I recently wrote a new whitepaper detailing the progression of technology within the corporate real estate industry. The image below provides a summary of that history. This blog focuses on the newest technology, tablet computing, and how it’s already impacting retail real estate productivity.

Cloud computing is gaining rapid acceptance due to its ability to provide dramatic IT savings almost immediately. Even more important is HOW end users utilize Cloud systems. Many real estate end users spend most of their time in the field. As a result, there is a rapidly growing need to use tablet computers, such as iPads, as the primary input device. Since products that are NOT delivered in the Cloud have trouble running on a tablet, many software providers opt for building custom smart phone apps. Due to the small screen size and limited capability, these types of apps provide a very limited amount of functionality and are typically targeted at one purpose, such as entering basic data for a work order.

Cloud-delivered solutions, on the other hand, are ideally suited for use on tablet computers. Instead of having to build custom apps for a smart phone, Cloud providers can deliver their entire application via a tablet without having to build any custom products. The SVP of Real Estate for a large specialty retail chain recently told me that using tablets will allow him to keep his team in the field 5 days a week instead of 3 ½. Doing that would mean they would not only find more sites, but they would have a better chance of locking up the best sites.

Using tablet computers offers many advantages to corporate real estate professionals. A few examples include:

• Field professionals can stay in the field 100% of the time without having to return to an office to enter data collected in the field.

• Data collection in the field can be done directly into a Cloud based system avoiding the rework associated with writing all data down on paper and then entering it later. The screen size of the tablet allows users to enter entire forms easily.

• The tablet computers GPS locator can be accessed by a Cloud application and used to provide the real estate professional data in the field in real-time.

• Photos can be taken on the tablet computer; this is also an advantage for field uses of construction project management and facilities management applications.

• A tablet computers screen is large enough to effectively review documents from the field.

It is important to note that Software-as-a-Service or SaaS solutions are not necessarily Cloud delivered solutions. Many SaaS providers have not invested the substantial time and dollars required to move their solution into the Cloud. See our blog discussing the differences between SaaS and the Cloud.

It is expected that most retailers will be purchasing new systems in 2012 and 2013 to be able to process transactions and produce the results and reports that will be required by the new FASB guidelines. Smart retail companies will be replacing their legacy systems with Cloud computing applications that deliver this required new functionality in a complete store lifecycle management system that will allow them to gain efficiency through easier processing, and dramatically drive down IT capital and operating costs.

For a more detailed discussion on retail and corporate real estate technology please get our New Whitepaper.

Shameless Plug

The entire Lucernex Lx Retail platform was moved into the Cloud in early 2010 making it not only the most comprehensive store lifecycle management system available, but also the fastest to implement and the fastest performing. In 2011 we launched Lx Retail and Lx Contracts for mobile devices with one of our largest clients using iPads to perform most end-user tasks from the field. In early 2012 we will launch major enhancements to Lx Retail and Lx Contracts to take further advantage of the capability of tablet computers.

Lucernex created the first SLM solution, the first SaaS solution for retail lifecycle management, the first cloud solution for lease administration and store lifecycle management and now the first tablet delivered retail real estate solution. Since 2000, we have been the leader in technology for the retail real estate software industry.

Previous IWMS related Blogs

What is IWMS anyway?
IWMS? It’s Location! Location! Location!
The Power of Location Management
IWMS – Why so expensive?
Real Estate in the “Cloud”
How Capital Project Management fits in an IWMS
What makes one IWMS easier to implement than another?
Why building real estate software in house is no longer financially feasible
Risks of upgrading Lease Administration Software alone or as part of an IWMS

What a difference a year can make! The energy at the NRTA conference this year was definitely around moving forward not just treading water. With the economic picture still cloudy and unsettled, the conversation on technology spending remained conservative. BUT, a new theme emerged – it is time to act!

The conversation around “acting” focused on three areas:

1. Spending technology $ more wisely

Replacing old legacy systems that cost too much to maintain, were not providing value, and were an IT headache to administer

Implementing software solutions that can be delivered via the Cloud

Looking beyond just lease administration and rent accounting to one solution that could also support the rest of the Store Life Cycle –market analysis, site selection, construction management, facilities management and capital planning.

