Introduce yourself. What is your role at Quext?
Hello! My name is Jason Anders, and officially, I’m responsible for most of the software development at Quext. This includes the Quext Core Property Management system, Quext CMS, our website creation tool, and Quext Digital Human, our groundbreaking virtual assistant. Unofficially, I’m pretty sure I’m also the sponsor and curator of the whiskey bar at the end of the hall. And, I get to be the target of most of the old guy jokes. They’re usually pretty funny.
What is your background?
Among this merry band of technology visionaries and guerillas, I tend to bring the big corporation voice. For the past 20+ years, I’ve held technology executive roles at Fortune 50, 100, and 500 financial services organizations. Of course, these experiences bring a wealth of education about not only how to be innovative, but also how to be continually innovative time and again. I’ve been very fortunate to work with and for some of the strongest technology leaders in our space. I look to bring those lessons to bear in helping to build Quext into an incredibly impactful force in the multifamily industry.
Before my technology life, I served in the US Army for eight years, and if I list anything else here, it’s going to be easy to see why I get to hear so many old guy jokes. It’s cool, though. I’m pretty sure they’re just jealous, right? Right?
What do you see in the future for the Quext Digital Human? The Quext product suite as a whole?
Today, Mia, Jordan, and Anna live on the properties’ public-facing websites and do a fantastic job talking to prospective renters about the amenities, application process, general policies, and life in every community. They allow each property’s management team to have unlimited customization of how their communities are portrayed. But this is just the beginning.
Tomorrow, the Digital Human team will be larger, with more personality choices, and they will be everywhere you want them to be. They will become true spokespeople for the communities they serve. The Digital Humans will live in the resident portals, in the property management software, in kiosks throughout your community, in virtual reality guided tours. The depth and breadth of the conversations they can have will astonish you, and then they’ll get better.
But while the Digital Humans will make great representatives of your communities and the Quext lineup in general, they are just the faces and voices in front of the camera, so to speak. Behind the scenes, the Quext Property Management system will bring everything you’re used to seeing; building lifecycle management, resident lifecycle management, accounting, a resident portal, document management, etc. But it will bring you all of that complexity in a way that is surprisingly easy and intuitive. And that is also just the beginning. The Quext software line-up is committed to leveraging the best of 3D, virtual reality, artificial intelligence (real artificial intelligence, not just that stuff people are telling you is AI), big data, and zero latency bandwidth to improve every aspect of the multifamily lifestyle.
What are you excited about specifically for technology changing in the multifamily industry?
The multifamily industry is just starting to dip its toe into state of the art technology. At its heart, running an apartment community is entirely about person-to-person relationships, and perhaps this truth is a bit of a driver behind a slower adoption of some technologies. But as an industry, we are learning that the more we know about our residents, the deeper our relationships can get. The more we are learning about our residents, the more we realize that they expect us to deliver the technologies that improve their lives; to create a modern community that is connected, engaged, convenient, secure, and fun. This is what Quext is about. Not just software, but the infrastructure, hardware, and passion for leading this push to leverage the newest technologies to improve the lives of apartment residents and their management companies.
What is your favorite thing about working for Quext?
I love ideas. Mine, yours, theirs, it doesn’t matter. Experiencing the passion we have at Quext for offering, gathering, curating, and realizing new ideas is maybe my favorite thing. Dave Marcinkowski is relentless in reminding us how important it is to think big, think abundantly, and make it happen. I treasure the education and mentoring that I received from corporate America. But the freedom we have at Quext to make dreams happen is incredibly rewarding.
What is the last thing you binged on Netflix?
All eight seasons of The West Wing (for the 4th time). That show makes me love politics. There are no bad guys. Everybody on each side of every issue and opinion on that show has positive intentions, and the debates are terrific. It’s the opposite of House of Cards, where there are no good guys. I can’t watch shows like that. Don’t laugh. Oh, speaking of laughing, I’ve also rewatched every Dave Chapelle standup again a couple of times. Guy’s a genius. He’s the GOAT. My wife tried hard to get me into Outlander, but I just couldn’t pull it off. I faded after maybe three episodes.
