Integrated Project Delivery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.