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ow in their third year, the Site Selection/William Dorsey Service Provider Awards are emerging as an important industry tool in the area of corporate real estate problem solving. The awards recognize excellence in client service, which ultimately means doing more than the client expected and delivering value that was not contracted for in the negotiation process. More and more companies compete for the 10 awards annually, which most recently were presented to the 2001 winners at the IDRC Texas World Congress, in October 2001. The editors encourage all service providers in the corporate real estate industry to participate in the exercise each summer.
Two of the 2001 winners — The Walker Companies and WorkPlaceUSA — are the focus of reports following this overview of the winning organizations. But all 10 companies have compelling stories to tell with respect to their visions of client service. Booz Allen & Hamilton, for instance, was recognized for its work involving Veterans Administration facilities in Boston and the Internal Revenue Services’ portfolio of 795 facilities. A business process improvement assignment at the latter resulted in a substantial reduction — about 35 percent — in cycle time for core business processes. The firm is also implementing cost-avoidance measures that will alter the agency’s space-acquisition practices, but also yield millions of dollars in savings.
No Storm Too Big
Ciminelli Development Co., Williamsville, N.Y., provides a variety of real estate services, and it clearly demonstrated that meeting and exceeding client expectations is central to all of them. A good example of the company’s commitment to service was its responsiveness to tenant needs during a major snowstorm in November 2000, which paralyzed the area in which Ciminelli has many tenant clients. Property management personnel worked more than 20 hours straight to assist motorists in its business parks, provide food and other supplies to employees stranded in their offices and ensure that power and other services were uninterrupted. Each of the more than 70 buildings in the portfolio were fully operational the day after the storm.
CRESA Partners was recognized for its successful expansion into international markets and international account management, as well as for specific work done on behalf of a major car rental company. The company was in high-growth mode when CRESA was hired to manage a thorny campus expansion and off-site data center project. The campus expansion required a special development ordinance that would permit a square-footage cap to be raised, and securing that ordinance was no small feat. Other complex expansion projects are under way at company with CRESA at the helm.
Grubb & Ellis’s Corporate Services Group was able to demonstrate with one client in particular the importance of taking a business partnership approach to the client-service provider relationship. This client, with a 46 million-sq.-ft. (4.3 million-sq.-m.) portfolio, experienced an 18-month period of leadership turnover in its real estate management area that could take place because of Grubb & Ellis’s ability to deliver the needed management and direction for as long as it was required. The company has demonstrated that it puts building long-term partnerships first in an era when clients can be fickle.
Herman Miller is actively responding to client requests that it become more involved in strategic planning, project management and other roles, rather than just churn management. Among other measures, the company is implementing a Web-based asset inventory management system that lets clients create a virtual warehouse of their assets so they can be analyzed for possible redeployment in other locations. This service has already saved one client $15 million in cost savings.
Patent Pending
One of Jones Lang LaSalle’s strengths in the client service arena is the high-level expertise it applies in the portfolio management area, which typically produce big benefits for clients. Recent examples include recommendations for substantial savings in occupancy costs over five years for the combined AOL Time Warner organization. Just as significant is work the firm has done in partnership with Whirlpool Corp. that resulted in a Financial Alignment and Optimization Model, a methodology for measuring the impact of different financing options on management, shareholders, and others, and for optimizing financing decisions on a portfolio-wide basis. This model is up for a patent, and others in the industry are benefiting from this work as well.
McCallum Sweeney Consulting, a relatively small shop, routinely competes with major firms and wins repeat business with its service vision. That vision is about breaking new ground, not just doing as well as they did on a previous project for a client. The principals understand that their role as site selection consultants is expanding, not diminishing, as companies outsource more and more functions. And so they have taken the necessary steps to ensure that all necessary resources are available to address such areas as statutory regulations, tax issues, human resources, energy matters and other areas outside the site search that clients expect some familiarity with.
Real Estate Resource Group, an auditing firm, is keenly aware of how economic conditions are driving client expectations. In the past, project execution and results outweighed the cost of rendering service. Today, clients weigh value, cost expectations and project results, so the firm works at demonstrating value on all three levels. One tangible service that gets at all three was the recent Web-enabling of the firm’s reporting mechanisms, which streamlines audit campaigns, creates a seamless and paperless transfer environment and reduces project costs.
Site Selection salutes the efforts of these and all the service providers that participated in the most recent awards process.
