data and collect data and signatures from users); the automation of processes and workflows; communication and connectivity between business participants, which can help with human resource planning; automated bulk tasks (billing, sending forms to third parties via email, bank reconciliation…); the ability to integrate with other applications and portals related to your operation strategy; the process integrator to automate other processes (banking communication, publication in portals…); and machine learning that optimizes translation of the platform into languages other than the 12 provided by the standard version of the platform.
JM: The flexibility of the software is also noteworthy. It’s designed to configure, adapt and expand, based on the user’s needs.
What additional benefits accrue from the software being 100% Cloud-based?
LR: It allows companies to focus on their business by requiring only a browser to access the application, without any infrastructure or onsite IT. There are quarterly updates of the platform’s functionalities, innovation and technology. The platform is adapted to the accounting and tax regulations, and to the banking communication standards, of more than 20 countries. This makes it a transparent way to do business without interfering with the client’s existing work environment. The platform offers a predictable and competitive cost structure because it is based on a pay-per-use subscription (SaaS-Software as a Service). And finally, it provides real estate companies with a single solution to manage their entire business without complications.
JM: Security is another hugely important benefit. Because we are supported by SAP, the servers are SAP’s, and this brings significant value to the customer. Other advantages of working in the Cloud include greater mobility, scalability, automatic updates, and optimization of resources.
From a purely financial point of view, costs are reduced because you don’t have to purchase a software license or make a significant initial payment to get up and running with this real estate software.
What is the incentive for companies that already have a real estate ERP in place to make a change, and how will data migration be handled?
JM: Changes cost time and money and all investments require something of you, of course. But once you put a truly robust tool in place, it will serve you forever. The L4RE platform places its users in the driver’s seat, making them independent and putting them fully in control of all their business processes.
In terms of migration, it’s a common fear for many companies, and it is probably because they had problems when they configured their last management software. Fortunately, L4RE has the trust, reliability and robustness of SAP behind it, which, after many years of experience, has optimized a clean and fast deployment structure. We didn’t need to reinvent the wheel on that one.
What other value-added aspects are there to the software?
JM: “Automation” is a buzzword these days when it comes to processes, innovation, and technology in real estate software. But our experience has been that no one has taken the user into account. We want to make people the protagonists of every process involved with L4RE. It’s fundamental that everyone who uses our solution finds it simple, fast and intuitive. Technology must be at the service of the user and not the other way around. If it’s difficult to enter data into a system, it means the system is not adapted to the user and the system won’t be fully adopted. And full acceptance is the objective of every real estate innovation we develop.
