EXPERIENCE MEETS OPPORTUNITY
an article by Jean Bellas, President and CEO, SPACE

With as much subtlety as an invading army, the downturn in business has impacted real estate and facilities. As an associate of mine so clearly and simply stated, "the world will now divide itself in two, those who have had this experience once before and those who have not". For some there is no precedent, for others there is wisdom of experience. For both there are opportunities.

The initial response of corporate real estate and facility groups in a down turned market has been to internalize team members and eliminate consultants. As workload continues, random consultants fill the voids that staff cannot address. With the return of business volume there is a reversion back to traditional client consultant relationships. Absent from this cycle is any real evaluation or fundamental change in the nature of the work. Rather, roles simply exchange hands and we continue to do business the same way we did some 30 years ago.

The opportunity within this market is the willingness of people to accept new ideas. Ironically, it has been during times of economic downturn that innovation is most prevalent. When cash is abundant, sales explode in product and service enhancements. When cash is limited, people are open to changing core products in search of more cost effective solutions. Within this is the opportunity. New ideas that provide savings are most readily accepted in downward economic periods. Ideas endure the long term when they also provide improvements. Stainless steel versus porcelain, tailored suits versus frilled dresses, zippers versus buttons, latex versus cotton, personal computer versus typewriter, are all examples of innovations introduced during periods of economic downturn and rapidly accepted as improvements to the proceeding solution.

World markets have created the background environment for Real Estate and Facilities leaders to investigate, suggest and sponsor cost savings programs. Right now business leadership is engaged in looking for new methods of doing business, and willing to risk change if it can deliver savings. While this is not a time of spending, it is a period to apply intellectual capital in identifying opportunities for significant savings which provide long term value to the business. Major savings can be realized by focusing on real versus perceived need. It is possible to realize major gains by eliminating decentralization that leads to redundancies, and by challenging consumption by offering alternate solutions that make better use of existing resources.

Major savings can also be realized by altering the process of delivery. Global projects can be managed from a single resource system. High performance skill teams can provide services from a single location, therefore do not need to be near every project site. Redundancies as a result of multiple locations can be eliminated. Technology can be adopted to achieve global consistency and communications to accelerate delivery. We can create customer self help networks that eliminate the need for intermediaries within almost every facility practice.

And so, this is the time to define programs, set goals, build consensus and define implementation programs that result in reduced cost of operations. It is the time to question every need for consumption. This is the time to standardize what is delivered and how it is delivered. It is a time of simplification. It is also a time to share and exchange information as a way of imbedding creativity within solutions.

Far reaching goals can be set and achieved. Our record proves this to be true. It is our goal to support companies in this quest.

Within our own business, for the last 18 months SPACE has been engaged in creating a technology platform for the purpose of streamlining our delivery of services. Technology offers us a freedom to gain great efficiencies, not because of the technology itself, rather because it forces the review and editing of work processes, eliminating redundancies and integrating information. This speeds decision making, which speeds delivery, which dramatically reduces cost.

The effective application of technology required the rethinking of our entire process of doing business. It is for this reason we are extremely excited to introduce our new "SPACE Center", a web based information exchange, document hosting and exchange site, available to our clients, at no additional cost. We work globally. We think globally. We now link globally.

Our goal is to continue integrating technology in the entire delivery system. SPACE is the leading customer enabled, fully integrated, web based, corporate service delivery system company.

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For any questions please contact:  Jean Bellas at bellasj@workplayce.com
Hal Matthews at matthewh@workplayce.com.