London Computer Systems was founded in 1982, but one strong software product has been its bread and butter all these years.
The company was founded and built from Rent Manager, a property management software program. It works whether you have two tenants or 20,000 tenants, said company Sales & Marketing Manager Andy Williamson.
“We have a good product. It’s a vertical market, and a necessary market. Everyone who rents properties out there needs property manager software. If you’re doing everything manually then you’re wasting a lot of time. It’s a necessary tool in being efficient,” Williamson said.
LCS founder and President Dave Hegemann created what eventually became Rent Manager out of necessity. The St. Mary, Ohio, native created the program – and started his company – just out of high school to keep track of the financials and utility use for his father’s properties. After finishing college with a BS in System Analysis at the University of Dayton and a MBA from Xavier University, he put all his efforts into the start up.
Rent Manager has been offered since the mid-80s, and the company began offering an online version in 1999. Users own small, medium and large properties, ranging from apartment complexes and student housing to vacation homes and military housings. The software allows users to quickly and efficiently handle accounting, utilities, prospects, utilities and prospects.
In the years since then, the company has grown and put work into a number of other efforts, most notably with SuperNet of Ohio, Inc. an internet service provider, data hosting center and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). SuperNet is housed in Loveland, along with LCS.
Rent Manager is available as a stand-alone product or is available online where the program can be accessed at remote sites in a secure manner. The program is stored with the company’s data center and is backed up bi-hourly. Additionally it has various editions with customized features for small businesses, professional and enterprises.
The company’s high tech transformation has brought big benefits. LCS employs more than 50 people and is still hiring, Williamson said. Jobs at LCS include software development, sales, IT and tech support and administration. Much of the company’s sales growth has come from word of mouth recommendations.
“I think one of the key factors to our growth is that we take really care of our customers. We make the software better, and we get better at what we do,” Williamson said.
Among recent improvements the company has made in response to customer requests is in the web version of the program. Resident Web Access allows tenants to make rent payments, request work orders and view their transaction history online.
LCS was named a 2008 Growth Company by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. This year the company was a finalist Small Business of the Year for the chamber’s Small Business Excellence Award.
Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: LCS Sales & Marketing Manager Andy Williamson