GlobeSt.com: What can retail owners expect from the new software you are putting out?

Louziotis: We're bringing in the full structuring capability. With the initial release of ARGUS Enterprise, we had the basic lease structures, and now we're layering in the complexity for the different property types and lease structures found in different markets around the world. In this newest release, which is ARGUS Enterprise 8.5, you'll have the capability to do everything from a very basic retail property to a very complex mall, as well as office, industrial and apartments. The 9.0 release in Q4 of this year will add hospitality capabilities.

GlobeSt.com: So RECon will be especially important for you this year?

Louziotis: Definitely. There are a number of things that we have to talk about. Certainly ARGUS 8.5 with the full retail complement in there is going to be a big part of it. We also released last year a new version of our leasing-management solution, ARGUS CRM. For ICSC it's a tool that a lot of the people attending should be interested in. It allows people to manage the leasing process from inception, the moment a prospective tenant walks in, all the way through the execution and the management of that lease once it's signed. It will also give tenants the ability to look at alternative spaces and compare them.

From an owner's perspective they can look at different lease structures for the same space. You are also able to manage all of your space, have visibility into your leasing pipeline, the ability to look at your portfolio of properties and analyze all of the leases across the portfolio. There's a lot of analytical capability in terms of data mining for that solution. We are also going to build a connection between ARGUS CRM and ARGUS Enterprise, so that by the end of the year prospective and executed leases can be ported into the cash flow analysis. This will save a lot of time updating models and also allow more advanced strategy simulation.

We have also completed a brand new solution called the ARGUS Knowledge Vault. It gives users the ability to aggregate not only the internal data, but all of the third-party data they need to manage their business. The ARGUS Knowledge Vault combines data-warehousing capability, data-mining and reporting capabilities. Users can also attach analytics to the solution, and it will provide users with ways to manage their business that they haven't been able to do before. The uniqueness of the solution is that internal and external data can be easily and rapidly aggregated and normalized, new reports can be created on the fly and it was built with real estate in mind. Everyone that has seen it so far has been very excited.

GlobeSt.com: What do you think the climate of the conference will be this year based on how people are feeling about the market?

Louziotis: It seems in general that people are at least getting comfortable that we may have bottomed out. People have different perspectives on whether or not things are going to be taking a significant turn up sooner rather than later. It's impossible to predict, but if you look at the recent news, it looks like economic and job growth is slowing. The expectation was 2.5% economic growth, but it came in at 2.2%. It's not positive news there, and it's well below the 3% for the fourth quarter, so there are some negative signs. But you also see things like CalPERS and CalSTRS, two very big investors obviously, having very different views. One is willing to look at opportunities in Europe and the other one isn't. One expects to be a net investor this year, the other looks to be a net seller this year. So, there are a lot of people with different views right now, and until we have some clarity, it is going to stay that way.

GlobeSt.com: Are you seeing any different types of clients, such as smaller private investors, using your services, and why is it happening?

Louziotis: We have a pretty broad client base, over 4,700 clients globally, with our software being used in 65-plus countries around the world. We have a very large footprint within the industry. In terms of where the increase in clients is coming from, it's a mix. We see a lot of smaller companies and funds being formed, so there are opportunities there. There are smaller companies looking to band together into larger companies to increase their profile and the types of work that they do. For example, seeking to do more institutional work, if they have been more local players. We also see our larger clients having to respond to the requirements from the regulatory changes that have been happening.

In different parts of the world we are also seeing a general replacement cycle. Companies have recognized that in order to capture the opportunities that they see coming they will need to improve their infrastructure to meet new investor requirements and the new regulatory requirements that have been imposed on them. One example is that valuations now need to be done on a lot of investments on a much more frequent basis. If you think about it, going from an annual external evaluation to a quarterly evaluation, even if it is an update, is an additional cost. How do you absorb that requirement and minimize the cost? We believe that technology is going to have to help more than anything else to be able to do that. Fortunately we have an appraisal-management platform and will launch a brand new appraisal-report-writing solution into the market in the middle of the summer. With those two components, there is a lot of efficiency that will be created for users on both sides, whether it's the provider or the consumer. We have a lot of expectations for that solution.

GlobeSt.com: Are there regions of the country where you are getting more business than others?

Louziotis: It's not a huge mystery that we have a dominant marketshare in the US. If you look at where real estate companies tend to reside, it's all of the larger markets: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Boston…they are all areas where we are active, have clients and are getting interest from. The level of interest is dictated by the density of the companies in each of those areas.