Decreasing the time it takes to select and then implement a new system

2. FASB, FASB and more FASB

Getting ready for FASB changes was a hotter topic this year than last. I think that the reality of what these changes really mean to Lease Administrators and Corporate Finance Departments is really hitting home. Everyone is talking about how to get their data and processes ready, and that means making sure there is a technology platform to support these changes

3. Being ready to move in January

While budgets were not available this year, most attendees were confident that investments in new technology – as long as it provides the right value – will be available next year. The attendees who came to our booth wanted to know what to do today in order to be ready to implement in Q1.

We were busy throughout the conference giving product demos, answering questions about Store Life Cycle Management solutions, and providing FASB Preparedness advice. It felt good to be able to say “Lucernex can do that”!

Previous Blogs By Jim Short

The value of CAM Reconciliation technology
The cost of waiting to upgrade your Lease Admin Systems for FASB

I have blogged previously about the tentative nature of the efforts between the FASB / IFRS. To some of you this has may have appeared harsh, while to others, it likely seemed an accurate view of FASB/IFRS positioning. In my reading of changes to the FASB/IFRS position, it true that FASB and IFRS are making progress. The most recent accomplishments from the recent meetings of these two groups are:

Lessor Accounting
The Boards continued their discussions on the single approach to this issue, which recognizes a lease receivable and a residual asset at lease commencement. Of course, this approach raises additional issues and results in new considerations. Notably, the issues of profit recognition at lease commencement and whether there is a difference when only a portion of the asset is leased and not the entire asset.
Hence, profit recognition is an issue when:

• An owner sells
• An owner leases, or
• A tenant leases (i.e. subleases) their property.

Subleases

• The Boards seem to be headed in a consistent direction on this topic. There will be a “head lease” and “sublease” in a subleasing transaction and as such they should be accounted for as separate transactions.
• In the sublease transaction, the tenant becomes the sub-landlord, and, hence, should look to the Lessor Accounting rules for any necessary clarification of the right-of-use asset in this situation.

Short-Term Leases

• It’s simple. If the lease has a term of 12 months or less, including all its options, it will be recognized on a straight-line basis on the P&L. Of course, since accounting is as much art as it is science, if another recognition pattern makes sense within the year … use that method instead.
• The Boards also expressed support of disclosure of the repetitive nature of any short-term leases

Lastly, they discussed the unique issues related to the issue of Shariah-Compliant leases under the right-of-use model. And while nothing was decided, the simple fact that the group understands the necessary appropriateness of discussing the implication here is a testament to their commitment to the do the right thing. And we commend them!
We look forward to the Boards next update and we hope you look forward to our next update as well.

Shameless Plug

Lucernex has updated the financial engine that powers our Lease Administration / Rent Accounting and Lease Analysis solutions to support the pending changes to FASB/GAAP rules. As a result our Lx Contracts and Lx LseMod products can provide an analysis of the new vs. the old rules and can support 12 and 13 period accounting based on both the old and the new FASB rules.

Previous Blogs By Mike

CoreNet … “There is no opportunity like a crisis!”
“Tentative” – The FASB IASB word of choice!

We recently concluded a joint survey with the National Retail Tenants Association (NRTA) focused on the retailers’ perspective of the impact of the FASB changes and their readiness for those changes. One of the great things about collecting this much data at once is that many different dimensions can be explored. The finding that intrigued me the most was HOW retailers are planning to solve the problem and WHO they were involving in the resolution. This finding accentuated for me the vast advances the retail industry has made in both technology and process integration over the past 10 to 15 years.

As a general rule of thumb, most retailers made their first selection of a lease administration system anywhere from 10 to 15 years ago. During the selection process, a few key resources, typically the head of real estate and perhaps an accountant and lease administrator came together to evaluate a solution for THEIR singular need – retail lease administration and rent accounting.

Added to this mix is that for the past 7 to 10 years, other parts of the real estate and accounting groups have made their own selections of technology to solve their own individual needs for things like lease analysis, project management, capital or special projects, site selection, market analysis, facilities maintenance and facilities management. In most cases, these choices were made in a vacuum with a set of requirements meant to solve only their narrow needs.

What has developed, as a result, is a complicated mixture of disassociated systems (point solutions) held together by complex and fragile integrations (read: EXPENSIVE). Many retailers have found that making these selections in a vacuum and focusing on getting the cheapest product to meet a narrow set of requirements has ended up costing them FAR more money than they planned. Worse, they have not substantially improved the performance of their real estate; instead they merely automated old processes and solidified their functional silos.

