Nearing its fifth anniversary, Commercial Complete just gets more powerful
and more comprehensive while remaining just as easy to use. When software
is written from scratch, the difference shows.
While Commercial Complete is officially nearly five years old, it has a
long history.
Caprate Calculator was introduced in 1987 and is the "granddaddy" of Commercial
Complete. Caprate was an income analysis program designed to develop the
Mortgage Equity Technique and simultaneously prove the calculations using
the Discounted Cash Flow method. It was easy to use and well accepted by
the appraisal industry. From time to time we still are asked about it.
Veteran appraisers still remember it.
You will see the distinct footprint of Caprate Calculator in Commercial
Complete. The original Caprate algorithms are still incorporated into Commercial
Complete. They have been tried and tested by thousands of users for over
twenty five years.
Investment Analyst was introduced in the early 1990''s along with the slogan "The Expert is in the Software." Powerful "lease by lease" capabilities were added so
that even complicated income analyses could be performed without the need
to create spreadsheets that were prone to design error and user error.
Extensive mathematical proofs were added behind the scenes so that the
user could always have confidence in the results.
Over the next decade, the user interface was refined and enhanced each
year to make data entry simple and intuitive. This friendly user interface
remains a part of Commercial Complete today. Investment Analyst also remains a solid income analysis tool in its own
right and is still offered for those who do not need a real estate database
or extensive narrative capabilities.
Commercial Complete Database
In 2002 we began using the name Commercial Complete to describe the optional
real estate database that could be added to the Investment Analyst product.
During the next several years this database functionality, user interface,
and report capabilities were enhanced each year, based upon user input.
The Commercial Complete real estate database has evolved into a powerful,
easy to use database that is comprehensive in its capabilities. It is now
the basis of the Property Data screen in Commercial Complete.
Narrative Complete Word Processor
By 2006 Investment Analyst provided all of the analysis capabilities that
an appraiser needed to analyze a commercial property. Income analysis,
a real estate database, sales comparison analysis and the aggregation of
building costs were already incorporated into Investment Analyst by 2006.
All components had been tried and tested by users.
But it become apparent to us that a "Complete Solution" could
not be provided until word processing was added so that all of the data
from Investment Analyst could seamlessly be incorporated into a finished
narrative document.
We looked at all of the options. The most obvious was to utilize the linking
capabilities of MS Word to insert the Investment Analyst data into Word
documents. This had the advantage of using a word processor that was already
familiar to most real estate professionals.
However, we soon realized that it was an awkward solution at best. It would
just be a variation of the MS Office "system" approach that we
had rejected long ago. MS Word is a bulky product that was designed to
accommodate everyone in general, but no one in particular. Links get broken,
different versions of MS Word have different requirements. Users would
have to switch back and forth between programs, making the solution inherently
more difficult and unreliable. Users of our software could not call Bill
Gates when there was a problem with MS Word and we could not support MS
Word. Using MS Word was just not practical or good for our clients.
We decided to create our own word processor to "merge" the Investment
Analyst data and analyses into a narrative document. It was a big step
and took more than two years to develop. Narrative Complete was introduced in 2008 and refined over the next two years. This standalone product was designed to work in conjunction with Investment
Analyst to merge the analyses that were generated by Analyst into a narrative
appraisal document.
Though Narrative Complete was effective in automating the document creation process, it had the same major shortcoming that plagues MS Office "report generators". A user had to switch between programs and screens often in order to enter data, verify the information entered, and produce the document. For us, this was an unacceptable solution to offer our users. So in 2010, Narrative Complete was discontinued and the functionality of Investment Analyst and Narrative Complete were blended into Commercial Complete. Everything was integrated into a single standalone product where all functionality revolved around a single screen.
Commercial Complete Today
Commercial Complete is only in its third year, but its component parts
have been tested by users over many years.
Today, Commercial Complete is the "Complete Software Solution." Those who see this software in action for the first time immediately recognize the benefits that are available when a single standalone software product is integrated to handle all aspects of the appraisal process, from data entry to a finished narrative document.
As one of our users recently commented; "Those other products are just not in your league." One of the significant benefits of our "property centric" standalone software, when compared to MS Office solutions, is that each new feature that is introduced actually adds to the simplicity of the product. We do not just add new spreadsheets that further complicate the process. Instead, each new feature is carefully considered and seamlessly integrated into the Commercial Complete visual interface.
Since Commercial Complete was introduced in 2010, it has continued to evolve.
It just gets more powerful and more comprehensive while remaining just
as easy to use.
