DALLAS – (December 6, 2010) – Lucernex Technologies, a developer of business intelligence software for real estate management and development, announced today that it has hired Robert Abdul as vice president of global sales. In this position, Abdul will be responsible for directing and managing all sales initiatives for the Lucernex suite of Location Performance Management solutions for corporate and retail real estate executives. Lucernex’s solutions are currently in use by hundreds of thousands of locations in the global retail, hospitality, engineering and construction industries, as well as hundreds of corporate real estate executives and real estate brokers worldwide.

Abdul has 20 years of experience in the software industry with more than 15 years specialized in enterprise software sales. Prior to joining Lucernex, he was regional sales manager for Accruent, a provider of enterprise location management solutions. Previously, he had worked as director of sales and channel development for SaaS provider netASPx and sales director for United Systems Consultants, Inc., a Lawson Software channel partner out of New York focused on the retail and corporate vehicles.

“Robert has a wealth of experience selling corporate real estate solutions and knows the market inside and out, so we are thrilled to have him taking the lead on our sales efforts here,” said Joe Valeri, president of Lucernex Technologies. “He has been a top performing sales representative in his previous positions, and we are looking forward to seeing him bring the same success to Lucernex as we continue to expand our presence worldwide.”

The Lucernex product suite includes: Lx IWMS, an affordable integrated workplace management system that provides comprehensive location performance management for all phases of the real estate lifecycle; Lx Contracts, Web-based lease administration and rent accounting from the creator of SLIM; and Lx LseMod, the market leader in site selection and portfolio optimization financial analysis solutions for corporate and commercial real estate.

About Lucernex Technologies

Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies provides real estate developers and facility managers with powerful software tools to guide them through the real estate development process. For nearly 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 Workplace Management System (IWMS) 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.

Have you ever looked at an older house and noted how it’s had extensions added that don’t fit the original house? Whether it’s the pattern of the windows, the exterior surface or the shape of the extension that does not match you can tell it’s just not right and makes the whole structure look bad. Inside the house, the switch and outlet layout in the new rooms are different and the plumbing does not work as well as it did before. The air conditioning doesn’t get the house as cool and even the foundation of the house is cracking because the new and old sections are settling differently.

Now imagine the same process only with software. Start with one application from one company and add on parts from many other applications built on different platforms. Much like a house you have to match up the foundation perfectly and connect the wiring and plumbing perfectly, using a pattern and style identical to the past, or things just won’t work right.

With software it’s easier to disguise the exterior differences by adding a new user interface to all applications to make them look like one. However it’s infinitely harder to match up the structural elements of the applications and make them work like one especially if the platforms vary. The truth is no matter how good a development team is and how much time and money you spend on it, no two applications can ever be joined together in a way that allows them to operate as well as a single code, single platform application that was developed by one software firm. It would be like Rembrandt trying to finish a painting half completed by Picasso – no matter how great the artist, the result won’t be as good.

What are the problems you will see with disparate platforms?

Complex and expensive IT Architecture

The most obvious problem occurs in applications that are installed behind a client’s firewall – complex and expensive hardware configuration. If an application has one Java application, one .NET application, two databases plus third party workflow and reporting applications, you can end up with dozens of servers just to get a single instance of the system. The cost of purchasing and, worse, maintaining that hardware can be enormous. The client also needs to hire a much wider array of IT staff to support the numerous platforms and code types.

Defect Management

When a defect occurs in a single code base, single platform system, you have one set of logs to read to find the source of the error and one set of code to fix. If you have multiple code bases not only is it much harder to find the problem, curing the defect can be exceptionally hard as the developer has to diagnose code across a cobbled together interaction of two disjointed systems with different designer patterns.

Cross platform functionality

Let’s say you want to create a workflow that covers a wide section of the real estate lifecycle. In a cobbled together application you will have a workflow engine from a third party that won’t be able to work seamlessly with the Java part of your application, the .NET part of your application and the different databases. It can’t possibly be as easy and capable as a work flow engine that is built into the core of the application by the same software developers that created all of the functional code.

Price

When a company purchases several other software companies to obtain parts of their application and then invests millions of dollars trying to make several applications look like one application, then adds on multiple third party applications for workflow, reporting and other features, the application has to be pretty pricey to pay off all the debts, past investment and third party vendors.

Implementation

The complexity of the IT Infrastructure will make implementation of a multi-platform system longer and the disjointed operation of the cobbled together applications will make implementation take far longer than a single platform, single code base system.

