New Article Details Benefits, Challenges and Strategies in Facilities Management

Corporations, life science and healthcare facilities, residential properties, public venues and more are increasingly leaning into partnerships to manage their facilities. Unfortunately, not every relationship will prove to be a winning investment. In a new Facilities Net article, Jonathan Peck, UG2 senior vice president of operations, shares how he has helped the teams at UG2 hone and refine their customer service and relationships—an approach that consistently brings the highest customer satisfaction and retention rates.

“Success depends on the type of partner you choose, how you manage them, and whether your goals and culture are aligned,” Peck writes in How Smart Facility Management Outsourcing Can Propel Your Business Forward.

Peck begins by distinguishing strategic partnerships from transactional relationships. A true facility management professional develops a strategic, solution-based partnership with every customer. The right provider acts as an extension of your team, working to understand your needs, operational challenges and long-term goals. Instead of being one more aspect of your job to manage, a strategic partner shoulders the burden and brings peace of mind. That requires a proactive approach that leverages data and technology to focus on asset longevity, energy efficiency, and streamlined operations. A strategic and innovative partner with broad expertise across disciplines will take these benefits even further.

He urges customers to pursue partners with a culture of excellence. Successful partnerships are built on trust, but how do you know you can rely on a particular provider? Peck lays out several factors to keep in mind.

1. Accountability. Look for a partner who sets clear goals based on key performance indicators—one that measures their performance and makes the data accessible to you.
   
2. Transparency. Your expert provider of choice will keep you informed about their efforts, accomplishments, progress and plans. Inquire about their communication strategies and technology and alsoask about the involvement and availability of their leadership team.
   
3. Proactivity. A leading FM team will take a future-forward approach. Rather than waiting for issues to arise, they’ll prioritize recommendations that enhance services and operations with a proactive, detailed plan.

Investigate their approach to training and retention. In facility management, as in many industries, the competition for talent is growing as veteran workers leave their positions and fewer young professionals enter the skilled trades. Facility management partners that succeed in attracting and retaining talent do so through robust employee development, real mentorship practices that allow for a two-way flow of information and expertise, and a strong history in labor relations to maintain an engaged, fulfilled and productive workforce.

Test their technology acumen. Emerging technologies and automation can elevate facility services, drive efficiencies and reduce costs. Leaders in FM should be adept at understanding and implementing these technologies. Artificial intelligence, for example, can have a role in everything from optimizing HVAC loads and performance to completing effective skills assessment across teams. Look for providers who are operating at the leading edge of technology, with the expertise, talent and foresight to recommend solutions—and even develop their own.

Choosing the right outsourcing partner to manage your facility takes some effort, but the potential return on your investment is enormous. Read more of Jonathan Peck’s expert insights at facilitiesnet, or contact UG2 to talk through your questions and concerns.

The UG2 O&M Team Leads the Way

Securing LEED Gold certification is a complex process — but one with major return on investment if approached with the right partnerships in place. That’s the well-earned perspective of a customer in the real estate development industry who engaged UG2 in just such an undertaking.

The building in question had earned LEED Silver certification in the past, but this property owner knew that elevating the 213,000-square-foot facility to LEED Gold would bring significant energy savings. The property owner was well versed in conducting LEED certifications and looked to UG2 as a strong partner adept at managing the critical auditing and documentation requirements.

Leveraging UG2’s Experience and Credentials

UG2 has consistently achieved the prestigious CIMS-GB with honors certification from ISSA and has a history of excelling at delivering comprehensive services aligned with LEED criteria. We exceed the industry standard for green building, quality systems, management commitment and more. Impressed with our stellar record and reputation for effective partnerships, the property owner worked with us to develop an action plan.

1. The ASHRAE audit requirement

Pursuing LEED Gold certification begins with American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) audits to understand the building configuration, define the type and nature of energy systems, and identify potential energy improvements.

UG2 Maintenance Technicians Miguel Escalada and Shawn Lowry led their team in performing the detailed audit, which included a comprehensive lighting review, compilation of preventative maintenance tickets, and run-time hours for all relevant equipment.

2. Documentation and monitoring

Gold certification requires that a building earns at least 60 points in categories from energy efficiency and water conservation to indoor environmental quality. Miguel and Shawn were already maintaining detailed records, completing regular water and electrical sub-meter readings, and documenting the preventative maintenance tickets, LED upgrades and added occupancy sensors.  

In line with UG2’s core values, the team went above and beyond, doing daily incoming and water disposal readings that exceeded LEED’s requirements to ensure they would get ahead of unanticipated issues.

3. The handover

UG2 excels at collaboration, communication and transparency—all critical components for a daunting and complicated effort like pursuing LEED Gold. The team thoroughly and seamlessly provided all the documentation and information necessary to their counterparts on the facility’s team, setting the project on track for obtaining the coveted gold.

Strategies for Success

Prioritize communication and coordination. Clear communication is important in all aspects of facility services. It’s especially critical in LEED certification projects where prompt and timely collaboration is needed between the customer and their partner. UG2’s ongoing and transparent communications ensured the property owner could effectively keep tabs on the project’s progression and trust the results.

Document everything meticulously. According to Tim Higgins, UG2 Chief Engineer, “Miguel keeps meticulous records on everything. This helped ensure a very seamless LEED documentation process. Because his team takes readings daily and adheres to a strict preventative maintenance schedule, we always have all the information the customer might want on hand, whenever they wanted it.”

Choose the right partners.  Nothing is more important to UG2 than maintaining trusted relationships and helping our customers achieve their goals. The facility owner chose UG2 for this project and others based on our clear record of excellence. Close collaboration through regular meetings and the close involvement of company leadership sets the tone for a strong, successful relationship where everyone is on the same page.

We are honored to have been entrusted with this exceptional task—and incredibly proud of our team for stepping up and demonstrating how UG2 continues to raise the bar on facility services. Do you have questions about partnering with UG2 to achieve something big? Get in touch today to explore the possibilities.

How UG2’s Values and Family Culture Build Stability Amid Change

My nearly 45 years in facility services have given me more things to be grateful for than I can ever count. One benefit of that longevity is the unique lens it gives me for viewing and understanding our industry’s past, present, and future.

Though outsiders might not appreciate or understand this reality, we know that facility services is the furthest thing from a stagnant field. We experience this firsthand. Changing practices and partnerships, advances in data and technology, companies emerging and consolidating, industry leaders making professional moves — all of this change means we have built our careers in a field that is constantly evolving. 

Over the past months, there have been times when it felt like every day brought news of some change, movement, or transition. Sometimes the news of the day caught me off guard, while other times the announcement was something I’d seen coming — but even shifts I’d anticipated sometimes have had the effect of leaving me a little unsettled simply because they have been coming at a rate so fast and furious.

When the world around you is shifting so dramatically, it’s natural to feel a little off balance, even when you are confident the change will put you on more solid ground in the long run. But, fortunately, having spent more than four decades in this industry, I can see the constants threading through all of that change and transition: The people behind UG2 and our unyielding commitment to service, teamwork, and our relationships with one another.  

When we take care to nurture our partnerships and recognize and prioritize the individuals who are in this with us, our relationships not only survive the changes — they come out stronger than ever. For UG2, our employees and our customers are our family. That might sound like a cliché, but it is the reality I witness every single day, and it gets at the heart of why I am still doing this work after taking my first job with the UNICCO Service Company in 1980. I am filled with love and appreciation for the people doing this work alongside me.

Change is not always a choice, but your decision to partner with UG2, whether you count us as your employer or your provider, is a choice you have made and continue to make that I will never take for granted. I am so grateful to you for being part of the UG2 family, for trusting in us to innovate, grow, and navigate this ever-changing landscape. We excel at what we do because of that trust you place in us. And one thing I can say with certainty is that the more things change, the more our fundamental commitment to you as an irreplaceable part of our UG2 family remains forever the same.

How UG2 Leverages Apprenticeships to Develop the Next Generation of Talent

As UG2 is approaching its 12^th anniversary, National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) is marking its own 10 years of success showcasing the value of apprenticeship. NAW is a broad effort to highlight the essential role of apprenticeship meeting industry needs, creating career pathways, and advancing racial and gender equity in the trades. 

Efforts to promote the value of apprenticeships are particularly welcome in this moment, as the number of retirement-eligible workers outpaces new employees entering the skilled trades, setting up the facility services industry for significant workforce shortages.

Fortunately, UG2’s founders had the foresight to anticipate these challenges and built our company from the ground up with a commitment to identify, recruit, and develop the talent in our industry. In fact, this year’s theme for NAW, “Engagement, Expansion, and Innovation,” perfectly captures UG2’s long-established success in engaging and supporting future talent.

