Bricsnet IWMS Blog: Ask the Experts

Bricsnet is Now on Facebook and LinkedIn

2009-09-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

Check out the new Bricsnet Facebook and LinkedIn pages -- two more ways that we will be updating you about developments within the IWMS and Project Management industries, as well as about Bricsnet itself.
Bricsnet's Facebook page includes photo albums that walk you through our product lines. Look for videos coming soon!

Temperature: Always A Hot Topic In the Workplace

2009-09-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

A new survey from IFMA, Temperature Wars: Savings vs. Comfort, shows that complaints that workers are either too hot or too cold continue to top the list of worker complaints. Interestingly, numbers of "too hot" and "too cold" complaints are always equal. According to IFMA research this is always the case: These two issues often alternate in the top spot from year to year.
As IFMA notes, "Facility managers go to great lengths to keep facilities comfortable for workers, as this comfort is directly tied to worker productivity."
The most common responses from facility managers are spot-checking of temperature, humidity and airflow; verification that the building control system is working properly; and then, adjustment of the temperature control to improve comfort levels.
The most common occupant remedies for the situation include use of personal fans and space heaters -- perhaps not the best solution in these energy-conscious times -- as well as blocking vents, tampering with the thermostats and supplemental clothing. You can read the survey here.
Thanks to Eileen McMorrow for highlighting the survey in the latest issue of McMorrowReport.com.

IWMS: What's In a Name?

2009-08-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Recently, Gartner Inc. has raised the issue of whether IWMS -- Integrated Workplace Management Systems -- is the best descriptor for solutions like Bricsnet that manage a wide range of real estate and facility management-related activities.
The term IWMS was coined by Gartner about 5 years ago, but some in the community argue that it is not sufficiently descriptive. Workplace, they say, is a troublesome term because it leaves out a wide variety of real estate types that are not generally viewed as workplaces: Storage facilities, retail outlets, etc.
Others argue that, whatever its merits, the term IWMS has gained traction. Websites such as IWMS Connect and IWMS News have used it in their branding, and it appears regularly in Requests for Proposal from corporations and other organizations.
And what would be a better name? So far, there appears to be little consensus. Some advocate a name focused on Real Estate, Facilities or both. The two largest professional associations in the discipline -- CoreNet and IFMA -- use those terms. OSCRE, which grew out of a CoreNet initiative, also uses real estate as its defining term. Words like Property and Site also have their advocates, as does the idea of incorporating Lifecycle into the name.
For now, Gartner has decided to keep the IWMS name, but remains open to suggestions about chnging it. It's an interesting discussion, but while it goes on, I suspect that IWMS will continue to build strength as a descriptor.

Effective Project Closeout

2009-07-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from Bricsnet's new whitepaper, "Effective Project Closeout Demands Planning and Monitoring From the Start":

Closing out a construction project is one of the most complex elements in
project management, and the one that most often generates lawsuits. While the
primary goal of any project is a functional facility that meets the needs of its
occupants, a successful closeout of the construction process can help to ensure
that the facility can be operated and maintained effectively through its
lifecycle. Moreover, a carefully planned and conducted closeout process can save
years of headaches, and even litigation, for all parties involved in the
construction process. The closeout phase of a project is meant to ensure
that all contractual obligations have been met by all parties and may include
thousands of line items that need to be completed, checked off and documented.
But more than that, careful project closeout is a means of ensuring that all
information and knowledge collected during the course of the project is retained
so that it can be called upon for future work, including maintenance, repairs
and renovations.

To learn more about this important topic, which constitutes one of the biggest challenges for facilities and construction organizations, order the whitepaper.

