J.D. Edwards & Co. launched its Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) technology system, which is intended to enable all asset-intensive industries to reap the benefits of improved performance and return on their plant and equipment. EAM assists with a variety of tasks, from reducing the amount of repairs to selecting the appropriate technicians for the work. And in the case of commercial real estate companies, EAM is aimed to improve tenant satisfaction as well as decrease the cost of ownership. "Real estate is more affected by performance of the property than by the cost put into it for the initial development," says Jim Upton, product marketing manager, J.D. Edwards.

Selling a real estate company on a product's cost saving abilities is one thing, but the more intrinsic side is the customer satisfaction. "Many of our real estate clients have told us the benefit of EAM is not as much in the day-to-day financial management aspect of fixed asset depreciation type evaluation; it's much more of a property valuation," Upton says.

J.D. Edwards counts several commercial real estate companies among its leading EAM clients, including Boston Properties, Inc., Archstone-Smith Trust and Equity Office Properties Trust to name a few.