Category Federation Management Software

Women’s Day Special: Exclusive interview with Super Women at ApnaComplex

International Women’s Day is no longer a new topic today. It is celebrated across the World in order to recognize and appreciate the contributions and achievements of the women in various fields. Starting from being Home-maker to Management Committee members to Working Professionals, they truly define the spirit of today’s women. Today, we decided to talk to three such women about their journey in ApnaComplex and how they are leading their lives with multiple roles and responsibilities.

These women are super confident and self-motivated either at home or at the workplace. Mrs. Prema Robert, Head of Human Resource at ApnaComplex quoted that “Confidence comes from the kind of responsibilities that I get it, more the responsibility that is given to me, the more I feel confident and that makes me explore more, learn more and motivates me to give my best.” Mrs. Arundhati Sen Pradhan, Head of Strategic Partnerships at ApnaComplex states “Motivation comes from the team that I work with, the people that I work with, gives me the motivation to do best in what I do”.

They mentioned that it has been a great journey so far and it is fun working at ApnaComplex. It is quite an experience for anyone to manage multiple roles. Ms. Monika Mitruka, Software Developer at ApnaComplex finds the experience ‘’very challenging and satisfactory.” They also mentioned that the key to confidence is knowledge & learning. These women feel privileged being women as they feel that they have the ability to handle both work and family life.

At ApnaComplex, they all have built stronger social connections amongst themselves. They advised that everyone has her own way of doing things and everyone should have belief in themselves first. Mrs. Arundhati concluded as “It is a very fun life, live to the fullest.” At ApnaComplex, people are full of enthusiasm, confidence and most importantly motivated to face all the odds. Moreover, accomplishing these odds has always been a challenging situation for these women.

Raj Sekhar Kommu – Co-founder and CEO of ApnaComplex says “We are pleased to celebrate International Women’s Day with all the amazing superwomen at ApnaComplex. International Women’s Day is celebrated globally to highlight and honor the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and to call for gender equality. At ApnaComplex, we firmly believe in gender equality and are forever grateful to every female employee who is an integral part of ApnaComplex.”


Complaint Box 3.0 with Upgraded features

In our continuous endeavor to make management of your Society efficient and effective, we have released a few major enhancements to the most widely used capability in ApnaComplex  – the humble, yet world-class Complaint Box. These changes incorporate the latest best practices in managing a Society Helpdesk by Facility Management teams – with two key goals, reducing the efforts of Facility Management Staff and Improving Resident Satisfaction. As always, ApnaComplex continues to innovate and raise the bar.

Here is a gist of the key changes we have implemented:

  1. Take your Society’s Issue Resolution to next level. When a complaint is closed, the facility management team now has an option to update “Root Cause” of the complaint. This helps the FM team to tag the core reason why an issue happened. The report for all complaints shall help the Facility Management team understand the areas to focus on for improving resident satisfaction.
  2. Despite best intentions, some complaints cannot be solved. Committee now has the ability to tag a complaint as “non-solvable” after member re-opens a complaint X number of times. Once a complaint is tagged as non-solvable member will not be able to re-open the same. X can be configured in the settings panel.
  3. ApnaComplex complaint box now has the ability to configure if the resident can see the actual staff name who is working on the complaint (by default it is shown). If enabled, the resident would not see the details of the staff who exactly is working on a complaint. It helps in avoiding the residents to call up the staffs directly and encourages process compliance.
  4. We have 50% of our customer demanding that when a resident logs a complaint, it must default to a ‘Personal’ Complaint and the rest saying exactly opposite that it must be ‘Community’ complaint. To keep everyone happy, admins can now set default complaint type for their society.
  5. The new Complaint Box supports the ability to optionally select a Unit for ‘Community’ type of complaints (which was restricted to ‘Personal’ complaints in the past). This helps when Helpdesk staff has to log a community complaint on behalf of a Resident.
  6. Admins and Staff can now change the complaint type (from ‘Personal’ to ‘Community’ or vice-versa). As a bonus, Complaint Box now allows the nature of the complaint (from complaint to suggestion etc.), update the urgency status and even change the unit # if needed.
  7. Complaint Box now supports the ability to add ‘Private Notes’ against complaints which are only visible to the administrators. Staff can keep adding internal updates on a complaint as private notes, which are only visible to admins and not to the resident. This helps the staff in maintaining updates at one place for a given complaint.
  8. The most coolest feature of the new Complaint Box – Ability to create “templates” which can be used by Staff when adding notes against a complaint. Templates will help staff to respond to complaints professionally and in a consistent way. We are sure residents of your society will feel the difference in the quality of responses. In addition, this saves significant time for staff as the efforts of typing reduce significantly.