Going Green

2009-07-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

The importance of "going green" by reducing facility carbon footprints, lowering electricity, cutting down on water use, encouraging carpooling and public transportation has never been stronger, and efforts to limit activities that produce greenhouse gases may soon be law in the United States.
How can property owners and occupants begin the process of going green?
It's all about information -- knowing what your current position is, knowing what your goals are and then looking at ways to get from here to there.
And an IWMS system like Bricsnet can be an important part of the process.
In fact, your system may already be tracking many of the numbers you need in order to assess your current status. If you are recording your energy and other utility costs and consumption in your IWMS system, you already have much of the information you need.
Clients who take advantage of Bricsnet's partnership with VFA may have even more information available to them that will help in the effort to assess their current status and set goals for improvement.
Your leases and other property agreements may also contain vital information. Parking clauses may provide special spaces for hybrid vehicles, or carpool vehicles, or guarantee that public transportation is available within a certain distance of your site. Cleaning provisions may specify the use of agents that don't contain environmentally harmful substances. If your current leases don't have such provisions and they have become a priority for you, a system like Bricsnet can help you to track these priorities through the site selection and transaction process.
OSCRE, the Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate, has recently begun a couple of efforts to standardize data elements and exchanges for tracking green lease provisions and for monitoring and reporting on compliance with these provisions. An OSCRE workgroup is in the process of defining standard elements for data exchange and a subgroup is looking at the reporting side of the requirements. Look for announcements from OSCRE about progress, or better yet, join the effort to define standards that can be used by ny organization interested in tracking their greening efforts.
You can learn more about OSCRE by clicking this link.
And you can learn more about how Bricsnet can help you in your efforts to green up your business environment by contacting us.

OSCRE at the National Academy of Science

2009-06-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

Andy Fuhrman, CEO of the Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE), reports that on June 24 he will be speaking at the National Academy of Science - Federal Facilities Council. Topic of his address is, "Warfighter or Office Worker -- Converting Operating Dollars to Mission Funding by Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Real Property Asset Management."
Also speaking with Andy will be Lt. Col. Mark Madaus, USAF - Asset Management Optimization Branch.
Andy's talk will focus on the "unsexy" behind-the-scenes work that organizations need to do to move to a higher level of operational excellence, while Lt. Col. Madaus will provide a look at his mission to reduce operating expense and Real Estate portfolio size by 20 percent by the year 2020. A key component of the Air Force's mission is use of the OSCRE Space Classification Standard.
The session will be held in Room 109 of the Kirk Center at the National Academy of Science in Washington DC. Start time is 9 am on June 24 and the session is open to the public.

How Can You Control Real Estate Costs?

2009-06-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

The website iwmsnews has published an interesting piece with the intriguing title, "10 Ways To Reduce Costs Immediately". It's worth a look. The advice may be common sense, but it touches on issues that organizations may not be acting on even though they know it makes sense: Eliminating non-performing assets and contracts; charging back internally for use of space; cutting underutilized space from the portfolio; implementing virtual meetings and the like.
One of the author's key points is that when it comes to cost reductions, organizations tend to look first at cutting valuable human capital rather than looking around them at a real estate burden that may be already taking far more out of the business than it should. And, given the cost of real estate, many jobs could potentially be saved by right-sizing the portfolio.
The word "immediately" may be misleading. Analysis of the portfolio and understanding where opportunities to divest, sublease or otherwise dispose of underperforming leases and assets takes time.
But that's where an IWMS system can provide enormous time-savings. With at-a-glance reports highlighting the occupancy and utilization of facilities, cost of leases in various markets and costs of equipment repair and replacement, organizations can gain a rapid -- if not immediate -- sense of where savings can be made.
As the article says: "Accountability is the key concept for cost reductions. You have to ensure that you can compare figures and that people are accountable for those figures. Therefore you have to identify cost reductions possibilities and start eliminating these costs now!"
Technology such as IWMS provides that level of accountability that organizations need to begin making the good decisions that can save millions of dollars and ensure a business that can survive a difficult economy.

Integrated Project Delivery

2009-05-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an interesting post today from the folks at Tradeline on Integrated Project Delivery (IDP). http://www.tradelineinc.com/reports/63186B14-D0E4-FDA2-6DA5927B9B479B68
IDP is a way of managing projects that brings together all parties -- owner, architect, engineer, contractors and agencies -- at the very inception of a project. They work as a team through the design and construction phases, solving problems on a team basis as the project proceeds.
In the words of the article, "Their relationship becomes a partnership rather than the traditional one of adversarial roles."
Bricsnet Enterprise and Bricsnet Retail offer support for IDP project management methodology through the concept of project teams, which can be formed at any stage in the project process, and provide team members with streamlined ways to communicate and update each other.
Team members can have varied roles that give them capabilities focused on their areas of expertise, or all team members can have the same privileges.
Tradeline Inc. points out that by using IDP, project teams can begin looking at cost controls earlier in the process. The design process becomes front-loaded, in a sense, so that from the very beginning, as ideas are being developed, some team members are looking at cost ramifications and providing alternates that could save money.
This is an idea that makes a lot of sense in difficult economic times.

