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Software Must-have
Issue 23 - Sep 06
Only a few years ago, the variety of software available for real estate, facilities and project managers in Asia was limited. There has since been an explosion in offerings large and small, some are huge applications that fully integrate
with business process software and building
automation technology. Others are niche standalone
products that fill a very specific need.
RFP hears from one of Asia’s larger real estate service providers about why it decided to launch its own system for clients this year.
Despite the range of property management software on the market, earlier this year Savills launched its very own property services management system, specifically tailored to meet the needs of the greater China market.
The HK$20 mil property and customer management system took two years to develop and has been live since July 2005.
Avi Raju, Associate Director, Asia Information Technology, Savills, says it decided to develop the new software system, known as Dataswift, as it found those currently available on the market were “not flexible enough” and
says the new system is “more suitable” for the Asia market and its needs.
With over 40 mil sqf of real estate under Savills management in the Asia Pacific, implementation of Dataswift has meant that “reports can be tailor-made to
meet client’s needs”, says Managing Director Kendrew Leung. The new system can produce all reports in both traditional and simplified Chinese and has the ability to handle limited data input in each of these, says Raju. He adds that as yet there have been no requests from clients for the whole system to go multilingual but that if this was the case, then it would be possible.
Leung says that during its trial period, the customisable regional solution, which was “specifically developed” to meet the needs of the Hong Kong and Mainland China market, “delivered efficiency savings of almost 40 percent
on existing management systems”
During this initial trial period, Savills also ran the old and new systems together for about six months in order to ensure all data was accurate and that everything matched up. And when RFP met with Savills in February, the system was being fully introduced to Hong Kong and has now been launched in Shanghai, with Beijing to follow by the end of October. Furthermore, a prototype for a phase-two system that will provide full Web-portal access for customers and tenants has been developed and tested. Raju says Savills “will be going live with this functionality with a high profile client in mid- September”.
The real-time, online management tool integrates all aspects of real estate management, including building and facilities management, service and procurement, contract management and estate resource management. The system also offers financial reporting to a specific unit level and has comprehensive procurement features providing real-time analysis, including vendor activity. It allows for economy saving through features such as pool purchasing of materials for multiple properties and provides prompts for “critical events”, such as lease expiries and maintenance work. The new system even allows you to compare utility bills in various buildings to figure out why one
building may have higher utility bills and then find a solution for this.
In the near future, Savills will also be launching an e-survey function as part of the Dataswift system. Raju says this “will allow occupants to rate Savills performance as a property/asset manager”, meaning Savills will be able to produce analysis reports based on the data collected and track its performance over time.
So apart from CRE companies, like Savills, developing their own software systems, what are some of the options available to them on the market? Here’s a selection of some that RFP came across in its research.
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Core Strengths
• Portfolio Management - Customization Toolkit (including Tables, Views, Menus), Report Design Tools, WEB Design Tools.
• Lease Management - Detailed/Drill-downs/strong reporting capabilities
• Transaction Management - Fully integrated Tenancy Management, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Budgeting, and Portfolio Maintenance functionality
• Financing - We provide full books/consolidation and ability to gracefully extract/export to 3rd party corporate accounting systems.
• Ad-Hoc or Preventative Maintenance Scheduling
• Comprehensive access control by . Field, Building, Entity, View, Menu, User or Database
• Integrated workfl ow & Event Manager with tracking
• Integrates with security systems for User, Entity, Building or Database access control
• Asset register with several levels of depreciation, listings and control over assets.
• Document sharing
• Workfl ow engine identifi es bottlenecks and any timing delays
• Comprehensive reporting
Available as standard or requiring additional customisation:
Site selection (soon in web version), Facility Audit, integration with
building automation systems, energy management, Space Plan and
AutoCAD integration is standard, project scheduling, own website.
Concept™ Base System
• Asset Management
• Other Works Tasks
• Buildings & Locations Property Register
• Planned Events Diary
• Contract Management
• Reports & Statistics / Crystal Connect™
• Service Level Agreement Control
• Resource Register & Labour Management
• Financial Control (Cost Centres & Cost Codes)
• Supplier Register
• Health & Safety Notes
• Customer Satisfaction Forms
• Helpdesk / Call Logging
• System Security
• Personnel Manager
• Task Control
• Labour Operational Planning System (LOPS)
• Task History
• Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM)
• Work Permits
• Document Management
• Fast Sign Off
Optional extras include:
• CAD Connect
• Invoice Control
• Building Management System (BMS) interface
• Language Utility (fi eld name changes)
• Pocket PC & Cognito Mobile Data Solutions
• eSQL (Internet/Intranet)
• eTask Control
• eFast Sign Off
• ePurchase Order Requisition
• FM Booking System
• Portable Appliance Testing (PAT)
• Workfl ow
• Stores & Orders
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
• Projects management
• Service Level Agreement & KPI Escalation
• Soft Services Helpdesk
• HVCA Instruction Set Import Utility
• Bespoke Plug-in Helpdesks
• Safety Management & Risk Technology
• Bespoke Client Modules
• Filter Forms (greyed out fi elds)
• Asbestos Module
• Task Audit Module
• Multi Database Application
• Property & Estates Management Module
• Utilities Module
Special Features
• Site selection with Organisational Structure Management.
• Handles complex corporate and data structures and hierarchies
• handles site selection by acquisitions and disposals and projects.
• Portfolio management
• Lease Management (inc retail with turnover rents and product categories).
• Transaction Management with integrated accounts payable/accounts receivable (AP/ AR)modules
• Financial Management
• Fixed asset register
• General ledger (with Interfaces to ERP systems),
• AP/AR,
• budgeting & forecasting,
• tenant rent & service charge accounting.
• Help Desk ,
• Purchase Order Processing,
• Contract Management,
• Condition Survey,
• Project Management
• Cyclical/scheduled maintenance
• Multi-asset class condition surveys (online or with PDA) with direct feed to
maintenance scheduling and reporting.
• Intelligent and event driven reminders, warnings and escalation.
• 3rd party mail integration.
• Security module
• Asset register that supports depreciation accounting
• Facility and real estate project management
• Bi-directional interface to AutoCAD
• Interfaces to the leading GIS tools (MapGuide, MapInfo, Google and Arcview)
• Budgeting.
• Work fl ow management
• Portal structure for website provided
• Document management
• User and group level access management
AgilQuest OnBoard
• comprehensive reservation system for full spectrum of mobile offi cing,
including calendaring, telephony, hospitality, resource management.
• employees reserve own space
• entirely web-based mobile workers can connect from anywhere, at any
time.
• support an entire global mobile workforce with a single server.
• customiseable according to work environment.
• scalable across an entire enterprise
• users and resources reporting
• can identify areas that are either under-or over-utilized,
• profi le-driven personalization & records user preferences
• only mobile offi cing solution with “one-click” reservations,
• centralized request & fulfi llment
• integrates with workplace management systems
• graphical fl oor plans for space allocation & management
• many data variables can be shown visually on fl oor plan
• Through display of utilization data under utilized spaces can be identifi ed
by colour coding
Features include:
• Real property and lease management
• Strategic master planning
• Real estate portfolio planning
• Site planning
• Space management
• Room reservations
• Overlay with design management
• Design Management
• Integrated with AutoCAD
• Physical asset tracking
• Life and safety management
• Physical network mapping
• Furniture and equipment management
• Condition assessment
• Environmental sustainability assessment
• Emergency preparedness
• Building operations management
• Work order/work fl ow tracking
• Fleet management
• Telecom and cable management
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ISSN 1994-9464
Key title: RFP magazine
Abbreviated key title: RFP mag.
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