Where has this led us? Ultimately I think retailers now are being much smarter and more calculating in their system selection. I am confident it’s due to lessons learned through a history of buying and implementing expensive point solution selections coupled with a maturing of the overall industry. Decision makers now understand the impact these selections have on their companies performance.

• 89% of respondents somewhat or totally agreed that they are “increasingly aware of the impact of real estate activities on the company’s key performance metrics”
• 56% also somewhat or totally agreed that new procedures were being identified to integrate procedures across multiple groups
• About half of respondents (with 22% abstaining) also said they have a task force in place to create a plan for new technology and process changes
• While 22% said Real Estate is running that task force, far more responses indicated their task forces included a combination of real estate, lease administration, accounting, finance and IT

Clearly, in replacing their legacy lease administration system, many retailers are not going to make a knee jerk point solution selection this time. Instead, as we have seen in recent sales opportunities, retailers are taking a broader look at their requirements and how they can integrate processes across the lifecycle of a store in ways that don’t just automate their processes but allow them to dramatically improve their store lifecycle management.

In the past two months we have been involved in sales processes with several retailers, each about to make a point solution selection. During the decision-making process, these companies realized they needed to be broader in their selection and look at a full lifecycle system. We will be announcing the first of these as a new client in the next few weeks, and we expect this trend to continue.

Shameless Plug

Lucernex’s has the ONLY Store Lifecycle Management (SLM) solution built from the top down FOR RETAILERS by RETAILERS. Before you jump to buy a point solution that does only one or two parts of the store lifecycle process, consider the massive savings and strategic advantage gained by implementing a SINGLE solution for market planning, site selection, project management, lease administration, retail rent accounting, lease analysis, capital project management and facilities management.

Lx Retail was purpose built for retail and is built on one platform with one database and one user interface – meaning low cost of maintenance over time and only one vendor to deal with.

Previous IWMS related Blogs

What is IWMS anyway?
IWMS? It’s Location! Location! Location!
The Power of Location Management
IWMS – Why so expensive?
IWMS in the “Cloud”
How Capital Project Management fits in an IWMS
What makes one IWMS easier to implement than another?
Why building real estate software in house is no longer financially feasible
Risks of upgrading Lease Administration Software alone or as part of an IWMS
What makes Store Lifecycle Management different from IWMS?

I recently attended the ICSC ReCON in Las Vegas. It was a wonderful opportunity to mingle with current and prospective clients as well as leaders in the real estate world. As Vice President of Product Management for Lucernex, I naturally have my ear to the ground regarding technology and tech issues and how they affect retail.

It was an exciting event this year with attendance much stronger than in recent years.

Still, it’s good to see retailers coming out of their recession-induced hibernation. Retailers are expanding again, and taking advantage of the current economy and leveraging the experience/knowledge gained about how particular store locations performed these past 3 years. Retailers are looking to technology for solutions to ensure that they are positioned properly to take advantage of current and future economic swings as well as the new FASB 13 regulations.

On our side, the vendor side, there has been a TREMENDOUS amount of activity the past 12 months. Mergers and acquisitions have really shaken up the industry, which has created some major implementation and delivery issues for legacy systems. I heard from many major retailers that they are struggling with their legacy products. They either cannot get them implemented, they’ve become too expensive for the limited features and capabilities they offer, or they just plain don’t do what they need!

Those issues are translating into a major headache  for the folks in the corner office.   These systems are no longer “nice to have” – they are mission critical, and it can be career-ending to make the wrong decision and spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on a failed project.   I listened to many stories of failures during my time on the trade show floor. The failures seem to always fall into one of two categories – it’s either a bad implementation of a good product, or a futile implementation of a badly selected “franken product”. Excessive attempts to customize an inflexible product have led to many tears.

On a positive note, there are new players in the industry who have significantly changed the landscape from when retailers last evaluated their Lease Administration and Store Lifecycle Management (SLM) systems.  These new players often have better tools, more experience, and have learned from the mistakes of old.   (I should note here that I count Lucernex in this latter group although truth be told, we are not really new!).   A consistent theme emerged when speaking with satisfied clients (and not just those of Lucernex!); quick, phased implementations and product flexibility without customization is the key to ensuring your end-users are happy and your company is getting the results it expected when it made the investment.

