Commercial Investment Real Estate is the magazine of the CCIM Institute, the leading provider of commercial real estate education. CIRE covers market trends, current developments, and business strategies within the commercial real estate field.
Issue link: http://cire.epubxp.com/i/306204
34 May | June | 2014 Commercial Investment Real Estate building, retail outlet, or even construction site, while saving the owner or property manager up to 50 percent on the costs for such surveillance. Emerging pixel-on-demand video technology — think Google Maps — can transmit video with minimal compression to allow the security company to remotely monitor the video in real time. Not only is this form of monitoring safer — no live human must check on a potentially unsafe or dangerous situation such as intruder or a f re — it can be integrated with the property's safety systems such as f re, security, or elevators, which can then be deployed based on the video surveillance f ndings. As a result, being able to send resources to attend to a problem in a timely and safe manner is also a benef t. T is is called managing by exception: to act only if the monitoring picks up something that is unusual or requires attention. Companies such as Engineered Security Systems (w w w. engineeredsecurity.com) are outf tting state-of-the-art network oper- ation centers with sof ware that allows remote video monitoring with intelligence and f re/life/safety integration. Such companies can provide "virtual guard tours" to various types of real estate at 50 per- cent of the cost of maintaining a live guard onsite. Sof ware packages such as N3N's Innowatch (www.innowatch.com) are enabling these service platforms and changing the way we think about security. SaaS — Software as a Service Sof ware providers now of er multiple sof ware licensing models, from standalone licenses to sof ware as a service, or SaaS, which is generally cloud-based. When comparing purchased licenses and SaaS, think of it as the dif- ference between buying and leasing a car. Like leasing a car, SaaS gives companies access to the license for a cost-ef ective monthly fee. When you stop paying monthly, you no longer have access to those licenses. However, the out-of-pocket costs are signif cantly lower and there is generally no hardware to buy. Note that SaaS providers are quickly eliminating the option for clients to purchase or upgrade their core onsite licenses, making SaaS the only option going forward. Over the past two years, some heavy hitters of the real estate appli- cation industry have moved to of ering the SaaS model. Most notably, Yardi now only of ers the SaaS model. Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (formerly Timberline) now of ers their Sage Construction Anywhere product. T is change in licensing will certainly drive new users given the lower cost and built-in business continuity that the SaaS model of ers to users. However, moving all of a business's con- f dential information to a client's hosted system is causing signif cant push back from many large real estate owners. iPBX — Virtualized Phone Systems T ese new phone systems are a real game changer for properties and construction sites because it allows owners and management f rms to launch a single phone system systemwide with just an Internet connection. T is means that commercial real estate professionals can take their phone numbers with them whenever they change of ces without having to bring in an IT person to set up the new phone. T e cost of a phone network is reduced by as much as 50 percent, and this portability allows people to work remotely by turn- Within the rapidly changing real estate management landscape, a number of software capabilities focused on data integration and accessibility add value and provide a quick return on investment. 1. Building Modeling Commercial real estate organiza- tions have collected vast amounts of information related to building occu- pancy, systems, and analytics. It often is stored in various places and in multiple formats. Companies want to mine and integrate this data and then push it out to leasing profes- sionals to help them match tenants with available space. Building modeling software does a good job of assembling two- and three-dimensional, building-by- building stacking plans that can be accessed by mobile phone or tablet. More-advanced integrations can feed tenant detail, space availabilities, rental rates, building specs, and other information from the system to these third-party modeling applications. 2. Facilities Management Companies are creating products that facilitate online communication between tenants and property opera- tors. However, when it comes to work orders and payments, the benefi ts are greatest on the back-end. Work orders submitted online can be routed directly into a company's property management system and assigned to maintenance. When a bill is paid online, accounts receivable automati- cally updates as well. This immediately eliminates the need — and costs involved — for someone to enter work SOFT WARE TRENDS by Michael Mullin 3 2 - 3 5 F - 7 T e c h T r e n d s - M a r l o w . i n d d 3 4 32-35 F-7 Tech Trends-Marlow.indd 34 4 / 2 9 / 1 4 3 : 0 4 P M 4/29/14 3:04 PM