The growth of real estate investment trusts and asset management companies throughout Asia has increased demand for multi-lingual, multi-currency property management solutions throughout the region, including Japan. Therefore, MRI, a business unit of Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), enhanced and adapted MRI for Windows-Japan Version to provide the tools and flexibility that Japanese property and asset managers need to manage their real estate portfolios.

"Entering this market is further evidence of MRI's commitment to the global marketplace," said Robert Ballou, president of MRI. "Tokyo is home to arguably the largest office market in the world with 25 million tsubo (875 million square feet) of space. More broadly, Japan represents 52 percent of the real estate value in Asia."

Ballou said that Japan's real estate investment market has gone through enormous change over the last decade. "With property values dropping by as much as 80 percent, value creation and improved property operations have become critical. Effective tools such as MRI for Windows-Japan Version have become necessities for property management companies to maximize their profitability," said Ballou.

MRI's Growth in the Asian Market
MRI has considerable experience and success in the global marketplace, with 4,500 clients in 38 countries. Committed to the Asian region as a whole, the company has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, with strategic service provider alliances in both Korea and Japan.

In Japan, MRI has secured contracts with a number of companies, including: Aetos Japan, Colliers Halifax, Jones Lang LaSalle, Nippon Property Management, MS Building Support and Sanko Estate.

"The launch of this product is an important milestone for MRI," said Stephen Wilson, managing director of MRI Asia. "We have invested heavily in the development of our Japanese product over the last two years by listening closely to the needs of our clients and employing local professionals and alliances to assist in the development."

MRI Committed to Customer-Driven Innovation
MRI based its product development efforts on customer-driven innovation--listening to clients' issues and concerns and adapting the product to help them meet their business objectives.

"We have been very fortunate to have customers who have patiently assisted us to learn, understand, translate and localize our core modules in a way that will provide the greatest value to the Asian market," Wilson said.

Those observations resulted in features in the Japanese product that:

• Translates menus, views and reports into Japanese.
• Displays yen figures without decimals.
• Rounds down for tax calculation instead of rounding up.
• Accommodates Japan consumption tax.
• Allows for multiple retained earnings accounts.
• Integrates with Japanese e-banking system.
• Provides Japanese training documentation.

Clients Endorse Products
Jones Lang LaSalle, a leading global provider of integrated real estate and money management services, began researching property management software solutions in Japan in 2000. "We needed a sophisticated system that would not only compete in this tough local market, but would ultimately emerge as the chosen solution," said Yoichi Hamaoka, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle, Japan.

"MRI has made their product easy-to-use, applicable to generally accepted accounting principles in the United States and functional in the unique Japanese market. I am confident that we can continue to provide very sophisticated services to our clients and we greatly appreciate MRI's support and staff who have assisted us to become the premier real estate manager in the market," Hamaoka said.

Citing MRI's positive reputation, professionalism and flexibility of its software to adapt to the Japanese language, Japan's Sanko Estate Co., Ltd. selected MRI as their preferred property management solution in 2002.

"We have been working closely with MRI to help them modify their U.S.-based software for the Japanese market, from both a localization and a language standpoint," said Makiko Hanabusa, general manager of Sanko Real Estate Co., Ltd., Japan. "We believe MRI will soon become the market standard in this region."

Product availability
Available globally, MRI for Windows-Japan Version will be launched at a ceremony at the Tokyo American Club on April 21. Commercial terms for this enterprise solution are based on the functionality required, usage profile, and the extent of consulting and training services needed to meet the client's requirements.