Reporting

Though there are dozens more examples I could provide let me leave you with one more – reporting. How do you report out of a disparate application with multiple databases? Answer – using expensive IT resources and an expensive third party reporting application. Good luck using ad-hoc reporting tools or leveraging your existing investment in enterprise reporting unless it matches the application the vendor requires you to use.

Most IWMS applications being offered by vendors today were created from the whole or parts of other applications merged together. They try to hide it with a common user interface but behind the pretty exterior there is a cracked foundation and mismatched plumbing.

Here are some ways to unearth the cobbled together multi-platform systems

1. Ask to see an architectural diagram of the hardware used. Even if you are buying a hosted SaaS or Cloud solution, ask to see the diagram and ask your internal IT department to interpret it. Make sure the vendor includes the applications that run on each server. If you see multiple database instances (other than for redundancy) or multiple types of application server, you know there’s a problem.
2. Ask how many databases are used by the system
3. Ask about ad-hoc reporting – is there a way for a non-technical end-user to report against the system?
4. Ask the vendor directly if they bought any of their code from any other company. With the exception of small third party code libraries (like a spell checker or user interface controls) the answer should be ‘no’.
5. Look at past press releases for the company and see what companies they have bought over time to assess how much of the application came from someone else.

While the multi-platform problem has a bigger negative impact on in-house implementation, its almost as big a problem for hosted solutions. Hosted providers can hide their platform disparities from client IT departments however the functional problems multiple disparate platforms present are just as substantial in a hosted solution.

Shameless plug

Lucernex has employed the same group of developers since 2000 with the same chief architect and same product designer. Other than the addition of Ken Brown (of SLIM fame) last year, we have had the most consistent group of developers of any IWMS vendor. As a result we have ONE code base, ONE Java Platform, ONE Database and ONE design pattern. This allows for a simple IT infrastructure to support Lx IWMS which made our move to the cloud, with IWMSCloud®, a snap. We have a workflow engine we developed into the core of our application and a simple, intuitive ad-hoc report builder that any user, technical or not, can use effectively after an hour of training. Our application might not look as fancy as some of the firms with multiple platforms and many third party applications cobbled together, but having a single platform and code base allows us to offer unparalleled functionality at a much lower cost.

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”

The term “Integrated Workplace Management Systems” or “IWMS” was coined by Michael Bell formerly of The Gartner Group. This new term was then used as the basis for producing an IWMS market assessment including a Gartner Magic Quadrant. This type of assessment is commonly produced by Gartner to compare technology vendors in many industries. Without a common term, in this case IWMS, there would have been no way to ‘lump’ a bunch of vendors together into a comparison document. In reality, at the time the term was coined, the vendors thrown into the IWMS bucket were very dissimilar and often addressed very different markets. Since then, however, using the IWMS blueprint provided in the IWMS market analysis containing the Magic Quadrant, the vendors have actually enhanced their products, changed messaging and in some cases merged to better fit the image of “IWMS”. While features of the vendors have grown more similar, they remain different in some very important ways, most notably their expertise in specific customer bases and specific functionality that addresses that base.

I for one, have worked for two IWMS vendors and competed in the market since long before the term was coined, having co-founded Lucernex in 2000, then taken over as CTO and head of product management at Accruent in 2003 then returned to Lucernex to become President. I have seen most of the vendors products, have talked to any number of people who have worked for the different vendors and seen marketing and Blogs from many vendors. We all seem to be trying so hard to fit the mold of “IWMS” when really we should be distinguishing ourselves based on our unique knowledge and features.

If you look at the key vendors in the space in addition to Lucernex you will find Accruent, Tririga, Manhattan, Siterra, Planon, amtdirect, Bricsnet, Qube, BIG, FM Systems and many more. What’s most interesting is that there are enormous differences between these vendors both in their background and expertise and in the functionality that they deliver, yet we are all “IWMS” vendors. For example, Lucernex leadership came from commercial real estate, retail, hospitality and corporate technology. Our products reflect that as we are very strong in site selection, lease analysis, transaction management, construction project management, lease administration and capital project management. Our knowledge of prototypical development design, planning and management as well as lease administration and rent accounting is second to none among “IWMS” vendors. If you look at each of the other vendors you will find a variety of other specialties as well.

The easiest way to assess what an IWMS vendor is best at is to look at the background of the leadership. If all executives of an IWMS firm come out of construction management, you can bet their construction project management features are really good. If their leadership came from real estate brokerage, their site selection and lease management features are likely their best functions. Strong facilities management is likely to come from someone with a background in corporate or campus property management. No one vendor is best at everything and, no matter what any vendor says, no one is best to fit every customer.