On a final note, hardware-wise I’m seeing fewer and fewer paper notebooks and more and more tablets. The comparison to previous years was striking. That lone person walking around the floor with an armful of binders stuffed with print outs (you know who you are!) looked out of date and disorganized compared to those with the slick presentations on their iPad or tablet. Retailers are making a major effort to leverage these new, portable and powerful technologies in deal presentations, site selection, modeling, demographics and even construction management..

Shameless Plug

Lucernex is leading the retail industry in converting outdated lease administration and store lifecycle management solutions to our cloud-based, market leading solution — Lx Retail 9. Built by Retailers for Retailers, Lx Retail combines all of the depth and capability of the best lease administration and rent accounting solutions (designed by the creator or SLIM) with the market leading store lifecycle management features Lucernex was founded on in 2000. And, since we took the time to do it right, it was built FOR RETAIL from the top down to manage the entire store lifecycle on one platform, one database and with one user interface.

Lucernex’s Lx Retail solution, being cloud-based, functions quite well on both iPad and Android platforms and will be fully optimized for both tablet platforms by year end!

Dallas, TX (May 17, 2011) – Lucernex Technologies, Lucernex Technologies, an innovative developer of business intelligence software for real estate management and development, today announced that Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK) has purchased and implemented Lucernex’s store lifecycle management solution to manage its real estate portfolio, which includes more than 2,200 Jack in the Box® restaurants across 19 states. By implementing the retail version of the Lx Retail product suite, Jack in the Box can streamline its process of selecting store sites; building and opening new store locations; as well as managing existing locations to avoid costly time delays and save costs.

By using Lucernex’s proprietary suite of user interface-driven configuration tools, Jack in the Box completed its implementation of Lx Retail in a short period of time and at a substantially lower cost than current industry standards. The user-friendly tools enabled Jack in the Box staff to complete 80 percent of the initial configuration, including data conversion and integration, internally with minimal consulting fees.

With Lx Retail now fully implemented and live, Jack in the Box is receiving the following benefits and capabilities:

• Portfolio Management
• Market Planning and Location Analysis
• Site Selection and Analysis
• Construction and Project Management
• Facilities Management
• Capital Program and Capital Project Management

Jack in the Box was also a development partner with Lucernex in order to design a new module dedicated to automating creation of capital programs and projects, including individual and rolled-up schedules and budgets. The Capital Projects module is now a core part of the Lx Retail suite and available for all Lucernex customers to manage their remodels, re-images, dispositions and other capital programs.

“By implementing Lx Retail, Jack in the Box was able to successfully replace two previously used systems and integrate with a number of legacy systems into a single streamlined solution,” said Louise Mailloux-McBurnett, Vice President of Product Management, Lucernex. “Moving forward, the staff at Jack in the Box will also continue to build their own processes and integrations without any additional development or consulting from Lucernex.”

About Lucernex
Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies provides corporate real estate professionals and real estate developers with powerful software tools that lower expenses and increase ROI through active real estate portfolio data management, whether applied to an existing portfolio or during the real estate development process. For more than a decade, Fortune 500 companies in the commercial real estate, hospitality, retail, construction and engineering industries, both in the United States and Europe, have been utilizing Lucernex Technologies’ software solutions every day to better manage the development lifecycle. As an innovative leader in integrated Store Life Cycle solutions and lease administration solutions, Lucernex continues to grow its customer base by applying its web-based software expertise and real estate development insight to provide advanced tools and services for business. For more information, please visit www.lucernex.com.

About Jack in the Box Inc.
Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK), based in San Diego, is a restaurant company that operates and franchises Jack in the Box® restaurants, one of the nation’s largest hamburger chains, with more than 2,200 restaurants in 19 states. Additionally, through a wholly owned subsidiary, the company operates and frachises Qdoba Mexican Grill®, a leader in fast-casual dining, with more than 500 restaurants in 43 states and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit www.jackinthebox.com.
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Media Contact: Georgia Perkey 310-732-6448, gperkey@inpointadvisors.com

Good Morning! I have just returned from the CoreNet Global Summit in Chicago and I am glad to report that it was a fantastic event.

Perhaps the highlight for me was none other than the Monday morning keynote speech by Greg Lindsay. Mr. Lindsay did the finest presentation on agglomeration (under the guise of changing social dynamics) that I have ever seen! And remember that compliment comes from a former academic who actually taught the topic for 10 years.

But back to the opening quote “There is no opportunity like a crisis!” or perhaps put another way “Don’t waste a crisis!”. Today corporate real estate seems to have its own “opportunistic crisis”, one we should ignore only at our own peril! What you ask? The FASB/IFRS lease accounting change(s), of course!

