50 years in business, one platform to run it

When Seacrest set out for a new platform, they didn't rush. The team interviewed several vendors and evaluated each one carefully. What set Vantaca apart wasn't a single feature. It was their willingness to adapt.

"We found that Vantaca was the most customizable for our needs," Bourassa said. "They were less rigid and willing to work with us, with our culture, with our systems."

That flexibility extends to integrations. "Vantaca has an abundance of integration options," he said. "It really makes our business run smoothly."

Since going live, Seacrest has traded a patchwork of logins for a single system that runs the same way from the corporate office to the field. Managers now work from defined, consistent processes instead of building their own workarounds. 

That single point of entry has also taken pressure off the team day to day. Instead of juggling multiple logins, managers now work from one portal with everything they need on it. "Now it's a one-stop shop, and everything they have is at their fingertips," Bourassa said.

 Ask Bourassa what he's most proud of, and he doesn't point to a dashboard; he points to how people feel. Rolling out new software always brings some friction, and Seacrest felt it too. But on the other side of implementation, the volume of day-to-day questions and concerns from boards and residents has dropped off. "We used to get numerous questions and concerns on a daily basis," Bourassa said. "Those have tapered down substantially."  

Vantaca Pay put account management in residents' hands. They now see their balances, control when they pay, and choose how they pay. The result: fewer phone calls and emails to the customer service team asking basic account questions. 

The shift away from paper checks eliminated an entire category of operational friction. Before, lost or delayed checks meant Seacrest staff had to investigate whether a resident's payment actually arrived. Now, with electronic payments, there's no ambiguity. "The payment goes through; they get confirmation. There's no mystery," Bourassa said.

That doesn't mean the paper has disappeared. Vantaca Pay simply made it one option among many instead of the only option. Residents who want a coupon book and a check can still have one. "They give a plethora of options," Bourassa said. "The resident can choose which way they want to go, and nothing gets lost in the shuffle."

Vantaca IQ is a business intelligence platform that gave Seacrest visibility into productivity across the company that it didn't have before. The system tracks logins, activity levels, action item progress, and shows exactly where each monthly financial stands in the approval process. It also measures portfolio metrics: door counts, per-door performance indicators, and management capacity. "It's a very valuable tool in our business," Bourassa said. "There is a ton of data within Vantaca IQ. As a matter of fact, I think we've only scratched the surface."

The bigger opportunity is turning that visibility outward toward the boards themselves. Most HOA boards have no idea how much work actually happens behind the scenes: the daily logins, the action items processed, the coordination required to keep a property running smoothly. Vantaca IQ gives Seacrest the data to show them. "What we plan on doing more in the future is using it with board members, to talk about exactly how much activity is going on at their property, because they aren't aware of how much goes on behind the scenes," Bourassa said.