White Paper
Corporate Services
Trends in the Industry
• Asset/Space Utilization & Occupancy Cost Reduction
- Increased intensity to identify and accelerate the redeployment of surplus and underutilized real property assets;
- Expanded use of real estate assessment and cost analysis programs for specific locations or pools of assets; and
- Accelerated use of alternative workplace environment and space utilization strategies as a cost reduction enabler.
• Organization/Role of Corporate Real Estate
- Greater use of the process management approach to services;
- Increased use of dedicated corporate real estate account managers to interact with business units;
- Expanded use of single source corporate real estate “center of expertise” located within either a centralized or regional shared services centers - merging many allied services into such centers (e.g., plant engineering, retail real estate);
- Expanded use of purchased services to supplement services management often using strategic alliance contracting methodologies including consolidating services providers to a reasonably manageable number; and
- Establish and maintain a “rapid response” capability for certain key core competencies as needed, on-demand within all key geographies of the corporation.
• Financial Management
- Employment of comprehensive cost management (ABC) methodologies; and
- Expanded use of transfer pricing methodologies to cover cost of corporate services and assets used by business units.
• Information Technology
- Integration of information management and use of decision support systems; and
- Greater integration with suppliers - sharing information, practices, and measurements.
