Thought Leader Interviews
Much is written about thought leaders in any industry.
According to Wikipedia:
Thought leader is used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets).
These insights are the basis for a series of interviews that iwmsnews.com is going to publish in the coming few weeks. The interviews that we have been working on lateley provide you with the best insights of the TRUE LEADERS of this industry. For the post series we have interviewed all important CEO’s who have hugely contributed to the evoluation of Integrated Workplace Management Systems to what it is today.
The first interview of our “Thought Leader Interviews” has been with Traci Doane, President & Chief Executive Officer of the Business Resource Group.
1. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
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I am the President and CEO of Business Resource Group, a company that provides Workplace Management Solutions to organizations with a significant investment in real estate. I am a native Texan, and have focused my career in the Facility Management and Corporate Real Estate industries for over 20 years. I have also been an active member in industry groups like IFMA and CoreNet Global over the past 15 years. |
2. Can you explain a bit about your background and your career?
Upon earning a degree from Texas A&M in Environmental Design/Architecture, I began my career practicing architecture focused initially on designing and constructing buildings. My interest in processes and workflows within the buildings led me to a focus on facility management as I transitioned to a consulting role in the FM practice of a global Facility Operations Company. At that time, I first became involved in implementing CAFM and CMMS tools for our customers. I joined BRG in 1995 to expand the company’s technology consulting practice and held various positions before accepting the position of President and CEO in 2004. During that time, I also earned a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, where I focused on Marketing and Operations.
3. Can you elaborate a bit more about your company? What makes your company unique?
Business Resource Group is a professional services company that provides Integrated Workplace Management Solutions including (1) Workplace Business Solutions, advisory services to assist companies with their processes, operating procedures, standards, staffing models, KPI’s and SLO’s around the workplace, a critical factor for the successful delivery of our other two service lines, (2) Workplace Technology Solutions where we provide implementation, integration and support of contemporary IWMS tools to enable the business goals, and (3) Workplace Management Services delivering outsourced programs and variable staff augmentation for activities such as space planning, facility project management, move/MAC management, asset and inventory management and CAD and Data Change Management / Administration.
We have more than 150 clients globally whom we assist in managing more than 750 million square feet of real estate in varying capacities.
Regarding the IWMS space, we are unique in that not only do we have a strong technology department that employs best practices to deploy IWMS technology, but we are also able to successfully couple that knowledge with hands-on industry subject matter expertise. Our subject matter expertise is there because not only do we support end users in deploying the technology, but we are also end users of the various IWMS packages as outsourced workplace service providers in some of the largest CRE/FM organizations in the world. Clearly, our management approach is focused on defining, measuring, and analyzing, with goals of improving and controlling costs, work quality, and customer satisfaction which speaks directly to the concerns in the boardroom much more than pure technology-speak.
4. What motivates you as a person?
Innovating new ways of doing business as well as providing measurable value and cost savings to our customers motivates me – personally and professionally! As a business professional, perhaps the greatest satisfaction I derive is in helping our incredible clients tell us we have helped them become even better organizations.
5. How do you want to be seen by your employees, the competition and independent business analysts?
I would like to be viewed as a trusted advisor who provides strategic vision to anticipate the needs of others and creates innovative solutions that help bring business success and personal impact.
6. What does the term Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) mean to you?
In contrast to point solutions, IWMS is an integrated “end-to-end” enterprise platform focused on the management of all areas of corporate real estate and facilities management. Perhaps more importantly, IWMS has evolved beyond basic operational reporting into strategic performance measurement and financial management across the various integrated applications. This has led many, including me to consider IWMS a critical business tool.
7. What do you think of the Credit Crunch? What impact does it have on FM and RE?
The economic downturn has certainly had a direct impact on almost every business large and small. In our business, we hear every day from our clients about the impact this has had on their real estate organizations. As we all well know, real estate is significant operating cost for any organization, typically second to the cost of their people. The downturn is certainly putting pressure on companies to focus on operating more efficiently and controlling costs in order to survive, in some cases.
