Systems & Reports Transformation
Real estate investment firms are complex, data-intensive businesses, and it is common for data integrity and efficiency issues to arise within these organizations—particularly after periods of rapid growth. We help commercial real estate firms overhaul their core financial infrastructure, establishing a durable foundation for the next chapter of their evolution.
We have had the privilege of transforming the core financial and analytical systems of some of the most sophisticated real estate investment firms in the world, learning and establishing new best practices each time. Our experience encompasses both privately held and publicly traded companies as well as multiple real estate subsectors, including office, hotel, multifamily, lab space, and retail. While each finance transformation is unique, the process generally consists of five phases, which are outlined below.
Working directly with key personnel from each internal department, we map out the company’s existing technology and processes and work with internal teams to diagnose inefficiencies and agree, conceptually, on the best path forward.
Blue Eddy then prepares a proposal based on those discussions, which includes a detailed plan, timeline, and estimated costs for each phase of the project.
Excel is the primary tool we use to deliver all our services. Although Excel is an “old” technology, our objective is to achieve an optimal outcome for our clients, and this is often achieved through use of older, highly developed technologies. Moreover, by integrating Excel with best-in-class business intelligence software such as Oracle APEX, SAP BPC, and Oracle Essbase, we have been able to create core analytical infrastructures that are incredibly flexible, reliable, and efficient.
However, when enterprise software is incorporated into the overall process design, we prefer “low code” solutions whenever possible to ensure complete transparency and flexibility for our clients. This also ensures that any reports or systems created are easily transferrable to new employees.
During this phase of the project, Blue Eddy designs and installs a centralized data warehousing architecture, which is usually coupled with installation of firmwide reporting and analysis software, such as Oracle Essbase, Oracle APEX, or SAP BPC.
Our implementations team has extensive experience working within the commercial real estate industry, which differentiates our firm from other software installation specialists. As former commercial real estate practitioners, our firsthand experience in creating complex reports and analyses for asset management, operations, finance, and executive decision-makers enables us to anticipate both the immediate and long-term needs of our clients. This expertise allows us to design systems that are exceptionally reliable, efficient, and scalable, minimizing the need for extensive troubleshooting or future quick fixes.
Blue Eddy interfaces with the asset management and property management teams to integrate the client's property-level forecasting process with the data warehouse and the firmwide analysis software described in Phase 3. If required, secondary/intermediate software, such as Argus Enterprise, is integrated into the new system architecture as well.
This phase typically involves recreation/retrofitting of the tools used by the asset management team to input property-level forecast assumptions for revenue, operating expenses, and capital expenditures. Functionality is also incorporated into the tools to allow for the creation of multiple forecast scenarios, providing flexibility to address multiple different organizational applications (e.g., internal budgets, lender forecasts, etc.).
Additionally, security and audit procedures are established for documenting forecast changes. Key tracking data is stored within the database, including details on which forecast assumptions were adjusted, the timing of the changes, and the individuals responsible for the updates.
Once development of the core analytical infrastructure is complete, we train the client’s team on how to leverage the full potential of the newly configured systems and tools. However, these sessions are more than a cursory review of functionality – we provide deep skills development during our training seminars, teaching the client’s employees how to most efficiently and accurately develop in-house reports and analysis.
Our training seminars represent the culmination of decades of hands-on, industry-specific, expertise and cover a full spectrum of relevant topics, including deep Excel skills training, proven techniques for optimizing cross-functional integration/efficiency, as well as best practices for data consistency, integrity, and security.
Blue Eddy’s training seminars empower our clients with the skills they need to integrate their existing reports into the newly configured financial systems infrastructure. However, if requested by the client, we will also provide direct assistance with retrofitting existing reports and creating new business tools.
