High 90% staff retention
688,786 emails saved to date
17,219 hours returned to managers to date
1,300 lots retained in a major building tender through live workflow demonstration
How Vantage Strata built a more scalable strata business
Vantage Strata grew from a small operation into one of Canberra’s leading strata management businesses. Here’s how they used resvu to manage that growth without losing visibility, quality or the people who made it possible.
From small beginnings to serious complexity
Vantage Strata has been building their business for ten years. What started as a modest strata portfolio has grown into one of Canberra’s more established operations, managing a wide range of residential and commercial strata schemes across the territory.
That kind of growth is something to be proud of. It is also, as CEO Rupert Cullen will tell you, something that brings its own set of challenges.
“We’ve been in business for 10 years and we’ve grown significantly over that time. With that growth comes growing pains.”
Those growing pains are familiar to anyone who has scaled a strata management business. The team grows. The portfolio grows. The volume of requests, maintenance jobs, committee decisions and resident communications grows. And at some point, the systems that worked well enough when the business was smaller start to show their limits.
For Vantage Strata, the problem was not a lack of effort or capability. It was a lack of connection. Information was spread across multiple platforms. Different parts of the business were working in different environments. And the distance between a client request and a resolution was longer than it needed to be.
Why Vantage Strata chose resvu
The search for a better platform came down to a specific set of requirements. Vantage Strata needed something flexible enough to accommodate the way their business actually worked. They needed building-specific workflows, white-label capability, and a single environment where strata managers and building management teams could operate together rather than in parallel.
The white-label capability mattered because Vantage Strata wanted the platform to feel like part of their business rather than a third-party tool bolted on. The workflow flexibility mattered because no two buildings are identical, and a system that forced a single process across the entire portfolio would create as many problems as it solved.
The ability to bring strata teams and building management teams into one environment was the most significant shift. It meant that requests could move through the business as a single thread rather than being handed off between disconnected systems.
How did Vantage Strata bring their teams into one workflow?
At Vantage Strata, strata managers, building management teams and maintenance staff were operating across multiple software applications that did not connect with each other. Information that should have flowed naturally between teams had to be manually transferred, chased, re-entered or reconstructed from email threads.
“We’d scaffolded together a number of software applications, but they weren’t consolidated. From a staff level, there was frustration. From a client perspective, there was a voltage drop between request and action.”
Staff felt it. Managers were spending time tracking down information that should have been visible to them. Clients experienced it as slower responses, less transparency and a sense that things were harder to progress than they should have been.
“The benefits that we’re seeing on the staff operationally on the floor is the reduction of friction, basically, in a lot of the internal processes. With disintegration have come a lot of streamlined workflows that have really helped the staff. It’s certainly reduced a lot of the frustration that we were finding previously.”
When everything moved into one platform, day-to-day work became simpler. Teams no longer had to switch between different systems to find information or move a task forward. Instead of piecing things together, everything was already connected, which meant faster decisions, fewer errors, and a lot less back-and-forth between teams.
Jarrod from Vantage Strata on how resvu cleared up the friction caused by running on disconnected platforms.
How does resvu route requests to the right person automatically?
The most immediate change was visibility. When a request comes in through resvu, it follows a structured path. The right information is captured at the point of lodgement. The request is routed to the right person. Progress is tracked. And everyone who needs to know where something is up to can find out without having to ask.
“If it’s an arrears issue with levies, it can go to our credit control team. If it’s a maintenance issue, it goes to the maintenance coordinator or the facilities manager. If it’s a question about insurance, then it goes to our insurance manager. So instead of it being an email coming into the organisation and bouncing around, it’s essentially a ticket that lands with the person who has the knowledge to deal with it.”
For strata managers, that meant less time chasing and more time progressing. Rupert’s team found that routing requests to the right specialists from the outset reduced the back-and-forth that had previously consumed large parts of the working day.
Jarrod, who works closely with committees and lot owners at Vantage Strata, points to transparency as the core change in client experience. Residents and committee members no longer need to wonder whether their request was received or guess at where it is up to. The platform shows them. That visibility changes the nature of the conversation. Instead of following up to find out what is happening, clients can see what is happening. And the conversations that do occur are about outcomes rather than status.
How resvu’s ticketing improves triage and resolution across departments
From a client’s perspective, it’s being able to effectively raise a ticket about an issue and have that ticket flow directly to the person who is suitably qualified to deal with it.
Instead of an email bouncing around the organisation, it’s a ticket that comes into a structured workflow and lands with the person who has the knowledge to deal with it, who can triage the issue, respond directly, or pass it on to the next person if it’s multifaceted.
A better experience for clients
Transparency in strata management is not just a nice quality to have. It is a meaningful differentiator.
Lot owners now have a single place to go for everything, whether it’s checking financials, submitting a request, or tracking progress. What used to feel slow or unclear is now transparent and easy to follow, which has made a noticeable difference in how clients engage with the business.
Vantage Strata has built that transparency into the fabric of how they work. Structured workflows mean that every request follows a consistent path. Automated updates mean that residents receive information without needing to ask for it. Committee visibility means that decision making is documented in one place rather than scattered across meeting minutes and email chains.
The 2.2 million automated updates sent to residents through resvu represent something beyond a metric. They are 2.2 million moments where a client received information they needed without having to chase it. And in strata management, where client frustration often stems from feeling uninformed, that matters enormously.
