Forty years ago in Pakenham, Victoria, a family property sat nestled amongst an apple orchard. A few RVs belonging to family friends were parked around the home – and as word of mouth spread, Beacon Storage was born! Today Beacon Storage operates about 50 units – but true to its roots, specialises in outdoor vehicle storage: anything from caravans to food trucks to buses, and anything in between! You can read all about them on their website, by clicking here.
Beacon Storage recently made the switch from Sitelink Web Edition to Storman Cloud for their self-storage management software, and we spoke with Sarah – their site manager – to learn more about their decision to change systems and what it’s meant for their business
A Central Point of Truth
Saving over 30 min per day
A Simple, Intuitive Interface.
the Change:
“When the business first got started, the original owner was recording everything by hand in a diary,” Sarah recalls. “So a few years ago, when his son took over the business, he decided it was time to take it to the next level – with security, management software, the works!”. And so, Beacon Storage installed Storman One, the on-premises predecessor of Storman Cloud.
But as the business continued to grow, their needs evolved – they were looking for cloud-based self-storage management software that they could access from anywhere, and that would integrate seamlessly with their on-site access control. And so, Beacon Storage made the decision to move from Storman One across to Sitelink Web Edition.
However, as a facility that specialises in vehicle storage and the majority of their space being outdoor parking spaces rather than traditional units or bays, they found themselves in a ‘square peg, round hole’ situation with their newly chosen software. “We couldn’t customise the data fields to keep track of the information that was critical to us – aside from the customer information, which was held in Sitelink, we needed to know things like the registration number, and the make or model of the vehicle being stored.”, Sarah explains. To counter for the software not being able to handle the data the facility needed in order to operate, they had to resort to tracking this information in a separate spreadsheet – costing them valuable time jumping back and forth between systems.
What led to the switch from Sitelink to Storman Cloud?
The need for true cloud-based management software for their self-storage facility.
The need to have customisable data fields to capture information unique to their business needs.
The need to have access to all their information, data and reporting on one single, central platform.
“We needed a single, cloud-based system that could capture everything we needed
in one easily accessible place.”
The Future:
Embracing technology to recognise potential and power growth.
Hugh also credits his time working in America with opening his eyes to the potentials of technology in the self storage industry. “I attended a conference in New Orleans a few years ago – before we moved to Storman Cloud – and I was speaking with a facility owner when he mentioned that about 30% of facilities offered online move-ins or payments, and they were looking to increase that to 50%,” he recalls. “That just blew my mind – and I wanted that for our facilities!”. Storman Cloud’s online move-ins product makes that a reality for Australian sites, and helps Hepworth Self Storage align more with the offerings that are more commonly seen in the American self-storage industry.
To finish up, we asked Hugh what his advice was for other self storage operators in the Australian market. “Embrace the technology that’s available today, and recognise the potential that’s there, rather than being hesitant.” Hugh advises. “It can feel a bit daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. There’s an enormous amount that you can do with your facility, and geography isn’t the limiting factor it was a few years ago – the list of things you can do from anywhere in the world is only going to grow!”.
Sarah, Beacon Storage:
“It’s all about having access to the information you need, where and when you need it. Having a system like Storman Cloud now, that I can log into and see everything I need to know about my customer – who they are, what vehicle they’re storing, where they’re parked – it saves me so much heartache, and so much time.”