While I’ll agree with you that the lights will not go off and we won’t be plunged in to interminable darkness once the decision is made, but the decision may be of no less magnitude. The choices are simple:

• Choice 1: plan logically and execute methodically over the next 24 to 36 months,
• Choice 2: throw 10 times the resources at it sometime in 2014.

The process of getting FASB/IFRS compliant will require you to re-abstract your leases to get additional data, re-engineer your departmental processes to be SOX compliant, design and implement new systems to contain the newly required data, re-negotiate debt covenants once you know the impacts to your financial statements, and, lastly, depending on the key metrics contained in your employment contract you’ll need to re-negotiate it so that your pay doesn’t shrink to the equivalent of a poorly paid coffee barista while you manage a 10 million square foot portfolio.

I challenge you to find a better external event, one not caused by you and that you cannot control, BUT one that requires your action. This event gives you the perfect opportunity to ask the C-suite for capital to implement fundamental ground breaking change.

The FASB/IFRS lease accounting change is the opportunity to invest in new systems and new processes today, re-invigorating ourselves, our people, and our departments and averting a real crisis tomorrow!

Shameless Plug

We are ready NOW. Are you? Lucernex’s Lease products have been updated to support the expected new FASB rules. Lx Contracts, our Web-based Lease Administration and Rent Accounting solution, and Lx Lx LseMod version 15, our market leading lease analysis tool, support all of the expected changes NOW and will be updated within weeks of the final FASB pronouncement to ensure 100% support. Lx LseMod version 15 even provides an Old vs. New report to help corporate real estate groups assess the impact of the changes.

For a limited time, for tenants with large retail or corporate lease portfolios, Lucernex will perform a free new vs. old analysis on one lease and provide complete reports showing the potential impact of the new FASB rules. Also, we have already completed portfolio analysis for large retailers providing a detailed assessment of the impact of the proposed FASB rules on their entire portfolio. If you have interest in the free single lease analysis or the complete portfolio analysis please click here to send a request.

A little more than two (2) years ago the Boards published their Discussion Paper, Leases: Preliminary Views. Fast forward to today and a known calendaring of the Final Document due date of 2Q-2011 or put another way June 30, 2011, and it seems that we are less then ninety (90) days away from knowing the outcome. So doesn’t it seem odd that so much is still “tentative.”
Now I must admit we do occasionally see that one or the other or sometimes both of the Boards “affirmed the decision in the leases Exposure Draft,” but is certainly feels like there are too many “tentative(s)” with less than 90 days until decision time! But whether an item is “affirmed” or “tentative” we certainly step closer and closer to something that, while not quite a new world order (since most of the world already uses some form of IFRS – just the US doesn’t), will forever change what every single conforming financial statement looks like in the US.
So what are some of the latest “tentative” developments?

• Well for starters I am glad to report that whole notion of “inception date” has given way to a more rational, reasonable, and logical “commencement date”, which is when the leased assets are delivered and accepted by the lessee. For those of us more used to leasing and possible landlord delays in building-out space simply the lessee and lessor will recognize and initially measure the lease assets and lease liabilities when the lessor (“landlord”) delivers the space.
• Leasing transactional costs, i.e. inducements, such as commissions and work letters, are to be capitalized (added to) the right-of-use asset and right to receive lease payments.
• The Discount Rate to be used was discussed at seemingly great length, but I am not sure with much definitive clarity. Suffice it to say that the leaning is towards using the lessee’s “incremental borrowing rate” … suddenly I thinking about a firm’s WACC and my head is beginning to spin. But do not fear, if you can find the “yield on the property” you can use that; so let’s use the example of a New York City office building with a capitalization rate of 4% and an investor expected IRR of 20%+, then the yield is logically _____? Needless, to say, let’s hope this gets clearer or at least easier!
• Lease and non-lease components of a contract shall be identified and separately accounted for. The lessee shall allocate the payments based on either a) observability, b) residual method, or c) when not observable then all payments are to be allocated to the lease “contract”.
• The last item brings us to Sale and Leaseback transactions. Here the Boards are once again in a tentative position and are sending us off to another Board project this one on “Revenue Recognition” to first determine whether a sale has even occurred! Otherwise it’s just a financing. {More on Revenue Recognition next time!}

I hope that this has brought a bit of street sense practicality to some of the recent “tentative” decisions. And remember, if your position is different than ours, never fear – both yours and our position are really only well …… Tentative!

