Building Engines Announces Solution to Ensure Diversity in CRE Vendor Selection

Expansion of Prism Bid Management functionality will allow CRE owners and operators to more easily source underrepresented vendors to address supplier diversity

Building Engines, the leading provider of building operations software for modern commercial real estate (CRE), today announced it has expanded the functionality of its Prism Bid Management solution to enable CRE owners and operators to bring more diversity to their vendor selections. Property teams will be able to source vendors in underrepresented groups, such as minority- or woman-owned businesses, classified and selectable when projects or contracts go out to bid. With this release, vendor proposals can be easily compared based on the diversity classifications identified as priority, and teams can report on and demonstrate diversity across the vendor supply chain.

The issue of diversity and inclusion in the CRE industry has been widely recognized by changemakers as one that needs to be addressed promptly. Many are making inroads to embrace diversity, with organizations across all sectors looking at addressing workplace, supplier and capital allocation diversity. In agreement with the long overdue need to make the industry more inclusive, Building Engines identified vendor diversity as a key piece it can help with in solving the larger issue.

“With this new capability in our Bid Management solution, we are enabling diversity within the CRE vendor supply chain. This has many benefits but most importantly it gives woman- and minority-owned businesses access to these jobs in an industry that’s been hard to break into,” said Daniel Russo, chief product officer at Building Engines. “By easily categorizing these vendors and highlighting them during vendor bidding and selection, we offer a higher level of transparency in the decision-making process. It provides a clear way for our customers to include a diverse set of vendors on every contract.”

Prism Bid Management streamlines the competitive vendor bidding process by automating tedious tasks, like follow up communication and bid comparisons, and ensuring CRE owners and operators only get proposals from vetted vendors. With repeatable RFP templates, the competitive bid process is quick and easy. The new vendor diversity capability adds a critical layer of benefits to this process by:

• Providing access to minority- and woman-owned businesses, and other underrepresented groups, to win contracts that previously may not have been accessible to them
• Improving quality and price on vendor contracts by breaking the cycle of going with the same vendor due to familiarity or convenience, opening a competitive and inclusive bid process
• Giving CRE management teams an avenue to implement diverse vendor initiatives and track success against goals through analytics and reporting on diverse vendor sourcing and contracts awarded

“It’s heartening to get requests from customers who are placing a priority on diversity and inclusion,” said Tim Curran, CEO of Building Engines. “We’re proud to play our part here, by offering a way for owners and operators to more easily implement practices that lead to greater diversity in CRE services.”

Prism Bid Management creates healthy and fair competition within the vendor supply chain, making the quality of work and pricing better while embracing diversity in the bidding process. This is one example of Building Engines’ continual progress toward delivering solutions that address some of the CRE industry’s most pressing pain points. The company’s 20-year track record of delivering building operations excellence coupled with its innovative approach produces unique value for customers, helping them adapt as the CRE industry—and the world in which it operates—continues to transform.

About Building Engines

Building Engines improves net operating income across the world’s most successful Commercial Real Estate portfolios. Our customers increase their revenue, deliver the best occupant experience, and reduce their operating costs using our innovative building operations software platform, Prism. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Boston, with offices in New York City and Scottsdale, Building Engines is developing, acquiring and partnering to address long-standing problems in building operations. Today, more than 850 customers—including Beacon Capital Partners, Cushman & Wakefield and SL Green—rely on Building Engines to manage critical operational needs across more than 2.5 billion square feet and 26,000 properties worldwide.