CED Tech Venture profile: SERVUS, aiming to mobilize apartment repair process

Raleigh startup SERVUS says its B2B platform can help clients improve the repair process for apartment complexes, leading to faster repairs, happier residents, and service vendors to be paid more quickly.

“SERVUS is a cloud-based mobile and web platform designed to speed up Resident Service Requests and mobilize maintenance technicians and service vendors,” says CEO Jamie Wohlschlegel.

“Tired of chasing down down vendors by phone/text/email/voicemail to make service request or get status updates?

“Are you using a massive amount of paper, toner or ink printing out orders that just get thrown away a short time later?

“Are your Residents/Tenants frustrated with how long repairs are taking and not being notified when work has been scheduled or completed?

“SERVUS can help.”

SERVUS is among the presenting companies at the CED Tech Venture conference.

This is the 28th in a series of company profiles presented in partnership between the CED and WRAL TechWire.

The Q&A:

What is the focus of your business?

SERVUS is a B2B software-as-a-service platform for the apartment (multi-family) industry that mobilizes the apartment repair process, enables vendors to get paid quickly and engages tenants during the repair.

What is the top pain point/business application you are seeking to address?

Our objectives are to address the paper-based, brute-force work order processes and open up the market to more qualified service vendors using our early-payment module as a catalyst.

First, the average apartment management team spends 50% of their time tracking the work needed to keep the property appropriately maintained and tenants happy. Their normal process of calling, emailing, texting, or even faxing to place service orders and receive status updates is time consuming as is the sorting and reconciling of paper invoices; often received weeks after work was completed.

Secondly, there is actually a significant barrier-to-entry for vendors (many of whom are small business owners) to even participate in the market because of long payment terms.

What makes it unique?

The SERVUS workflows, features and integrations are tailored to the specific needs of this industry (property management and vendors alike). Marketplace service apps flooding the home/residential maintenance market (Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, etc), are not utilized in the multi-family industry.

The vendor invoicing and rapid payment feature; something we call “SERVUS Pays”; differentiates us as well. A majority of vendors serving the multi-family industry (painting, cleaning, HVAC, pest control, handymen, etc) create and send invoices manually.

The reality is that many small vendors struggle with prompt invoicing and typically go 40-50 days without seeing payment for their work. This payment lag causes the previously mentioned barrier-to-entry in a market that desperately needs more qualified vendors. The SERVUS Pays feature is still in development, but we see significant interest in the market because of the benefits to both parties involved.

Why should investors be interested in your firm?

Multi-family companies in the US spend $80 billion annually on apartment maintenance operations. The desire for greater insight into this spend, along with tenants growing expectations of technology use, multi-family operators are starting to adapt.

By organizing the chaos in maintenance operations and providing visibility and control into services being performed, SERVUS is uniquely positioned to have an immediate impact.

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