Shameless Plug

We are ready NOW. Are you? Lucernex’s flagship Corporate Lease Analysis product has been rewritten to enable support for the expected, new FASB rules. Lx LseMod 15, released in March, supports all of the expected changes NOW and will be updated within weeks of the final FASB pronouncement. Lx LseMod 15 even provides an Old vs. New report to help corporate real estate groups assess the impact of the changes.

For a limited time, for tenants with large retail or corporate lease portfolios, Lucernex will perform a free new vs. old analysis on one lease and provide complete reports showing the potential impact of the new FASB rules. Also, we have already completed portfolio analysis for large retailers providing a detailed assessment of the impact of the proposed FASB rules on their entire portfolio. If you have interest in the free single lease analysis or the complete portfolio analysis please click here to send a request.

]]> http://www.lucernex.com/files/index.php/blog/fasb-13-iasb-gaap-changes-update/feed 1 http://www.lucernex.com/files/index.php/blog/compare-iwms-store-lifecycle-management-slm?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=compare-iwms-store-lifecycle-management-slm http://www.lucernex.com/files/index.php/blog/compare-iwms-store-lifecycle-management-slm#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:10:14 +0000 Joe Valeri http://www.lucernex.com/files/?p=5355 IWMS expert and Lucernex President, Joe Valeri (see Joe’s management summary here), discuss the risk of NOT buying a Software as a Service (SaaS) Cloud delivered solution.

Since Gartner coined the term IWMS and lumped in all similar vendors including those focused on Store Lifecycle Management (SLM), it has become increasing hard to tell the difference between IWMS and SLM. Some companies provide SLM, or a point solution and call themselves IWMS and others are truly IWMS vendors and call themselves SLM but just within the retail industry. In truth, while there is an overlap of some of the core features there are marked differences in the needs of the end user, the focus of the applications and how the solutions were developed and are delivered.

Store Lifecycle Management, as a term to describe the end-to-end real estate development and management process, was first used to describe software solutions here at Lucernex in the early 2000’s. It was later picked up by Accruent to describe the retail focused solution they built on top of our Lucernex 3.71 licensed product – called Accruent SLM.

The retail and restaurant industries are the focus of Store Lifecycle Management solutions, though other retail-like firms may benefit from it as well. Retail-like companies would include retail healthcare, hospitality, banking, finance, convenience stores and any other company that manages a large portfolio real estate used to directly serve consumers. The focus of their use of SLM is a combination of cost control, risk mitigation and effective store growth.

Integrated Workplace Management Solutions, IWMS, are not focused on retail. Instead they are more generic and cover a much wider group of companies’ primarily focused on the post-operations goal of cost control through effective asset management. Notice the recent IBM acquisition of Tririga, based on IBM’s own press release, is focused on combining Tririga into IBM’s back office Asset Management solution Tivoli.

SLM applications, to meet the client demand for cost control, risk mitigation and effective growth, focus more on the front-end of the lifecycle and provide detailed tools for market analysis, site selection including demographics and mapping, lease analysis, construction project management, capital project management that impacts multiple stores, store opening planning, lease administration, rent accounting (with a focus on percentage rent and other retail specific features) and facilities maintenance.

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IWMS applications, to meet the broad needs of facilities and asset managers, focus functionality on computer aided facilities management (CAFM), facilities maintenance and management, sustainability, lease administration and general project management. While some do offer transaction management, they rarely offer an in-depth solution for market analysis, site selection, lease analysis, demographics/mapping or the type of construction or capital project management needed for retail real estate portfolios. The lease administration offered is usually highly functional but rarely offers features that are specific to retailers like deep percentage rent accounting, TI Management and advanced expense accounting and reconciliation that can save retailers millions.



As a result SLM solutions are usually selected and primarily used by Real Estate Departments, as retail focused companies typically place a much higher premium on their real estate groups who are typically responsible for selecting, building and sometimes even maintaining locations. IWMS solutions are typically selected by the IT group or the Facilities Management group as those non-retail companies do not consider real estate strategic and often relegate the function to a part of their Facilities or Asset Management Department.

For retailers or retail like companies that are looking for technology, make sure to ask for the software providers retail credentials. Does management have a background in retail? What percentage of their user base is retail? How much of their R&D is focused on retail? How much or their professional services and support group has a largely retail background? While these points rarely come out during an RFP process or through product demos, it should be one of the most important selection factors when selecting a software application for retail or retail-like real estate.

