FACILITIES MANAGEMENT WHITE PAPERS

World's Oldest Bank Enhances Ancient Reputation with Modern Technology from ARCHIBUS

ARCHIBUS, Inc.

Founded in 1472 with a mission to give aid to the underprivileged in Siena, Italy, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has the distinction of being the world's oldest bank. But its desire to remain as one of the top three banks in that country recently led it to completely reengineer its real estate management business processes using the most modern technology.

To accomplish this feat, parent Monte dei Paschi di Siena Banking Group (MPS) turned to its real estate management division, Paschi Gestione Immobiliari (PGI). And PGI turned to ARCHIBUS.

Although Banca Monte dei Paschi has a distinguished history, its focus on the future prompted it to upgrade its real estate and facilities management technology to support the bank's rapid expansion through a series of mergers as well as its own organic growth, says PGI Marketing Manager Roberto Cagneschi.

The bank currently has 30 historic executive office buildings and more than 3,000 branches, the vast majority in Italy with branches in other European countries, including Russia, as well as in the U.S., Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, India, and China.

In total, the bank's facility portfolio comprises over 2 million square meters (21.5 million square feet) of space, with approximately 75% of it leased. It didn't, however, have a centralized, integrated real estate and facility management technology platform. As a result, it could not collect and analyze data and implement best business practices to manage current and future properties as well as the costs associated with its many independent cleaning, construction and other service contractors.

Gaining control over such information was vital, as was the adoption of sophisticated project management and other applications to monitor its significant lease portfolio, manage its thousands of work orders, and support the bank's frequent facility renovations and new site openings with easy access to drawing files, among other capabilities.

To address these urgent goals, PGI implemented ARCHIBUS in order to achieve the efficiency and optimization targets contained in its three-year strategic plan. It also had to meet the banking compliance mandates set forth in Europe's Basel II Accords.

Impressive Project Management, Reporting Capabilities

Starting in 2007, the bank adopted a range of ARCHIBUS applications that included Real Property & Lease Management, Space Management, Overlay with Design Management for AutoCAD, Building Operations Management, Capital Budgeting, Project Management, as well as deploying the ARCHIBUS Web Central application to expand data access by employees using a simple Web browser.

The bank's managers have been especially impressed with the breadth of functionality in ARCHIBUS Project Management, says Cagneschi. It can, for example, manage the complete project lifecycle from the requestor, vendor, and customer points of view.

For even greater operational insight and management efficiency, the bank's ARCHIBUS data is also being integrated with Monte dei Paschi di Siena's custom ERP systems.

Also impressive are ARCHIBUS reporting capabilities. Among other capabilities, the bank currently uses XSL – FO development technology in order to format reports in standard .PDF. All reports are published and accessible to all authorized internal bank clients.

Mastering Master Planning

PGI's ARCHIBUS implementation has also made it a key player in the company's evolution with responsibility for the €147 million real estate capital planning budget. The new capabilities have given PGI the knowledge and leverage to take an active role in the strategic capital planning processes for its various branch operations.

PGI has, for example, introduced best practices for cost management tailored to each cost center through the principles and discipline outlined in its annual real estate master plan. The data foundation of that multi-year plan is the ARCHIBUS Capital Budgeting application, which helps PGI remain in compliance with MPS Group's budget guidelines.

The reach of ARCHIBUS throughout the MPS Group's empire even extends to the management of a shipyard it owns. Using its ARCHIBUS Web Central-based implementation, all projects, plans, documents, relations with external architects/engineers/surveyors, as well as oversight of facilities management activities in support of operations at the shipyard are managed using ARCHIBUS.

Expected Savings €1.7 million

In its first twelve months in operation, the bank's core ARCHIBUS applications have made a significant difference in the bank's operations by allowing it to provide better management oversight using centralized facilities data.

"The greater efficiency has meant that the bank will be able to reduce facilities management staff by approximately 20%," says Cagneschi. "After the initial €1 million investment in ARCHIBUS last year, we've saved about €500,000 (over $700,000 USD), with additional projected savings of €1.7 million (approximately $2.4 million USD) over an estimated payback period of approximately18 months."

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is now also seeing greater efficiency in its processes for updating and retrieving real estate data. That data is also gaining the status of a strategic asset as a result of integrating ARCHIBUS within its overall ERP system infrastructure.

Just as important for the long term, PGI will now be able to provide the responsive, cost-efficient facility management services to support the bank's rapid growth trajectory.

Vital Statistics

Organization: Paschi Gestioni Immobiliari (PGI), the real estate services unit of MPS Banking Group, serving Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Facilities Facts: 30 historic executive buildings, 3,000 branches, representing 2 million square meters (21.5 million square feet) of space managed by ARCHIBUS

ARCHIBUS Applications:

Real Property & Lease Management, Space Management, Overlay with Design Management for AutoCAD and Revit, Building Operations Management, Capital Budgeting, Project Management, and ARCHIBUS Web Central

Reason for Implementation: Need to control costs using centralized real estate and facilities management data that can be integrated with existing ERP systems

Benefits Gained:

More efficient and accurate data management/access, improved real estate/budget/project management, enhanced company image through more accurate data and easier information access by clients. Expected overall savings of €1.7 million ($2.4 million USD), with projected payback period of 18 months

Business Partner: eFM
Web Site: www.mps.it

About ARCHIBUS

ARCHIBUS is a leading global provider of real estate, infrastructure and facilities management software, with expenditures for ARCHIBUS-related products and services exceeding $1.7 Billion (USD). With ARCHIBUS, organizations of all sizes and their outsourcing partners can use a single, comprehensive, integrated solution to make informed strategic decisions that optimize return-on-investment, lower asset lifecycle costs, and increase enterprise-wide productivity and profitability.

More than 4,000,000 ARCHIBUS users collectively manage over 5,000,000 properties, with organizations reporting facilities-related cost savings as high as 34%. With over 1,600 ARCHIBUS Business Partners, local and regional support worldwide is available in over 130 countries and in over two dozen languages. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, ARCHIBUS, Inc. has pioneered real estate, infrastructure and facilities management software technologies since 1982—when it developed one of the world's first integrated CAFM (computer-aided facilities management) systems. For more information, visit www.archibus.com.