The Leader - September 2007 - (Page 51) toda y’s tec hNo lo G y: the to o ls are re ady, are yo u? find out that these systems have come a long way since their inception. SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft all offer various building blocks of functionality that can be brought together as a relatively complete CRE solution. Lease administration, lease payables/receivables, occupancy cost charge-backs, project management and cost accounting, facilities maintenance, work orders, and space management are all available in these enterprise applications. They’re not just for financials, HR and supply chain anymore! Putting all these building blocks together is a complex task – and the software companies have only recently become adept at it. But the tools are there, and many of your peers are adopting them. The IWMS arena is also quite hot today. These systems are proving that they can supplant the best of best-ofbreed point solutions and consolidate many applications onto one platform. Flexibility and reporting capabilities are some of the most advanced and prized features of today’s IWMS offerings. Their ability to tailor functionality, data and reports to your specific needs is excellent. In some cases, though, a company’s CRE needs at the moment aren’t complex or painful enough to justify the economics of an IWMS or ERP solution. Best of breed point solutions fill specific niches exceptionally well – often much better than their bigger software competitors. So, how do you figure out which path to take? How do you begin to turn pain and headaches into priorities and strategy? the techNoloGy Is ready – are you? benefit from a more formal approach to your technology strategy, review the triggers on the left and “rate” your organization along the opportunity continuum (see Figure 1). The larger the set of opportunities you can identify, the more comprehensive your technology strategy should be. And you will find that the business case for making a more comprehensive upgrade to your CRE technology platform will have bigger benefits! beNefIts – Where’s the beef? There are a number of events and circumstances that act as “triggers” to formalizing a technology strategy. To determine if your organization would FI G. 3 Npv aNalysIs $14,000,000 $12,000,000 $10,000,000 $8,000,000 $6,000,000 $4,000,000 $2,000,000 $0 $-2,000,000 $-4,000,000 $-6,000,000 2007 most likely scenario 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2.5 year payback ✷ ✷ 3.5 year payback conservative scenario Those that have taken the technology leap aren’t doing it for the fun of it. They’re doing it for the tangible and intangible benefits they can achieve: n Reduced overhang of under-utilized space n Lower cost of moves n Higher density of usage with greater worker productivity n Better service levels wrung from vendors These benefits are real and achievable, generally resulting in regular business case paybacks of between 18 months and 3 years. These represent a sampling of real benefits as defined by real CRE organizations when making the case for an investment in technology change (see Figure 2). The resulting NPV analysis tells the story – relatively short payback with significant ramp-up in benefits (see Figure 3). And the benefits aren’t just financial. Often, an endeavor to upgrade the CRE technology platform to today’s standards forces you to make other beneficial changes. Simplifying your business processes, considering changes to your organizational structure, cleaning up your data. These benefits are real and impact- th e le ade r 51 september / october 2007
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.