SIMA Best Practices Procurement Timeline: 52-Week Planning

Here at Xtreme Snow Pros, we don’t just power down our operation during the warm months. We adhere to a strict 52-week planning cycle, put forth by SIMA for a Snow Service Procurement Visual Timeline. As we know, the timing of the snow service procurement process is chaotic and often done last minute, which is why we work with a timeline that streamlines our services and offerings, while fortifying our systems in place before the first snowfall.

To arrive at the SIMA timeline, the organization underwent a review process that included recruiting 18 stakeholder reviews, representing snow service providers/contractors, facility managements, deicing material supply and equipment supply.

The timeline commitment is that it’s an open-access timeline to suppliers and consumers, available at no cost, educational in nature, comprehensive, and transparent in its findings and offerings. After serious reviewing and collaborating to arrive at the timeline, comprehensive information aggregation and collaboration went on to development a standard against which all winter weather cleaning and removal companies can measure against.

Our Timeline

We’re proud to work in adherence to the SIMA 52-week timeline plan, helping our operation to evaluate and expand upon our services for the next winter season. As we come out of the 2017.18 winter season, (just barely), the summer, warmer months are ahead of us, when it’s natural to push the worry and concern of snow to the side. However, as we all know, that winter weather comes knocking much sooner than we want to think about, which is why now is the time to plan. As part of the timeline, for this spring season, we will oversee vendor qualification, RFI distribution, responses, and reviews, confirmation of existing multi-year contracts, and kick-starting the RFP process.

By summer, we will meet the RFP response deadline, go through a Q&A walkthrough negotiate contracts and legal review, with the final contracts awarded by the end of the summer.

Come fall, training and preparation for staff will be all day and all night, with our services kicking back into gear by mid-fall. Then, come winter, our full suite of services, monitoring oversight, technological infrastructure, and pre-weather warning systems will be in full swing, helping everyone to safeguard their commercial properties moving forward.

Are you thinking about coverage for this winter? Now is the perfect time to start planning for the safety of your property. As we all know, 6-months can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Why Commercial Snow Removal Companies Are a Property Manager’s Best Friends

Every snow contractor has a different approach to planning, overseeing, and administering snow and ice removal services during the winter season. By following the best practices out there today, firms like Xtreme Snow Pros are able to save business owners time and money through their high quality performance. As a firm that’s dedicated to making sure they literally get out in front of the storm, they’re actually able to save property managers money in the process.

Here are a few notable ways in which the beneficial relationship saves time and dollars:

1. Education:

Professional snow and ice removal companies are the experts when it comes to managing winter weather. Property managers are tasked with understanding a variety of services and problems for being effective. By working alongside the snow removal company, they will receive a steady influx of education that helps them to understand how to effectively and smartly treat the weather.

2. Anti-Icing Products

Salt isn’t the only ice solution available to business owners today. Contrary to popular belief, there are actually anti-icing liquids that can be utilized on properties prior to snowstorms. Xtreme Snow Pros uses this product, as opposed to excessive salting, as a way to save property managers money. Additionally, it spares the environment, too.

3. Salt Savings

Salt costs a lot of money today. Any business owner reading this will know what we mean. The problem is that many property managers don’t know there are alternatives. By working alongside a snow removal company, they will learn about de-icing liquids that are a fraction of the rock salt pricing. Property managers will also save money when there’s less environmental damage viewable at the end of the winter season.

4. Advanced Technology

Whether it’s the latest in snow hauling equipment or the newest advances in communication, a professional snow company knows to be ahead in order to provide the best service possible to its clients. Xtreme Snow Pros’ advances in technology are ever growing. They provide clients with log in capabilites to view the status and pictures of their properties in real time providing peace of mind and customer satisfaction.

5. Lawsuits

There’s perhaps nothing more expensive than dealing with a personal injury lawsuit. If a patron slips, falls, and is injured on commercial property, they have grounds to sue that company. Though property managers may do their best to try and prevent this kind of problem, it can become very difficult with the typical Northeastern winter weather. By working with a snow and ice removal company, commercial clients can rest assured that they’ll never be slapped with a multi-thousand-dollar lawsuit out of the blue.

Of course, Xtreme Snow Pros takes the time to develop a detailed snow response plan that prevents any kind of catastrophes for their commercial clients. In the long-run, they save property managers thousands of dollars – not to mention, they provide some peace of mind during the year’s most chaotic weather months.

Xtreme Snow Pros Management Attends 20th Annual SIMA Convention

Xtreme Snow Pros’ Chris Marino and Joe Capobianco attended the 20th Annual SIMA Convention, held in Montreal, this past month. Excited to be part of the 3-day event, the Snow Pros team attended workshops, seminars, exhibitions, and other networking events for collaborating with other winter weather management companies working hard today.

Taking place from June 20 to the 23, the Snow and Ice Symposium was put on by the SIMA organization, a network of individuals committed to empowering snow and ice management for success. As a nonprofit trade association that focuses on training, events, and best practices related to snow plowing, ice management, and business management, SIMA hosts a convention yearly to bring together the industry’s leading companies, innovators, and equipment producers.

