Building & Facilities Operations

In real estate technology, the law of conservation of value is simple.   Like matter, value is neither created nor destroyed.   Valuable solutions to difficult real estate management problems such as chronic outages, unbalanced staffing, low NOI  and high energy cost all exist.  Divining those solutions – bringing them to light and presenting them in an effective and usable format- is what effective real estate technology firms do.  They isolate value.

The essential elements of value in real estate technology are software, hardware, service, support and, importantly, the subject matter expertise – the real estate know how – applied to all of the above.   The relative value shifts from one element to the other depending on a number of external forces; yet the weight of that value,  its importance to the client, remains the same.

The weight of value has been shifting lately.   A short time ago, the highest value was found in the software component.  Powerful internet-based systems present uniquely accessible solutions that can be accessed from anywhere.   But “anywhere” is no longer unique, no longer the difference-maker.  Internet-based systems are now the standard – systems extended through powerful, easy to use mobile platforms.   If your organization does not have one in place, then you are swiftly becoming a relic of the old way to manage portfolio pf properties.   The power has shifted away from software and with it the value of any internet-based system.   The highest value lies in the real estate know-how required to the design and build that software correctly, to deploy and support that software effectively, and the industry acumen required to ensure that the software solves and continues to solve the challenge at hand.

How do you find the highest and best value?

Don’t look for some long list of functionality.  Don’t look at some staid and gargantuan system that hasn’t changed in years.    Ask your colleagues which vendors are best.   Ask the clients of the vendors you are considering.   If those clients don’t love the service and support that they receive;  if they don’t talk about responsiveness, cooperation, collaboration and vision;  and if they don’t see their vendor as a partner helping to lead them into the future of real estate related communications, then you are missing the value.

The funny thing about writing a BLOG is that it requires having the internet.  In this day and age, you would think that the internet would be an easy thing to come by, but in fact, accessing the internet today is about as easy as finding your way around in the Bermuda Triangle or seeing a dodo bird.  Why is the internet so difficult to come by you ask?  As it turns out, it is due to having a bad service provider.

A bad service provider is a company that does not deliver what they say or promise they will.  It is a company that has indicated that they will provide an ongoing service, and that service is either inconsistent or often disrupted.  Additionally, and almost as important as the service itself, a bad service provider is a company that does not treat its customers with respect or acknowledge its shortcomings.  Its one thing to fail to deliver a service, but it is another to fail AND not have a reason, plan for it not to happen again or explanation for what happened.  From my experience, most people can grant forgiveness for a mistake, but it is far more difficult to forgive a mistake when the company at fault does not take ownership for it.  Many companies are guaranteeing this satisfaction in the form of a Customer Satisfaction Guarantee. It’s nice to be reassured that the item I purchased will work…and if it doesn’t…that my vendor will make it allllllllll better.

So as I sit here today writing my LOG (I would need the internet to include the “B”), a new service provider is setting up and configuring my new internet connection.  I am hopeful that the service promises they have made will ring true.  I am hopeful that they will not drop the ball – but if they do – I hope most of all that they “make it right.”

What does being a “Service First” company mean to our customers? It means that the incredibly high level of service that we provide is as important as the advanced web based software and functional components that we make available to them.

Service is so important to what we offer that we make the following promises to our customers and then, back it up with the industry’s only unconditional guarantee.

SERVICE FIRST COMPONENTS

You will have the best customer experience you’ve ever had.

All of our clients and their customers will be treated with professionalism, courtesy and respect. Our quality assurance systems ensure that every interaction you have with us is far more than just satisfactory.

We are always here when you need us.

Our help desk is located in our corporate office and not at an unfamiliar remote location.  Any member of our staff is available to assist you with questions you may have regarding our product, services or organization and you will always be able to find us when you need us.

Our offices are open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. EST, excluding holidays.  Additionally, we are available after hours through our toll-free support line at 1-866-301-5300 or via e-mail at support@buildingengines.com.

Our system is accessible when you need it.

