The Swartz Report: Technology, Branding and Collaboration

Don Swartz

Over the past two weeks I have implemented planning meetings for both companies; Indurante & Associates and Swartz + Associates. Each meeting was a full day and, in both situations, we went “off campus”, leaving the usual work place for a different environment. Away from the company phones, away from the usual distractions and an opportunity to clear the mind.

I believe both meetings were very successful as the dialogue from all employees was pointed, thoughtful and most importantly, respectful.

Technology and Branding were the major take aways from both meetings.

Swartz + Associates

As we are well into our 5^th year at Swartz + Associates, questions circled around the fact that although successful, are we now content? Where do we want to go from here? We have been very focused on maintaining our client base from the purchase 5 years ago, but now it is time to spread our wings and show other companies of our success. Success not only monetarily, but success in the types of appeals we are securing.

It is time to promote our successes to others and let taxpayers know we are able to handle their property tax valuation review, regardless of the type of property.

Indurante & Associates

On the Indurante side, we are already recognized as the leader in railcar industry in the preparation, review and filing of property tax statements to the respective jurisdictions. The question of this group centered around the use of technology.

How can we take advantage of technology to assist not only us, but our clients? Website, Indurante owned software and database development are extremely important to our future and we are investing significant time and resources to ensure this occurs during the 2020 tax season and beyond. Once in place, these powerful tools will allow us to have even more interaction with our clients and ease the transfer of information.

The opportunity for the two companies to work together is very exciting.

While the companies focus on different areas of the property tax arena, they are very complimentary. Companies who own railcars, undoubtedly have ownership interests in commercial/industrial real estate as well as machinery and equipment. The key is to now educate Indurante employees about Swartz products and how Swartz reviews assessments. Likewise, Swartz employees are learning what it looks like to handle several thousand property tax annual filings and the payment of thousands of annual tax bills on behalf of Indurante’s clients.

It is truly an exciting time for both companies, and I’m looking forward to sharing our results with everyone.

As always, if you need answers regarding your property tax assessments, please reach out and contact me with any questions.  If railcars are your thing, we can help out there as well!