Austin, TX – December 15, 2011 – Accruent, LLC, the leading provider of real estate and facilities solutions, announced today its acquisition of 360Facility, a leading SaaS-based facilities management solution company. 360Facility has an impressive customer base, highly-capable and easily-installed products, and a leadership position in important market segments. 360Facility has rapidly emerged as the preferred SaaS-based facilities solution provider to the global corporate and commercial property market, having 418 customers in 56 countries managing 64,000 properties. 360Facility solutions cover the full spectrum of facilities operations, including property management, maintenance and asset management, emergency preparedness, and incident management.

“The addition of 360Facility brings us a dynamic and successful team, cutting-edge technology and complementary product capabilities that immediately expand our product footprint and market presence,” said Mark Friedman, chief executive officer of Accruent. “We are excited by the synergies with 360Facility, including the opportunity to bring its technology to Accruent customers, to provide Accruent solutions to 360Facility customers, as well as to accelerate our market growth.”

360Facility offers customers ‘Web and Wireless’ coverage for every facilities management function and team member. By engaging the entire facilities team and providing a single, up-to-date point of reference for actions and status, 360Facility enables better service and improved efficiency that result in proven customer cost savings. 360Facility serves customers across a wide range of industries and geographies. The company has many customers in the corporate market and commercial property management and the acquisition will vault Accruent to a prominent position in these key segments for real estate and facilities solutions.

”Over the last decade, we have earned a stellar reputation for product quality and support,” said 360Facility COO Scott Twyman. “We sought a partner with the resources and expertise to help us take the next steps on our journey and found Accruent to be a great fit for our vision and our customers.”

Customers of both companies will see many immediate benefits, including an expanded range of real estate and facilities solutions from both the Accruent and 360Facility product lines; an expanded base of resources including support, engineering, and industry expertise; acceleration of product and platform delivery; and more opportunities for best practice sharing within an expanded community of Accruent customers.

Support for 360Facility and Accruent products will continue without interruption.

About 360Facility:
Founded in 2000 and located in Evanston, Illinois, 360Facility is a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, providing solutions that improve the communication, customer satisfaction, maintenance, security, cost, and quality issues confronting facility management and IT professionals. 360Facility is focused on ensuring its software is the fastest and easiest to use in the marketplace and that its customer service is the best in the industry.

About Accruent:
Founded in 1995, Accruent leads the industry with real estate and facilities solutions designed to meet the needs of specific industries. Accruent’s solutions are used to achieve performance advantage by over 800 organizations including 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies, 100 leading universities, 40 percent of the Top 100 Retailers, and 70 percent of the leading wireless carriers. For more information on Accruent, please visit www.accruent.com.

Although Apple was highly criticized for the naming of the iPad, the device has become wildly popular. But even as their market penetration and wallets continue to deepen, several competitive tablet PCs offering more open operating systems and increased flexibility have emerged that are giving Apple a run for its money.

Smart phones and rugged devices are still highly utilized by 360Facility users, but we have seen a large increase in requests and recommendations for tablets. Although many smart phones and tablets run on the same operating system and browser, our customers are finding that the increased screen real estate of tablets make them more usable for inspections, creating requests, or viewing attachments. In reality, companies often need to employ a variety of devices to support the different environments and business needs of their users.

360Facility remains focused on software development and ensuring that all browsers render our software correctly. However, we are often asked what devices we would recommend. Our advice is this: before taking the plunge for a new device, consider the following key questions:

1. Who will be utilizing the device and in what environments?
Different types of devices might be more appropriate for maintenance personnel, inspectors, and engineers than for management and professionals. Their environment and responsibilities could play a role into how rugged and durable the device needs to be as well as the features required. For example, if engineers need to take pictures in dark areas, they’ll need a device with a built-in flash.

2. How will the mobile device be utilized in the field?
Consider which type of device would be most appropriate for:
- Request Creation (internal or occupant passed)
- Documentation Review (PDF or Word files)
- Emergency Management
- Audits
- Asset Management
- Taking pictures of conditions/assets
- Navigation and GPS
- Use with bar code/RDF readers
- Compliance Management
- Usage/Performance Monitoring
- Worldwide coverage

3. Have you used the device?
I don’t buy shoes without trying them on; you should do the same with a tablet. Evaluate how it feels in your hands. Is it the right size and weight? Is it durable enough for your users? Run it through your anticipated daily activities. Is the user interface intuitive? Can you easily access and update information? Feature/Function comparisons (see below) are nice, but they cannot answer these fundamental questions.

