Building Operational Momentum with Strategic Adoption of Entrata’s Platform

One of Mill Creek Residential’s core values is continuous improvement. The company is always seeking solutions and processes that make its associates’ jobs easier, improve the resident experience and drive property performance.

As part of that effort, the company has in recent years has continued to adopt various new solutions from the Entrata ecosystem including Bill Pay, Invoice Processing, Digital Marketing Bundle and Rent Reporting. Following the addition of these solutions, they’ve seen significant results, but part of the success has stemmed from Mill Creek’s thoughtful and strategic implementation of these tools. 

As three of the company’s leaders detailed in the Building Operational Momentum with Strategic Adoption of Entrata’s Platform session at the 2025 Entrata Summit, operators must carefully plan the testing and rollout of new technologies. Anything less than a highly structured and well-thought-out rollout is a recipe for trouble, they said. 

“As our boss loves to say, ‘Proper preparation prevents poor performance,’” said Valerie Gibson, Vice President of Community Support at Mill Creek.

Among the essential early steps is conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis, according to the panelists. “Cast a wide net,” Gibson said. “Let your potential stakeholders opt themselves out of the process if they don’t need to be a part of it, but allow them to do that rather than assuming they don’t need to be involved.”

“A true stakeholder analysis is taking everyone that would ever potentially be impacted and  essentially looking at how they are going to feel about the change,” said Taryn Silva, Vice President of Learning and Development at Mill Creek. “What will help them overcome the change and how do we move forward to give them the resources that they need to be supported through that change? We do that internally for every single initiative that we do so that we can be successful past our pilot.”

As for pilots, operators need to make sure their pilot communities represent the range of their portfolio, according to Gibson.

“If you are going to pilot on a select group—we typically do five to 10 properties when we pilot—you cannot just pilot on your strongest performers,” Gibson added. “You’re setting yourself up for having a real hard time. Make sure that your pilot communities are a good sampling of your portfolio—different markets, different brands, different product types, different staffing needs, different associate experience, things like that.”

Once a pilot is up and running, operators must engage in “ongoing feedback loops, coaching, troubleshooting and regular reevaluation,” said Jennifer Nee, AVP of Digital Marketing at Mill Creek. “You might have to tweak, tweak again and pivot. Support is also important, as is maintaining that close collaboration with your Entrata partner to drive enhancements and troubleshoot.”

Additionally, the importance of communication during the pilot and the broader implementation cannot be overstated, the panelists said. 

“We want to communicate early and often—and then again and again and again,” Silva said. 

Acknowledging and touting success is crucial to effective change management, the panelists added.

“Celebrating successes is a huge core value of Mill Creek,” Nee said. “Real change is hard, and we need to acknowledge that, especially with the people who are helping you run your pilot. Make sure you’re supporting those wins, big and small, and championing those who are championing your product. Acknowledge the early adopters and the people who are slogging through the trenches of your pilot. That can all go a long way.”

The success was also celebrated in measurable results from each solution they’ve implemented in the past 18 months. From Invoice Processing and Bill Pay, they were able to increase export timeliness within 48 hours from 61% to 98% and process more invoices than ever. Digital Marketing allowed the team to take routine but critical tasks off their plate while creating consistency for their brand across multiple online placements. From Rent Reporting, they were able to help residents increase their credit scores by 95 points on average, with an estimated impact to 795 residents, with 395 of them going from unscorable to scorable. 

Strong change management also entails preparing for the unintended consequences of implementing new solutions. “Change is hard, and if you push change too fast, too hard and too often, people can be resistant to it,” Nee said. “They’ll dig in their heels, and they don’t want to accommodate the change. That makes it more difficult for you to overcome later.”