by Matt Waters, CPA on March 7, 2022
When choosing a supplier, verifying their track record, platform, information security, data ops, and SOC audit schedules and outcomes is critical. CoStar is smooth sailing for IT and InfoSec due diligence. Ensure your lease accounting software and your supplier have all this and more.
- A 20-year record having never failed a project implementation – IT and the business benefit from knowing CoStar has a long track record, particularly compared to small companies and start-ups. There are many failed projects with other suppliers. Your business and project manager will thank you.
- 20-year track record of meeting Service Level Availability (SLAs) – All SaaS providers have an SLA guarantee in their agreement. But how do you know they meet it? You have a protective contract, but that doesn’t help when the system is down at reporting time. CoStar’s SLA track record is proven and world-class.
- Integrations warranty and support – CoStar has built and maintains over 900 integrations. Our contracts come with guaranteed approval. Many suppliers provide integrations, but a contractual obligation and track record to support them are essential to successful integrations. IT teams are often caught in the middle when integration fails with other suppliers, and the business suffers from late GL outputs and rent payments.
- Three annual SOC audits – CoStar conducts SOC Audits annually. Yes, three! This is a significant investment to ensure that all audit reporting periods are covered for our customers’ calendars and that you have the documentation you need to validate the results. Most suppliers only provide one or two because it’s a significant investment.
- Early and continuous support for the latest data privacy requirements (GDPR) – CoStar stays ahead of enterprise data privacy requirements. It is early to support GDPR requirements for our international and multi-national customers. We invest heavily in this topic.
- Data encryption at rest and in transmission – Transparent Data Encryption (TDE or Data at Rest Encryption) is often overlooked by business and IT teams in requirements. Some suppliers don’t provide encryption for data in the database (TDE). CoStar does.
- Dedicated databases, not a shared database – Some SaaS suppliers put customers in segregated but shared databases. Did you know? CoStar provides dedicated databases to its customers, and all customers should ask about this since architecture is not described in contracts.
- A second non-production site – CoStar, provides a non-production site standard as part of your license for testing new releases and other non-production activities. Most suppliers do not offer this service or charge a separate fee for a non-prod site, which can be essential for ongoing testing.
- Platform performance – scalability – Some suppliers have failed when a customer with thousands of leases calculates amortizations or runs complex reports. It can take hours and is not discovered until long after implementation. CoStar was designed for scale, with many customers running short reports on tens of thousands of leases. This is critical at month-end close or rent payment time.
IT and InfoSec teams that evaluate systems find CoStar smooth sailing, and accounting and real estate business teams will benefit from CoStar’s track record, performance, security, and guarantees.