Collaboration: More Important Than Ever

2008-10-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

As Bricsnet's ProjectCenter celebrates its 10th birthday this month, it's interesting to remember how times have changed since this application was introduced in 1998.
The Internet dominates the business world in a way that was almost inconceivable a decade ago. And as a result, online collaboration has become a way of life for many people. Although the Web was a familiar place in 1998, it was -- compared to today -- a relatively static environment. The dynamic, interactive applications we know on today's Internet were, for the most part, a few years away. Although attempts were being made to "webify" some business applications, the applications were, for the most part, crude and simplistic.
In that world, ProjectCenter was a groundbreaking advance. And the product has kept pace. As expectations of Internet applications have grown, ProjectCenter's functionality and user interface have continued to develop. The new release takes advantage of the latest technologies to bring customers new scheduling and communication functionality that makes this tool more powerful and easier to use.
Here are some of the new and enhanced features you will find in ProjectCenter 6.0:

New User Interface
Icon Driven User Experience
Moveable / Adjustable / Collapsible Panels
Option Skin Color Themes
Anchored Pop-up Windows
Wizard Driving Administration

Project Schedule / Milestone Tracking
Parent and Child Events
Task Assignment
Gantt Chart

Project Calendar Enhancements
New interface
Event Export to Outlook
Action Item Due Date View
Milestone Item Due Date View
Enhanced Email Notifications

Administration Enhancements
New Wizard Driven Interface
Role Based Security Available
Drag and Drop – Team Directory & Folder Structure
Username/Password Notification Allows Attachments

Document Management Enhancement
File Listing Custom Fields (Text, Drop-Down, Date, Memo, and Radio Button)
File Upload Progress Indicator
Selected File User Notification (Post Upload)
Enhanced Document “Expanded” View
Enhanced Commenting Functionality

Workflow & Configurable Form Enhancements
Added Additional Custom Field (Memo, Date and Radio Button)
Additional Task Management
From a Single Screen a User can see:
Tasks Assigned to Them
Tasks They Have Assigned
All of Their Action Items

With all of the advances of the past decade, we can only imagine what the next 10 years will bring. But looking at the new ProjectCenter release, you can begin to believe that whatever new paths web technology forges, ProjectCenter will be there.

On the Owner vs. Tenant Battleground with Bricsnet

2008-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

In the commercial real estate industry, owner vs. tenant obligations are battle-hardened topics. The subject has been weighed thoroughly from diametrically opposed perspectives. While the owner fights for renewal rights and reclaiming space for better deals, tenants perform lease audits against CAM reconciliations and OPEX charges.

In the retail industry, landlord/tenant contracts get even more complex. In a mall environment, for example, CAM charges reign as a constant battle, forcing some retailers to seek free-standing stores over malls based on fees alone. These contracts are often extremely complex, with things like termination clauses if the anchor store closes, CAM fee percentages, flat CAMS and other intricacies. The variables in these cases are infinite. Regardless of the outcome and changes from this continuous struggle, one thing remains constant: tenants need flexible and agile technology to effectively enable, enforce and normalize lease operations. Bricsnet helps retailers:

Enable
· Avoid unnecessary expenses by thoroughly understanding terms, conditions and landlord vs. tenant responsibilities
· Make-informed decisions on lease renewals, extensions, terminations, options and opportunities
· Keep responsible parties informed about critical dates and scheduled actions

Enforce
· Ensure that deadlines and critical dates are met without exception.
· Track improvements, including budgets, expenses, landlord vs. tenant contributions, and other details
· Enforce approval chains

Normalize
· Retain a complete audit trail for every lease
· Define and manage roles and responsibilities in lease administration
· Manage lease-related insurance policies and details
· Calculate and manage specialized rents such as indexed and percent-based rents

Most importantly, Bricsnet provides a flexible and stable platform that adjusts with constant change. While Bricsnet offers standard lease management capabilities built from years of customer interaction and best practices, customers can fine-tune the solution without touching the source code. With Bricsnet, you can easily modify workflows, add data elements specific to your business, manage security and access rights for internal and external users, classify information in ways that make sorting and filtering easier – even change the look and feel of the application to match your standards. To learn more about how Bricsnet can enable, enforce and normalize your lease operations, contact Bricsnet at (415) 321-2650 or www.Bricsnet.com.

