Project Octane Exec Says Consortium Will Roll Out Two New Platforms

NEW YORK CITY-Project Octane will not only launch the publicized transaction platform it is developing by the end of the first quarter next year, it plans to roll out a shared-services ASP by the end of the third quarter in 2002. Octane, comprised of New York-based Insignia Financial Group Inc., Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis, Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. and London and Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, already has its procurement platform underway. Trammell’s president of e-commerce and corporate development, James Groch, reported the plans at yesterday’s PACT conference in the Waldorf Hotel.

Groch was one of several representatives of Project Octane there. As a panelist in the session, “Joined-at-the-Hips Corporate Ventures: A Defensive Strategy or Growth Opportunity?” he outlined Octane’s plans to delve into transaction platforms. “Communications are a little chaotic,” but Octane believes it can use its upcoming platform to “reduce cost, cycle time, increase transparency and eliminate redundancy.”

“The shared services ASP is an information aggregate and process efficiency tool,” Groch explained. “The benefits will be to reduce costs, integrate systems, enhance reporting, manage applications remotely and provide access to real-time data.” This would be the final step in its “three primary initiatives.”