Managing a corporate real estate portfolio can be extremely time-consuming due to the amount of data that needs to be tracked including expenses, competing market rents, and keeping on top of important dates regarding renewals and options, to name a few. The larger the portfolio, the bigger the challenge. Here are a few tips to help you save time.
Consolidate.
The recent worldwide economic crisis has forced staff reductions in many industries. While the loss of jobs is unfortunate, it is often the only way for an organization to keep its head above water. Another area of potential savings in both time and money after layoffs take place is in reducing the physical footprint of a company’s corporate real estate. Take an honest look at where efficiencies might be increased by closing locations that have too many empty seats and bringing operations together.
Consolidation does not, however, have to be in terms of your team, or even your portfolio. Regardless of your financial situation, you should consider keeping all of your corporate real estate documents in one location (or at least copies of such documents). That includes all reports and other files associated with any real estate expenses.
Use the cloud.
Rather than maintain mountains of paper files on-site and scores of excel spreadsheets and other documents on desktop systems accessible to few, leverage the power of remote computing to save time and increase access to the data needed to manage CRE. Cloud computing has been around long enough to prove it is sufficiently secure for even large corporations to trust their data with. Smaller operations could simply use free services, such as Google Documents or Microsoft’s Skydrive, to upload scanned leases and other files, while larger corporations might choose VPN solutions for even greater security.
Invest in portfolio management software.
One of the most important time savers in managing corporate real estate is to use portfolio management software. A robust solution is one that will not only allow tracking of current real estate expenses, but also provide real-time intelligence on market rents which can be used to re-evaluate and even renegotiate current leases. Look for a platform that will work on mobile devices or tablets as well, in order to have access twenty four hours per day even when away from a computer.
Get a demo of REoptimizer® and see how it can save you time and money!
