Line of Business: Finance Suite
How the Canadian retailer optimized store development and compliance by leveraging NRE's single source of truth and advanced analytics
Our client is a Canadian government-owned retailer responsible for the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages. It operates as one of the world’s largest buyers and retailers of beverage alcohol, offering a wide selection of wines, spirits, beers, and other alcoholic products to consumers through retail stores as well as an online store, and generating over $3 billion in sales annually.
The retailer relies on Nakisa Real Estate software (NRE) as its primary tool for managing all its real estate needs for its stores, offices, and warehouses.
“From day one we were very impressed with the product as well as everyone on the team we have dealt with. We migrated very successfully from fairly outdated software thanks to the efforts of the Nakisa Real Estate team taking the time to understand how our existing database worked along with our business process and needs. This product was definitely designed with a clear understanding of the industry. Besides NRE being a user-friendly and flexible software, the team provides us with the best customer service. Technical skills have simplified so many of the daunting data migration tasks and brought to reality the configurations in transaction processing, user interfaces, and reporting that our business has required. We are very pleased with the product, and the ongoing tech-support and reassurance from the Nakisa team whenever a question may arise have made moving to NRE a winning decision for us.”
Maria Tassou
Real Estate Lease Administrator, Information Management
The Challenge:
The retailer was in search of a user-friendly commercial real estate (CRE) software that could provide comprehensive real estate management, lease administration, and lease accounting functionality, aligned with the requirements of a government entity. Before choosing Nakisa Real Estate software, they had been using legacy software built in 2000 by Retail Lease. However, they encountered several challenges with this software. Their current solution had limited functionalities, was not user-friendly, and was approaching its end of life and end of support. These limitations prompted the retailer to search for a new software solution that could meet their requirements and adapt to their evolving business and operational needs. They considered several vendors, went through the RFP process, and finally determined Nakisa as their chosen Real Estate lease management software.
With NRE, the Retailer Has Achieved
- A real estate management software tailored to meet their specific needs as a retail government entity
- Centralized data tracking
- Seamless Oracle ERP integration and IFRS 16 compliance
- Improved control over process compliance and audit information
- Improved information sharing due to the centralized nature of the system
- Customizable reports that aid in making better decisions, particularly for projects and store development
- Improved lease reconciliation processes
- Streamlined authorization process
- Enhanced customer service with easy accessibility and prompt responsiveness
Requirements: Core Real Estate Functionalities Customized to the Unique Needs of a Retail Government Entity
The retailer had specific requirements for their real estate management software, tailored to the unique needs of a government entity. These requirements included:
- Store development and site selection functionality
- A centralized storage system for landlords’ proposals
- Seamless integration with Oracle ERP for rent processing
- Compliance with IFRS 16 accounting standard
- Compatibility with the internal structure and processes of a government entity, including necessary controls and audits
- Flexibility to create custom options and alerts to track critical dates for compliance and audit requirements
- Flexible authorization rules allowing the administrators or managers to authorize information
- Reliable and comprehensive audit log reporting for improved transparency and accountability
“Very easy transition because it looks and feel[s] like it was built by real estate people so real estate user will understand quickly the system and all the flow of the system is intuitive.”
Maria Lopez
Senior Manager, Real Estate Administration and Analysis
Solution: Nakisa Real Estate Software (NRE)
The retailer required a solution that could centralize their real estate data, streamline processes, and address specific requirements such as store development, government compliance, data accuracy and access control, information sharing, and custom reporting. In response, they selected Nakisa Real Estate (NRE) software as their preferred solution.
NRE’s centralized system enables seamless information sharing across their teams and departments, fostering collaboration, improving communication, and facilitating better decision-making.
Seamless integration with Oracle ERP for rent processing
Their ERP system and NRE are seamlessly integrated, thanks to NRE’s integration with Oracle. The bidirectional connection enables them to automatically send rent payments to the ERP system while promptly receiving feedback on any transaction failures or errors.
