I guess that the larger question is, How do you effectively link your lease administration system with your business strategy? Well, according to Ken Brown, CEO of National Facilities Group (NFG), you integrate lease administration into the entire real estate lifecycle. So NFG now integrates its data directly into Rollout Manager from Lucernex for lifecycle management.

Brown walked me through an online demonstration of Rollout Manager starting with the "digital dashboard," which displays critical information from the major components of the system -- Site Selection, Project Management, Facilities Management, and Lease Administration. Workflow tools -- like e-mail alerts, common calendars and standardized forms -- are designed to link all participants together over this common web interface.

"One plus one is greater than two." That's the mantra of Brown. You derive maximum value by integrating data into a central repository to make better decisions. According to Brown, such a lifecycle system generates a good ROI (Return on Investment) both in hard cost savings (like avoiding mistakes) and soft cost savings (like making better decisions). And that will get the attention of your boss. I guarantee it.

Early Bird Registration... Two days left to sign up at $495 for the PikeNet Forum, Get Real: Execute Your Strategy, Chicago, April 2-3, 2003.

--Peter Pike