What "Speed to Value" Means to You

Real estate management technology has many names today like Integrated Workplace Management (IWMS), Corporate Real Estate (CRE) and Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM). With each passing year, we add another acronym to the mix and dive through another wave of marketing campaigns, white papers and consulting engagements to improve the bottom line. Through the hard work of today’s real estate and facilities management professionals, the industry has made tremendous progress despite continuous expansion.
We are reaching a point, however, where the costs and complexities of implementing real estate systems are tipping the balance against their intended returns. Some IWMS implementations, for example, are already posting the same results as Enterprise Resource Planning (EPP) projects: multi-year implementation engagements, exorbitant costs, frustrating distractions from the primary mission and failures across the board. Simply Google “ERP failures” and you get back roughly 250,000 results (or links) that describe a broad range of failures. To improve this trend (and stay in business) the ERP giants are changing their service models to deliver streamlined solutions. SAP, for example, is now offering a web subscription model as a, “simplified and cheaper business software aimed at small and midsize companies -- think Mini Cooper.[1]”
Enterprise Resource Planning and IWMS implementations can have many similarities in scope, cost and complexity. The most glaring similarity, however, is extensive software customizations. Organizations get extensive Request-for-Proposal (RFP) requirements from a broad range of departments, often expanding the range of IWMS and ending up with highly specialized needs. Given the “enterprise” nature of these implementations, IWMS vendors propose herculean implementations with extensive customizations, thousands of hours of consulting fees and behemoth projects that distract their customers from the core mission. And when the implementation finally goes-live (often years later), the organization is left with an extremely complicated “toolkit” to keep up with future changes and upgrade nightmares. Sound familiar?
Given the many similarities between ERP and IWMS (e.g., extensive customization, extensive integration efforts, complicated processing synchronizations, enterprise level impacts), many real estate professionals in both the private and public sectors are choosing to learn from recent history. A recent IFMA Report, for example, cites “rapid pace of change; compatibility, complexity, [and] obsolescence[2]” among the key challenges of emerging technologies. IFMA also cautions decision makers not to “over customize” when it comes to their real estate and facilities strategies.
So it’s not surprising to see a trend toward smaller, more simplified and out-of-box real estate and facilities management solutions that deliver speed-to-value rather than complexity. Take a step back and think about it logically. Ask yourself the following questions:
· After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, will the myriad of RFP requirements and resultant customizations remain locked in stone forever more?
· Will the people and their needs throughout your organization be exactly the same next year?
· Is it easier and less expensive to customize software and navigate upgrades than expect users to learn the technology tools of their trade (much like they do with Microsoft Office products)?
The answer to all of these questions, of course, is no. This is not to say that real estate and facilities management professionals should consign themselves to inadequate technology. However, a careful balance between unique application requirements and implementation timeframes/costs must be struck to avoid the ERP pitfalls of recent years. Bricsnet provides this balance quickly with out-of-box solutions that install and can go-live within hours.
More importantly, Bricsnet real estate and facilities management solutions are developed and honed from decades of experience and customer input from professionals in every industry – since 1986. Bricsnet solutions are:
· Top Ranked: Bricsnet has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the leader’s quadrant in the 'Magic Quadrant for Integrated Workplace Management Systems, 2006.’
· Comprehensive: Bricsnet Enterprise, Retail and ProjectCenter solutions cover the entire range of needs for professionals in all industries. By providing instant, single-view access to vital data including critical dates, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), Key Performance Metrics (KPM’s) and business analytics of the organization, Bricsnet solutions achieve greater control over their real estate assets and operations to make better business decisions.
· Easy to Install: Bricsnet solutions are designed to be installed, configured, implemented and put into action quickly. ProjectCenter, our online collaboration solution, requires only access to a URL and generally requires less than an hour of training. Bricsnet Enterprise and Bricsnet Retail, our comprehensive real estate management solutions, can be implemented in just weeks.
· Intuitive: If you can navigate the Internet, you can use Bricsnet solutions. The system renders through graphical web portals with familiar, consistent commands.
· Flexible: Naturally, every organization needs to make minor adjustments for the system to fully meet their needs. Bricsnet provides intuitive forms, drag-and-drop functionality and elegant ways to add fields and workflow process that make sense.
· Easy to Maintain: Because minor changes are maintained at the database level, Bricsnet customers easily maintain and upgrade the solution without the need for additional consulting fees and/or major disruptions.
In short, Bricsnet delivers speed to value. Through highly focused solutions and Strategic Advisory Services that draw from Bricsnet specialists, strategic relationships and partners to fine-tune the implementation in weeks rather than years, Bricsnet has a long list of successful customers that reap of benefits of best-practices in short-order. More importantly, Bricsnet’s services are unique, offering performance management, best practices analysis, Key Performance Indicator (KPI) development, cost control, value creation and strategic advisory. Ask this expert how to strike the balance between value, time and cost and the answer is simple: Bricsnet.

[1] Abboud, Leila. “SAP’s New Model: Think Smaller,” The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2007.
[2] International Facility Management Association. “Exploring the Current Trends and Future Outlook for Facility Management Professional,” www.ifma.org/tools/research/forecast_rpts/2007.pdf, 2007.