Recently, the West Palm Beach HOA Examiner was given access to the CEO of TOPS software, Mr. Jeff Hardy. Mr. Hardy founded TOPS Software in 1985, and since that time the company has grown to be one of the most popular HOA management software packages in the world.
Below is part one of the interview, focusing on Mr. Hardy himself, the history of the company, as well as their stake in the South Florida area.
Q: What is your background in HOAs? Computer software development?
A: I was an officer in my homeowners association in Maryland while working as an accounting manager at a Fortune 500 technology company. Because I saw the opportunity to offer a better package of management services than was the current standard in my local area, I founded a management company in 1977. First, it was a part time business but it grew rapidly to a full time business in a little over a year. Eventually, the company grew to more than 14,000 homes.
When my management company reached 1800 homes in 1979, all our time was spent keeping up with the manual accounting system. I knew we needed to automate. Problem was, there was no PC back then. The only affordable mini-computers were Apple, Radio Shack, Osborne and Atari. I bought a Radio Shack Model II computer with 64K RAM and an 8 in floppy drive—no hard drives were available. So now I had a computer but what about the Condo/HOA software? Of course there was none. But that gave me the idea that if I created a software package for Condo/HOA management with my accounting and now property management background, I would have a product that I could sell across the country. So I started working evenings with a neighbor who was a programmer to create the first version of TOPS on that Radio Shack computer. That’s how TOPS started. It has certainly evolved in the 33 years since I started on this project.
Q: How many communities in South Florida use your system? (If you could break it down by county - Palm Beach, Broward, Dade, that would be great.)
A: In the entire state of Florida, TOPS has 869 clients. Most are management companies, some are self-managed communities. In the counties you mentioned, our client breakdown is:
Palm Beach 165
Broward 161
Dade 137
Total 463
We can’t tell how many communities our 463 clients manage, but it’s a substantial number. Just one management company client in this area manages 700 communities themselves. A number of other management company clients manage between 100 – 200 communities. So the combined total managed by these clients on TOPS is thousands of communities.
TOPS is also leading the way as a thought leader in the industry. Beginning in 2010, our 25th anniversary of serving the condo/hoa industry we’ve begun several initiatives designed around giving back. Two of the most important of these focus on community management education:
· We’ve helped found the Association Management Leadership Forum – this is a traveling event focused on educating community managers about evolving technology trends.
· We’ve launched a PCAM scholarship in conjunction with CAI to encourage managers in earning this important designation
Moving forward, TOPS is innovating new features and services to keep our clients abreast of ever-evolving technology. Examples of our new technology products are the TOPS Go! mobile application and TOPS OnPoint our web based property management solution both of which give management staff unparalleled access to community data wherever there is an internet connection.
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