Rockwell Automation is a leading industrial automation company focused on becoming the global provider of power, control and information solutions.

Their distribution network includes over 5,600 system integrators, agents and distributors in more than 80 countries.  Their real estate portfolio encompasses nearly fourteen million square feet of space in 45 countries.

Problem

Rockwell Automation was managing within the constraints of legacy systems and dated technology. A Lotus Notes based lease administration tool was in use that did not provide accurate reporting by today’s standards, and did not provide seamless data integration with other internal systems.  The application also did not allow Rockwell to share portfolio data with their project management tool and vice versa while transaction management data was stored and managed separately. With limited user access, efficient collaboration and reporting was impossible. Rockwell was satisfied with specific elements of their existing system and required any new solution to replicate these effective elements, while adding additional benefits.

Solution

CoStar Real Estate Manager worked with Rockwell to satisfy the condition of reproducing specific elements from their legacy system. While creating reports, more key reporting requirements were uncovered and addressed.  Aspects of the user interface would also need to be replicated, allowing users to use familiar forms that would reduce the learning curve and increase the accuracy of data entry as the new system was rolled out.  After these items were addressed, a detailed migration of portfolio and transaction data from the legacy system was required; with all data imported into CoStar Real Estate Manager and then verified for accuracy.  Transaction management information was separately loaded using a third party service provider.  CoStar Real Estate Manager would then leverage its integration engine for feeding portfolio and project data into the system on a nightly basis.  CoStar Real Estate Manager is now the central repository for all portfolio and transaction data, allowing users from the across the globe to have full access to portfolio and transaction details.

Results

The automated sharing of portfolio and transaction information saves significant time by eliminating the need for redundant data entry into independent systems and fulfilling repeated requests for reports and documents. Rockwell can now identify and accurately report global real estate investment. Lastly, usage of CoStar Real Estate Manager has grown to 200 users worldwide, providing Rockwell employees and external service providers around the globe real-time access to information when and where they need it.