UG2 takes a multi-pronged approach in this endeavor, by:

Building connections early. Today’s students are bombarded with information about their future prospects earlier and earlier in their academic careers and attempting to digest and navigate this influx can be overwhelming. The COVID-19 pandemic crystallized the importance of viewing potential career paths through a wider lens that expands students’ opportunities for success. UG2 partners with high schools and some trade schools in the communities where we live and work to build awareness about careers in facility services. We strive to ensure that students are aware of opportunities and have the support to explore different career paths with a stable employment future.

Creating lasting partnerships. UG2 works with institutions from coast to coast to raise awareness about careers in facility services. Our partners include schools like Mass Maritime Academy, Cal Maritime, and Lemoyne College. Participating students gain exposure to different environments along with a wealth of knowledge from their more experienced peers, which adds to their education, visibility, and technical efficiency. As a result, a growing number of students from these programs have a job lined up with UG2 well before they graduate.

Prioritizing professional growth. We take pride in our teams of PhDs – passionate, hardworking, and dedicated employees who bring deep expertise to their jobs and deliver exceptional service. We recruit and retain extraordinary individuals by identifying those with a passion for learning, and by providing them with a wealth of options for advancing their professional development. For starters, UG2 employees across the country can access best-in-class training through our groundbreaking Training and Innovation Lab. We also take a very intentional approach to mentoring, developing employees who embrace opportunities to mentor and to be mentored so that they can share, learn, and pass on knowledge. Within our growing company, we prioritize promoting from within and supporting advancement among our incredibly diverse workforce.  

By engaging with partners to offer apprenticeship opportunities, UG2 provides future leaders with hands-on experience in all aspects of our work, from troubleshooting issues to relationship management to learning best practices. Our apprentices are mentored and monitored by some of the industry’s most skilled and generous professionals.

And the advantages flow both ways. Our apprentices get support, encouragement and the tools to build a rewarding career. We benefit by adding talent to our teams, but also because we have the incredibly gratifying experience of creating career pathways and seeing promising young professionals grow and thrive.

How to Incorporate Smarter Spending Strategies

Business leaders are laying out their financial plans for next year, and we are sharing our time-tested tips to help stretch your facility services dollar. Read on to avoid misplaced investments as well as unexpected repairs that can blow up your budget.

Combine services for savings off the top and over time. If you engage a partner for any aspect of facility services, bundling services with them can reduce your costs. You’ll see real savings through more informed decision making and get more bang for your buck by integrating services. Consolidating services with one provider helps with communication, and if employees are cross-trained like our teams at UG2, they can step in for one another as needed.

Consider CMMS. A well-integrated computer maintenance management system (CMMS) removes the guesswork to save you time, stress and money. Housing data in a central location allows you to run quick analytics reports that are clear and visual. By integrating real data, from equipment lists to square footage of a facility, the system can predict labor utilization, keep your equipment operating smoothly, and plan and budget for maintenance.

Prioritize preventative maintenance. Investing in thoughtful, expert-informed preventative maintenance is your best bulwark against unanticipated repair costs. Getting slammed with even one major repair is not only a blow to your budget, but it can also have a domino effect on productivity, with lengthy periods of downtime and frustrated teams and customers.

Tap into evolving trends. The landscape is shifting all the time. Staying ahead of tenant demands and customer trends will help you better allocate your limited resources. Whether you formally survey stakeholders, gather information through relationship-building, or tap into the expertise of an informed partner like UG2, it is essential that you understand and anticipate what’s happening on the ground.

Engage a trusted partner. Identifying an expert in the field with a strong record of success is essential to protecting your facility in the short and long term. At UG2, our senior managers remain involved and engaged, our teams are trained for your specific space, and our process, technology and equipment are the best in the business.

Communicate openly about budget concerns and constraints. A true partner will prioritize communication with you—and will help you strategize when it comes to maximizing your budget. A key component of UG2’s near-perfect customer retention rate is the fact that we work so closely with our customers, emphasizing transparency and clear communication.

Plan accurately for occupancy. Whether your building occupancy changes from season to season or throughout the day, taking those changes into account can have a real impact on energy efficiency and real costs. Technology dedicated to monitoring these changes can help you make plan better and the most informed investments, with sensors to continuously collect real-time building occupancy and traffic data.

Be smarter about emergency maintenance. Although preventative maintenance goes a long way toward avoiding emergencies, you’ll need a plan in place for the unexpected. UG’s mobile maintenance technicians are available 24/7 and backed by extensive training; trade licenses in electrical, plumbing, and HVAC; and certifications in areas like Universal EPA, Building Automation and Infrared Scanning.

Engage in smarter capital planning and asset management. From infrastructure to equipment to technology, strategic capital planning and asset management means making more informed decisions about the acquisition, replacement, and maintenance of assets essential for your facility to run smoothly and efficiently over the long term.  

Monitor and track progress. Measuring and monitoring how your budget is holding up is essential to evaluating progress and creating a baseline for future planning. Communication and transparency are essential here.

Keep safety top of mind. A strong budget prioritizes safety at every level, from routinely walking the property to identify hazards to replacing valves and filters on a regular schedule.  UG2 incorporates safety planning in all we do, cultivating a culture of safety that reminds every member of our team of their responsibilities to the customer and to each other.

From our facility professionals on site at your facility to our experts in our regional Centers of Excellence, our talented teams are in constant communication to ensure you’re making the most of your facility services budget. Have questions? Get in touch. We’d love to talk through strategies tailored specifically to your needs.  

Even though there are plenty of options — many jobseekers choose UG2

Whether you’re looking to work in skilled trades, in human resources, in accounting or in janitorial operations, UG2’s rapidly expanding footprint holds a myriad of opportunities.

Although we have not been completely immune to the impacts of the talent shortage plaguing the industry, we are proud that we have maintained an impressive bench of experts and up-and-comers.

The secret to our success is no secret at all. We are a people-first business, and we have prioritized embracing diversity and inclusion—and learning from members of team UG2 at every level to understand what makes them feel productive, satisfied and committed for the long term.

Here are the most popular reasons our employees choose UG2:

• Finding opportunities to learn and grow. Every employee receives best-in-class training and mentoring designed to match their positions and their career goals, from safety and technical training to a wide range of offerings at our Training & Innovation Lab and Development Toolkit.

• Discovering a home away from home. Treating employees as family means recognizing the whole employee. We support every member of our team by fostering an environment where fun and friendship coexist along with mutual respect, teamwork and professionalism.  

• Finding us through our trusted partners. UG2 works with schools like Mass Maritime Academy, Cal Maritime and others to raise awareness about careers in facility services, extend apprenticeship opportunities, and lay out a clear career path with a solid future.

• Having their voices heard and perspectives appreciated. The extraordinary diversity of our company is one of the most gratifying aspects of working at UG2. We strive continuously to lead with integrity and respect, and to nurture a space where everyone can support and learn from one another—and it shows in the spirit of community and confidence that permeates our teams.

• Growing their careers through real opportunities for promotions. Our leadership team knows we can only do as well as the employees who serve our customers. We shore them up by recognizing their talent, providing opportunities for advancement, supporting their professional development and promoting from within.

• Reliable employee benefits for peace of mind. We support employees’ needs with part-time/flexible/overnight schedules and best-in-class benefits packages that ensure our employees can care for their families and themselves while also succeeding professionally.

• Building positive relationships. Relationships are at the center of our success at UG2. We emphasize strong teams, and we work to recognize and reward our employees’ efforts to support one another and our customers, too, from the industry veteran who takes the time to mentor a new hire to the employee who steps up when a customer needs them to go the extra mile.

• Growing through meaningful mentoring. UG2 intentionally seeks out employees who will embrace opportunities to mentor and to be mentored. We know that we are strongest when we all have opportunities to ask questions, express uncertainty or enthusiasm, and pass on knowledge. We focus mentorship on identifying and building strengths, supporting the desire to learn, and providing opportunities to explore new areas of interest.

• Developing soft skills. At UG2 we talk constantly about forming genuine connections with one another, working toward an ability to make conversation with everyone we meet. We appreciate and encourage soft skills, from making eye contact to holding open a door and greeting people by name to being open to hearing criticism—and growing adept at delivering it in a constructive manner.

• Working among the best of the best. UG2 boasts an immensely talented, diverse, multigenerational workforce—all of whom bring unique skills and talents to their positions, whether on our O&M, janitorial, or corporate teams. We hold a deep appreciation for one another and build deep and meaningful relationships that last.

We set out over a decade ago to develop the next generation of facility services professionals, and we are well on our way to doing just that. We are so proud of our employees and of the ways they embrace opportunities to learn and advance their careers—and especially of the many ways they build up each other and our customers along the way.

