An Interview with Our CIO – Grady Ligon
Chief Information Officer
Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services recently completed one of the most significant milestones of its Global Service Platform project – 100% transition of all North American clients to the new system and integrating all of its technologies under the new GSP PowerSuite to better service clients and their relocating employees. To mark this major achievement, Grady Ligon, Chief Information Officer, provided these insights into the project.
Moving Forward: As Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services’ CIO, what would you say are the three major benefits to clients resulting from the implementation of the new integrated technology?
Grady Ligon: The most important benefit clients will realize is increased transferee satisfaction combined with greater savings in time. Next, our innovative tools will provide easy access to assist clients in managing the relocation process from end-to-end. Finally, our clients will benefit from having data available on demand.
These benefits mean our clients are better informed when they are considering relocation options, HR choices and policy changes, and can make decisions that will be fact-based, strategic, timely and cost-effective.
MF: What can you tell us about the new GSP PowerSuite?
GL: The GSP PowerSuite includes these technology components:
- ReloCenter, the Web site used by clients and transferees to access our suite of relocation tools
- Global Service Platform (GSP), the technology engine behind our service delivery
- eValuatorSM, a Web-based real estate market data tool to help clients better understand the economic environment and market dynamics in their transferees’ departure and destination locations
- Online Seller AdvantageSM, a tool shared with our Real Estate Division to provide customized online reports and listing activity emails on properties that we manage for sale
- CultureWizard™, powered by RW3, the online intercultural training solution designed for expatriates and their families on international assignments, business travelers, and global teams
The GSP PowerSuite integrates the services we offer to our clients and their transferees, making the relocation process easier and providing the right information at the right time. Our goal in integrating these services is to maximize client and customer satisfaction.
MF: Can you describe the security features of the new GSP PowerSuite?
GL: The approach to data security at Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services is one of our major differentiators and a key benefit to our clients. The built-in security for the GSP PowerSuite helps to ensure all clients, transferees and suppliers can only access the information that is necessary for their specific role.
Clients can only see the data related to their organization and their transferees. Transferees can only see data related to their relocation services. Suppliers can only see data related to their services. Additionally, we take significant care to secure personally identifiable information so it is not exposed or compromised.
GSP utilizes IBM® Tivoli® Access Manager WebSEAL for internal associate single sign-on (SSO) authentication and Entrust® GetAccess™ for client, transferee and supplier authentication, which gives us a highly secure, encrypted authentication layer for GSP.
MF: What can you share with us about the architecture of your data warehouse?
GL: The Global Data Warehouse (GDW) is the heart of our reporting solution for the GSP PowerSuite. It takes in data from multiple functional areas in the Real Estate and Relocation Divisions, transforms it and prepares it for transactional and analytical reporting. This allows us to provide accurate and consistent on-demand reporting to our clients and across our organization.
MF: How easy is it to access and use this new technology?
GL: Accessing and using the ReloCenter Web site, the entry point for GSP, is as simple as typing http://www.rocksolidrelo.com into an Internet browser. Our new site is very user-friendly and easy to navigate. Every client and transferee set up in GSP automatically has access to ReloCenter.
MF: What types of information does ReloCenter include?
GL: For clients, the new ReloCenter Web site provides a one-stop location to get details on the relocation transactions they have initiated. Information such as real-time status and notes on all their relocating employee moves, reports on costs, status and exceptions by transferee, initiation volume reports, expense details by employee, individual expense reports for each transferee move, online forms and more can be accessed through ReloCenter. The eValuatorSM and CultureWizardSM tools are also accessible through ReloCenter for clients.
Transferees can use the new ReloCenter Web site to customize their move timeline, view policy benefits, services and individual status, access documents, complete forms relating to their move, and submit and track their relocation expenses. Domestic and international destination area details can be viewed through ReloCenter. Online Seller AdvantageSM and CultureWizardSM tools are also accessible through ReloCenter for transferees.
MF: What are the major operational advantages to the internal relocation associates delivering services or managing accounts?
GL: Having a single integrated platform helps to ensure the consistency, accuracy and timeliness of the data available to our relocation associates. This is a tremendous benefit as it allows us to build on our reputation for delivering excellence and providing outstanding service to our clients and transferees with greater ease than ever before.
MF: In the future, what might we expect to see in terms of enhancements and new technology tools within GSP?
GL: As we move into 2010, we will:
- Transition all of our international clients to GSP
- Roll-out the integrated tax-gross up capabilities
- Continue to expand our data warehouse reporting environment
Our objective is to continuously improve our systems and technology to provide the best service to our clients and lead the way in the relocation industry.