Educational workshops available at the event included: Nuts & Bolts of a Successful Snow Removal Operation, Legal Game Planning, De-icing, De-mystified, and Technological Change & the Future of Snow Services. Keynote speakers included Marc Gordon, Donald Cooper, and Robyn Benincasa. The Snow Pros team was in attendance at all major events, including facility touring workshops, the networking breakfast, the Snow & Ice Awards Night, the CEO of the Year Presentation, and the event Tradeshow.

When not hosting the conference, SIMA works throughout the year to develop and administer new ice and snow removal curriculum standards for industry leaders to study. The Xtreme Snow Pros operation is already a SIMA accredited business; however, they make sure to complete all new certification courses as SIMA develops and offers them. Right now, SIMA offers best practices guides and resources, peer-to-peer education with workshops around the Northeast, and on-demand access to training centers.

As a dedicated winter weather removal team with snow removal, ice removal, and winter weather preparatory services available to residents in New Jersey and New York today, the Xtreme Snow Pros team travels to a variety of events, tradeshows, and educational classes throughout the year to ensure they are offering top-notch services to all of their commercial clients. By keeping up with the industry’s latest practices, they are able to implement services that save client's money, spare the environment, and contribute to a smarter all-around operation for everyone involved.

The management team expressed their satisfaction and encouragement with this year’s convention and looks forward to attending the 2018 SIMA Convention.

Xtreme Snow Pros’ Chris Marino Attends Snow Warrior Conference Maine

Earlier this week, Chris Marino, traveled north to attend a multi-day event in Maine. Called the Snow Warrior Conference Maine, the event fostered collaboration between business peers all working within the greater snow and ice management industries. As part of the Snow & Ice Management (SIMA) Member Peer Groups initiative, Xtreme Snow Pro was able to collaborate and communicate with other industry leaders and their management performance.

During the event, Marino worked with his group peers to come up with hypothetical solutions to issues and unforeseen obstacles they could expect while out on the road. By partaking in this kind of roundtable event, Xtreme Snow Pros was rewarded with new ideas and recommendations for snow and ice management that other companies are already implementing today. Since specific markets from around the country require different kind of response times and preparedness, new techniques were shared from the West Coast with those located on the East Coast.

Whilst at the event, Marino had the opportunity to go on a factory tour for Fisher Engineering, which is part of Douglas Dynamics. Xtreme Snow Pros purchases their snow plows and salters from Douglas, where they then use them for the management of their various Northeastern clientele properties. On the tour, he was exposed to the lean manufacturing process at Douglas Dynamics, and how they design their ergonomic products for efficient and effective winter weather clearing each season. Chris was trained in the manufacturing process, and also got to witness an overview of the entire assembly line.

Afterward, Xtreme Snow Pros congregated with the other companies on the tour and compared their observations and notes moving forward. Peers shared their preferred machinery for effective winter weather clearing, providing the team with new information to implement this coming season.

Xtreme Snow Pros’ Chris Marino, is part of SIMA’s Member Peer Groups, comprised of 6 to 8 members that self-govern and meet to discuss snow industry best practices, labor trends, staffing, competition, market dynamics, economic trends, technologies and more.

Following the event, Chris happily brought home new information and learned techniques for revolutionizing the business practices for this coming winter weather season.

Why Work with Xtreme Snow Pros?

“Relentless about continual improvement, our team never stops advancing our understanding of snow and ice removal techniques, management, and oversight in our New Jersey and New York service area.”

That’s our cornerstone foundation here at Xtreme Snow Pros. We are never satisfied with the status quo. We know that like every industry, ours is constantly changing, with new equipment, improvements, and technology available for integration into the process. By committing ourselves to relentless continual improvement, our team never rests to accept mediocrity. We are in a never-ending pursuit of company improvement so that at the end of the day, we provide our clients with the very best snow and ice removal services available today.

This message is the best way to describe where our operation is right now. Constantly researching new ways to provide a seamless snow and ice removal process for our commercial clients, we are in the process of having our staff certified in new removal techniques, while also working to integrate new products from our sister companies for the most streamlined removal service possible. Our Business Developer, Joe Capobianco, is now ASCA certified by the Accredited Snow Contractors Association for his expert knowledge of industry standards. Even more telling, our team is presently attending the first class of ASM University, owned by Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA), to complete a program for nationally recognized credentials.

We’re passionately committed to harnessing technological innovation in our process, and we offer real-time weather monitoring and GPS tracking of crewmembers with client portal access. We use LiveEdge Technology to reduce the use of salt for helping surrounding environments and wildlife. We use remote webcams to monitor live weather and continuous updates. We send storm alerts out through our automated platform to clients up to 3 days in advance before an impending storm. And we offer immediate communication channels through email to keep our clients alert, and ensure we provide the answers everyone is looking for at a moment’s notice.

Though this is a great place for us to be in right now, we’re never satisfied with relaxing and sitting back. We know that new technological tools will be developed this year to ensure our salt usage, property care, and real-time monitoring is even more seamless.

In the mean time, to guarantee our high quality of performance demand is always met, we put our potential staff through Xtreme University first before they can join our TeamX. We not only test them rigorously through paper testing, we also put them through simulated real-life scenarios to see if they have what it truly takes.

There is only one word appropriate for describing us: relentless. Don’t consider working with a service company that isn’t as passionate about being relentless as we are.