Calvis, a leading information technology and management consultancy for the professional services sector, today announced that it will be expanding its global footprint with the launch of its North American headquarters based in New York. The new office formalizes Calvis’s commitment to the region and will enable it to build upon its existing client base which includes organizations such as Transwestern and Hines. It also increases Calvis’ advisory and implementation services in asset/property management throughout the US and EMEA, as evidenced by the recent engagement with pan-European manager PointPark Properties, based in the Czech Republic.
Through this expansion, Calvis will bring to market an unparalleled level of cross border knowledge, expertise and sector insight to provide firms with both local and global solutions. It will continue to deliver technical and strategic consultancy around Microsoft platforms, with a focus on SharePoint and business improvement technologies such as document management and business intelligence, while engaging clients at a board level to determine how technology can be deployed to achieve business and revenue objectives.
Sandy Jacolow has been appointed Head of US Operations and will be responsible for managing existing relationships, driving new business and providing the strategic direction for the North American arm of Calvis. Most recently, Jacolow headed the Real Estate Technology Services for Inetium, a Microsoft Gold partner, where he leveraged his experience in the institutional advisory, and brokerage markets to provide strategic IT consultancy around business and operational improvement. Prior to this, Jacolow served as CIO at Newmark Knight Frank, one of the world’s largest real estate property management brokerage firms, where he was responsible for directing its North American technology initiatives. He also held the position of CIO and Senior Director at ING Clarion Partners, a member of ING Real Estate, while for an extended period of time concurrently ran its Client and Portfolio Reporting services department.
To complement Calvis’ extensive SharePoint expertise, Sandy brings the exclusive global rights to RealFuse (www.realfuse.com), a unique web based framework that provides key performance indicators and management information to Real Estate asset managers. By delivering or leveraging your corporate Intranet, RealFuse provides a single common interface for users to retrieve, consolidate and aggregate data from industry leading property and asset management solutions like MRI and Yardi while improving access to information and reducing multiple system dependencies.
During a career which has spanned more than 25 years, Jacolow has been an active member of the real estate community. He has served as chairperson of the Information Management Committee of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCRIEF) and been a voting member of the Real Estate Industry Standards (REIS) Council. Furthermore, he has served as a member of the Senior IT Advisory Council of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAERIM), and was a founding member on the Board of Directors for OSCRE (Open Standards Consortium For Real Estate). Jacolow brings to the table a unique and complimentary blend of financial, accounting and technology experience which he brought to his role as a member of the Realcomm CIO advisory panel during 2006 and 2007.
Chris Lees, Founder and Executive Director at Calvis, said: “One of our key business objectives at the start of the year was to increase our presence in North America. This has now been achieved through the appointment of Sandy. He is somebody I’ve known for many years and is extremely well respected within the industry. Moreover, his approach and mindset match ours – a real focus on delivering value quickly by providing an appropriately engineered solution and not assuming every project has to be a large project. He understands real estate and technology and how the latter needs to be put into a business context for it to deliver real benefit. ”
“Our focus in North America will be the same as it is in EMEA. Sandy’s commercial success in SharePoint engagements and relationship with Microsoft strengthens our offering. We will continue to focus on the platforms that lie at the heart of our clients’ business such as property, finance and practice management systems, while offering high level strategic consulting around process improvement technologies. We are all very excited about what more we can achieve both in North America and across Europe as we believe our offering is substantially better than anything else out there.”
Chris Saah, Chief Information Officer at Transwestern, said: “Calvis has a very strong reputation in the States for providing clear strategic advice and its credentials in SharePoint are also very compelling. From our perspective, Calvis understands our sector, business and the technology we use. For those reasons it is best placed to help us maximize both existing and future investment.”