ARCHIBUS Applications: Project Management

This week we're sharing some great information from ARCHIBUS on their Project Management applications. This application allows useres to manage projects, from an owner's perspective, so they remain on-schedule and within budget.

Benefits

• Creates a central repository for a “Top-Down” perspective of program and project priorities, actions, and costs
• Facilitates a collaborative process to allow project members to synchronize information at different locations or organizational units
• Provides clear, weighted performance scorecard views of multiple programs and/or projects to identify late or over-budget components at a glance
• Streamlines project oversight via consolidated views displaying milestones, tasks, and status changes to all project members
• Reduces administrative burden by leveraging existing data
• Project Management Screenshot
• ARCHIBUS Project Management

View project schedules with quality control dashboard. View commitment progress status report to track project completion by work packages, monthly projections, change orders, and invoices (recorded and approved)

Ushering a successful project to its completion—whether it is a renovation, acquisition, construction, or move project—requires a well-organized repository of project data and workflow practices. ARCHIBUS Project Management gives project team members workflow access to a  central storehouse of information that keeps all participants aligned with master planning goals. This helps ensure that projects remain on-schedule and within budget, while providing valuable benchmarking data for future projects.

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Good KPIs

Matt: Give an example of a good Key Performance Indicator, or KPI. What makes it a KPI?

Bob: A KPI for a client is understanding whether they actually are pleased with what they are delivered. The way we do that is we may do a survey monkey, or some type of survey to the client, and ask them questions like, “Did RSC provide the solution that you requested on a regular basis?” “Do we listen?” “Are we valued well?” – in other words is it the appropriate price and does it meet scope, schedule, and cost? To me, one of the most important things is scope, schedule, and cost. We pride ourselves on making ourselves meet the exact scope, schedule, and cost. In fact, RSC has a competitive advantage which says that we never ask for a change order, which means that we estimate very well. A KPI for me is, “Do we meet scope, schedule, and cost?”

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ARCHIBUS Applications: Cost Chargeback & Invoicing

This week we're excited to bring you more information about ARCHIBUS' Cost Chargeback and Invoicing application. This tool is a great way to improve the process of charging back costs, issuing invoices, and tracking receivables to reduce administrative expense.

Benefits

• Increases transparency of costs to improve real estate portfolio decision-making
• Improves operational efficiency through simplified chargeback/invoice/payment processing
• Decreases administrative errors with automated chargeback calculations and invoice/payment monitoring
• Streamlines chargeback and invoicing processes through intuitive Wizard-based interfaces
• Cost Chargeback and Inventory

View details for any invoice in one location that includes due dates, terms, contacts, associated costs, payments, and more

Increasing efficiency and reducing errors in performing chargebacks and executing invoicing/receivables processes is essential for reducing the administrative cost of managing properties. Now both goals can be achieved with the ARCHIBUS Cost Chargeback & Invoicing application. This Web-based solution’s sophisticated Wizards enable lease administrators and portfolio managers to automate all real estate-related accounting functions. The Chargeback Wizard provides users with an intuitive tool for flexible cost allocation to internal cost centers and/or external tenants, while the Invoicing/Receivables Wizard enables accurate, automated billing and payment processes for enhanced account management.


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Why should companies choose RSC?

Bob: If you had an opportunity to speak to a client right now and say “You should choose RSC for certain reasons”, what would you tell them?

Carly: It depends on the client. We are not the right business partner for every client. We want clients that want to work with us and want to partner. We are very agile and fast. We don’t have the waterfall methodology; we get things done and we want to get things done for you. If you’re a client that wants things done, wants them done correctly, and wants a company that can tailor it to what you need, then we are the right company for you. If you need a binder documentation and a five year implementation, then we are probably not the right consultant for you. 

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The Three Keys to Occupancy Accuracy Within IWMS

Providing Accurate Occupancy and Vacancy

(Utilization and Realization)

When discussing occupancy and vacancy, which is also known as utilization and realization, there are three key components to look at when looking for accuracy. Despite how overwhelming accuracy may seem, especially when looking at tech companies that have anywhere from a 50% to 300% churn rate, it is still very possible.

