Phillips Edison Selects Intuit’s Budgeting Solution to Improve Operating Performance

CLEVELAND — May 11, 2009 — Phillips Edison & Company (PECO), a retail real estate company managing 25 million square feet of space, recently implemented Intuit Real Estate Solutions’ (IRES) budgeting solution to gain real-time reporting on both a portfolio and property level basis. IRES, a division of Intuit Inc., (Nasdaq: INTU) provides business, real estate and portfolio management software and services to the global real estate industry.

PECO needed a comprehensive budgeting solution that would seamlessly integrate with their existing accounting software and allow them to make quicker decisions in a rapidly changing environment.

“Improving operating performance in the current economic environment will continue to separate us from other owners,” said Raymond D. Martz, chief financial officer, PECO. “IRES’ budgeting solution offered the best options in the industry.”

PECO’s key requirements included the capability to create detailed property and portfolio level budgets and forecasts from the bottom-up. They needed the capacity to evaluate and make assumptions down to the unit level, and then build-up to have a complete portfolio level outlook including key metrics and detailed cash flow projections. In addition, the solution needed to provide the power to reforecast during the year based on an updated original budget with current financial and lease data.

“Staying ahead of the competition is vital, especially in the current environment,” said Karen Ryan, PECO’s director of IT. “As technology continues to change and evolve, our company recognizes the importance of staying on the forefront of new solutions to manage our business efficiently. IRES’ budgeting software met that criterion.”

“We understand our clients need for real time visibility into their operational and financial data,” said Jeff Thompson, division president at IRES. “And we believe we are better able to help our clients become even more proactive in response to today’s economic climate.”

One of the main reasons PECO selected IRES’ solution was its ability to give them the dexterity to adapt to changing conditions. A dynamic forecast is now a much more critical component of the process.

“Previously, our budget process included a number of complicated steps to get from point A to Z,” shared Kevin Lees, director of finance at PECO. Minor changes to the data required a time-consuming repetition of those steps, and information couldn’t turn around quickly enough for each round of changes.

PECO’s reporting capabilities were also limited – especially as it related to leasing metrics and consolidated reporting. Just as their process was slow and complicated for making data changes, it was the same for running portfolio level reports. It sometimes took a full day to see the impact of data changes rolled-up to the portfolio level.

“We have realized a number of efficiencies with IRES’ agile module,” said Martz. “The ability to perform ‘what-if’ analysis, at both property and portfolio levels leads to shorter budgeting cycle times. Reports can also be utilized throughout the organization from our principals, chief executive office, myself and chief operating officer to leasing to property management.”

“Overall, opening up the budgeting process to a greater number of associates on the operations side of the business has provided us greater efficiency, better information and improved communication,” said Lees.

“In addition,” added Ryan, “the implementation team was knowledgeable, flexible, transparent and very quick to respond and find solutions to challenges. Throughout the process their experience and expertise kept us moving forward to achieve a ‘go live’ status. Even with our extremely aggressive implementation schedule, IRES accepted the challenge to assist us in creating our 2009 budget in this solution. Together, with the expertise, commitment and persistence of the IRES team, we successfully achieved our goal,” Ryan said.

“During the implementation process, we prided ourselves on being very responsive to any unforeseen issues and developed workflows that worked for our client,” said Thompson at IRES. “We were committed to delivering this system for PECO to meet their budget deadlines.

“In developing this product, we carefully analyzed the needs and key pain points of our clients and designed an application that helps solve a very critical customer need,” he added. “We are pleased to see our products helping our customers accomplish their goals and even more effectively manage their investments and operations.”

About Intuit Real Estate Solutions
Intuit Real Estate Solutions offers business management solutions to the global property management industry as well as to corporate real estate managers. Offering the most flexible solutions with both outsourced hosted offerings and packaged enterprise software, Intuit Real Estate Solutions develops long-term successful relationships with its clients. The business currently has more than 4,500 installations on five continents and in 41 countries. For more information, please visit www.realestate.intuit.com.

About Intuit Inc.
Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax® software, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation software suites for professional accountants. The company’s financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.1 billion in its fiscal year 2008. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

Intuit was named the “World’s Most Admired Software Company” by Fortune Magazine in 2009, in addition to being named “America's Most Admired Software Company,” from 2005 – 2008. In January, Intuit was named to Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for the eighth consecutive year.

About Phillips Edison & Company
Phillips Edison & Company is a fully-integrated retail real estate company with a portfolio of more than 25 million square feet in 35 states. In addition to 15 years of success in the acquisition, redevelopment and management of neighborhood and community shopping centers, Phillips Edison has built a foundation of development experience in single-tenant buildings and multi-anchored shopping centers. Phillips Edison & Company has corporate offices in Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Baltimore and Portland.