Last week Merron demonstrated to me how C&W uses Yardi Systems web-based software to provide facilities and property management services across large corporate portfolios like Lucent Technology. You know the theory. You connect everybody over the Internet and centralize all your information into one database. So it's easy to generate executive-level reports or drill down to the general ledger right from your browser.

Sure, it's very impressive to see this in action. But there's a huge amount of work behind the simple point-and-click interface. And according to Merron, it all stems from a strategic decision that C&W made in 1996 to standardize on Yardi. That's because converting to any new system is hugely complicated and expensive. You always find that data in the first system needs to be "cleaned." Oh-oh.

In fact, after listening to Merron, I wondered how any large corporation could risk switching systems in today's tough business environment. It's tremendously complicated and expensive. C&W is lucky to have made the switch when it did. Now the challenge is for C&W to integrate even more of its systems together, including FacilityPro (e-procurement), BIGe (lease administration and work order management), and ePropertyTax (tax bill payments). The battle continues.

Early Bird Registration... Two days left to sign up at $595 for the PikeNet Forum, Get Real: Execute Your Strategy, Chicago, April 2-3, 2003.

--Peter Pike