 


7 Powerful Guidelines for Cash Locker and Almirah placement that you should apply Now!

Have you ever thought about how you should place different objects at home as per Vastu?  Do you know the direction, colour, and material of the cash locker and almirah for wealth and prosperity? Yes, it is very important to know the placement, colour, and material before placing any object or item. Here are some Guidelines for placing an Almirah (wardrobe) or Cash Locker that you must apply now:

  1. Do not use almirah made of stones or marbles. Always prefer wood or iron almirah in the bedroom.
  2. Almirah should be placed in Southwest direction so that it opens in North or East.
  3. Almirah should be in some subtle colours like cream or light colour shades.
  4. Make sure not to have any mirror on the Southwest almirah.
  5. Placement of Almirah has different impacts for different rooms and should be placed as per Vastu guidelines.
  6. For Bedroom Almirah-
  • Place bedroom cabinet or almirah in Northeast or Southwest corner.
  • Mirrors on almirah must be avoided especially if this almirah is placed in your bedroom.
  • If there is a mirror on the bedroom almirah, make sure it is not facing the bed.
  • Avoid dark coloured wardrobe or almirah in the bedroom. Use light-coloured almirah.
  • For the bedroom, the almirah or wardrobe should open in east or south direction.
  1. For Cash Almirah-
  • Make sure the cash almirah or locker is comprised of a single door.
  • The placement of the cash almirah or locker should be such that it is facing the North. Since North is the direction of Kuber, so it is believed that Lord Kuber refills the cash.
  • Do not place the cash almirah in Northeast, more expenses will be there and ultimately loss of cash.

Conclusion- There is no substitute for hard work, but if you follow these guidelines it helps to balance the energies in the surroundings and attract more positivity to your home.


15 Unlucky things you should never keep at home

The way you decorate your home says a lot about you. But unknowingly, many times we bring such images, idols or showpieces that disturb our happiness and positivity and ultimately we ruin our lives by ourselves.

I was wondering why there is an increased negativity in my home until I recognize these very important facts.

Let’s talk about these 15 things that affect our lives. You may not be knowing the negative effects of these things:

  1. Broken or unused clocks- as we all know time is symbolic of Growth. It is highly recommended to avoid keeping a wall clock that is not in use or broken.
  2. Old Calendars- similar to Clock a calendar also signifies growth, so avoid keeping an old calendar on the walls of the house. Also please make sure if you are hanging current year calendar then you must keep the current month and date open.
  3. Cactus, Bonsai or thorny plants- Except Rose and medicinal plants, avoid keeping cactus and thorny plants at your home as these are inauspicious. Do not place any bonsai plant as they represent short/ little growth.
  4. Negative Images- Never keep images that depicts negativity like- sadness, loneliness, war scene, trees without fruits or flowers, nude, hunting scenes, fight scenes using swords, captured elephant, weeping or crying image. If you have such images remove immediately.
  5. Taj Mahal Picture or idol- Taj Mahal is considered as an epitome of love but it is actually a grave that symbolizes death and inactiveness. So avoid keeping Taj Mahal picture or idol at home.
  6. Broken furniture- If you have broken furniture, pots or vessels that are not in use and unrepairable. Throw them off to remove negative energy.
  7. Mirrors- Mirrors should be kept wisely. Make sure not to place any mirror in front of your bed. Your image should never be reflected when you are sleeping. Put a curtain or cloth if you have a mirror in front of your bedroom. Legends say if you have broken mirrors at home, it brings bad luck for seven years and a broken marriage too.
  8. Avoid things under your bed- Never keep anything under your bed as it causes disruptions and disturbed sleep. Also, make sure you don’t keep any footwear under your bed before sleeping.
  9. Statue or Paintings of Animals- Don’t put any image or showpiece of any wild animals and birds like snakes, owl, vulture, bat, pigs, pigeons, crows, tiger, etc. Vastu recommends not to keep any picture or statue of a single bird or animal in a couple’s room. Keeping wild animals and bird’s image or showpiece brings Violent Attitude in your life.
  10. Pictures of Ramayana and Mahabharata War scenes- Never place such pictures that depicts fight story or scenes from Ramayana or Mahabharata as it strongly brings rivalry among family members.
  11. Black Door- Avoid black door as your Main entrance door. According to Chinese Feng Shui tradition, a black door invites bad luck to your house EXCEPT if the door faces the North.
  12. Avoid placing Empty Rocking Chairs- Avoid placing empty rocking chairs at home as it invites dark forces to come and sit in it.
  13. Brocken Crockery- if you have broken plates, cups or any crockery, remove immediately. Crockery symbolizes wealth and family so when you eat on broken or chipped plates, you are subconsciously inviting failures and troubles in your life.
  14. Sinking Boat or sinking Titanic Image- I also kept Titanic image at home, until I knew its bad effects. A sinking boat depicts a failing or deteriorating relationship so if you have one in your home, throw it immediately.
  15. Nataraja- This is an image of cosmic dancer Shiva and it is found mostly in every dancer’s house. As we see it has two different meaning. One that symbolizes tremendous art form and other symbolizes destruction.

