With the commercial real estate market facing even more contraction in 2009 and beyond, how can companies devise an effective strategic focus for the future?In today’s industry, a key strategic component is the adoption of a technology-driven approach that builds long-lasting fundamental value.  Executed properly, this strategy can bolster companies in difficult times and set the stage for growth, profit and a competitive edge when conditions improve.Strategic focus areas for technology can incorporate:•    Operational efficiencies and services–including electronic transactions, data centralization and a business-wide management system–that reduce non-value-added actions and lower operational costs;•    Integrated, real-time business intelligence tools that enable…

It’s Top Ten season again. That means sustainable design metrics have been tracked across the country and will be submitted soon for this year’s green project awards. One metric, the Environmental Protection Agency’s energy performance rating, is the key measure of commercial projects’ energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Portfolio Manager is the tool of choice for operating projects, and also serves as the energy metric for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Existing Buildings designation. It allows users to track multiple energy and water meters for a facility. The system benchmarks monthly utility data against past performance and…

I first spoke about energy conservation in data centers at a conference in the spring of 2001. It was a disaster. Nobody cared. Energy was cheap, and reliability trumped everything. Eight years later, the “green data center” is the hot topic.In many parts of the country, electric rates have double or tripled. The costs to own and operate data centers are hitting the bottom lines of companies in a big way. Most companies are taking steps to reduce their data centers’ energy use.There are several avenues to take to reduce energy consumption in a data center: hardware, software and the…

In difficult economic times, allocating budgets grows even more challenging. But tough times also have a way of producing smart shifts. A case in point: Commercial real estate dollars committed to online marketing hit an all-time high in 2008, both in dollar terms and as a share of overall marketing budgets, according to media research and consulting firm Borrell Associates Inc.Online spending is expected to rise 17 percent in 2009, according to Borrell, as the industry continues its move online. Fish where the fish are, the proverb says. And, increasingly, prospective buyers and tenants for commercial real estate are more…

Q: My company is consolidating its office space and I will be selling or subleasing some space. What should I take into consideration on the technology side?A: Office space consolidation is a great idea, regardless of the economy. When dealing with subleasing or selling the space, however, there are a few issues you should take into consideration regarding the physical and logical segregation of your IT infrastructure.Regarding your business, consider the following: Have you conducted an IT assets audit? A network security audit? We recommend performing an IT assets/network security audit annually and whenever major changes occur–office moves, consolidations, prior…

The problem with filing cabinets is, they are just not portable. People, however, are extremely mobile. In a service- and information-based economy, businesspeople need information to travel with them.Thus, TractManager Inc. developed and manages PropertyTract, a superpowered virtual filing cabinet. Clients store their files on PropertyTract servers under lock and key–or rather, username and password. Pivotal to the product’s usefulness, however, are TractManager’s patents for key-word searching and electronic tables of contents.Here is how it works: A new client provides TractManager with a pile of documents. The software company scans them and builds a database to the user’s needs. The…

In the midst of a national economy rife with cutbacks and layoffs, research and development concern Battelle is making plans to increase the size of its digs at three locations in the Columbus, Ohio, area. The global nonprofit organization, whose core businesses include health and life sciences, energy and national security, will shell out over $200 million to build, expand and renovate office, laboratory and manufacturing facilities, as well as a day care center. “Business is strong and we’re investing in growing sectors of our business, like bioscience and biomedical research at our West Jefferson location,” a Battelle spokesperson told CPN. West…

Wall Street was gloomy in the morning Thursday, but by the final bell investors were feeling better, perhaps pumped up a little by the news that the federal government won’t let Bank of America fail, despite shooting itself in the foot with the purchase of Merrill Lynch. The Dow Jones ended up a slight 12.35 points, or 0.15 percent. The S&P rose 0.13 percent, and the Nasdaq did best of all, rising 1.49 percent, unfazed by the uncertain state of Steve Jobs’ health (Apple was off slightly for the day, however).The housing bubble has popped, but the pain lingers. Even…