UG2 Embraces and Helps Elevate the Organization’s Diverse Offerings

As we continue to set the standard of excellence in facility services, UG2 invests a great deal in partnerships that help us to become citizens of our customers’ industries. Our relationship with the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Boston embodies that commitment.

BOMA Boston is the third largest of BOMA’s 88 affiliates, representing over 200 million square feet of commercial real estate in Greater Boston. As a key educational and networking influence on the industry, BOMA Boston’s offerings are as diverse as the clients and affiliates who comprise the organization, and UG2 is thrilled to participate and support their initiatives and activities.

UG2 is actively involved in BOMA Boston from serving on the board of directors to participating on committees and initiatives. Lauren Lanzillo, UG2’s Vice President of Culture & Community, sits on BOMA Boston’s board of directors, filling the shoes of Armando Lezama, Vice President of Operations, who served previously.

Armando Lezama has been a longstanding BOMA Boston member who is active in several committees including Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Education and Events, as well as being on the planning taskforce for the BOMA International Conference taking place in Boston in 2025.

Our subject matter experts have also participated as speakers in various educational events. Greg Lanzillo, Senior Director of Operations participated in a college career panel to help college students interested in the commercial real estate industry. Edgar Colon, Vice President of People and Melissa Gonzalez, Director of Talent Requisition shared insights in a panel discussion on recruiting and retaining engineering talent.

Many of us are members of the Emerging Professionals Committee. This committee meets every other month to exchange and share industry knowledge which helps build community and a strong peer network. Some of our current members include: Adam Rabesa, Director of Environmental Health & Safety, Armando Lezama, Jr., Portfolio Manager, Derek Chaves, Operations Manager, Greg Lanzillo, Senior Director of Operations, Lauren Lanzillo, Vice President of Culture & Community, Maggie Walsh, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Solutions, Stefhania Agudelo, Operations Support Associate and Tom McKenna, Operations Manager.

UG2 is excited to sponsor the participation of Ana Figeroa, Account Manager, and Stefhania Agudelo, Operations Support Associate for the first ever class of the BOMA Boston Women’s Leadership Initiative. This impactful program fosters personal and professional growth among its members, advocating for mutual upliftment and support. Focusing on four key pillars – empowerment, growth, education, and networking – it inspires and supports individuals to reach their aspirations. In addition, Lauren Lanzillo serves on the steering committee taskforce where she helps to plan and initiate a number of activities including workshops and educational programs.

UG2 also is a perennial platinum sponsor of The Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) and Industry Awards for BOMA Boston. This TOBY event is one of the
largest in the country in terms of participation and attendance. The awards recognize industry excellence in property management, building operations, and service. We take particular pride in our customers’ strong showings in categories like Rising Professional of the Year, Chief Engineer of the Year, Property Manager of the Year and Asset Manager of the Year. 

These opportunities are aligned with our core values and allow us to be part of developing the next generation of talent, and we relish the partnerships and friendships that come out of the hard work—and tremendous fun—that come with this type of service.

How UG2 Serves as a True Partner to Our Life Science Customers

In a field like life sciences, a generalized approach to facility services does not suffice. At UG2, we don’t just say we excel at the specialized services demanded by those customers—we execute on that promise, and our growing life science customer base and unmatched customer retention rate confirm it.

When we talk to customers about the key to our strong partnerships, several factors come up again and again. We excel by:

Striving to be citizens of your industry. Our teams are specially certified to work in life science environments and know the regulations that govern its management. Every person on the team who touches your facility—and every expert who trains them—is deeply knowledgeable about thecriticality of the space and how our actions and practices will impact it. We have built on that excellence by partnering with leaders in your industry to master the demands of managing facilities within your specific environment.

Listening and customizing. While many life science facilities may share a common set of challenges and needs, each one has its own unique practices, goals and priorities. UG2 takes the time to understand the nuances. Even as we strive to lighten the load for you, we take an informed approach to customizing and evolving your services, with the highest level of transparency and communication.

Understanding the talent market. We track the local labor market closely and understand how the ebbs and flows affect you. We are experts at identifying, attracting, developing and retaining the talent to staff our own teams and also augment your evolving needs, and we keep you informed about key insights and trends, so you are never operating in the dark.

Serving as a local presence with national resources. We have the knowledge, resources, range of experience and deep bench of expertise of a national company, while our local teams and regional Centers of Excellence have deep roots in your specific market and community.  We serve the elite in your field by curating a customized, not cookie cutter, approach.

Cross-training our teams. Even as we develop our specially trained experts for work with our life science customers, we leverage their broad expertise in areas like project management, facility management, janitorial, landscaping, and more from our other customers in spaces like manufacturing, biotech, data centers, leading hospitals and universities. Our teams are cross-trained in your specific facility’s needs in order to work seamlessly to deliver comprehensive, integrated facility services.

Investing in training. From our extensive training and professional development to our operational trainings around specific facilities to OSHA related trainings and education around customer practices and protocols, we lead our industry in training, professional development and certifications. Our teams are trained in your practices, communication preferences and safety protocols, and know the downstream impacts and redundancies.

Prioritizing safety. We built UG2 from the ground up with a very intentional safety-first mentality. We have our own dedicated team of experts who are deeply involved in refining our overarching practices and delivering ongoing training to every team member across the company.

Knowing the technology. UG2’s industry experts dedicate themselves to tracking, understanding and disseminating insights on best-in-class customizable technology solutions for supporting lab and good manufacturing practices (GMP) spaces and ensuring good documentation practices for a validated environment. Our subject matter experts provide direct consultation and ongoing education to our customers and teams.

Like your life science practice, UG2’s approach to our work is continuously evolving and improving based on emerging research, technologies and understanding of best practices. If you’d like to explore a partnership with UG2 and hear how we can support your work, we are always happy to talk through your unique goals and challenges.  

We’re Advancing Sustainability: Thanks to Our People, Partnerships and Core Values

As we mark the 55th celebration of Earth Day, the message of sustainability is no longer regarded as a complement to an array of services but is an urgent topic of everyday planning and innovation that permeates all aspects of facility services work. UG2 excels in our sustainability initiatives thanks to the very formula we use to solve problems across all our five-star services: Innovation plus real relationships equals success.

Through our rapid growth and expansion over the past few years, we have been able to scale up our sustainability efforts to match that growth thanks to the core values that ground our work. Those foundational values help us elevate the standard of excellence, yielding sustainability practices that have earned us recognition as leaders, innovators and changemakers who think outside the box.

Our commitment to true sustainability and our success in going above and beyond in that commitment are apparent in the ways we:

Adapt practices to different customers’ varying needs and goals

Sustainability can become its own waste of resources if organizations take a cookie-cutter approach. To be successful with sustainability in the facility services realm, plans need to align to each specific building or organization, as each customer and setting brings its own unique goals, needs and obligations to fulfill.

As citizens of our customers’ industries, we work closely with our customers to identify what makes sense, and we continuously revisit and refine our approach to incorporate feedback and lessons learned and reflect evolving circumstances. We love nothing better than when our leadership partners with a customer to come up with something exciting and unique, like our rooftop beekeeping project.

Operate to the highest standards

Our methodical and disciplined business approach incorporates the idea that short term actions have long term consequences, a concept at the heart of sustainability practices and environmental stewardship.

Maintaining that discipline as we engage with our work as citizens of our industry and our customers’ industries—all while investigating and adopting cutting-edge technology—is how we elevate facility services as a whole and sustainability practices specifically.

Earn accolades along the way

Introducing meaningful sustainability practices in your operation can be intimidating and time-consuming—and our customers understandably worry about the impact on their bottom line. UG2’s deep bench of expertise and nimble approach to introducing change has won us the gratitude of countless customers and recognition in the form of awards—from our customers and from the industry.

We have been honored time and again for achieving excellence, sustainability, safety, and quality as a facility services industry leader. That tells us our teams are doing right by our planet and by our customers, which makes us incredibly proud.

Contact us to learn more about our approach to sustainability.

The Right Facility Services Partner Can Help Transform Your Organization

From pristine and sparkling spaces to clean air and excellent amenities to well-maintained equipment and resources, a welcoming, smooth-running facility can boost employees’ moods and keep them engaged and productive. In fact, researchers have found that prioritizing factors such as natural light, acoustics, aesthetics and air quality can lead to more satisfied employees, reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and higher rate of employee retention.  

For these reasons, identifying a facility services partner who understands your organization, acts as an extension of your team and aligns its goals with yours can have an enormous effect on your organizational culture and your employees’ overall health and quality of life.

