Remit Newsletter 8 - Spring 2005.
We have a lot to tell you about this quarter:
New books on the bookshelf
Will UK Real Estate move off-shore? Survey
Can you replace all your software for free?
TeamWork collaboration
Public Sector Property & Estates Conference
RealComm, USA
The Bookshelf
We have added two new books to our Bookshelf on the website: "Who Moved My Cheese?", and Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations"; two vastly different books but both influential.
The strength of "Who Moved My Cheese?" is that everyone who reads it recognises the central characters and begins to empathise with the situation in which they find themselves. It has been criticised as being over simplistic, but since it takes only an hour to read, this is probably a good thing.
Whether reading it is always as life-changing as suggested on the book jacket is open to question but it is a great starting point for managing change. Our thanks to Stephen Spooner for recommending it.
Check out the bookshelf
Will UK Real Estate move off-shore?
Talking of moving things, it seems that many people are currently interested in moving property jobs overseas. The interviews for our Outsourcing/ Offshoring research are being conducted this month and the research will benchmark the cost and effectiveness of several typical property jobs between the UK, US and India. We have some interesting initial responses and if you would like to be part of this research please follow the link below or call one of us.
If you take part in the research, we will send you a free copy of the resulting report and if we interview you, we will provide a personal analysis of how your operation compares with the benchmarks set. The research is being carried out with our US colleagues, Alvarez & Marsal, and the Estates Gazette.
We think that this is one of the most dramatic developments in property management for some time.
Find out how to take part in the research
Opensource software:
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
TeamWork - Our collaboration tool We have been frustrated at the slow adoption of software tools which allow project teams to store a single, latest version copy of project documents on-line in one place. We have also been frustrated by the complexity of those tools which are offered commercially.
We have now set up our version called TeamWork and are using it with clients on all our projects. The software is developed and hosted by Estates Today and it helps manage the many documents in our projects so that they are always available to the project team.
Events
Public Sector Property & Estates Conference - Excel, London, 10th, 11th May 2005.
We are teaming up with Keith Jones at Performent Consulting to speak about Asset Management Plans and how to make the most of being the "Intelligent Client". Many of you will know Keith from his many years at DTZ Pieda when, amongst other things, he drafted the ground rules for the ODPM to run the local authority local authority AMP system. The session promises to be informative and entertaining.
Check the PSPE website at www.pspe.co.uk
CoreNet Annual Awards Dinner
We were delighted to co-host a table at the CoreNet Annual Awards Dinner in February with Freemans Business Information. The awards themselves were skilfully presented by the very entertaining (although somewhat risqué) Giles Brandreth.
RealComm 27th and 28th June 2005
We also look forward to RealComm on 27th and 28th June in the US. This is the main Real Estate and Technology show in the US and last year hosted 32 panel sessions over two days. It will again be a busy but fascinating insight into possible changes to the way we work. If you plan to go, let us know and perhaps we will be able to meet up.