Shameless Plug

Lucernex is the ONLY company in the SLM or IWMS space with:

• a CEO who was both a retail real estate executive and CEO of a retail company ,
• a President who was CIO of the real estate group within a retail company,
• an EVP who created the Retail Lease Administration Software space with SLIM in he 80’s
• a full-lifecycle, single platform, single database, single user interface solution

We invented the SLM space with the first full-lifecycle SLM solution in 2002 and have continued to innovate with the first cloud-based SLM and Lease Administration solutions in 2009.

Lx SLM has advanced and mature modules for Market Analysis and Site Selection, Project Management, Lease Administration and Rent Accounting and Facilities and Capital Program Management. And, ALL of our products were developed on and are delivered on a single platform with a single database and a single user interface.

Previous IWMS related Blogs

What is IWMS anyway?
IWMS? It’s Location! Location! Location!
The Power of Location Management
IWMS – Why so expensive?
IWMS in the “Cloud”
How Capital Project Management fits in an IWMS
What makes one IWMS easier to implement than another?
Why building real estate software in house is no longer financially feasible
Risks of upgrading Lease Administration Software alone or as part of an IWMS

]]> http://www.lucernex.com/files/index.php/blog/compare-iwms-store-lifecycle-management-slm/feed 0 http://www.lucernex.com/files/index.php/blog/professional-lease-administration?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=professional-lease-administration http://www.lucernex.com/files/index.php/blog/professional-lease-administration#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:00:33 +0000 Dave Wells http://www.lucernex.com/files/?p=4922 Lease Administration expert, David Wells (formerly of Tequilla Software maker of RetaiLease) discusses the under appreciated Lease Administrator

The CFO walked brusquely into the conference room where I was doing a demo. He was wearing baggy shorts, sandals, and a navy hoodie that covered up a red t-shirt that was, as mom used to say, a wee bit too long. He sat down and began to take in my ‘performance’. About six minutes later he stood up to leave at which point one of the attendees interrupted me (politely) and asked the CFO what he thought so far.

The CFO was carrying a yellow pad. This pad was promptly launched onto the conference table along with the declaration “here’s your lease admin system”.

The remainder of the demo was, to say the least, disheartening, both from my perspective as a software rep, and from the perspective of the attendees who were frankly tired of doing lease admin using Excel. Needless to say, no sale was concluded at this particular company which, at the time, was fast growing and had over 1200 locations (and thus, at LEAST 1200 leases to look after).
I was reminded of this story when talking with a lease administrator this week about her biggest pet-peeves of the job. Most of her insights resonated with me as I’d heard many of them before, but one leapt out at me- “Other people in the company don’t understand what we do and the amount of work we do”.

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Really? Is that attitude still prevalent in 2011? Retail lease administration has grown by leaps and bounds as a profession in the past 15-18 years and you’re still looking for a little respect?
I readily admit I’ve been out of the business for a while having been a stay-at-home dad for two years (thus buried under a pile of dishes and laundry), but this one takes me by surprise. I think it bears repeating that lease administrators

• are the front line for enforcing contracts that your company has spent a great deal of time, effort, and money to negotiate and close.
• can easily affect the bottom line of any company by being the primary control on real estate expenses, your company’s highest cost after human resources.

In addition, I have found in my experience, a direct correlation between a company’s market value and its dedication to quality lease administration. Companies that seek out and employ professional lease administrators and then provide them with the leeway and tools to do the job right are those that have survived the turmoil of the past few years and have seen their share prices and/or market share rebound nicely.

Hire good people, give them the framework and tools to succeed, then get out of their way!

Shameless Plug

Lucernex’s Lease Administration software, Lx Contracts, was designed by the creator of SLIM to make the life of lease administrators easier! Our SaaS pricing model, free data conversions and quick implementations, even make it easy for lease administrators to get Lx Contracts approved! And Lx Contracts is built on the same platform, uses the same database and has the same user interface as all other products within the Lx SLM Suite and can be integrated easily with any ERP system.

Curious to see how the straight-line will differ for a location under the new rules? Send me a typical rent schedule - I’d be happy to run it through our straight-line tool and provide you with a before and after snapshot free of charge.

Lucernex also offers FREE data conversions from SLIM, REM, RetaiLease and Siteseer.

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