A positive workspace environment can have profound impacts

The myriad effects of a good office environment are well understood and documented—and they make a lot of sense. A healthy and happy environment promotes focus, allows for greater creativity, and advances collaboration and problem solving. At UG2, we understand that attention to ergonomics, different types of light, quality air, and comfortable temperatures not only increases physical comfort, but it also elevates mental health and wellbeing—and demonstrates that you care about the people spending time in the space and the concerns that matter to them.

Minor issues can have a disproportionate effect

A dripping faucet. Misdirected mail. Empty paper towel dispensers. Rattling HVAC. A flickering bulb. An overflowing recycling bin. Confusing signage. Tripping hazards on stairs. Storm debris strewn across a walkway. A system shutdown for repair with no warning. These issues are highly preventable—but they take place routinely in a facility that’s not receiving adequate attention. And even if just one or two of these indicators of neglect come up regularly, their impact will snowball. A responsive team that pays close attention to detail, knows your space, communicates well, and prioritizes preventative maintenance means you won’t waste time on those issues.

Personalized attention strengthens partnership and community

A successful facilities management approach is grounded in authentic relationships. Employees thrive when they know what to expect from the teams cleaning and managing their spaces and facilities. UG2’s focus on interpersonal communication and responsiveness means your own employees and tenants feel heard and valued as their concerns are prioritized. And our impressive employee retention rate means you’ll have a solid, consistent team that knows your facility and is personally invested in the wellbeing of the people who inhabit it.

Care, communication and consistency are critical

Regular communication and transparent practices help build confidence. Feedback loops and creative problem solving demonstrate a caring and respectful attitude. UG2’s teams are trained to be forthcoming about timelines, to demonstrate accountability, and to maintain consistent practices, protocols, and approach. These factors, along with ensuring continuity on the team that serves your facility, are critical to the dynamics of the relationship, and to our ultimate success in our partnerships.

Sustainable solutions demonstrate respect for your facility and your people.

From using eco-friendly products, championing green initiatives, and offering energy audits to delivering the latest technology for data management, maintenance, and reporting, UG2 leads the way in combining forward-looking problem solving with an emphasis on sustainability, efficiencies, and cost savings. That matters to your employees—which means it makes a difference to your bottom line.

Excellence in facility services is about building a culture of trust

At UG2, we are committed to helping you run a well-functioning organization, with the refinements, process improvements, tools, and technology to support that commitment over the long term. If you’d like to learn more about the many ways our excellence can support excellence in your workplace, get in touch today.

Heartwarming Notes from Our Beloved Customers

At UG2, we pride ourselves on our deep relationships with our customers, and know that those successful partnerships are often a reflection of our employees’ commitment to go above and beyond in all they do.  

While it’s hard to put into words how much these relationships mean to us, our customers often find a way to do so, sending along kind notes, kudos and compliments that seem to arrive when we need them most. Those missives make every challenging day worthwhile. We have them posted around our offices as daily reminders—and thought it fitting we share some of them here too, in a month when people take such sentiments to heart. 

Thanks for all you did to make our soiree a true success! 

Thank you for your hard work and keeping our community safe. It means so much to me knowing you are working to keep us safe! 

I am so impressed with the building. I cannot stop telling people how clean and organized the mechanical rooms are. I have done this a long time and I have a lot I can learn from UG2. 

Our UG2 manager and team were able to get the new flooring clean and sealed in a couple days even after we threw a couple curve balls at them! 

Special thanks to Aziz and Steven’s valuable efforts to accommodate reservations, miscellaneous supplies, and willingness to lend a helping hand in time-sensitive moments. 

Thank you so much for the great work of your team in preparing for the start of the semester. The campus looks beautiful, and I know everyone was so pleased by our sparkling clean facilities. 

Keep up the great work Ed! Thanks to you and your team, we have made excellent progress in enhancing reliability and energy savings. 

Julio, who cleans our office spaces at night, is a fantastic custodian. He is friendly and helpful. The best cleaning staff person I have ever dealt with! 

Thank you, everyone! One of my proudest moments on the site visit tour was when an individual who had visited in the past remarked that it looked like an entirely different hospital! 

Your team did a great job in helping us prepare for the event. Especially considering all of the last-minute changes. 

We are incredibly grateful. We really value the team’s partnership. This was a tough deliverable with little time and much unpredictability.  

If it isn’t already abundantly clear, the affection and gratitude expressed by our customers goes both ways. We so appreciate their taking the time to call out our employees’ actions in a hectic and demanding environment where heroic undertakings sometimes occur quietly and behind the scenes.  

Our employees go the distance without looking for recognition—but we sure appreciate hearing from our customers about their above-and-beyond contributions so we can celebrate their work.  

Insights Gained from a Property Management Perspective

It has been well established that your facility benefits in a big way when you engage the right facility services partner. But you may not be aware of the value such partners bring to a project long before you have that prized certificate of occupancy in hand. While decision makers might think of facility services partners as the experts you bring in after your building is up and running, involving experienced facility engineers early in the process, even at the outset of a building’s construction or commissioning, can make for a more efficient, safe, and lock-step process—and can deliver you significant cost savings in the long run.

Here are some of the many benefits of involving a facility services expert from Day 1:

Clarity and transparency. A skilled facility services provider will provide guidance on developing an engineering transition and work schedule aligned to your facility’s unique needs. Your access to updates from that detailed and continuously updated schedule in real time—along with a collaborative approach to daily walk-throughs and inspection reports—makes project progress accessible and transparent.  

Comprehensive approach. A well-constructed transition schedule triggers a chain of related action items for every event (e.g. registering backflows with the city) and outlines key details and benchmarks such as system inspections statuses, signoffs, outstanding approvals, persons responsible, start dates and target completion dates. The broad-based approach supported by an attention to fine details makes it far less likely you’ll miss a step along the way.

Context for informed decision-making. When the working relationship is a true partnership, your on-site staff build knowledge by learning alongside our experts, from participating in walk throughs to joining daily check-ins and progress updates. Our practices and documents become a training tool for everyone on your side of the partnership, and you’ll never find yourself faced with signing off on plans and purchases without a full understanding of the big picture and its short-term and long-term effects on the project.

Continuity of services, practices, and protocols. Customer onboarding includes a comprehensive review of equipment, maintenance needs, priorities, and challenges. Those conversations often pinpoint missed opportunities for prevention and cost savings. Having a facility services partner like UG2 on board from the outset means you have an additional layer of expertise while construction is underway. This can help you avoid making unnecessary purchases, secure the right warranties to protect your investments, ensure that a vulnerable facility under construction is protected from adverse events or such weather emergencies or power failures.

Early relationship-building allows your facility services partner to act as a true extension of your team and sets the highest standard for the facility’s care and maintenance going forward.

Having worked as a property manager early in my career, I’m acutely aware of the types of guidance, information-sharing, and mentoring that benefited me most when I was starting out. I’m proud to bring that perspective to the relationships I build with customers, whether I’m working with a seasoned professional or someone new to the field.

Contact us to learn more about our approach to facility operations and maintenance.

Facility Services Operational Excellence in Action

On January 1, 2022, UG2 began a partnership with an exciting new customer — one of the country’s largest veterinary schools. The expansive facility also houses a veterinary hospital and research center.

The specialized environment of veterinary science (including health care, animal husbandry and laboratory care) leaves no room for error in addressing needs effectively and proactively. From UG2 leadership’s initial meetings with the customer, we knew they were focused on infection prevention and control, the care and protection of both animal and human beings, operational excellence and in maintaining a pristine facility that protects the health of every animal patient, human visitor, student, medical staff and associate.

Having developed a thorough understanding of the school’s immediate and long-term goals, UG2 quickly brought in account director Elizabeth Lanzaro and an environmental services team who together had deep expertise in infection controls, environmental services, linen procedures, client services, operations leadership, health care, labor management, and strategic advising.

Because performance was a high priority from the outset, UG2 leaders partnered with the customer to initiate a quality score program. The new program utilizes detailed job tasking, computerized inspection software, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing, black light audit tools and customized periodic schedules that are adjusted to meet customer demands of the physical environment and procedure types. Performance is measured by the customer, UG2 and a third party reported back to the team to create a culture of accountability down to every member of the environmental services team who in turn understand their ability to impact the care and health of the patients.

When implemented programmatically, the program yielded an immediate impact, with a performance rate that has remained consistently high, and a culture focused on the elimination of carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales (CRE) as well as other common community acquired and/or health care associated infections (HAI) since the program’s implementation. CRE are different types of germs (bacteria) that commonly cause infections in healthcare settings. Examples of germs in the enterobacterales order include Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Klebsiella pneumoniae. These germs represent a risk to our patients and to the public health.

