To be awarded certification, an audit of Lucernex’s Quality Management system was conducted in 2011 culminating in certification in November of 2011. A third party auditing firm, Quality Systems Registrars, Inc. (QSR), performed the ISO 9001 certification.

“ISO 9001 certification proves how dedicated Lucernex is to customer service and continual improvement. It will ensure that we continually improve our service processes and our customer satisfaction”, said Joe Valeri, President of Lucernex.

If you are interested in learning more about Lucernex’s ISO 9001:2008 certification or about Lucernex Quality Management System, please call 972.403.7100 or email sales@lucernex.com.

About Lucernex
Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies provides real estate professionals with powerful software tools to guide them through the real estate store life cycle. It is the only solution designed “by retailers for retailers” and can manage any size portfolio of leased and owned properties. Fortune 500 companies in the commercial real estate, hospitality, retail, construction and engineering industries have been utilizing Lucernex Technologies software solutions every day to ensure compliance, mitigate risk and empower effective growth. As an innovative leader in retail real estate 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.

SSAE 16, which supersedes the SAS 70 audit standard, was designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an acceptable method for management to obtain assertions about service organization internal controls without conducting separate assessments. “As a provider of SaaS solutions delivered in the Cloud, SSAE 16 compliance ensures all Lucernex products are safely and securely controlled. To our clients it means they can feel safe using our solutions to develop, build and manage their real estate portfolio”, said Ken Brown, EVP and CIO of Lucernex.

The Auditors’ Report details Lucernex’s controls and provides an independent assessment of operational standards to ensure they are effective for securing and maintaining all client environments. If you are interested in reviewing a copy of the audit, please call 972.403.7100 or email sales@lucernex.com

About Lucernex
Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies provides real estate professionals with powerful software tools to guide them through the real estate store life cycle. It is the only solution designed “by retailers for retailers” and can manage any size portfolio of leased and owned properties. 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 ensure compliance, mitigate risk and empower effective growth. As an innovative leader in retail real estate 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.
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Media Contact: Joe Valeri 310-732-6448, joe.valeri@lucernex.com

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

“After evaluating our operational requirements, we realized that we needed more than just a replacement for our legacy lease administration system. We needed an integrated approach to managing our real estate. Lucernex offers a solution that will allow us to manage the entire store life cycle in one database and on one platform,” said VP of Real Estate, Paul Doize. “Lucernex has clearly applied their top-down knowledge of real estate to design a solution that will provide value to our entire organization, from the executives to the lease administrators, real estate accountants, and the franchise management team.”

Robert Abdul, VP of Sales for Lucernex, described the selection process as gratifying. “We were able to demonstrate how our single end-to-end solution will eliminate multiple systems of record for real estate as well as manual processes. Our standard integration with Buxton for site selection and market analysis seamlessly supports our project management, lease administration and rent accounting capabilities. The ability to integrate with their Lawson financial system instills confidence that finance and accounting has accurate data across the entire real estate lifecycle include regulatory reporting for FASB13″.

Lucernex conducted a survey on FASB readiness with the NRTA. In discussing these findings in a recent blog, Joe Valeri, President of Lucernex, said “it was clear that more companies are looking at the potential for greater cost control, more efficiency and added flexibility in lease accounting that is provided in a SLM technology platform. In recent sales opportunities, retailers are asking questions about 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.” The Lx Retail platform includes functionality for more efficiently managing market analysis, site selection, lease analysis, construction management, lease administration and rent accounting as well as capital project management.

About Aaron’s, Inc.
Aaron’s, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), the nation’s leader in the sales and lease ownership and specialty retailing of residential furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and accessories, has more than 1,895 Company-operated and franchised stores in 48 states and Canada. Founded in 1955 by entrepreneur R. Charles Loudermilk, Sr. and headquartered in Atlanta, Aaron’s has been publicly traded since 1982. For more information, visit www.aarons.com.

About Lucernex
Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies provides real estate professionals with powerful software tools to guide them through the real estate store life cycle. It is the only solution designed “by retailers for retailers” and can manage any size portfolio of leased and owned properties. 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 ensure compliance, mitigate risk and empower effective growth. As an innovative leader in retail real estate 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.
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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!

Dallas, TX (July 7, 2011) – In a Chain Store Age article from June 30th by Katherine Field Boccaccio, the recent joint NRTA / Lucernex survey on FASB readiness was featured with the writer focusing on several indicators showing that Retailers are not yet acting on the ending FASB changes.

Read the article here

If you would like to get the full survey results click here.

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 (June 23, 2011) – Lucernex is featured in a Retail Traffic article by Elaine Misonzhnik titled “Managing the Store’s Lifecycle, All in One Place” where EVP and CIO Ken Brown and CEO Mike Nuzum discuss how Lucernex set out, in 2000, to build a single solution to manage the entire Retail Store Lifecycle process.