Chris Jacobs' Profile

Chris Jacobs left Yardi Systems in 2004 to found The Jacobs Group… and continued to provide excellent service to the Yardi community. Chris is viewed by Yardi as one of the most knowledgeable consultants in his field and is one of the few who Yardi sub-contracts to for special circumstances. In a short time, The Jacobs Group grew to be one of the leading 3rd party Yardi consulting companies in the industry. Chris first started his property management career in 1987 as a Reservation Agent for a property management company in San Diego booking short term and monthly summer vacation rentals and condos. In 1988, he was promoted to the Reservation Manager position and oversaw a small staff of 3. In 1990, Chris moved to Vancouver, Canada and worked for a property management company which specialized in government housing and condo management. Chris began working in the government housing division, then moved in 1992 to the condo management division. He was then promoted to a management position, overseeing all the other 5 condo managers. During his tenure at this company, Chris worked extensively with the first windows-based Yardi advantage system and was one of Yardi’s first clients. After 7 years using Yardi, Chris relocated to Toronto. After a short property management job (1 year), he was hired by Yardi as an Implementation Specialist. In late 1999, Chris relocated from the Yardi Toronto office to the Yardi head office in Santa Barbara. Chris was already knowledgeable in all aspects of the Yardi Enterprise program, with the exception of the affordable housing module – which was specific to U.S. government housing programs. Chris decided to enhance his skills and learned this industry and how it worked in Yardi. Even though Chris was an expert in residential, commercial and other Yardi modules, Yardi decided that Chris was ideal for handling the new Yardi affordable housing implementation program. Chris provided implementation, training and support for the new Yardi affordable housing module and was promoted to a Project Coordinator position in 2003. Although Chris left Yardi mid-2004, Chris and Yardi still feel he’s part of the Yardi team. Chris lives 1 mile away from the Yardi head office and Yardi continues to refer and sub-contract work to Chris. Chris very much enjoys working hands-on with clients to get them fully up-and-running with 100% success.

Micah Hirschman's Profile

Micah has been with the Jacobs Group from its beginning in 2004. He specializes in accounting data conversion projects, database development and custom Excel applications, training and support. Micah has an MBA from UCLA with a concentration in Finance and Accounting and is an avid language-learner .

Hema Patel's Profile

Hema Patel is a well-respected Yardi consultant. She joined The Jacobs Group in 2010 realizing that her extensive property management, affordable housing, Yardi software, and information technology knowledge would be a tremendous asset to the organization. She has assisted in hundreds of implementations and upgrades from various different software solutions to Yardi Voyager. She was previously with a consulting firm as a Senior Technology Consultant, bringing with her over 12 years of technical experience and ten years of experience with the Yardi system. Hema was one of their experts for the Yardi Voyager program. She oversaw many Voyager implementations and upgrades. Hema looked after various clients with many different backgrounds and markets. She supported conventional/market, commercial, affordable (section 8 / tax credit), and military based housing programs. She also provided property management end user, executive, accounting, and system administration training. Hema was also responsible for technical writing, where she created end user procedure manuals. In previous positions, Ms. Patel assisted with Yardi software conversions and implementations for over 125 sites nationwide. She was in charge of rolling out the Voyager upgrade from for over 125 properties and for more than 250 end users. She previously worked for a national property management firm where she worked on the development and administration of Yardi end user training courses and procedures manual development. Ms. Patel has extensive experience with the Yardi system, having spent the previous nine years implementing, configuring, supporting, and training end users in the system. Ms. Patel is located in Orlando, Florida.