You need uninterrupted access to the Building Engines system and expect it to perform as promised. We guarantee 99.99% system uptime, one of the highest rates in the industry, and have delivered this to our clients consistently for years.  This guarantee is detailed in our Service Level Agreement (SLA), which we welcome you to review.

We will actively manage and support your account…and satisfaction.

We proactively monitor our customer’s usage of our application to determine how we can further improve the benefits they receive. Each of them is assigned a specific account manager who is responsible for scheduled periodic reviews of account activity. Your account manager will call you to: review usage, make specific recommendations for improvement and review upcoming product news and other relevant information.

Implementation will be easy, on-time and on-budget.

Delayed implementation has a significant negative and often overlooked impact on the total cost of application ownership. We have years of experience deploying our system in organizations of all sizes and we know what works and how to get it done.

Our unique and flexible system architecture assures that data migrations, system conversions and third party application integrations never present an obstacle to a smooth and easy deployment. We guarantee that if your deployment does not go according to plan and within the proposed time frame due to a Building Engines’ caused delay, we will refund 5% of your implementation fee for every day we are late.

Building Engines will contribute to the development of your organization.

We are heavily committed to your ongoing success. Building Engines will make significant resources available to your team, your vendors, and your customers, by providing continuing education and resources on a variety of operations topics through regular webinars, white papers, training and regional events.

Our Customers will have a hand in guiding the development of our offering

We will look to our customers for their feedback on how our software works, what additions need to be made and what we need to do to improve what is already an incredible product.  We listen to our clients very carefully and promise that we while we will always provide you with our vision, it is your input that will drive the majority of our future product development.

THE BUILDING ENGINES 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE

It is very simple. If you aren’t happy, we stop the meter.
We guarantee that if our product or service is not functioning to your satisfaction, we will fix the problem and you don’t pay us a thing for the period until you are happy. Simply pick up the phone, ask for our Director of Support and he will listen and start the process. No forms to fill out, no conditions, just a simple phone call and a conversation.

We have talked a lot about the need to perform and be better. After all, do any of us really aspire to do the same thing day after day; performing our jobs in rote fashion without conscious thought? If so, we are destined to deliver the same results. And there is one thing for certain, acceptance of the status quo signals the beginning of the inexorable death march for any organization.

So, we commit to do better. But how do we know what “better” is…and how to get there? It’s one thing to say “cut this by 10%” or, increase this by 12%.” But you need a plan and a process to achieve those results.  Benchmarking is one of the best ways to get there and can transform and organization.

Benchmarking is a word we are all familiar with and thrown around often by consultants including those who specialize entire in benchmarking.  The definitions vary and can be quite specific depending on your industry. But simply stated, benchmarking is just comparing something you are doing now to something you consider, or know, to be a standard… a better result.

In the property operations and management market we serve, there are many processes and results that can easily be benchmarked. It takes effort and commitment, but the effort more than work it. Not only will you improve the specific process you are benchmarking, but you will send a signal to your team and organization, that we are here to get better at everything we do.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some specific property operations processes and discuss how you might use benchmarking to improve them.

• Why does commercial real estate always lag behind the economy? NAR says no recovery until 2011… http://bit.ly/czEW9p #

Words of wisdom from my 11th grade English teacher, Mr. Fear.

As much as I hated the mountains of red edits on my papers. As much as despised handing over quarters every time I used the word “like.” As much as I couldn’t see the method to his madness at the time, he is one of the only teachers that ever makes me wonder, “What’s he doing now?”

He was unrelenting in his effort to improve the writing style of a group of stubborn, babbling, and verbose 17 year olds. And while I resented the extra work then, I am indebted and grateful now.  I truly believe concise writing is the number one key to great content.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.
- William Strunk, Jr, The Element of Style

Next time you write a note, a blog post, an article, or even a Tweet, ask yourself,  “Does every word matter?” If not, maybe it’s time to get out that red pen.

Why does commercial real estate always lag behind the economy? NAR says no recovery until 2011… http://bit.ly/czEW9p

Like folks living in the 1800s, we likely cannot foresee the deeper and more profound effects that this next wave of technological change will have on society.  However, we can make some simple observations about how it will change the way we work.

