Case Study

MindView as a Construction and Real Estate Management Tool at Menden Real Estate Service

Martin Niehage

Operations Manager

Industry

Real Estate

Company

The Menden Real Estate Service (ISM) is an in-house facility of the City of Menden concerned with building construction investment and renovation of urban buildings. Its portfolio includes around 160 real estate and asset management projects. When ISM was created in January 2009 by the City Council of Menden, all property-specific services were bundled centrally within the city administration. Fixed assets account for around 98% of the total assets for buildings and land. Among others, these include schools, land for development, children and youth facilities and administration buildings.

The services that relate to urban real estate are carried out by three teams in the real estate service:

• Commercial real estate service
• Technical real estate service
• Infrastructure real estate service

What are the tasks of your department?

The purpose of the in-house ISM service is to answer the needs of the organizational units and service areas of the City of Menden as regards land, buildings and commercial spaces under optimal business and environmental conditions, without drawing on their funds or their own teams.

How long have you been working with MindView?

Since January 2020.

How easy was it to get started with MindView?

Because of its well-structured user interface and its menu navigation based on the familiar Microsoft Office products, I found it clear and easy to understand.

Who actually works with the software in your company?

The management team, engineers, architects, business assistants and employees.

In which area do you use MindView?

Building construction in the borough.

For what activities do you use MindView?

Essentially to plan construction projects and to define the tasks of the team members.

How exactly do you do this?

Basically, we follow a conceptual approach, as our projects usually span several years (brainstorming, creation of mind maps, Gantt charts and so on).

What are the advantages of using MindView?

MindView gives us the ability to develop projects of any size quickly. One of the big plusses is to be able to export the mind maps to all the common formats. Its documentation and reporting functions are also very efficient when presenting projects to local government committees.

What do users appreciate about MindView?

Its ease of use and number of different options.

Where do you see other areas of application within your company?

MindView is suitable for implementing different types of council-wide concepts, such as e-government.

How could other councils engaged in building management benefit from MindView?

MindView provides great scope and opportunities in the implementation of construction projects or major redevelopments. MindView is particularly suitable for tasks and projects requiring a high level of coordination.

What is your experience of working with MatchWare?

Pleasant, helpful and professionally competent.

Do you recommend the software?

Yes.

Are there other functions you would also like to see in MindView?

Since not all councils work with Outlook, compatibility with other software applications (such as Lotus Notes) would be desirable.