Summary: |
The fragmentation of the construction and real estate sectors, and theinformation intensive character of their activities, makes it very difficult toselect, store and transfer relevant information among its members. Thevolume and diversity of data in these sectors have been a hindrance fordeveloping effective, integrated and standardised information systems forconstruction, building and real estate management. To overcome theseproblems at the level of strategic management of corporate real estate, aresearch was set to elicit the main information dimensions, or the mainconcerns, within the area. This research used as paradigms models thatsucceeded on defining and using the main dimensions of a particular subjectmatter, facilitating communications, decision-support and learningprocesses. Examples of these paradigms are the main factors of productionin the theory of capital in economics, the balanced scorecard and the criticalsuccess factors in organisational management, the three dimensions inproject management and Pena's (1987) main concerns for programming inarchitecture. The research consisted of a content analysis of seventycorporate real estate management (CREM) models used in industry andacademia eliciting the main features (concepts, tools, techniques, methods)quoted on these models. Using classification techniques and supported by aliterature review and expert interviews, these features were classifiedaccording to their nature, similarities and origin. The main dimensionsresulting from this classification system provided the main informationdimensions in CREM. These dimensions are financial, physical and human,each one divided in three classes, respectively. The financial dimension isdivided in the classes rentability, business information and intelligence. Thephysical dimension is divided in the classes data, management anddiagnosis. Finally, the human dimension is divided in the classesorganisation, occupancy and customer. Examples of uses of the CREMframework are given. |