First, this new wave of technology will interconnect people more, blurring the distinction between public and private and making it much more difficult for workers to silo components of their lives.  The distinction between public and private will be more difficult to maintain.  People will likely pay a lot of attention to their public personae (what is shown in LinkedIn, or Facebook), and this may become more burdensome to manage.

People will expect their software tools, like Building Engines, to share information seamlessly, to work easily and to be enjoyable to use.

Second, what the current recession has started, the next technological shift will amplify.  These new and highly dispersive technologies will make it easier for organization to outsource smaller pieces of work to consultants and contractors, and the reach these tools offer the small user will enable those contractors to take on more work, work more flexibly and develop focused areas of expertise.  What magazine editor Tina Brown called Giganomics is here to stay.

Finally, the new tools described above will have a profound effect on the culture and structure of organizations that adopt them, one of which will be to make communication more open, information flows more dynamic and organizations themselves much more porous.

Nothing gives hope more of a boost than low expectations.  Just ask the members of the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team, or the same group in 2010.

Miracle On Ice

In 1980, in Lake Placid New York, the Americans were scheduled to play the dreaded Soviets – a team that had won every Winter Olympic ice hockey tournament since 1960.   No one expected success.   Keeping it within five goals would have been considered a victory.  After all, the Americans suffered a 10-3 drubbing against the Soviets in Madison Square Garden just a few weeks before.   We all now know that those college kids went on to defeat the Soviets and create the “Miracle on Ice”.

How about the 2010 U.S. men’s ice hockey team?  The lowly Americans faced what all agree is an NHL All-star team in Canada’s national team.   David Backes and Dustin Brown (who are they?) from the U.S. were to play the likes of Stanley Cup MVP Sidney Crosby and number one draft pick Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks.  No one expected the U.S. to give Canada a game, least of all the Canadians.  After stopping 43 shots, scoring five goals and winning a 5-3 heart-stopper, the Americans left the Canadians to the ravages of the Alexander Ovechkin and Russian team, while they rose to the medal round.   Such are the vestiges of low expectations.

Yet much comes from expecting nothing.

So what about the 2010 Commercial Office market?  If you’ve been reading the paper (excuse me, I am so old that I still read the paper) or reviewing your Google Reader on the mobile device of your choosing, then you know that expectations are very, very low.  So low are expectations that – as far as cap values and occupancy rates go – no one is sure that we’ve even hit the bottom.  The economy, like those dreaded Soviets, has been beating on valuations for so many months it’s hard to remember when we actually won one.

Enter the winter of 2009 – 2010.

Commercial real estate sales activity has jumped out of its skates.   Property sales rose 75% in December 2009.  The Moodys/REAL all Commercial Property Price Indices (CPPI), which tracks values, measured a 4.1% increase at the end of the year following an increase from the prior month – the first time we’ve seen consecutive monthly increases since 2007.  True, the market continues to face foreclosures; bankruptcies, and frozen credit, but like those old Soviets, they are on their last legs.   Commercial activity is slowly picking up in all markets.  There are more qualified bidders on available properties than the market has seen in months.  It seems that all the money that’s been riding the pine has begun to jump the boards and skate hard for the U.S. economy.   Commercial real estate bulls agree that the market continues to suffer, but they also agree that it’s doing much better than they thought.   That’s the key.  Good will from exceeded expectations spreads like jingoistic fire around an Olympic flame.  So I, for one,  am confident that the Commercial Office Market has begun its comeback.   It’s still the first period and we’re down a few points, but assets are indeed undervalued and asset values should being to rise – and with them the hopes of all Americans for a “Miracle on Price.”

• Will REITS lead the way back to an active commercial market? http://bit.ly/acU6nJ #
• Video Preview: Managing Risk and Life Safety Webinar. Check it out! http://bit.ly/c5gspo #
• Elizabeth Warren Warns About Commercial Real Estate Crisis, 'Downward Spiral' For Small Businesses, Local Banks http://bit.ly/bz4QQd #