Software as a Service Makes Sense for Business

2008-01-04T16:50:00.000-08:00

Software as a Service (SaaS) is not a new concept. As soon as the Internet became a common part of our lives in the 1990s, software companies began promoting the benefits of hosted software applications. First touted as ASP (Application Service Provider) delivery, the concept has evolved over the last decade to what we now commonly refer to as SaaS.

Elimination of in-house IT burdens provided and still provides – the primary rationale for hosted software. With IT staff often in short supply and older buildings often not equipped for uninterrupted power and the significant cooling and other environmental requirements of server rooms, Software as a Service offers the possibility of offloading applications to experts whose core business is in care and maintenance of IT environments.

There were justifiable fears and undeniable problems with early ASP delivery. Internet connections were still slow and unreliable. Applications weren’t designed for Internet delivery, and so performance and user interfaces were less attractive than the client-server appications that were dominant at the time.

But the world has changed in a decade. Today, Software as a Service fulfills its early promise, and can provide the most reliable and economic for companies to access their business systems. Here are some of the reasons the picture has been so thoroughly transformed:

Internet connectivity has improved: When business applications were first offered over the web a decade ago, many people – and many businesses – were still relying on dial-up connections to reach the Internet. Access was difficult, limited to locations where phone jacks were readily available, and subject to frequent dropped connections. Today, with high-speed and WiFi connections becoming ubiquitous – in hotel rooms, airports, cafes and even public parks – people really can work anytime and just about anywhere. Internet security has improved too; business today is conducted over secure Internet connections that have little risk
Web-based applications have matured: Unlike early web-enabling technologies, which often took minutes to move from screen to screen or to update data, applications today can be built – like Bricsnet – from the ground up to perform quickly and effectively over the web. Technologies such as AJAX have eliminated long waits for screen refreshes, and today’s web applications provide graphics, spreadsheets and other common formats with speed and ease of use. And unlike early web-hosted applications that were rigid and limited, today’s applications offer the same flexibility, configurability and upgradeability as applications housed inside corporate firewalls.
Data Centers have come of age: The collocation environments that began to spring up in the late 1990s have become solid, highly reliable environments focused on uninterrupted connectivity. Because they can leverage the benefits of housing many customers in one environment, today’s data centers typically offer stronger fail-over and recovery processes than most in-house data centers can, as well as strong data backup and audit procedures. Bricsnet’s data center in Novato, California, for example, has a strong record of better than 99.9 percent uptime, and meets the stringent requirements of the SAS 70 Type II standard.
Security is more than just a word: One of the early reactions to hosted software was a reluctance to house sensitive corporate data “outside the firewall.” But contemporary Internect security protocols and encryption have eliminated that concern. Led by demands for online banking and procurement, security has improved to the point that any organization can be confident its data is safely transmitted to and from hosted servers.
Interoperability is a reality: In the early days of ASP offerings, customers were pretty much limited to stand-alone applications that couldn’t connect outward to other important business systems. Even with in-house systems, integration and interoperability was often limited to flat file data transfers that required significant manual intervention. SOA architecture and Web Services have changed that. Now, applications leverage Web Services to make calls to each other, seeking and receiving data instantaneously and honoring business processes across application boundaries. It has become nearly as easy for two data center-based applications to communicate with each other as it is for two workers to talk on the phone.
SaaS Delivery provides real economy: Self-hosted applications require investment not only in software, but in hardware, support personnel and maintenance. With Software as a Service, companies have the chance to reduce risk by contracting for annual or monthly payment terms that easily fit into operating budgets and thus bypass the need for approval of capital investment. In terms of Speed to Value, the elimination of lengthy capital approval processes can provide one of the greatest shortcuts, giving companies the chance to be up and running on a new system in record time.