My hope is the market will begin to segment and become redefined by what is really needed by the different end user communities. After all, what is needed by a 200 store retailer is not the same as what is needed by a University with 2 campuses, or a corporation with 5 locations, or a government agency with 300 global locations, or a restaurant chain with 20,000 locations worldwide, or a cell phone company with thousands of towers and hundreds of stores. I look to organizations like IWMSNews and FacilityLeadership to begin to dissect the market instead of simply picking up where Gartner left off.

Some vendors have already begun to move away from the pure IWMS moniker. At Lucernex, for example, we still use the IWMS tag for our solution but truly consider our offerings to be Location Performance Management or LPM software. Qube software and amtdirect don’t use the IWMS name at all and Accruent has begun to use Enterprise Location Management or ELM to describe their solutions (though this may change due to the recent purchase of Accruent by a Private Equity firm).

We need new thought leaders whose agenda is not to lump us all together to be able to write a single report trying to compare us all against a single set of requirements. Instead, identify the needs of the different end user communities, see what features and functions are most important to them and how they need them delivered and compare the vendors to those requirements. What I believe we would find is there are several strong vendors in the IWMS market that are the best at serving one or two groups of user communities which would make it easier for buyers to know what is available to them and which vendors to compare.

I welcome additional opinions from customers and other vendors.

Go to our Lx IWMS product page to find out more about the Lucernex IWMS.

Accruent’s Store Lifecycle Management (SLM) product sold to dozens of retailer and corporate users since 2004 came about due to a license sold to Accruent by Lucernex in 2003 allowing Accruent to market the Lucernex IWMS solution under the Accruent name. The core of the Accruent solution remains, in large part, the 3.81 version of Lx Retail. Lucernex has since updated the location performance management software and is now at version 9.0 having made vast improvements in the capability. The former creator of SLIM, Ken Brown, is now in charge of Lucernex product design and development after selling the SLIM product and his company, National Facilities Group, to Accruent in 2003. As a result Lucernex can provide the smoothest transition for current Accruent clients.

No first year software cost!!

To make this easy to budget, Lucernex will convert any Accruent client to Lx Retail and charge no first year fee for the software. In addition, as a conversion from Accruent is really more of a simple upgrade into the newer version of Lucernex, our professional services team will charge a simple cost plus 20% for the project.

No one can convert you from Accruent faster, cheaper or more accurately than Lucernex!

Please use our Product Information page if you are interested in talking to an Lucernex representative about our Accruent upgrade.

Lucernex expert Mike Nuzum (see Mike’s management summary here) provides this response:

During the time I was in the retail business we developed many ways to compress the time it took to complete critical project tasks; whether it was to get a store open faster, get leases signed faster or implement a multi-store remodel capital project quicker. (NSCB3GKUGAMP)

One process we developed enabled us to open new stores in just 3 days.

The key to hitting this rigorous deadline was to accurately predict what day we would obtain the certificate of occupancy (CO).

Once we confirmed the day we would obtain the CO we would schedule the store opening to follow this process:
- Obtain the CO on Monday of a given week,
- Fly an opening crew of up to 35 people to the store location Friday afternoon,
- On Friday evening the opening team would measure and mark the position of the fixtures on the floor,
- Saturday, 8:00 am, trucks with fixtures would arrive at the store loading dock,
- By 2 pm that same day the fixtures would be set,
- At that same time, 2:00 pm, trucks with merchandise would begin to arrive at 60 minute intervals,
- By late Saturday evening all the merchandise would be on display,
- Late Sunday morning the merchandise would be checked for pricing, the signs would go up and the cash registers would be set,
- Monday 9:00am – Grand Opening!

This process, when properly choreographed, allowed us to open a large retail store to 25,000sqft with 45,000 SKUs in just 3 days. Every step in the process needed to be exactly on time.

On occasion our simple MS Excel based tracking system would tell us we had obtained the CO and we actually had not. Our data was not transparent or real-time; instead it was direct entered data into an Excel spreadsheet with no automated relationships to other tasks or alerts. At some point in acquiring the site, someone entered a date for a CO that they believed would happen, however any prior scheduled event could impact it and without linked tasks, alerts and a transparent system a change in CO date could slip through the cracks.

The real problem was that we would not know that we did not have a CO until the opening crew and the carefully timed trucks arrived and we were unable to get into the building! This would result in a cost of $500,000 a day to keep everything in a holding pattern until the CO was finalized or even more if the CO could not be obtained quickly and we had to reschedule.

