TMW Real Estate Management Case History Based in Atlanta, TMW Real Estate Group, LLC, and TMW Management, LLC, maintain a portfolio of more than fifteen million square feet of commercial real estate nationwide. TMW offers advisory services for its German-based clients and asset management, property management and brokerage services for all clients. TMW’s problem was one many companies would envy – it was growing so fast, its outdated technology infrastructure was unable to keep up. Its COBOL-based software package did not offer asset management capabilities and was very limited in other areas of functionality. To make matters worse, several of TMW’s applications, including e-mail, were MS-DOS based, and not Y2K compliant. Like many companies approaching 2000, TMW needed help – fast.

"As a company, our top customer-focused priority is to provide our clients with timely and informative reports," said Faye Wall, senior vice president of TMW Real Estate Management. "As TMW’s client base grew and diversified, demand for faster and better reporting intensified. CGI provided the solution to this very difficult problem." TMW chose MRI, a software solution from Management Reports, Inc., to replace its aging system. This package gave TMW the flexibility it needed, including the ability to communicate with its German clients. However, TMW faced more problems – choosing a new e-mail package and upgrading its network and client operating system to achieve Y2K compliance. In addition, all available hard disk space on TMW’s NetWare server had been filled, with no room for expansion. "I decided the best way to choose which direction the network was headed was to let the users decide which applications they like best," said Suzanne Dabbs, TMW’s network administrator. "After all, the users are the most important part of your network. If they are not productive because they do not or cannot use the applications that are running, then there is little reason to operate in a networked environment." After forming a committee to look at all options, Dabbs decided to use Microsoft Outlook® and the Microsoft Exchange server because of their ease of use and integration with Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint® -- software TMW employees rely on daily. TMW executives decided to standardize their whole system on the Microsoft Windows NT® Server network operating system. When it came to choosing a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, Computer Generation was an easy choice. "When I met with Computer Generation and discussed our needs," said Dabbs, "I knew they were the company with which we wanted to team. Their expertise and ability to deliver a next generation of technology package provided us with a solution that would not only meet but exceed our needs." CGI installed MRI, Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition, SQL Server Enterprise Edition and Exchange Server Enterprise Edition, clustered on two Compaq ProLiant 1600 PII 400 servers. "We are confident TMW’s critical applications will be bulletproof in the Windows NT-based cluster environment," said CGI sales consultants. TMW has taken full advantage of the powerful capabilities provided by Exchange Server, offering users internal and external e-mail, public folders for sharing client notes, and group scheduling. Phase one of the project provided instant evidence of the CGI solution. "We have reduced the cost of faxing documents to clients by using Exchange Internet e-mail, and Windows NT Server Terminal Server Edition has decreased access time to applications dramatically for our branch offices." In fact, TMW estimates this operation is saving the company $10,000 per year, and they expect to save $50,000 per year by eliminating the need for more office personnel. Installing BackOffice has improved application availability by 50 percent, saving TMW another $10,000 yearly in lost productivity. The total savings add up to more than $70,000 annually.