Why would I have dreamed of having SONEKA in 2008

I worked at GE Real Estate Europe from 2004 to 2016. I held various management positions there: at the European headquarters and then in the French subsidiary for which I managed the Property Management and then Asset Management teams.

In particular, I held the position of Portfolio Manager at GE Real Estate Europe from 2006 to 2011. At the time, we managed 20 billion euros: 80% of assets owned by us, and 20% of real estate loans.

Until 2007, GE was very focused on growth, making several billion euros in acquisitions per year, both in historic countries in Europe but also in new geographies.

From the summer of 2007 and even more so in 2008, the priority changed completely: the acquisitions stopped in their tracks. Managing existing assets has become the core of business. Securities across Europe have plummeted, especially in Spain, Italy and England, with falls of up to 50% compared to the purchase price of portfolios.

In addition to operational management aimed at optimizing each building and situation, a very strong emphasis has been placed on a detailed understanding of the portfolio.

Not a day went by without being asked for a new analysis on a wide variety of topics. These could be requests from the American headquarters, the American regulator or requests from each subsidiary for portfolio decisions. Numerous stress tests were carried out in contexts where VLMs fell.

At the time, GE Real Estate was considered to be very well equipped with its 3 Asset Management software:

• A homemade tool that structures all data on buildings and loans;
• A standard valuation tool;
• A data visualization tool that allows you to report on all this data.

Despite these tools, we could not do what was expected of us in a fluid way: understand in order to make good decisions.

The various analyses proved to be very time-consuming for the following reasons:

• The ergonomics of the valuation tool made it very complicated for Asset Managers to use it. This generated long and inagile update cycles. Analysts were becoming data entry operators.
• The absence of bridges between the tools required multiple re-entries. Our valuation tool worked stand-alone even though it was the source of all advanced financial analyses.
• The reporting tool, which was not very flexible, only allowed simple exposure graphs to be made while the requests were much more elaborate.
• The need to use queries directly in the database to respond to certain requests.
• The very cumbersome stress test processes required knowing how to handle expert functionalities of the valuation tool. Only one person had these skills in Europe.

Despite a rich team of very talented analysts at the head office and in each European subsidiary, a very important amount of time was lost and we could not go as far as we would have liked due to system limitations.

Based on this very intense experience, we designed SONEKA in early 2017. SONEKA has since become the first integrated asset management solution.

The current situation shows that we have succeeded in creating the tool that every asset manager dreams of using on a daily basis:

• An integrated solution Allowing you to do everything from the same system and above all with the same source data: cash flow forecasting, scenario comparison, operational sales/marketing management, decision monitoring, etc.
• A valuation tool designed by and for asset managers, and can therefore be used by anyone who knows real estate without being system pros.
• An integrated reporting tool allowing output standard and customized reports instantly.
• A very thorough integration with the 2 favorite tools of Asset Managers: Excel and PowerPoint, in order to save time and reliability.
• Of varied and complete modules encompassing all facets of the Asset Manager business.
• Very fine configuration possibilities: each customer has the impression of using Its own SONEKA.
• A solution to carry out a stress test on an entire portfolio in a few clicks.

3 years after the launch of SONEKA, I am proud to see that we have succeeded in our mission while providing a large number of additional functionalities.

Over 200 professionals use SONEKA daily to draw up their business plans, model several scenarios and compare their returns, manage their business, follow up on a sale...

We work every day with our customers to meet their needs while ensuring great consistency and ease of use.

The coming months will obviously be different from 2008: they promise to be turbulent in terms of real estate, however.

SONEKA supports its clients through this period to better understand their portfolios, to anticipate impacts and to help make the best decisions.

In retrospect, I think that if we had already had SONEKA in 2008, we would have gone through the crisis much more effectively and peacefully.