The next step in data integration can revolutionize Corporate Real Estate (CRE)

Business enterprise software applications are becoming more integrated. Offerings such as Oracle with its Fusion strategy and SAP with its Netweaver integration platform are bringing disparate business data together. Managers are increasingly able to base decisions on information contained in applications far from their area of responsibility. The business cases for implementing these initiatives include coordinating decisions by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management formerly the sales department) and HR (Human Resources formerly the Personnel Department).

This data, integrated to give core business processes information to make better decisions, can be applied to Corporate Real Estate (CRE). For example, a company needs to move an office location. It is now possible for the decision makers to know the zip code, salary band, telecommute and travel propensity and hours worked statistics for every employee. This information might suggest a most convenient location that is far different from the one upper management might choose for them. Early CRE applications were developed to provide solutions to manage specific aspects of real estate such as construction, scheduling, capital deployment and transaction analysis. As these applications are still maturing, there is no industry agreement on nomenclature. Application category names include Real Estate Portfolio Management (REPM), Facilities Management (FM), Construction Project Management (CPM) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). There is a trend to classify these and other CRE applications into two broad categories called Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS) and Enterprise Asset Management Systems (EAMS). These categories arise from the application category these systems evolved from.

The CRE application market is primarily served by niche players. As they evolve, they are certain to become more tightly integrated with, then a part of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications within such systems as Fusion and E-Business Suite from Oracle and mySAP Business Suite from SAP.


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In the right margin are links to some software providers that provide Real Estate applications.