For all of these reasons, Bricsnet's Software as a Service option is a key component in our ability to provide Speed to Value to customers. To learn more, contact Bricsnet sales at +1-415-321-2650 or salesinfo@bricsnet.com. We look forward to showing your organization the benefits of Software as a Service.

Show Me the Documentation

2007-12-31T13:31:00.000-08:00

There are many ways to evaluate facilities and real estate software providers. You can conduct web searches, consult industry analysts, issue a Request for Proposal (RFP), schedule demonstrations and even take advantage of free trial offers. Many organizations do all of the above. And while these evaluation methods are valid and highly recommended, most software vendors in the industry have polished their web sites, proposals, demonstrations and trial versions to a mirror-glaze. Often it takes the right questions and a discerning eye to get an accurate measure of strengths and weaknesses. However, there are several easy ways to measure the completeness of a facilities or real estate software package. One of the best ways to evaluate a software package is to weigh its documentation. After all, it’s not a complete product if it does not have documentation.

Nevertheless, for many software vendors, documentation is an after-thought. The developers write excellent code but don’t ask them to put together a coherent paragraph in plain English. The professional services team is often too busy and focused on billable hours to help. The marketing team has writers but they are focused on web sites, press releases, brochures and other communications. At these vendors, the documentation becomes a last-minute, ditch effort to meet the release deadline. The documentation becomes a project … a loosely coordinated team of internal “gurus” that bolt together manuals to just get it done. Only the vendors with dedicated, documentation writers follow structured and consistent processes to generate documentation as a core component of the development lifecycle. You can be confident that vendors with complete documentation offer a stronger product. It is an excellent indicator of completeness of vision and ability to execute.

So ask the basic questions. Do you have dedicated documentation writers? Do you have a complete set of documentation? Are there installation guides, system administration guides and user manuals? How often to you update the documentation? Does every release come out with a new, complete set of documentation? Can we see some samples of your documentation? The answers to these questions might well surprise you.

On samples of documentation, it is important to realize that software vendors are justifiably reluctant to provide a complete manual or set of manuals to prospective customers. Ours is an extremely competitive marketplace and freely distributing complete documentation is a recipe for trade-secret-disasters. For good reason, documentation is given to customers only, held under strict guidelines and enforced through Non-Disclosure Agreements. None of this, however, should preclude you from demanding a list of the most current documentation, the table of contents from each and a sample page or screen captures of the documentation as a proposal attachment. You can also make documentation part of the software demonstration. While the vendor will not leave the documentation behind, there is no reason why they can’t bring a complete set to pass around during the demonstration.

So, the next time you hear a software vendor claim they have the best real estate or facilities solution on the market, tell them to show you the documentation.

Visual Real Estate and Facilities Management

2007-12-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Ours is a visual world. Visual media and technology stream into our phones, our cars … even our refrigerators. Now we are approaching an age when these technologies converge. Now, we use mobile phones to see our cars on GPS maps to find the refrigerator store.

In the real estate and facilities management arenas, visual technology is nothing new. The ability to view floor plans in a facilities management context has been around for more than a decade. The past few years, however, have rendered amazing advancements when it comes to visualizing real estate and facilities assets. Bricsnet is on the forefront of these advancements, offering a broad range of visualization tools:

Cutting Edge Maps: Combine Bricsnet’s powerful real estate and facilities management capabilities with a map application of your choice, including Google Earth, Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth. View demographic reports directly on maps, drill into your facilities, perform powerful searches and conduct site selection with real time data.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Push KPI dashboards to end user portals based on role; measure the “health” of your projects, portfolio, maintenance operations and contracts at a glance; configure favorite reports and create graphics in a wide range of formats (e.g., pie, bar, table).
Stacking: Run stacking reports to see which organizations, people and assets are occupying space, what they are using it for, and how that contributes to costs, productivity and efficiency. Create color coded reports and view floor plans by organizational assignments, vacancies, costs centers and more.
Document Management: Attach CAD drawings, photographs and other images to any record throughout the system. Apply version control, check-in/check-out and discussion threads to visual documents in a controlled environment. Collaborate at new levels through Internet Explorer without the need for expensive applications installed on end-user machine.
Visual Schedules: Manage the critical path through a variety of schedules views including Gantt charts, reports and unique summary views that are based on real time, accurate information.

