Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association.
“Service Models for the New Economy,” Florida World Congress, Nov. 6, 2000:
Attendees in a theme program heard about how two corporations – ExxonMobil Corp. and Lucent Technologies – structure their corporate real estate service delivery models to meet the business requirements of the new economy.
ExxonMobil has transformed its internal real estate organization from a highly centralized, bureaucratic system, where staff members were “suitcased” out to deal with issues in the field, into a client-focused organization with staff in key locations and a commitment to participating in various business processes. As a result, a network of 110 facilities managers globally now coordinates the sharing of knowledge and expertise throughout the organization.
Lucent, meanwhile, has adapted its corporate real estate function to manage a vast portfolio of more than 80 facilities worldwide. The key, said Real Estate Vice President Anthony Marano, is to stay focused on delivering property solutions within the context of such business requirements as speed to market, flexibility, quality and affordability. At the same time, performance measurement is becoming more important across the Lucent organization and within the company’s real estate group.
“Evolution or Revolution: The Impact of the Internet on Commercial and Corporate Real Estate,” Florida World Congress, Nov. 7, 2000:
How do you slice through all the hype associated with the Internet? John Stanfill, president of PropertyFirst.com, an online marketplace for the commercial real estate industry, said the answer is to focus on four key applications of the Web: knowledge, speed, relationships and reach.
“The Internet has the promise of accelerating transactions dramatically, which will reduce your marketing and transaction costs,” said Stanfill. “The Internet has enormous promise.”
The problem is, said another speaker, is that most people don’t know how to properly use the Web in business-to-business applications. “The problem with e-commerce, at least with some of the B2B applications out there, is that individually they may represent a brilliant idea, but they don’t work unless you have some scale to support them,” said Sven Pole, senior vice president and principal at Trammell Crow. “Real estate transactions are a murky area where you’re dealing with an idiosyncratic asset class that cannot be readily traded; it’s not a commodity.”
His advice? Attack inefficiency at every level, deliver coherent data to your clients, and always concentrate on providing better communications to your core customer base.
“How to Web-Enable Corporate Real Estate Processes: Lessons Learned and Recommendations,” Florida World Congress, Nov. 7, 2000:
Ann Duncan, senior vice president of CLW Real Estate Services Group, stressed the importance of assembling the right team led by “that visionary out front” who understands the role of the real estate function in the organization. “We find that the visionary and the technical people do not speak the same language,” she said. “So an intermediary with a good technical background but who also understands corporate real estate saves a lot of time and effort in implementation.”
John Kohut, manager of the E-Marketing Services Group at Cushman & Wakefield, offered some guidelines for keeping a Web initiative on track. “Web-enabling the corporate real estate function is extremely labor intensive, very expensive, and you need a lot of expertise in the process,” he said. “The business strategy side is key. Whether you’re building a lease administration tool or a project-tracking tool or a facilities management Web-enabled site, you need to have the highest sense of strategy and what you’re trying to do in your organization.
That should carry over into the pre-project stage and into content planning.”