When opening many stores or managing many capital projects, it is not uncommon for internally developed systems to cause these types of mistakes. If we were using a professionally developed, real-time system we would have been able to see if an earlier event like the Fire Marshall not signing off on the sprinkler test or a missed or failed critical inspection had caused a delayed CO. Even if someone forgot to update the earlier tasks, the transparency of the system would have allowed us to see that updates were not being made so a problem might exist.

So, is transparency intangible, I think not; nothing is more important than being able to see the whole picture in one place and TRUST what you see.

The Lucernex IWMS provides a real-time environment to collaborate with everyone involved in each project. On a daily basis you receive information and alerts on issues that could affect the schedule. Using the scenario above, if any event caused slippage in the CO date, all impacted personnel would get an immediate alert. If earlier tasks were not being updated in a timely fashion, an alert would be escalated to management to check on the validity of the CO date shown in the system before resources were committed. Avoiding the cost of this event occurring even once would provide 100% ROI on the Lx IWMS.

There is a similar BLOG on how to sell IWMS/CAFM/CMMS solutions at: fm insight

Having been involved with the IWMS industry for over 25 years, I have seen many trends come and go including some of the early attempts by the commercial real estate firms to enter the lease administration software business when outsourcing first appeared, to the focus on retailers, the shift toward real estate life-cycle and IWMS to the more recent set of events attempting to consolidate the industry. I sold my company, National Facilities Group, Inc. (the SLIM product) several years ago to Accruent and know what it means to be acquired and how it affects products and clients. In my case, there were a number of factors that made the event successful including the huge economic growth that was happening, the move to large suites of point-solutions – creating full real estate lifecycle applications and the fact that there was no clear leader in the space. The question asked today is, “Is the acquisition of MRI and Accruent a good thing?” Emphatically, I have to say “NO”! Unlike the liquidity events of years past where these companies announced the raising of millions of dollars to fuel internal growth and expansion, this recent event is simply a sale. Instead of acquiring new sources of capital, Accruent and MRI have been acquired by the capital sources. Fundamentally this is an entirely different type of event. It weakens the decision-making capability of the acquired organization, puts limits on product development and creates an internal feeling of “the sky is falling”. It will take months, if not years, for these companies to completely sort through all of the internal issues and during this time, their products and their clients will be affected – whether it will be a positive effect or a negative effect, only time will tell.

Dallas – (January 22, 2010) – Lucernex Technologies, an innovative developer of business intelligence software for real estate management and development, announced today that it is offering discounted subscription fees and fixed-price implementation of its Lx IWMS workplace management solution to anyone wishing to transition from Accruent’s SLM and IWMS products following Accruent’s announcement that it has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners.

Lx IWMS from Lucernex Technologies is the most comparable solution to Accruent currently on the IWMS market and offers a higher level of functionality as well as the most natural and lowest-priced migration path. The core of Accruent’s IWMS solution (previous called Store Lifecycle Management), was licensed from Lucernex in 2004 and has been installed as part of Accruent’s solution by dozens of large retailers.

“As the former CTO of Accruent and designer of the Lucernex solution, I think there is no doubt that Lucernex is best positioned to enable a smooth migration for any Accruent retail client,” said Joe Valeri, president of Lucernex. “We want to make sure that any client using any part of our software is satisfied with their investment.”

“In addition to the IWMS solution, many of Accruent’s clients are using legacy client-server based lease administration products such as SLIM, REM and RetaiLease and are looking for a web-based replacement. I am confident that any Accruent client that switches to Lucernex will be happy with the transition and will find the Lucernex team to be more responsive to their needs and willing to work with them to ensure success,” said Ken Brown, Lucernex’s executive vice president of product development and the original designer of the SLIM Lease Administration System.

First developed in 2000 and currently in use by Fortune 500 companies, the Lucernex Lx IWMS platform addresses the unique needs of companies with multi-site, rapidly changing real estate portfolios. The solution can be used to manage corporate real estate of any type and also offers market-specific functionality for the retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors.  Available in both Enterprise and Standard Editions, Lucernex Lx IWMS makes it possible for all real estate management resources to openly communicate and keep all projects on time and within budget. Enabling this kind of integrated communication will ultimately reduce costs, improve productivity, enhance operational efficiency and increase profitability.

To learn more about Lx IWMS, please contact Lucernex Technologies at 972-403-7100 or visit www.lucernex.com.

About Lucernex

Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies provides real estate developers and facility managers with powerful software tools to guide them through the real estate development process. For nearly 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 Workplace Management System (IWMS) 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.

