Property industry trends for 2007
Our thoughts on the road ahead.
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Is your Asset Management System working for you
Asset management is firmly on the public sector agenda. Whilst some organisations
may still only be in the initial planning stages, many have implemented
software to support the processes necessary to manage their property assets
effectively. But experience shows that implementation of asset management
systems is by no means straightforward within organisations such as local
authorities.
Article by Mark Jones in PSR. Read
Read PDF
European Union?
The questions have been hanging over us for some time now - should we
join? What's in it for us? Will we have to do what the others tell us
even if we don't like it, whilst they blatantly ignore all the rules?
Will our jobs melt away to lower cost economies? Even when we are speaking
the same language, do we really understand each other's needs?
by Andrew Waller - Read
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Known knowns and unknown unknowns
A short overview of the importance of business focus in developing an
IT strategy.
Article by Andrew Waller in Property Systems Review Dec 2005
Read
European Union?
Overcoming the barriers to developing a European property systems strategy
Article by Melita Thomas in Property Systems Review Dec 2005
Read
CIO roundtable
"Do you understand your CIO?" was the theme of a roundtable workshop we
helped organize for The Estates Gazette at the end of last year.
Read PDF
Will UK Real Estate move offshore?
Our year long project to research the trends in property outsourcing has
been published.
You can either download a copy from
the website
or contact us for a printed copy.
When we started it seemed obvious that the differential in costs between the UK and offshore centres would make offshore processing an obvious way forward, but it is not as straightforward as it first appeared.
However, there are movements in the market which have been exaggerated by new entrants to the property services market and this WILL make significant changes. If you are an occupier or property services provider, you will need to be prepared for these changes.
We have described the possible scenarios in our report and there will be a series of events to discuss the findings.
Knowledge Management - Why is the iPod significant to your business?
Andrew Waller, Estates Gazette
Read article
ERP Systems in Property
- Mark and Andrew provided comment in the autumn Property Systems Review.
Read article
Where possible we have put our new articles on the website. Some publishers have asked us for copyright reasons to only send out articles individually, so please get in touch if you would like an electronic or paper copy.
Outsourcing in Corporate Real Estate
- The Journal of Corporate Real Estate published this article by Martin
Farncombe of TheoPraxis and Andrew Waller. The article compares developments
in other industries with those in the property industry.
Please contact us for more details.
The role of the CIO in property
- Andrew facilitated the workshop of IT and Business Directors brought
together by the Estates Gazette to discuss how IT Directors and Chief
Information Officers can develop their role in our industry.
Please contact us for more details.
New Book - IT for Property People by Andrew Waller
Your competition is investing in new systems to improve profitability
and reduce costs - can you afford not to keep pace?
This book is not about technology; it is about property information and
how to use it more effectively in your business. As a property occupier,
do you really understand where property adds value to the business? As
an investor, which information is vital to negotiating better deals? As
an agent, how much information can you give your clients for free and
where can you make money if you do that?
Read More
Will UK Real Estate move offshore?
Andrew presented at Realcomm in the US on the preliminary findings of
our survey - "Will UK Real Estate move offshore?" These early findings
are summarised in a paper on our web site and they were adapted for a
feature in the Estates Gazette in their 27th July edition.
Read
Realcomm Reviews
Andrew's review of Realcomm appeared in the Estates Gazette on the 20th
July Read
and Melita's review appears in the current issue of Property Systems Review
Read
Managing agents, property systems - and the offshore threat!
by Andrew Waller
Clients and agents need to decide which of them buys and maintains the
property management (PM) database. The agents generally prefer to use
their own system because they need only train their staff once for all
clients. On the other hand, many clients are frustrated by the quality
of service provided by their agents and prefer to keep control by running
the system themselves.
Read
Open Source - Can You Replace All Your Software For Free?
by Mark Jones
Can you replace all your software for free? Mark wrote this article for
Property Systems Review giving advice on where to start thinking about
Opensource software. This short guide will be useful if anyone asks you
why you haven't changed your Microsoft systems to Linux or Apache.
Read
ERP Systems vs. the world of property
by Mark Jones
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems now manage property as well
as controlling all the other aspects of a business such as finance, HR,
logistics and sales. What are the key differences between the real estate
module of an ERP system and a property management system? Which is right
for you? Mark wrote a paper for Property Systems Review on this and you
might find the answers surprising.
Read
IT as a management tool
by David Lawson
IT is a management tool - it can be a good one or bad one
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PDF
Freeman's Property Service Provider Directory
Remit wrote the lead article in the new Freeman's Directory
Looking at the software available, seeing a well-run demonstration of
clever gadgets and attractive graphs and tables is the fun bit of a Property
Information Software implementation project, however in a well organised
project, selection of the appropriate system is actually one of the later
steps
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PDF
Selecting a facilities management system
Facilities management (FM) systems can be spectacular. They store information
about occupied space, sometimes with 3-dimensional drawings. They use
these drawings to allocate costs and rents across entire portfolios. They
have graphs showing maintenance costs throughout the life cycle of a building
and they demonstrate spending across portfolios. Few estates management
(EM) systems can match them for this sense of showmanship.
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PDF
Realcomm San Francisco Conference Report
The overwhelming impression from the conference was that major US companies
have stopped just talking about good ideas and have created the platforms
to put the ideas into action.
Read
The Virtual Concierge
An item from the Realcomm Conference
When one first hears the title, "Virtual Concierge" they may be up in
arms thinking, "they have replaced a human with a machine!" However, if
they step a little closer and engage - something magical happens. Replacing
a human with a machine is not what the Virtual Concierge is about at all,
rather the very opposite.
Read
The Spin on Web Access
These days we are all used to using the Internet from many different locations.
We take for granted the flexibility it provides to access what we need,
from wherever we are, using whatever PC happens to be available. This
might be in our own or someone else's office, at home or even an Internet
cafe.
Read Text
Print PDF
Outsourcing in the property industry
- now and in the future
Free up brain space by delegating tasks
We are very pleased to have worked with Field Fisher Waterhouse to produce
a paper on outsourcing in the property industry for the Estates Gazette's
Outsourcing Special. The article explains the tricks and traps, whether
you are providing services to a property client, or outsourcing your HR
or IT.
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PDF 184KB
IT Management
How do you manage IT if there are only 5 of you?
For many property organisations, big IT budgets are out of the question
but the increasingly pervasive internet and complex nature of IT means
that serious attention needs to be given to it. Mark and Melita wrote
this article for Property Systems Review which gives pointers on how to
cover the key aspects of IT with minimal formal training.
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