Conclusion- It is good to décor home as you love, but at the same time it is very important to know the adverse or bad effects of these decorative before it’s too late!


Standard Domestic Help Rates: Can it be Achieved?

Domestic help/maids have now become a necessity for almost all households in India. Presently, with the average citizen working in the 9-5 shift or more, basic household chores need to be taken care of. It becomes essential that you hire the right person for all these activities that affect your day-to-day lives.

 

Some of the cities such as Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad have several high-rise apartments with 700+ people residing in the same. The amount of domestic help available in such apartments should also be abundant? But this is not the case and the simple rule of economics that demand generates supply fails here. Finding domestic help is not easy irrespective of where you stay or how much you can pay. Sooner or later you do go through the pain of finding the right domestic help and retaining the same. Essentially, the story remains the same whether you reside in a big apartment or small: demands by the domestic staff for salary hikes are too frequent and largely unaffordable.

How can you tackle this problem?

 

Tips to standardise domestic help rates:

  • Prepare a rate card for all the household activities and ask residents to pay only that much.
  • Every maid needs to carry a No-objection-certificate from her previous employer so that the prospective employer ensures she/he is not switching jobs for money.
  • Residents are requested not to deviate from the rate card.
  • Any domestic help asking for more than the agreed rates are penalized.

 

Pitfalls of standardised rates:

The question that arises from the above pointers is that how easy is it to apply these rules to housing societies. A lot of residents were happy with the above-mentioned resolutions, however, some disagreed to the resolutions claiming that they were quite capitalist in nature and if doctors/engineers can demand their price, why can’t the domestic help do the same? The whole demand and supply economics lies in the scenario that if you can afford a maid for Rs. 8,000 and can very well afford it, it doesn’t matter to you if others in the apartment are paying Rs. 3,000. The others sooner or later will have to succumb to the so-called “market rate” pressure and increase the salary bars.

 

The resolutions mentioned above can only work if people living in an apartment work as a team with their associations and come to a common resolution wherein neither the domestic help is exploited nor are the employers blackmailed for sudden pay hikes.

 

Until then people with maids/drivers working with you for more than a year, good luck in maintaining them. For people searching for a good domestic help, best of luck for your quest to find the right domestic help!


Announcing ApnaComplex for Federations of Neighbourhood RWAs

We are proud to announce the launch of ‘ApnaComplex for Federations‘ – A first of its kind software for Federations.

ApnaComplex for Federations is based on the award winning ApnaComplex used by individual apartment owners associations – customized to suit the needs of Federations. ApnaComplex for Federations will assist Federations conduct their operations easily. Until now there is no software that is dedicated to be used by Federations and now ApnaComplex for Federations fills the gap for the first time.

What is a Federation?

Federation, in this context, is a group of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) / Apartment Owners Associations / Gated Communities and similar such bodies. The core objective of such federations would typically be to improve the life of residents in the neighborhood by actively participating in local issues.

Forming a federation of multiple Resident Welfare Associations in a neighbourhood is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon in most cities across India. With help of ApnaComplex, Federations can leverage technology to manage their operations easily and focus on their objective instead of spending time on administrative aspects.

ApnaComplex for Federations

As a starting point, ApnaComplex for Federations offers easy way to handle the communication and management needs of federations. Following are the tools offered at a high level:

  • Add other Resident Welfare Associations as Member Associations or a Federation
  • Add owners/residents from each RWA as Community Representatives in the Federation.
  • Discuss among all community representatives with help of Mailing lists & Forums.
  • Form Sub Groups with their own forums to create specific task forces with in the federation.
  • Post notices that automatically gets posted on Member RWA portal notice boards.
  • Maintain all documents of federations in a central place.
  • Schedule Meetings with unlimited Email/SMS Reminders to all invitees. Capture Meeting Minutes, Action Items etc.
  • Photo Gallery to upload pictures of Federation organized events.
  • Maintaining list of Office Bearers / Committee Members with election dates and history
  • Dedicated Homepage for the Federation

As always, the feature set will evolve as more federations use.

What does ApnaComplex for Federations Cost?

Here’s the best news! ApnaComplex for Federations is offered FREE at zero cost to the Federations!

How to sign up my federation for this?

If you are part of a federation or planning to start one – get started with ApnaComplex for Federations! Contact us with your federation details and we would be glad to set it up for you!