Software solutions

Great software is rarely built in isolation. It comes from understanding the people who will use it, the challenges they encounter every day and the way their work is changing. That thinking sits at the heart of inform. For more than 25 years, we have developed software for the business rates sector. That experience gives us a strong understanding of rating practice, but the way organisations work continues to change. Building what comes next means combining that knowledge with modern technology, new perspectives and closer collaboration with the people using our software.   The next chapter for inform The first major step in that next chapter is inform:estate. Launching more widely this October, inform:estate is our new enterprise-grade platform for modern property and rating management, designed to support organisations of all sizes as their estates, data and operational requirements grow. Built around modern rating operations, it creates a more connected environment for managing portfolio activity, workflows and operational insight, giving teams greater visibility and control across increasingly complex estates. But inform:estate is not simply about introducing new technology. It also reflects...

July brought a change of Prime Minister and an early indication that business rates will remain firmly on the agenda. For organisations managing large or complex property portfolios, the real interest lies beyond the headlines. The more important question is what these developments could mean for future liabilities, financial planning and the way property and rates information is managed across an estate.   A more targeted approach to relief One of the government’s first major business rates announcements was a 20% reduction for eligible pubs, social clubs and live music venues from April 2027. Although the measure is aimed at a specific group, it may also offer an early indication of the direction future reform could take. Rather than applying support broadly, the government may increasingly use business rates relief to support particular sectors, property uses or businesses seen as making a positive contribution to local communities. For property occupiers, this makes it increasingly important to understand how individual sites are classified, which reliefs may apply and how changes could affect liabilities across a wider portfolio.   Business rates and the...

Despite significant advances in technology, spreadsheets remain one of the most widely used tools in commercial property management. For many organisations, they continue to perform an important role. They are familiar, flexible and relatively easy to build. However, as portfolios become larger, reporting requirements increase and property data becomes more business critical, an important question is beginning to emerge: Is commercial property management outgrowing spreadsheets?   When a quick solution becomes a critical process Spreadsheets often begin with good intentions. A team needs to track information, monitor activity or report on a specific area of the portfolio, and a spreadsheet provides a fast solution. Over time, however, that spreadsheet evolves. Additional columns are added, new versions are created and more people become involved in maintaining it. Before long what started as a temporary solution becomes a critical source of information. As portfolios grow, so does the complexity of managing that information consistently.   The challenge isn't collecting data Most organisations are not short of property data. They hold information relating to hereditaments, valuations, leases, occupation, acquisitions, disposals and much more....

Now the 2026 Rating List is in place, the focus shifts from planning to execution. For estates teams and rating professionals, this is where day to day workflows take over. Records need to be reviewed, data needs to be interrogated and decisions need to be made across an entire estate, often at pace. At this point, the effectiveness of the underlying platform becomes far more apparent.   Working without friction In practice, managing rating data is not a single task. It is a series of actions carried out repeatedly across multiple hereditaments. Opening records, cross checking attributes, comparing positions, reviewing history and moving between properties without losing context. Where systems are not designed for this those actions become disjointed. Information sits in different places, steps are repeated and time is lost navigating between tools. Where platforms are built around how teams actually work, that process becomes seamless. Users can move between records, interrogate data and carry out reviews without breaking their workflow.   Reducing manual effort A large part of rating work is not analysis, it is handling data. Copying...

With less than two weeks until the 2026 Rating List takes effect, most organisations already understand how their portfolios are expected to move. Draft List analysis has been completed, modelling is in place and key areas of change have been identified. The focus now is not on uncovering new information but on working with that position confidently across an entire estate, without delay or uncertainty. This is where the quality of underlying systems becomes critical. From insight to action at portfolio level At this stage, the challenge is no longer identifying movement in rateable value, but being able to interrogate, validate and act on it quickly. For organisations managing large or complex estates, that requires more than access to data. It requires a structured environment where hereditament records, valuation data and historical changes can be viewed together, compared easily and understood in context. Where that structure is in place, teams can move seamlessly between the 2023 position and the 2026 Draft List, isolate areas of change and assess impact across the portfolio without reverting to manual processes. A single, reliable...