Landseer House, 19 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0ES
(01-930 4041)
The property management system developed by Fraser Williams is currently used by approximately 40 organisations, running on 50 to 60 machines. Users include chartered surveyors, such as Weatherall Hollis & Gale (Leeds) and Knight Frank & Rutley (London), and property-owning organisations, including the Crown Estate Office (London) and Hambro Life Property Fund Management (London).
The system is described as a real-time multi-user product, designed to satisfy the accounting aspects of the management of properties. It incorporates a large and easily extended store of information about owners, properties and leases which can be used to assist the property management function. The standard system can also be linked to a full general ledger system, which is particularly suitable for property companies.
It is over eight years since the first version of the property management package was released. During that time Fraser Williams have found that the most frequently requested variation in the basic system is the amount and variety of information that users wish to store. The base of data for the system consists of a number of pre-defined screens which hold the core details necessary to perform the basic functions of rent accounting, client statements, automatic service charge apportionment, diary schedules etc. In addition, however, there are a number of blank pages on which users can define their own details (eg solicitors’ names and addresses). These pages can also be used to present summary screens or to present the same details in a number of different formats geared towards different people. Additional narrative or text information can be held on linked word-processing documents.
The software is designed to run on Data General (DG) computers, across the whole range of minicomputers (ie from 2 to 1,000 terminals). DG’s principal operating systems are DOS, RDOS, AOS and AOS/VS and the packages will run under all of these. Also, Fraser Williams are currently testing their systems running under MS-DOS and UNIX. These systems have not been officially released, but should be available shortly. In addition, the software may be available in other hardware/operating system environments provided that the “C” programming language is supported.
The software is priced according to the size and power of the computer on which it is licensed and consequently it is not possible to quote a single figure. It is, and will continue to be, available in software-only form, although in most cases it is supplied as part of a “turn-key” solution, as demanded by most of Fraser William’s clients. (The term “turn-key” simply means that a user is supplied with a complete system of hardware and software that simply has to be turned on! But do not forget, you still have to load your data.)
For the DG machines, a four-terminal system with a couple of printers (one laser, one matrix), tape back-up, operating system and application software, full implementation support, training, allowance for cabling and a stock of consumables (ie paper and ribbons, not Mars bars for the operator) would cost in the region of £25,000.