With the right staff on board, Elizabeth and her team strategize daily with hospital and UG2 leadership to advance a wide range of improvements:

• Focusing on a proactive/task-based work process versus an on-demand model of responding to issues after the fact.
• Reducing dependency on a medication management provider through a proactive approach to meeting department needs.
• Routinely rounding with staff to identify and address evolving support or training needs.
• Working with key leaders to identify the right skill set for their environmental services staff—non-clinical healthcare staff who work to ensure a safe environment for everyone in the facility.
• Completing extensive restoration and improvement to public areas, waiting areas, lobby entrance flooring and terrazzo flooring in surgical areas and wards and completing restoration of exam rooms, cages, emergency, and primary care departments.
• Upgrading to innovative new equipment, training staff on a customized environmental services approach, and introducing a color-coded microfiber cleaning program.

Hiring to fit the culture, training to fit the program

Elizabeth has a team of 25 full-time employees who were carefully selected and trained to match the unique needs of this customer. They credit their success to getting to know each individual, placing team members in the right position and departments, and providing an excellent onboarding experience along with ongoing training.

“Creating a safe work environment is paramount to maintaining strong teams that work well together,” says Elizabeth. “It is essential that you welcome and promote diversity and inclusion, and that you work to create a culture of shared governance, accountability and respect.”

Elizabeth credits the strong, recurring training with the advancements her team has made in infection prevention.

“We are very proud of our training programs,” she says. “When we clean an area, we swab and test the area to see how efficient our cleaning has been. On the ATP equipment we use, 250 as a spore count threshold, so 249 and below is a passing grade. Our surfaces here are 50 and below, going down into the single digits is the staff’s goal.”

Leveraging UG2’s health, safety, and infection control protocols

UG2 implemented evidence based, data informed practices around employee health, safety, and infection control from ensuring standard precaution protocols and hand hygiene to operating high-performing disinfection processes and UV light delivering robots and to preventing slips and falls. The company’s deep expertise meant we were ready to hit the ground running when it came to the importance of ensuring pristine high-touch surfaces, effective laundry processes, and unmatched terminal cleaning.

The impact has been profound. A recent assessment by an independent auditor afforded the customer a cleanliness rating above the 90^th percentile – a rare achievement in health care circles and near elimination in CRE. The accomplishments the customer has achieved by partnering with UG2 have not gone unnoticed in the field.

“Our customer is developing a reputation among the veterinary educational industry for having an excellent infection prevention program,” says Elizabeth. “Other universities are reaching out to them for guidance. They wanted to know how they accomplished such success and what programs are in place. The first thing the university leadership tells them is, ‘Partner with UG2.'”

UG2 Selected for Its Innovative Solutions and 5-Star Level of Excellence

PRESS RELEASE

October 18, 2022 – BOSTON, MA – UG2 today announced that it has been awarded the contract to provide janitorial services at Gillette Stadium, home of the six-time world champion New England Patriots and New England Revolution. The leader in integrated facility services was awarded the engagement based on its innovative solutions and proven ability to deliver a pristine environment with a 5-star level of customer service.

“Everything UG2 delivers, from our unique approach to our carefully curated solutions, is focused on ensuring exemplary facility services in a “post pandemic” world. We’re thrilled and extremely proud to partner with Gillette Stadium to deliver the superior janitorial services their world- class destination venue deserves,” said Louis J. Lanzillo, Jr., Chief Operating Officer of UG2.

“We want everyone who visits Gillette Stadium to have an amazing and memorable experience. Janitorial services are key to making this happen,” said Jason Stone, Vice President of Site Operations, Kraft Sports + Entertainment. “UG2’s commitment to excellence was apparent from the start. Their fresh approach with employee and customer focus, innovative equipment and solutions, and hands-on management style set them apart. Already, they’ve clearly elevated the level of janitorial services at Gillette Stadium, with facilities that are noticeably clean and pristine.”

UG2’s engagement with Gillette Stadium began April 1, 2022. UG2 also provides janitorial services for Patriot’s Place, an open-air shopping center adjacent to Gillette Stadium.

About UG2

UG2 sets a new standard for excellence in comprehensive, integrated facility services. We deliver innovative solutions, pristine environments, and a passion for customer service from a team with more than 350 years of experience in the facilities maintenance industry. Our suite of solutions includes Janitorial Services, Operations & Maintenance, and Workplace Solutions for clients in Commercial, Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Life Science, Public Venue, Retail, and Industrial markets. We use advanced technologies to deliver efficient service, constantly refine our processes to ensure our team continues to lead and emphasize a culture of excellence throughout our organization. Founded in 2012, UG2 is headquartered in Boston, MA with regional offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, West Palm Beach, and Chicago. UG2 has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing privately held organizations in the industry. For more information, please visit www.ug2.com and follow us @UG2IFS.

Maximize Your Resources and Work Smarter

Reduced Risk

No matter what your industry might be—whether you’re manufacturing products, teaching college students or operating a high-rise office building—you face risks related to your facility services program. If you’re taking a reactive approach, those risks can not only seem overwhelming, but also threaten the health of your organization.

Being able to anticipate potential risks and proactively address them is a distinctive aspect of experienced operations and maintenance, as well as facility services professionals, providing wide-ranging benefits long into the future. With the right outsourcing partner, you should be able to meet regulatory compliance demands, keep engineering licensure up to date, prevent asset downtime, implement innovations related to improvement, put sustainable cleaning practices into place, and use key performance indicators to fuel risk management.

A knowledgeable outsourcing partner can also handle labor relations and union matters and implement comprehensive safety programs—two aspects of operations that, if handled poorly, could scuttle any organization’s efficiency and productivity.

For example, safety requires more than just following regulations and having protective equipment available. It necessitates comprehensive and ongoing training that encompasses risk management and OSHA rules, to put best practices in place. UG2 considers safety a top priority, which is why we track metrics, refine training programs, and keep up with the latest tools and processes that make every workplace the safest it can possibly be.

Expanded Capabilities

While it’s true that you can bring in subcontractors for numerous facility services tasks, what about a C-level executive? Or can you find a strategic thinker who specializes in risk management and can assess your organizational structure to find productivity gaps? What about a trainer who understands the nuances of your team’s skillsets and can teach them cross-functional abilities that keep your workforce costs controlled?

With an experienced outsourcing partner, you don’t spend your days acting like the head of HR, constantly trying to find the right talent, hire, train, and review their performance. You simply reap the benefits of access to technical expertise and a deep bench. For example, at UG2, we implement training programs for staff development based on customer needs and bring in highly skilled executives who have specialized in strategy for decades.

This approach expands capability significantly, producing profound results and productivity gains.

At UG2, we see each customer engagement as an opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise, and also to maximize the resources already in place, so that customers can develop strategies that are proactive and meaningful.

Outsourcing facility services isn’t about bringing in more subcontractors and dealing with the potential headaches that come up. It’s about creating a partnership that brings both short-term benefits and long-term advantages in a way that advances efficiency, strategic thinking, workforce productivity, and mission-driven initiatives.

If you’re considering making the move toward outsourcing facility services, here’s a key checklist.

When considering the move toward bringing in an outsourcing partner to a life science company, the fact is that it can take time to build trust.

In large part, that’s because life science is unique as an industry. It requires maintenance of sensitive environments, a high degree of collaboration, ongoing communication, specialized training and safety, and knowledge of industry trends.

Because of those factors, it’s crucial to find a partner willing to earn that trust and take ownership. Here are some key things to consider when you’re assessing whether an outsourcing partner will be a good fit for your life science organization:

• Expertise in life science, with a list of customers to prove it, and knowledge of the processes unique to your industry.
• Certifications and experience that go above and beyond the bare minimum; an outsourcing partner should have a strong emphasis on ongoing education and training.
• Customer-centric provider that understands the needs of life science environments and a company with a well-articulated mission statement that puts customers first.
• Desire for collaboration as a driving focus, with examples of the results  from collaboration for life science customers.
• Labor relations experience is crucial. An engaged, productive workforce doesn’t happen by accident, it’s the result of informed and proactive measures that significantly reduce the risk of labor problems.
• Alignment with existing leadership infrastructure and the ability to add to that leadership in meaningful ways that maximize the power of an organization’s knowledge base and strategic direction.
• Established strategy for a pandemic or unforeseen circumstances. An outsourcing partner should have a proactive mindset, rather than a shorter-term, reactive process that doesn’t anticipate changing needs.
• Depth of resources for emergency response when needed, in order to maintain operational continuity.

Most of all, a partner should be exactly that: a partner. Collaboration and trust are an essential element for this, and an outsourced facility services provider should be able to detail the ways in which processes and procedures will be shared, not replaced.

At UG2, we see each life science customer engagement as an opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise in the industry, and to maximize the resources already in place, so customers can develop strategies that are proactive and meaningful.

