CDWTCDWT

Increasing Property Portfolio Planning

Managing CDWT’s changing real estate portfolio by using data in innovative and real-time methods.

Call For Change

CDWT is a multinational firm with a dynamic real estate portfolio that must be handled properly. Our move to SAP Flexible Real Estate Management (SAP RE-FX), an all-inclusive lease contract management system, allowed us to combine real estate data and transactions and achieve a “single source of truth.”

Now that data is accessible for reporting across teams and platforms, it is possible to use data in effective ways. One such possibility was the creation of a global portfolio planning system in order to more accurately estimate needs and related expenses in accordance with corporate strategy. The real estate portfolio of CDWT is diversifying dramatically via acquisitions and expanding beyond conventional offices. We wanted to invest in a more effective capacity to meet the size and complexity of our portfolio, as well as its fast pace of change.

Our real estate strategy is motivated by the business needs of CDWT. Now, more than ever, we must be flexible and data-driven when making judgments.
Managing Director – Real Estate, Corporate Services & Sustainability, CDWT

When Tech Meets Human Inventiveness

Our Corporate Services & Sustainability Real Estate, Finance and Global IT organizations teamed to design a solution that made use of existing planning and data consolidation platforms, SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP HANA® as a Data Mart.

The resultant Real Estate Portfolio Planning system gives the freedom to plan on a city-by-city basis as well as the capacity to globalise the data. It allows users to make data- and insight-driven decisions and consider the diverse factors required to effectively manage a real estate portfolio of a global size. The data is pooled from many platforms and presented in close proximity to real time.

The new planning system offers several extra features, such as:

Capability to Project Actuals

Different key performance indicators (KPIs) are projected over a five-year period. Users may also modify or replace KPIs at the contract level.

Personnel Planning

Accounts for omni-connectivity and the influence of future manpower growth on future space needs.

Evaluation of Total Necessary Area

Automatically calculates the entire amount of space necessary based on use predictions and personnel planning.

360° viewpoint

Assists in differentiating contracts based on a variety of characteristics to determine if a facility provides the experience we want for our employees.

Adjustments

Allows modifications to be made to the plan if the projected gap is larger than the present portfolio.

Real-time data analysis and insights

Offers real-time information and computations for some of the most important KPIs. Additionally, the system allows real-time visualizations, comparisons, and what-if analysis.

Visibility and planning Worldwide

Automates the planning-level evaluation of necessary space with predicted space and consolidates the data worldwide.

Schedule workflow

Supports the central supervision of the planning process with a sequence of inter-team activities.

Forward-looking reporting and data

Automates the generation of forward-looking snapshots for month-to-month or year-to-year reporting comparisons.

In addition to addressing a critical need, the project automated data consolidation to decrease human labour. In addition, the system is coupled with a CDWT Finance forecasting tool to facilitate the interchange of data with little human effort.

A Valuable Difference

Currently, our Real Estate and Finance teams employ Real Estate Portfolio Planning to maximize CDWT’s real estate portfolio in accordance with strategic requirements. Teams are better equipped to comprehend the many aspects that effect CDWT’s real estate portfolio, to react quickly to queries, and to establish the optimal portfolio size. We also utilise the technology to generate our yearly financial planning statistics.

Other advantages of our innovative solution include:

Enhanced Preparation

Provides the capacity to plan real estate needs based on numerous business scenarios.

Enhanced Utilization Evaluation

Improves the capability to analyze use on a lease-by-lease or location-specific basis.

Enhanced Choice Making

Assists teams in making prudent real estate choices and understanding possible risk mitigation strategies.

Potential Cost Reductions

Decision-making based on data has the potential to result in cost reductions for CDWT.

Enhanced Utilization Evaluation

Improves the capability to analyze use on a lease-by-lease or location-specific basis.

We are always upgrading the solution to give consumers with the appropriate data and features. In addition to financial data, other variables, such as sustainability, omni-connectivity, and location security, will be important. The goal is to offer users with the ability to determine CDWT’s real estate demands in a dynamic work environment and to use any data at any time.

To accomplish this objective, we are connecting the Real Estate Portfolio Planning system with CDWT’s data lake in order to offer customers with extra (internal and external) data and ad hoc reporting capabilities. We want to add machine learning capabilities to the system in the future.

Our portfolio must support CDWT's flexible, innovative methods of working, where our employees experience omni-connectivity so they may perform at their best every day, independent of their physical location, while feeling connected and involved.
Senior Managing Director and Executive Director – Corporate Services & Sustainability and Business Operations, CDWT