The Leader - September 2007 - (Page 48) real e stat e maNaGemeNt Today’s Technology: The Tools Are Ready, Are You? by GeorGe bourIs slcr, mcr, tIm flINt, aNd maureeN Welch Nobody really lIkes chaNGe. movING to a NeW commuNIty. chaNGING Jobs. doING poker NIGht oN thursdays INstead of tuesdays. but hoW ofteN do We Get throuGh the chaNGe aNd realIze hoW much better off We are? (your luck WIth the cards has alWays beeN better later IN the Week aNyWay!) he same holds true for taking the plunge with new technology. Sure, there are plenty of uncertainties. Will it really do what we need? Do we even know what we need? Will it cost much more than we think? Will our people take to it or retreat back into their personal Excel files and Access databases? But, there are numerous options available to Corporate Real Estate departments today, many of which deliver compelling functionality and less trouble than you might think. Better yet, organizations just like yours are reaping some great benefits by taking the plunge… the technology is ready! are you? today’s techNoloGy tools – mature, robust, aNd usable T Whether you choose to develop a custom solution, a best-in-breed point solution, an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), or an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) enterprise solution, you’ve got lots of options these days to “up your game” with new software tools. Today’s corporate real estate (CRE) technology applications are proven in the market, functionally robust, and provide analytical tools to manage your business and support decision-making. A visual explanation of the corporate real estate application continuum and the representative software vendors is available in the Web version of Leader. Go to www.corenetglobal.org and click on the magazine cover. Are these tools as easy to use as Excel or Access? Of course not. Are they useful and usable? Absolutely. And they get you much closer to that nirvana of actually managing what you measure – because you and the guy down the hall are using the same measurement! Whether you opt for a point solution to focus on a particular need, an ERP system to fully leverage financial and fixed asset capabilities, or an IWMS system to capitalize on the unique aspects of life cycle management for real estate and facilities assets, there is a lot to choose from – and your peers are paving the way. Some of the biggest benefits are being reaped by those who are consolidating onto either ERP platforms or IWMS tools. What core financial system does your company run? SAP? Oracle/PeopleSoft? If you find yourself running payables off the firm’s ERP or pulling reports out of its data warehouse to figure out how much you spent on that last fit-out project, you owe it to yourself to look at what your ERP offers to manage your CRE operations. You might be quite surprised to th e le ade r 48 september / october 2007 http://www.corenetglobal.org
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