1) Employee synchronization within the HR system

Making sure that both the HR and the IWMS systems are synchronized is one of the most important steps. You don't need fifteen applications open in order to find and move just one person. The HR and IWMS systems should be able to take care of these details with ease, but, first, both systems need to have the same set of information being fed to them, which is why synchronization is key.

This sync should happen daily - it can happen at night when everyone is gone. This sync looks for things like new hires, those in the HR system but not in the IWMS, terminations, those in the IWMS system but not the HR, modifications like change in manager, phone number, room, email, etc., and errors, like no first name, placed in a division that doesn't exist, etc.

Some challenges with this are that companies have anywhere from 2 - 25%  that are contractors and don't go through the HR system, in which case you have to look at things like the security badging system or other on-boarding systems that will allow you to track a person.

2) Move process 

When a change occurs within a company, the move process within the IWMS system must be utilizedEvery move must be executed within the IWMS system to reflect the changes that are happening in the physical sites. This means that it needs to be used for every single move that occurs, no matter how large or small. It all needs to be recorded and changed.
properly in order to be effective.

This is the step that requires the most attention, and needs to be managed daily. A good IWMS system will be flexible enough to make this step as simple or as complicated as you need it to be. While most IWMS systems can move furniture, equipment, moving the person is the most important aspect in this article. Knowing where people sit provides the occupancy/vacancy data to make strategic decisions

3) Floorwalk

Despite the accuracy that the previous two steps will provide, it is still necessary to walk the floors from time to time. There will always be rogue moves. Maybe Alice moved her things one day and Jenny noticed that she had a window seat and moved her things since no one else was using that space. Especially with today's world of WiFi and DHCP, this is even easier for employees to do now.

Depending on how active your company is, floorwalks may be necessary every month, every quarter, or every year. We have clients that walk floors every month and some that walk them every three years.

If these three steps are being utilized, this should give you a 90% to 98% accuracy rate, which is very good. But, as a word to the wise, don't get caught in being 100% accurate. The moment you've walked the floor, someone has moved, similar to when a tile floor is being mopped. The moment it is clean, someone has walked on it. This is why all three steps, HR and IWMS sync, move process, and floorwalks are so important. When being used to their full advantage, hey will keep information from slipping through the cracks so a high accuracy rate can be realized.

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ARCHIBUS Applications: Cost Administration

This week we're proud to share more information on Cost Administration. Cost Administration is an amazing application that allows users to centralize and streamline the processes of defining, allocating, and approving portfolio occupancy costs.

Benefits

• Improves portfolio occupancy cost management and decision-making with advanced cost analysis/projection capabilities
• Provides visibility to help align occupancy cost structure with organizational mission
• Decreases frequency and expense of errors with streamlined processes that track all portfolio lifecycle costs
• Reduces administrative overhead by eliminating manual processes

Increase budgeting accuracy with cash flow reports that generate cost projections for leases, buildings, properties, and accounts

Accurately tracking and managing an organization’s occupancy costs is a competitive advantage…
and an organizational challenge, without a centralized repository and the right analytical tools. ARCHIBUS Cost Administration provides proactive real estate managers and lease administrators with a Web-based solution that centralizes and streamlines the definition, allocation, and approval of portfolio occupancy costs. It can reduce administrative overhead and improve decisionmaking. The application also features an intuitive Wizard that tracks lifecycle costs at the invoice- or summary-level until final cost allocations are issued, as well as sophisticated filtering for multidimensional cost analysis, and more.

*This information was provided via the ARCHIBUS website.* 

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Case Study: MicroView Tablet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqEDm1crQOM&list=PLm96rMaDUnbCWVeqS-PrZn9ONhiAucO0L&index=12

Bob: On the MicroView Tablet side we just worked with a social media company in the Silicon Valley where we have over 50 individuals doing daily surveys using the MicroView tablet. Talk to me about the success there and some of the challenges.

Todd: It’s an internet company, and they build online web applications all the time. They are used to seeing a very sexy, cool interface built into their products and expect the same of us. I think that’s been the challenge, but it’s also an opportunity. They’ve pushed us and we’ve pushed ourselves to build out MicroView tablet in ways that make it capable of doing things that we’re very proud of, but that are difficult things to do. The room and equipment surveys that it can do and the capability it has of plotting those on a map and letting you see the status of those equipment surveys at any given time are really impressive capabilities and something that I think many clients are going to be able to make great use of.

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