Winning on transparency: the tender story
Some of the most revealing moments in business come during competitive situations. When Vantage Strata was working to retain a significant building, the committee made their priorities clear. They wanted transparency. They wanted visibility into how decisions were made, how quotes were approved, and how their strata manager was managing the work on their behalf.
Most businesses in that situation would describe their processes. Vantage Strata could show theirs. The building represented nearly 10% of their whole portfolio, over 1,300 lots in a single line, and the technology, communication and workflow piece was a massive component of what the executive committee was asking for.
“We were able to demonstrate how we were going to push quote requests up for approval and have that all captured, landed in one spot, and recorded correctly into the future. It’s about giving them that access and that control so they can see everything that’s going on, even if they’re logging in at midnight or they’re overseas travelling and a bit disconnected.”
The committee had been looking for a reason to stay. Seeing the actual process, rather than hearing a description of it, gave them one.
Rupert Cullen & Jarrod Smith on how resvu’s live workflow visibility helped Vantage Strata retain a 1,300-lot building during a competitive tender.
Looking after the people doing the work
The metrics that tend to make headlines in strata benchmarking reports focus on growth, revenue and portfolio size. The numbers that probably matter more to the long-term health of any strata management business are the ones that tell you how your people are doing.
The Macquarie Strata Management Benchmarking Report consistently identifies staff turnover as one of the most significant operational challenges in the industry. It is expensive to replace experienced managers. It is disruptive for clients. And it is a signal worth paying attention to.
Strata management is a high-volume role. Even with strong systems and experienced people, there are constant pressure points: competing priorities, incoming requests, and the need to stay organised while keeping everything moving.
“Strata management is a pretty high volume role and can be quite stressful. You need to be particularly organised and able to manage your time well and even then, there are still pressure points.”
Vantage had already been investing in how they support their managers. That included building more structure around how work is shared, how teams operate, and how pressure is managed across the business.
When workflows are structured, when information is visible, when requests are routed correctly from the outset, strata managers spend more of their time on the work that requires their expertise and less on the coordination that does not. That shift has a measurable effect on working life.
Jarrod describes the peace of mind that comes from knowing that a job is being tracked, that colleagues can pick it up when needed, and that nothing will fall through the cracks if a manager takes a day off. That kind of operational confidence does not happen by accident. It comes from having processes that work and systems that support them.
How has resvu contributed to Vantage Strata’s staff retention?
Vantage had already been investing in how they support their managers, building a deeper layer of support around the strata manager role. That’s a significant investment for the business, and one that is showing real results.
“In terms of our staff retention now, particularly in the strata managers, we’re in the high 90s in terms of staff retention this year, which is a long way from where we were probably a couple of years ago.”
Alongside resvu, Vantage Strata also introduced a digital health and wellbeing platform, giving staff access to GPs, nutritionists, psychologists and career coaches, all from home or the office. Coupled with resvu bringing every platform together, it has been a genuine point of difference for staff who otherwise may not have sought that support out themselves.
What the numbers reflect
The metrics from Vantage Strata’s use of resvu are worth highlighting, because each one points to something specific about how the business operates.
688,786 emails saved is not just a productivity figure. It represents a volume of back-and-forth communication that has been replaced by structured process. Every one of those emails would have required someone to write it, someone to read it, someone to respond and often someone else to follow up. Removing that friction from nearly 700,000 interactions across the business adds up to a very different working environment.
49,199 requests processed through structured workflows means that nearly 50,000 times, a request arrived with the right information, was routed to the right person and progressed through a consistent process.
2,972 committee topics and votes captured means that Vantage Strata’s committees have a documented record of their decisions, visible to all members, without relying on meeting minutes or email threads. That is continuity built into the process.
2,745 key and fob transactions processed through Stripe is a small example of a broader point: that even the administrative touchpoints in a strata management business benefit from being structured, trackable and efficient.
And 2.2 million automated updates to residents is the number that probably matters most for client experience. That is the volume of proactive communication that Vantage Strata has delivered without requiring managers to generate it manually.
At a leadership level, the visibility has been just as important. With everything happening in one place, there’s a clearer view of what’s going on across the business, how teams are performing, where bottlenecks are forming, and where attention is needed. Instead of relying on fragmented updates, decisions can be made with real context.
What Vantage Strata has built
Ten years in, Vantage Strata is a different business from the one that started with a small portfolio and a lot of ambition. They have grown through periods of significant complexity, navigated the operational challenges that come with scale and built a team with the kind of retention numbers that most businesses in the industry would aspire to.
What resvu has provided is not a shortcut. It is a foundation. Structured workflows, visible processes, centralised communication and a consistent client experience do not happen without deliberate investment in how a business operates. As Vantage continues to scale, they are not adding complexity with each new process or portfolio. The system adapts with them, supporting new workflows, new requirements and new ways of working without breaking what is already in place.
Vantage Strata’s story is ultimately about clarity. Clarity about who is responsible for what. Clarity about where a request sits. Clarity about what the committee decided and why. Clarity about what the client can expect.
That clarity has made the business more efficient. It has made the team’s working lives more sustainable. And it has given clients a level of transparency that builds the kind of trust strata management businesses need to retain and grow their portfolios over the long term.
The goal was never to build a bigger business. It was to build a better one. Those things do not always go together. At Vantage Strata, they have.
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