Outsourcing facility maintenance and janitorial services are about creating a partnership that advances efficiency and drives strategic thinking, while also employing risk mitigation and established protocols.

Want to learn more about what UG2 offers? Let’s have a conversation about what you need, and most of all, where we can provide value for your organization.

Best Practices for Building Owners, Property Managers and Facility Managers

Whether you are responsible for the maintenance of a data center, luxury apartment building, corporate office space, or a sprawling university campus, true preventative care is the key to excellence in facility services.

Routine care, done well, can avert minor mishaps and major disasters. Here’s how to get the most from your investment.

Engage an expert — and build a relationship

You begin with a partner who has a strong track record with customers and demonstrated experience in your field. Then, ensure the team assigned to your space gets trained and onboarded for your specific space. Working with a facility services expert with a record of retention means less turnover – and turmoil – in your space.

Take data centers, for example. Our specially trained teams know that every customer needs a rigorous preventative maintenance schedule, tailored to the customer’s space, addressing CRACs, generators, chillers, RTUs, humidifiers and more.

Familiarity with your facility combined with a focused attention to detail will ultimately allow you to focus more on maintenance and less on time- and cost-consuming repairs. UG2 facility managers often walk the property every day checking for issues that need attention. Seemingly minor concerns like a crack in pavement or a dripping facet can easily become major inconveniences if they go unaddressed.

Avoid costly repairs, lost productivity, and potential injury

The cost savings benefits are clear when you compare timely replacement of a worn valve to flooding from a major leak. But the benefits of true preventative maintenance run much deeper. You and your team will operate more efficiently when you are not bogged down with unanticipated repairs. You will avoid disastrous down time that dampens morale, impacts productivity, and wreaks havoc on your schedule for days, weeks or months.  

Preventative maintenance is also a core component of a strong safety program. Stair and walkway hazards become trip-and-fall risks. Damaged doors, windows and infrastructure can pose a threat to building security. And emergency situations in your facility increase the likelihood that you’re exposing untrained staff to take risks in addressing issues beyond their expertise.

Put your best foot forward, convey competence – and shine

The concept of “curb appeal” has taken on new meaning in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Any evidence that suggests a property is less than pristine and well-cared for can undermine the confidence of tenants, guests, visitors, and employees.

Conversely, maintaining a facility with stellar services helps you create a welcoming space, establish trust, build a reputation for excellence, and set yourself apart in your industry.

An added bonus: Many routine maintenance tasks result in changes that improve systems efficiency and save energy, making for a greener environment. Ask your facility services provider to include energy assessments in your routine maintenance schedule.

Recognizing International Women’s Day and realizing the theme #BreakTheBias is in part about taking action to do things differently.

The commitment to doing things differently is inherent to the founding of UG2 and it manifests in actions big and small, from treating employees and customers like family to staying privately owned so we can make decisions that aren’t just driven by the bottom line.

In a historically male-dominated industry, UG2 owes much of our success to the women who have contributed to our organization at every level. We succeed by seeking out the voices and skills of women who traditionally have been shut out of policy-making, business development and leadership positions. We excel by recognizing their talent, providing opportunities for advancement, and supporting their professional development.

Here are some ways UG2 works to #BreakTheBias:

Providing training, professional development and leadership opportunities. We lead the field in educating and training our employees, and that includes sending women to events such as the Pennsylvania Conference for Women and the Texas Women’s Leadership Conference. We prioritize promoting from within and supporting advancement among our incredibly diverse workforce.

Sponsoring the efforts of outside organizations that are working to advance equity. We are devoted to supporting the work of other organizations who share our values, such as English for New Bostonians, Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers, Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network and DC-based Jubilee Housing, which is women-founded and women-led.

Partnering and subcontracting with minority and women owned businesses. Diversity is a core value we hold in the highest regard, and that extends to our external relationships and professional dealings.   

Seeking out and honoring women’s voices and input. Taking responsibility means inviting and acting on feedback. UG2 offers every employee ongoing opportunities to provide input, from listening sessions to one-on-one check-ins to anonymous surveys.

Prioritizing work/life balance. Treating employees as family means recognizing the whole employee. We coordinate part-time/flexible/overnight schedules and comprehensive benefits packages that ensure our employees can care for their children and aging parents while also thriving professionally at UG2.

We have more work to do, in our own organization and in our industry, too. We are particularly proud that UG2 Associate Vice President for Culture and Community Lauren Lanzillo is taking on the role of Co-Chair of BOMA’s Emerging Leaders Committee, where she can help #BreakTheBias as she engages, inspires and advocates for the next generation of women in our industry.

PRESS RELEASE

Industry Veteran Dennis Giblin Joins UG2 as National Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Solutions

February 23, 2022 – BOSTON, MA – UG2, a leading provider of comprehensive, integrated facility services, today announced it has hired industry veteran Dennis Giblin as National Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Solutions. Dennis is charged with helping to accelerate UG2’s growth as the company continues to break new ground in facility services.   

“We founded UG2 to raise the bar in how facility services are delivered. Through innovation, dedication to excellence, and the hiring of extremely talented professionals, we’ve been able to provide value to our customers while growing our business,” said Louis J. Lanzillo, Jr., CEO of UG2. “Dennis has tremendous expertise and deep relationships within our industry. He will be invaluable in helping us expand to meet growing customer demand. I couldn’t be happier to welcome him to the UG2 family.”

“I’ve watched UG2 grow over the years with much admiration and respect,” said Dennis. “Now, as part of company, I’m excited to collaborate with my colleagues and help UG2 expand its reach even further.”

Dennis is a dynamic sales leader with 20 years of success in driving revenue and improving sales team performance. In addition to his strong business acumen, Dennis is known for building and maintaining close and mutually rewarding relationships with clients. As UG2’s National Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Solutions, he is responsible for growing regional markets across the nation and managing the regional sales teams that are focused on single service lines in the Commercial, Corporate, Retail, Public Venue and Multi-family residential industries. He is also responsible for overseeing business development operations.

Dennis comes to UG2 from Able Services, most recently having served as National Vice President of Business Development. Dennis began his career at Able as an Engineering Manager before moving into sales, in the roles of Director, and then, Vice President of Business Development.

About UG2

UG2 sets a new standard for excellence in comprehensive, integrated facility services. We deliver innovative solutions, pristine environments, and a passion for customer service from a team with more than 350 years of experience in the facilities maintenance industry. Our suite of solutions includes Janitorial Services, Operations & Maintenance, and Workplace Solutions for clients in Commercial, Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Life Science, Public Venue, Retail, and Industrial markets. We use advanced technologies to deliver efficient service, constantly refine our processes to ensure our team continues to lead and emphasize a culture of excellence throughout our organization. Founded in 2012, UG2 is based in Boston, MA with regional offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, West Palm Beach, and Chicago. UG2 has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing privately held organizations in the industry. For more information, please visit www.ug2.com and follow us @UG2IFS.

PRESS RELEASE

Privately-held facility services leader adds industry veterans, opens new California offices to meet growing demand

LOS ANGELES, CA – UG2, a leading provider of comprehensive, integrated facility services, today announced the addition of four industry veterans to its West Coast operations. Jeff Palmer has joined the company as Senior Regional Vice President, along with Stu Collins, Vice President of Building Maintenance; Paul Savarino, Vice President, Engineering Services; and Evan DuBose, Regional Associate Vice President of Engineering. With more than 65 combined years of industry expertise, they will lead UG2’s expanded services throughout California, as the company continues growing aggressively to meet customer demand.

“Nothing is more important to UG2 than delivering innovative facility services that exceed client expectations. Our ability to do this time and again while maintaining an unwavering commitment to client success, has made UG2 a trusted partner for organizations of all types and sizes, and helped propel our company’s growth,” said Louis J. Lanzillo, Jr., CEO of UG2. “The tremendous expertise and high integrity that Jeff, Stu, Paul and Evan bring to UG2 will enable us to continue expanding our reach while raising the bar in facility services excellence.”

UG2 was founded to transform how outsourced facility services are delivered. The company innovated processes that foster continual excellence, implemented the industry’s most effective best practices, and was built from the ground up to enable proactive and highly responsive service. UG2’s expertise, nimbleness, size, and independence make it uniquely suited to providing world-class, customized facility services that scale when clients need to, easily accommodate new requirements, and deliver superior results.

Jeff Palmer, Senior Regional Vice President, Western US & Midwest

“UG2 takes a fresh approach to facility services. They earn their clients’ trust every day by being fully accountable and transparent, and never resting on their laurels,” said Palmer. “As a private company, they empower employees to go the extra mile to exceed client expectations, and are deeply committed to employee career development and training. I’m proud to join a company of such high caliber and excited to help accelerate UG2’s next phase of growth.”