In short, Bricsnet maintains its place on the forefront of real estate and facilities technology with a broad range of advanced visualization tools. It is worth looking into these advancements as Bricsnet delivers informed decisions based on real time, accurate data; increased performance as decision makers act from top-down views; competitive advantages when it comes to site selection and lowered space management costs; and improved end-user adoption through intuitive portals that match your organization’s style. To learn more about how Bricsnet’s visualization capabilities can improve performance and lower costs for your organization, contact Bricsnet at (415) 321-2650 or www.Bricsnet.com.

Lower Project and Construction Costs with Bricsnet

2007-11-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Bricsnet lowers costs and improves efficiencies throughout your organization. With more than 20 years experience, Bricsnet has proven results at many organizations just like yours. Benefits include:

Speed to Value: With a focus on speed-to-value, Bricsnet offers best-practice-solutions to meet your organization’s needs directly. For example, for your project and construction management needs, Bricsnet delivers projects on-time and on-budget.
Advanced Collaboration: Through unprecedented collaboration tools (e.g., document management, workflow, direct e-mail, dashboard notifications) Bricsnet manages tasks throughout the lifecycle.
Improved Project Performance: For your organization’s schedules, Bricsnet enforces delivery dates, renders milestones on Gantt charts to measure impacts and automatically reminds team members of approaching critical dates. Bricsnet imports and exports to Microsoft® Project and delivers project history reports from a broad range of perspectives.
Enhanced Budgets and Accountability: Bricsnet offers advanced change management throughout the solution, including tracking of budget, asset and personnel changes as your organization evolves. Bricsnet also provides complete audit trails throughout the system.

At leaders in your industry, Bricsnet has conducted Return-On-Investment (ROI) studies, discovery sessions and in-depth technical demonstrations to help prove our solutions are the best available choice. Bricsnet can do the same for you.

A Better Path for Enterprise Software

2007-11-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

Enterprise software systems, commonly known through their initials – ERP, CRM, SCM, IWMS and the like – have proliferated throughout the business world over the past 20 years. And with good reason: To operate with maximum effectiveness in a competitive environment, businesses have a critical need to organize their information, streamline and standardize their processes, enable controlled and secure access on a global basis, and produce meaningful metrics that aid in understanding performance and trends. Database-driven systems are excellent tools with which to pursue all of these goals.

But there is a problem. As expectations of and reliance on systems has grown, so have the burdens of operating, maintaining and using them. Implementations have come to consume years of effort and large teams of professionals. Training alone can be a frightening prospect for the workers who will be expected to use the systems.

And so, while implementations drag on, businesses face the same operational and performance issues and often must continue to rely on the “old tools” – ledgers, spreadsheets, files and memos – while the enterprise system acts as a time-consuming distraction.

Bricsnet believes there is a better answer.

Bricsnet’s motto is “Speed to Value.” For more than 20 years, Bricsnet has operated in the belief that, in order to serve their purpose, technology systems must be capable of rapid implementation, easy availability and low-effort support and maintenance. No application provides value until it is making a positive difference in the workplace.

Bricsnet technology helps organizations avoid the pitfalls commonly encountered in implementing complicated, enterprise systems through an advanced technical architecture and a Speed-to-Value model that quickly delivers a positive impact on the bottom line. We do this by carefully building our applications on a foundation that includes:

Standards-based, fully supported technology platform
Three-tier, web-based architecture
Services oriented architecture
Web Services for integration and interoperability
Platform independence, with certification processes for new platforms
Utilization of select Open Source components
Modularity
Scalability and resilience
Flexible delivery options
Configurable, role-based security model

If you're interested in learning more about how Bricsnet's technical architecture can help you to get up and running quickly so that you can focus on your business rather than your applications, read our whitepaper, "Bricsnet Technology: Flexibility, Security, Reliability". You can get the whitepaper at the Bricsnet web site.

Happy reading!

What "Speed to Value" Means to You

2007-10-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

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.