Enterprise spend on real estate and facilities management continues to be one of the most significant expense items for an enterprise and also one that touches every part of the organization, many companies are realizing the need to gain visibility into their processes for managing this category of spend. Recent Aberdeen research reveals that 70% of enterprises will pursue a portfolio management strategy for complex categories of spend, leveraging cross-functional stakeholder teams to lead this initiative. Organizations are increasingly looking to technology tools and services to generate process efficiencies for the enterprise-wide planning, acquisition and management of real estate and facilities, while also achieving cost savings for the organization.

A business environment that is unyielding in its pursuit for bottom-line savings and process efficiency has driven Best in Class real estate departments to seek alignment with enterprise strategies by centralizing the function, standardizing their processes, and utilizing solutions that enable visibility into spend and process.

While the appetite for integrated technologies to manage all the stages of the real estate and facilities lifecycle is growing, the average real estate department utilizes a patchwork of homegrown systems and spreadsheets to manage their activities. Based on the findings from our February 2007 report, The CPO's Strategic Agenda, 46% of organizations look to procurement to either manage these programs directly or oversee the outsourcing relationship for their management as a means of developing category visibility. Gaining visibility in to the management processes for real estate and facilities has allowed organizations to realize cost savings and process efficiencies. The opportunity to gain visibility into their processes for the planning and management of real estate and facilities will help enterprises:
1. Reduce average occupancy costs
2. Improve real estate and facilities management efficiency
3. Identify and track key performance metrics for program management
4. Make more informed build, buy, or lease decisions
5. Make more informed budgeting and capital planning decisions
For the complete report and a list of technology vendors, go to:
http://www.aberdeen.com