Challenging business conditions experienced by South Africa’s property sector in recent years has highlighted the criticality of a business’s core operational system.

The pressing need to drive value for shareholders, while maintaining a competitive edge in a tough market, has led many landlords and property developers in search of digital solutions to steer the delivery of accurate data.

A business’s software model reflects its operating model and while there is many software solutions on the market tailored specifically to the real estate industry, they remain limited in functionality, often requiring teams to work in silos on different platforms (and with different solutions) to collate and extract important data.

The concept of integration has catapulted MRI Software as a leading provider of innovative PropTech solutions in the African market by assisting businesses in streamlining processes and automations through its framework solution, Property Management X (PMX) – a digital ecosystem where all information is captured, stored, and compiled.

Atterbury Property, which currently manages approximately 600 000m² of commercial, retail, and industrial space across South Africa, saw the value of partnering with MRI Software with its implementation of PMX which began in August 2023 and officially launched in late November 2024.

“Previously, we operated with disparate systems—one for property management, another for financial management, and a third for consolidations and reporting. This fragmented setup wasn’t optimal for Atterbury and resulted in significant operational inefficiencies across the Group,” says Adriaan van Rooyen, Head of Group Reporting at Atterbury.

“It took time to collate our data and ensure consistency across all systems. A significant effort was required to align our various teams and establish a single source of truth—so that the information presented to our Board was accurate and reliable for decision-making. Atterbury strives for lean, coherent structures, and our previous software didn’t reflect that. PMX has enabled us to reduce reporting cycles by up to 80% in certain departments,” he says.

Other software solutions on the market are also predominantly operations focused and when it comes to capturing and compiling financial and leasing data, they often lack the complex layers required for forecasting and budgeting. With Atterbury’s successful implementation of PMX, the Group decided to proceed with MRI Software’s Investment modelling solution as the next phase of its PropTech journey.

Integrated with PMX, MRI Software’s investment modelling tool enables Atterbury’s team to build reports that not only drive its financial reporting, but produce in-depth, long-term forecasts and budgets with features including scenario planning, allowing the Group to evaluate its investment decisions.

“For Atterbury, it was about having the business function from one platform – with no reconciliations required between data or systems. A lot of frustration is created in organisations who utilise separate systems. The divide between compiling and extracting important information efficiently has been closed by MRI Software. They are the golden thread that pulls data from a management level all the way to a Board level which is the biggest advantage for any business wanting to drive value for its stakeholders.”