Having just returned from MRI’s International User Conference, I was filled with a sense that MRI is a company that continually strives to improve, to deliver on their promises and to maintain their position at the forefront of their industry. From MRI’s perspective, “2015 has been our year to break the barriers that limit growth and breakthrough to new products that change the way the real estate industry manages its businesses”.

Last year, MRI’s CEO Patrick Ghilani made a number of bold promises. And this year, he stood proudly before us to show how the company has met and surpassed expectations.

Here are a few key points of interest that we took away from the conference:

• The launch of Version X MRI introduces innovative new functionality and tools. With the launch of their latest release Version X, many existing users on older versions are finding that they need to relook their current customisations, and discover the best way to transition successfully towards Version X.
• The boomerang effect at MRI In the year that’s past, MRI has seen some clients (as well as staff) leave. But the interesting thing is that a number of key staff have actually returned. Even more impressive is that MRI have managed to bring back a number of clients that had moved off MRI, which stands testament to the fact that MRI is undoubtedly a company of choice within this industry.
• The importance of partnership Once again, the value of partnership took centre-stage as MRI showed its commitment to a top-down approach which includes choosing the right partners to extend your offering, expand your network, as well a general shift towards Open Data. In the last year, MRI has grown their number of direct partners, allowing many more third party apps to gain access to MRI. With this wide partnership network, they are able to address potential areas of weakness where other partners with varied skill sets can assist.

Inspired to go forth and forge new partnerships, we at Open Box applaud MRI for a great conference and look forward to a successful year ahead.