Palmer joins UG2 from Able Services, overseeing UG2’s engineering operations throughout the Western United States and the Midwest. A graduate of the California Maritime Academy, Palmer has more than 25 years of facility management expertise at numerous commercial office buildings and hospitals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. A former union member with more than 15 years’ experience negotiating labor union agreements, he has been integral in building strong relationships between clients and facility services staff. He is a member of BOMA, IFMA, CoreNet, and IREM.

Stu Collins, Vice President of Building Maintenance, California

“UG2 is renowned for delivering exceptionally pristine and safe environments with a five-star service level. This, combined with its ability to continually stay ahead of the curve, make UG2 a stand out amongst providers,” said Collins. “I couldn’t be happier to join the company and contribute to its success.”

Collins honed his expertise while advancing from project manager to division manager to senior director of operations in facility services organizations. Prior to UG2, he worked at Able Services covering both Southern and Northern California markets and managing over 35 million sq. ft. of commercial real estate space. He is well-versed in union negotiations, implementing building inspection and safety platforms, and employing scope adjustments, communication strategies and the latest disinfecting protocols related to COVID-19. Collins has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Dundee and is a member of BOMA.

Paul Savarino, Vice President, Engineering, Southern California

“UG2 combines the best of two worlds – the feel of a small familial company that prioritizes client and employee relationships, and the comprehensive services, advanced technology and scalability of an industry leader,” said Savarino. “I’m looking forward to helping this highly talented team expand its penetration into the integrated facility services business and other industry verticals within California.”

Savarino oversees UG2’s engineering staff for the region, working closely with clients to ensure best-in-class service and highly satisfied occupants. He has over 30 years of experience in facility services, working with premiere office and hotel properties throughout the Los Angeles region, including Beverly Hills Hotel, Ritz Carlton, La Quinta Resort, and New York Palace Hotel. Savarino has managed more than 80 million square feet of class A office, retail, and hospitality space in the Southern California region. As a strong leader, he also has broad experience in project implementation and delivery, and a deep expertise in maintaining, enhancing, and ensuring the smooth operation of high-profile properties. Savarino is a member of BOMA, IFMA and IREM.

Evan DuBose, Regional Associate Vice President of Engineering, Bay Area and Pacific Northwest

“To build mutually successful relationships with clients, you need to engender trust, operate with integrity, invest in your employees, and set clear and high expectations. UG2 sets the standard in all these areas,” said DuBose. “I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and help UG2 and our expanding customer base reap the rewards from our partnership.”

DuBose brings more than 25 years of facility services expertise to UG2, where he directs engineering for the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest. Most recently he served as Regional Engineering Manager at Able Services, responsible for oversight and management of 400+ employees and several large commercial and hospital facilities. DuBose began his career as a journeyman engineer at ABM Industries before moving to a facilities manager position at Applied Materials.

About UG2

UG2 sets a new standard for excellence in comprehensive, integrated facility services. We deliver innovative solutions, pristine environments, and a passion for customer service from a team with more than 350 years of experience in the facilities maintenance industry. Our suite of solutions includes Janitorial Services, Operations & Maintenance, and Workplace Solutions for clients in Commercial, Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Life Science, Public Venue, Retail, and Industrial markets. We use advanced technologies to deliver efficient service, constantly refine our processes to ensure our team continues to lead and emphasize a culture of excellence throughout our organization. Founded in 2012, UG2 is based in Boston, MA with regional offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, West Palm Beach, and Chicago. UG2 has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing privately held organizations in the industry. For more information, please visit UG2.com and follow us @UG2IFS.

Best Practices to Consider Now

Data centers are booming—and encountering a stark shortage of qualified people to run them, according to new findings from Uptime Institute. Communities across the country are facing a crisis-level shortage of skilled staff. The situation is even more stark in rural areas and for larger companies and campuses.

UG2 is already ahead of the curve, leveraging our deep expertise to develop the next generation of talent.

Here are five factors enabling us develop leaders in data center facilities management:

The best hires. We are proactive recruiters who travel the country to scout out employees with expertise in mission critical data centers – but relevant experience is only part of the equation. At UG2, we understand that certain talents and abilities translate well to succeeding in the facility services world. That’s why our hiring process emphasizes bringing in skilled problem-solvers and expert communicators who are flexible and adaptable to change in a fast-paced environment.

Advanced and ongoing training, professional development and mentoring. UG2 was built on a foundation of ensuring our people have the best training and technology in the industry. Our technicians are certified and trained on every single piece of equipment they touch, and training at UG2 never ends. From year-round remote and in-person trainings to our apprenticeship program and mentoring through our “Learn with Leaders” program, we develop every team member so that jobs become careers.

Low-to-no turnover. UG2 makes thoughtful, vetted hires and treats everyone we bring on board like family. Those factors, together with our industry leading benefits and compensation packages and unmatched opportunities for advancement have made low turnover a UG2 trademark – and that benefits everyone.

Deep partnerships with customers that allow us to predict need. Whether we are dealing with a longstanding client relationship or a new customer transitioning to UG2 for the first time, we take the time to know our customers inside and out and prioritize communication between our team and yours. That means our team supervisors know as well as anyone how to predict and plan for our customers’ emerging needs.

An emphasis on being nimble, sharing best practices and drawing from lessons learned. UG2 has always emphasized preparedness. Our practice of continuously examining where we are and finding ways to do better helped us deliver for our customers during the covid-19 pandemic. Our teams were equipped with the resources they needed and trained in how to use them. And because we have built-in, routine safety checks and prioritize communication, we were able to adapt to ever-changing protocols, whether dictated by local regulations or by our customers’ specific needs.

In this work, having a trusted partner makes all the difference – and now is the time to build capacity and capabilities. Are you facing an uncertain future when it comes to staffing and managing your facilities? We’d love to talk through your needs and priorities. Contact us today!

Solutions and Resources: Beyond the Basics

In the private K-12 environment, administrators, teachers, and parents share in a commitment to an overarching goal – keeping our community safe and our students engaged and thriving. Throughout the last year, there was intense debate over the return to in-person school, we now have significant data and experience to inform a safer reopening plan. But how do the new best practices translate for Private K-12?

UG2 has partnered with private K-12 communities to identify considerations and solutions that go beyond the basics. Plans must be carefully laid out, but also have built-in flexibility to respond to changing conditions.

Cleaning and disinfection remain essential, but other considerations are critical for ensuring a successful year ahead:

Staggered reopening schedules. While many private K-12 school buildings were closed over the past 18 months, other spaces remained open to support residents or faculty living on campus. The upcoming school year (2021-2022) might see continued pressure on space utilization and the ability to stagger residential and/or commuter student schedules so that classrooms and other spaces can be cycled and serviced on different days. How are you perform cleaning and engineering services in spaces that are always populated?  How are you communicate complex scheduling requirements to ensure the right rooms are disinfected?

Varying facility types. Student dorms, classrooms, science labs, sports arenas, fitness centers, cafeterias, common areas, libraries, offices, auditoriums, music practice spaces—the list goes on when it comes to the types of spaces on a typical private K-12 campus, many of which traditionally hold large events. How can you tailor your solutions to these different facilities and ensure they are consistently disinfected and made safer, given the complexity and variety of these spaces?

Budget constraints and considerations. Tuition serves as a primary source of revenue for K-12 private schools, but institutions today may face challenges of lower enrollment rates, higher spend on cleaning services, reduced alumni gifts, and potential faculty recruitment struggles. How can you do more when you may have less to spend?

More engagement and interaction. Despite controls like better social distancing in classrooms and dining spaces, students will gravitate toward one another. What about sports teams? Even with spectators socially distanced, players need to be in close proximity, and often can’t wear masks as part of practice and play. How will you handle the potential rise in infection risk that comes with more interaction?

Supporting a strong community. One unique aspect of a K-12 private school is the close-knit community that brings together educators, administrators, parents, students, and staff. Ensuring that all feel supported and safe is crucial, and requires careful communication about what’s being done to keep everyone healthy. Do you have a solid communications plan to help all stakeholders feel confident in your strategies and informed about evolving protocols?

Given these factors, private K-12 reopening for in-person learning requires a unique, well-thought-out approach that addresses complex issues on multiple levels. That leads to the biggest question of all: How can you reopen safely when resources may be limited?

Strategizing with an Experienced Partner

If you work in the private K-12 education industry, now is the time to build capability and resources for reopening. UG2’s deep experience and insights have proven valuable to a range of educational customers. Awareness of the unique needs of a campus environment is just the first of many steps toward creating a cohesive, meaningful plan for reopening, drawn from a very specific understanding of the challenges these programs face. UG2 will go deeper into these issues in our upcoming blog series. We’ll take a detailed look at a proactive approach to facility services, and examine the importance of operations coordination.