4. Will the device be used for non-360Facility tasks?
While 360Facility is 100% web-based, if the device must meet other internal needs, ensure that your organization will support the device’s operating system (for example, Android, Blackberry OS, iOS, webOS, or Windows Mobile). Corporate connectivity for email may also be a requirement, so verify that the device will work with your corporate connection (for example, Blackberry Enterprise Server or Exchange). And, if your organization is going to manage the devices and products on them, has your organization considered buying mobile management software (for example, Soti, AirWatch, or BoxTone).

Sample Tablet Feature/Function Comparison

The below Grid was created using some internal tests on some of the more common tablets available at large retail shops as well as researching the web. This is only a sample but other tablets not listed below will likely work with 360Facility. References to other comparison charts are listed below that include additional details (e.g. Price) but below are features that are typically more important for most of our customers. Note, some devices can only support Wi-Fi Only and do not offer cellular connectivity and those have been excluded from the below list. Please be sure to check for the latest specifications prior to purchasing as updates are constantly being made to these devices.

Click image to enlarge

New operating systems and browsers are frequently released and 360Facility evaluates the most widely used versions as well as those that are gaining popularity (e.g. version 4.x of Apples OS for mobile and soon to be version 5.x). New devices are coming to market more frequently and generally run on the major operating systems and mobile browsers. 360Facility has been tested to run on different versions of the Android Operating System that includes Éclair (2.0 and 2.1), and Froyo (2.2) and Ginberbread (3.3). The Android stock browser performs best related to both average load time for live and saved sites and is recommended for this operating system. Testing has been completed on other downloaded browsers (e.g. Dolphin) however the stock browser is currently supported for the above operating systems for mobile.

Other Reviews

BGR - HTC Flyer Review »

2011 Tablet Comparison Chart by groovyPost.com »

"The “Guanxi" or "relationships" that are sacred to doing business in China is one of a few barriers to implementing SaaS there but there is evidence of its growing acceptance and "trust" that is increasing adoption worldwide”.

Contact 360Facility and reference "Summit in Shanghai" for a copy of the 360Facility presentation that focused on Software as a Service (SaaS) and the unique challenges that are found in implementing a solution in China.

Earlier this week we updated our login screen to enable users to select whether to access 360Facility in full-browser or mobile views. This new feature should work very well for customers that have smart phones that normally render in mobile mode but they want full capabilities (e.g. DROID operating systems). We have also heard some customers saying that they don’t want the full browser mode on some of the rugged devices (e.g. some Motorola MC75’s appear to be in full mode) because it is hard to do inspections. They can now switch to mobile prior to logging in.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the 360Facility booth for this year’s “IFMA World Workplace” conference. We received great feedback on our product suite and will be following up with individuals who asked for demos.

Michele Stone, Leanne Joseph and John Sharp

iPod Shuffle Winners

Congratulations to the winner of the iPod Shuffle!

• Wayne Clark

Even if you weren't a winner, hopefully you grabbed one of the lighted pens.

New 360Facility Functionality and Setting up a Demo

Below are only a few of the many pieces of new functionality that has been released or is slated for release in 2009. For more information please contact us and someone will be in touch with you shortly.

• Languages: Expanded languages module to include double byte characters (Chinese, Arabic, etc)
• Reservations: Can request and reserve any location/asset you wish to define (rooms, projectors, cars). Will have the capability for auto approval based on resource type
• Energy: Best practices for Energy Star and Leed certification. Future functionality will include automatically generated work orders when energy thresholds are exceeded as well as energy savings calculator

The convention also highlighted the BOMA 360 Performance Program which recognizes properties in major areas of building operations and management.  360Facility is a key contributor to key requirements for standard operating procedures and preventative maintenance program.  To find out more about the BOMA 360 Performance Program go to the main BOMA website at http://www.boma.org.

To see the English/Chinese specific fact sheets select Chinese/English fact sheet.
To see the Chinese fact sheet select Chinese fact sheet.

To review the 360Facility presentation, please select: FM Asia Presentation

For information about FM Asia reference www.globaleaders.com/en/2009/fma/index.asp.