This level of integration plays a vital role in maintaining accounting control and ensuring compliance by minimizing manual tasks and mitigating the risk of errors. When data is manually entered into Real Estate software and duplicated in another system, such as an ERP, the probability of errors escalates. By integrating the CRE software with their ERP system, retailers like our client proactively tackle this risk, aiming for a streamlined and error-free process.
Compliance with IFRS 16 accounting standards
By adopting Nakisa Real Estate, there retailer has successfully centralized their lease agreements, streamlined their lease accounting processes, and ensured compliance with IFRS 16. NRE is fully compliant with the lease accounting standards of IFRS 16. Additionally, it can embed accounting policies within itself.
By integrating compliance tools and CRE software into a single platform, all expenses, purchase orders, invoices, and accounting information are seamlessly and automatically transitioned for reporting purposes, ensuring compliance every step of the way. This eliminates the need for maintaining separate solutions, tracking materiality thresholds, and ensures accurate financial reporting while minimizing the risk of potential human errors associated with siloed systems.
Store development and site selection functionality
As a retailer, store development (site selection) is a crucial aspect for our client, and it is primarily managed by their development team, also referred to as the leasing department. This team is responsible for identifying suitable locations to open new stores. They collaborate closely with the locations analysis team and utilize various geographical, demographic, and economic data to determine the ideal locations for expansion.
The development team works in conjunction with the construction team to evaluate the costs associated with building the store layout. They consider key performance indicators (KPIs) such as payable rent, tenant allocation offered by the landlord, and projected sales figures generated by the potential store. These factors play a significant role in the decision-making process to ensure the viability and success of each new store location.
With NRE, the retailer efficiently manages store development and site selection by leveraging geographic, demographic, and economic data. The customized reports built by NRE have empowered our client with invaluable insights for store selection and project planning and enabled them to make well-informed decisions and optimize their real estate expansion strategies effectively.
Centralized storage system for landlords’ proposals (aka proposal module)
Additionally, as a government entity, our client receives proposals for available space from landlords. To effectively manage these proposals, they require a centralized storage system. This functionality is provided by the proposal module, which was specifically designed in partnership with them.
The proposal module allows the retailer to store and organize the proposals received from landlords, ensuring easy access and retrieval when needed. By having a dedicated proposal module integrated into NRE, they can efficiently manage the various proposals they receive, making informed decisions about potential lease agreements and facilitating their real estate operations.
Comprehensive compliance and audit
As a government entity, our client places a strong emphasis on compliance and audit due to the nature of their operations. To effectively manage compliance and audit requirements, they require a real estate lease management solution that offers flexibility and customization options.
NRE offers workflow authorization, segregation of duties, and flexible authorization rules. It includes features like custom roles, single sign-on (SSO), and access control based on user roles and departments. These capabilities enable administrators and managers to securely manage data access, minimize the risk of fraud, and maintain data integrity.
Additionally, Nakisa Real Estate software utilizes a full audit trail both in the front and back end to support IT General Controls (ITGC) and SOX compliance. It offers a comprehensive audit log report, downloadable to Excel, which records and tracks all user activities within the system. This audit log report provides transparency and accountability, allowing our client to monitor and review system actions, changes, and approvals, which is crucial for compliance and audit purposes.
Critical dates notifications
With NRE, the retailer has the ability to create custom options and alerts to set up specific notifications and reminders for critical dates and milestones, ensuring that they stay on top of their obligations and requirements.
Why Nakisa Real Estate Software (NRE)
Our client was in search of a real estate management solution that not only offered core real estate and lease management features but also possessed an easy, intuitive, and flexible structure. They required a solution that could centralize their real estate data and cater to their specific needs as a government entity, including government compliance and audit processes, authorization of access and information sharing, site development management, and customized detailed reporting.
They considered the top three real estate management solutions, including Nakisa Real Estate, and ultimately selected Nakisa as their preferred software solution. The selection was based on various factors, such as Nakisa’s tailored approach to addressing tenant needs, comprehensive lease admin, real estate management, and compliance functionalities, user-friendly and flexible UI, and superior performance in a test conducted by them for a specific business process.
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