Brown joins Lucernex from Accruent, Inc. where he served as director of corporate solutions for three years. An expert in compliance, lease accounting and business intelligence/analytics applications, Brown was founder, president and CEO of National Facilities Group in Chicago from 1990 to 2005. National Facilities Group is known as one of the nation’s first providers of lease administration software systems in the real estate industry.

“Ken is well known in our industry as having developed the first – and still one of the best – lease administration products, SLIM, for the corporate and retail markets,” said Joe Valeri, president of Lucernex Technologies. “We are honored to add him to the Lucernex team and given his expertise we are looking forward to his influence on our application suites.”

“I have known the people at Lucernex for many years and I am excited to now be a part of the company and to help take its products to the next level,” said Ken Brown. “Lucernex IWMS incorporates the best features of most of the leading products on the market and offers one comprehensive solution.”

Brown has immediately impacted Lucernex by playing a major role in the company’s recent acquisition of Lease Cost Solutions and the LseMod product.

“LseMod is the industry-leading lease analytics toolkit with specialized offerings for commercial brokers and corporate real estate departments. We will continue to expand its capabilities and integrate the power of LseMod into Lucernex IWMS to maximize its potential,” said Brown.

“By helping us close the acquisition of LseMod, Ken has already proven that his contributions to Lucernex will be vital as we continue towards our goal of adding quality product and service offerings to become the market leader in real estate business intelligence software,” said Mike Nuzum, chairman of Lucernex Technologies.

First developed in 2000 and currently in use by numerous Fortune 500 companies, the Lucernex IWMS platform addresses the unique needs of companies with multi-site, rapidly changing real estate portfolios. The solution can be used to manage corporate real estate of any type and also offers market-specific functionality for the retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors. Available in both Enterprise and Standard versions, Lucernex IWMS makes it possible for all real estate management resources to openly communicate and keep all projects on time and within budget. Enabling this kind of integrated communication will ultimately reduce costs, improve productivity, enhance operational efficiency and increase profitability.

About Lucernex

Founded in 2000, Lucernex Technologies (lucernex.com) provides real estate developers and facility managers with powerful software tools to guide them through the real estate development process. For nearly 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 Workplace Management System (IWMS) 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.

Santa Monica, CA and Dallas, TX, September 28, 2004 – Accruent, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise contract management solutions, announced today that it has acquired rights to license and resell Lucernex Inc. software products. Lucernex is a privately held Dallas-based company that provides advanced real estate process and asset management applications for retailers.

This transaction complements Accruent’s real estate lifecycle management solution and appreciably broadens its cmSuite contract management offering, positioning the company to deliver increased value to customers. The terms of the agreement are confidential.

The deal includes all intellectual property rights to Lucernex Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), a product which addresses the unique needs of companies with large, rapidly changing real estate portfolios in the retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors. Lucernex IWMS is a robust set of tools that covers the entire property development and asset management lifecycle, including specific tools and best practices for market strategy, site identification, site acquisition, design, construction, possession, facility management and it integrates to Accruent’s lease administration solutions: cmRealEstate, REM and SLIM ASP.

“We choose to join forces with Accruent because they dominate the market we target and we already have multiple common customers,” states Lucernex Inc. Chairman and CEO, Michael Nuzum. “This move is extremely positive for our customers and provides Lucernex with a first class sales, marketing and services channel that we cannot duplicate.”

More than 300 companies employ Accruent’s cmRealEstate product. Companies such as Blockbuster, RiteAid, Footlocker, Jamba Juice, Dollar General and Linens ‘N Things use cmRealEstate to fully automate lease management, conduct percentage rent calculations, CAM reconciliation, and accrual of payments. cmRealEstate is a component of cmSuite, Accruent’s flagship product which provides complete contract management solutions for the extended enterprise.

“By combining our proven technologies, track records in the industry and the talent we’ve been able to attract, we can apply unparalleled insight to help companies with dynamic real estate portfolios transform their businesses to substantially enhance bottom-line performance,” states Accruent CEO Mark Friedman. “Lucernex IWMS is an ideal complement to Accruent’s cmRealEstate product, as it allows users to strategically analyze their portfolios by centralizing all documents, schedules, budgets, issues and history in one place.”

“Accruent’s proven track record of quickly assimilating people and products will allow this Lucernex transaction to bring rapid benefits to the market,” said Erinne Dayna Matte, analyst, AMR Research. “It’s clear that the synergies these companies bring together now make Accruent a leading force in the contract lifecycle management arena.”