As the economy has continued to spiral, we have become involved in helping our customers evolve their guiding principles behind their service delivery policies – for example, defining more detailed protocols to curb discretionary spending in areas such as employee moves. It is very interesting when one starts to track the drivers behind organizational churn. We have found very interesting cost savings opportunities in that area as well as many others.
With that, if an organization has not invested in technology tools to provide accurate measurement of activity levels and related costs, and more importantly, the development of solid processes to maintain accurate information, doing so would present an opportunity to directly impact the bottom line of the company by making the investment in an IWMS system.
What I believe organizations will come to find – and many have already discovered this, is that the cost savings tied to right-sizing a real estate portfolio and optimizing asset utilization, can easily overshadow the costs incurred in developing a solid IWMS platform.
Companies now more than ever are focused on generating a lower cost of operations and a higher rate of return on their assets in response to the economic conditions. IWMS tools coupled with a strong data management plan can provide information necessary to drive change.
8. What is your opinion about Sustainability and IWMS?
Environmental sustainability causes have grabbed an increased sense of public awareness and mindshare from businesses and government entities over the past decade-plus. As facilities professionals, our industry has come to grasp the fact that the buildings we operate account for a large percentage of our energy consumption and contribute the majority of greenhouse gas emissions to our planet. Over the years, we have seen many of our customers fully adopt LEED building practices and we are now seeing in some cases, more formal and systematic approaches to defining, measuring and managing toward organizational goals in the area of environmental policy.
While legislation and corporate social responsibility continue to drive enterprises to achieve a reduction of their carbon footprint, I believe the concept will truly hit home when companies start using the IWMS tools that are now commercially available to derive measureable savings through reduction of energy costs. Much like space management and portfolio right-sizing has created huge ROI for IWMS users for twenty-plus years now, sustainability management is becoming a critical element to an IWMS system that will certainly be able to demonstrate payback to those who opt to employ it.
9. How do you see IWMS in the year 2015?
I think today, some CRE/FM professionals see IWMS as a ‘nice-to-have’ and are often deterred by the cost and effort required to put something in place. They continue to fall back on manual processes and their various technology silos. By 2015, I believe most will catch up to the early adopters who today see IWMS as an essential part of the ERP suite for every company. I believe IWMS platforms will continue to evolve and we will see the ERP vendors make a much stronger push into this area, leveraging their financial management capabilities and very large user bases. Every company today has an accounting system. I believe that in 2015, most companies will have an IWMS system as well.
10. What would be your Million Dollar Tip for our readers?
I have three ‘Million Dollar Tips’ for readers.
First, ensure your business processes and data standards are well defined. Leverage those in the industry that can guide you through the decisions that you need to make and can help you automate efficient processes and define acceptable data standards that will not have you trying to compare apples to your peer’s oranges.
Second, define your key performance indicators, metrics that drive financial or operational results, and stick to them. Only automate and track the data that is necessary to manage to your goal plan. We have seen many companies try to track more data points than they can manage. In the end, this leads only to data that lacks credibility and undermines the potential value of the platform.
This leads me to my third ‘Million Dollar Tip’…
Put just as much emphasis on your data management plan as you do your deployment of the technology. If you do not allocate adequate resources and drive accountability by your internal team and your service providers alike to deliver accurate information, your data will quickly be out of date and useless. More importantly the costs you invested in the deployment of the data will most likely need to be repeated to realign.
ABOUT BRG
As a premier provider of workplace management solutions, BRG brings together capabilities in business consulting, technology deployment and business process outsourcing for corporate real estate and facilities management.
BRG has a proven track record of implementing innovative Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS) that assist our clients in meeting their strategic vision. Our subject matter expertise combined with our knowledge of the industry-leading IWMS packages, helps ensure a successful solution deployment.
Next Interview
In our “Thought Leader Interviews” Pierre Guelen, CEO and Founder of Planon will be interviewed next week .
I have known Traci for more than 15 years and learned even more about her today.
Thanks.
BRG has also published the interview on their website. You can view it by visiting: http://www.brg.com/newspage.aspx?pid=61
Steven Hanks
I learned a lot from this article and will definitely save it in my favoritse. Thanks for taking the time to delve into this issue so deeply. I look forward to future posts.