Do you have questions about your specific needs as you look toward September? Our UG2 ReNew^SM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health^SM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, well before anyone returns to school—and long after they’re back, too.

We’d love to talk through them with you. Contact us today!

UG2 Partners with TD Garden to Enable Safe, Clean Return to Venue

UG2’s Cleaning and Disinfecting Expertise Helps Achieve GBAC STAR Accreditation for Outbreak Prevention, Response, and Recovery

Boston, MA, June 16, 2021 — UG2 today announced it has partnered with TD Garden to achieve the cleaning industry’s GBAC STAR™ accreditation for outbreak prevention, response, and recovery. This accreditation, which is recommended by the NBA and NHL, among others, is critical to enabling a safe, clean return to the venue for employees, sports teams, entertainers, and fans.

“UG2 has always been focused on maintaining pristine and healthy facilities for clients across markets. Now, as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted and everyone is hyperaware of the measures being taken to protect them, elevating these services is even more essential,” said Greg Lanzillo, Director of Operations, UG2. “We’re proud of the work we did to help achieve this rigorous accreditation, from consulting on cleaning and disinfecting best practices and technologies to completing the many required tasks and paperwork. Not only did our efforts help free TD Garden to focus on other essential re-opening projects, it enables the risk mitigation and peace of mind we all need to confidently return to the work and activities we enjoy.”

“TD Garden is committed to providing a safe atmosphere to associates, guests and players. The GBAC STAR accreditation is critical to our ‘Play it Safe” commitment, and UG2 has been integral to helping us achieve this,” said Andrew MacFayden, General Manager, TD Garden. “Their expertise in facility services, deep knowledge of COVID-19 mitigation guidelines and best practices, and our collaborative partnership, helped us meet our goals for a safe reopening and expanded occupancy of TD Garden.”

The GBAC STAR Accreditation Program is performance-based and designed to help facilities establish a comprehensive system of cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention for their staff and their buildings. Successful GBAC STAR facilities are able to demonstrate that correct work practices, procedures, and systems are in place to prepare, respond, and recover from outbreaks and pandemics. There are 20 GBAC STAR Program Elements, each with specific performance and guidance criteria. 

There are many factors that go into making facility services organizations successful. One thing stands out among the rest: a culture of excellence, in which people work collaboratively to achieve common goals, and never rest on their laurels.

While businesses of all types strive for excellence, embedding it into an organization’s DNA can be as challenging as it is critical. Many customers engage UG2 to help them affect the cultural change needed to deliver superior facility services. Here’s how we imbue a culture of excellence:

1. Hire, Train and Groom the Team

It all starts with people. We make sure ours are PHDs: passionate, hard-working, and dedicated. UG2 staff, whether long-time employees or recently onboarded, are treated like family. We expect a lot from them and invest a lot in them, from coaching and extensive training, to the advanced technologies and comprehensive playbooks they need to be successful. They go the extra mile for our customers because we go the extra mile for them.

2. Cultivate Listeners and Innovators

Listening is key to understanding customers’ needs and building strong partnerships. Every single one of us takes the time to listen to our customers, no matter the topic or when the conversation arises. Hearing what customers have to say also encourages thinking about new ways to optimize processes, technologies, and services. We actively encourage and embrace these innovations.

3. Foster Accountability

To affect a culture of excellence, you need to hold people accountable. We set ambitious and well-defined expectations based on each client’s KPIs, such as work order completion, safety, customer experience, and janitorial quality inspections. Not only do we measure how UG2 is performing against those KPIs on a continual basis, we share that information with all employees, often displaying results where they clock in and out of the customer’s site. This helps ensure that we’re all working towards the same goals, keeping performance at the forefront of everyone’s mind, and fostering positive change.

4. Be Transparent

True accountability requires full transparency. We share our successes with customers, which is always a pleasure. But just as, if not more, important, we also share and take ownership of any shortcomings. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s how we determine the course corrections and adaptations needed to continuously enhance service delivery.

5. Engender Trust

Trust is the reward of a culture of accountability. We earn our customers’ trust every day by teaming with them to raise the bar and working hard to exceed expectations. We become a de facto extension of our customers’ facility services organizations, and truly take their goals on as ours. Everyone, from our on-site staff to our C-level executives, plays a role in ensuring our customers receive best-in-class service delivery.

UG2 was founded on a culture of excellence. We built it into the fabric of the company – into how we support employees and engage with customers. For many clients, we become an agent of cultural change. Contact us today to find out how we can do the same for your organization.

Meeting the needs of a premier hotel in the heart of a busy city

In the heart of Washington, D.C. is a luxury hotel with a soaring atrium, lush outdoor terraces, and lavishly appointed guest rooms with designer touches of bronze and oak, along with floor-to-ceiling windows that take in expansive views of the capital city.

Like so many other hotels right now, though, the property also has extensive needs when it comes to cleaning, disinfection, and maintenance. Recently, UG2 began its partnership with the hotel and even from the initial walkthrough, it was clear the building’s previous services provider had not met expectations.

Identifying the Needs

To address the physical distancing required by COVID-19, the hotel had to shut down temporarily, barely a year after it had first opened. Aiming for a reopening in late August, the hotel’s management team wanted to ensure it would meet even higher standards than before the brief shutdown. But that came with challenges.

In an initial inspection, UG2 found areas of improvement:

• Marble flooring throughout the property was not polished regularly, giving the floors a dull look.
• Predecessor cleaning company hosed down kitchen equipment to clean it, which resulted in fryer damage and some minor appliance damages.
• Improper and infrequent cleaning of the kitchen floor caused consistent grease residue, presenting a slip-and-fall risk.
• Poor maintenance of floor mats in the kitchen and prep areas resulted in mold growth, another health concern.
• Extensive meeting spaces, both indoor and rooftop, required cleaning and disinfection for safe usage.

Items like these indicate a minimum level of care and cleaning that can easily extend across an entire property. If the marble floors are ignored, what do the elevators look like? What about dining areas and guest rooms?

The luxury hotel needed to ramp up its appearance quickly, since renewed travel in Washington led to over half of its rooms being booked for opening weekend—with consistent reservations of 30 to 70 rooms a day into September.

Moving Ahead

To address immediate needs for a much higher level of cleaning and disinfection, UG2 worked to ensure that the hotel could meet the recommendations for the chain’s established cleanliness program.

This protocol was put into place for all of the chain’s brands, and involved new procedures for housekeeping in guest rooms, changes to in-room service for contactless food delivery, increased cleaning of public spaces, and improved solutions for event planning for more safety.

UG2 transitioned the luxury hotel’s health and safety procedures to an even higher level, thanks to our experience with facilities maintenance. That meant UG2 teams were able to track cleaning and sanitizing in a meaningful way that ensures no areas will be neglected, even if they seem unused.

Because the hotel’s kitchen area was a particular concern, UG2 team members made sure that daily cleaning addressed formerly problematic issues. For example, on a daily basis, UG2:

• Cleans and soaks filters in the stoves’ hoods.
• Degreases and wipes fire sprinkler pipes and drains grease traps.
• Keeps floors cleaned and degreased, including floor mats.
• Removes carbon deposits and residue from stoves, ovens, broilers, and grills.
• Cleans and sanitizes exterior and brushes debris from interior of wood stone pizza oven.

This is just a brief list of the many intensive daily cleaning tasks undertaken by UG2. This enhanced attention to detail was  implemented in the hotel’s public restrooms, employee locker rooms, back-of-house corridors, the main entrance, and the expansive lobby area.

UG2 also ensured CBE compliance by subcontracting to Total Services, LLC, a minority, women-owned business that offers buildout and remodeling services for commercial spaces.

The pandemic is certainly not over, and we’ve all come to accept that we don’t know when there will be enough of an endpoint to make us feel “back to normal.” But even when that time comes, having extensive cleaning and disinfection practices will remain key for providing healthy and safe shared spaces for occupants.

As the hotel welcomes guests, UG2 is dedicated to making sure they can have the confidence that comes with a focused, comprehensive approach to facilities management.

Facilities management is a complex infrastructure of services. There are always countless tasks to complete, costs to manage, and resources to supervise. From equipment maintenance and operations to janitorial services, much of what facility managers handle impacts thousands of building occupants and guests, which means performing with excellence is critical.

That’s why there’s a great need to partner with experts who know how to deliver world-class facility services, and why, according to McKinsey & Company, more than 50% of facilities management is outsourced.

With so much on the line, it’s important to engage a facility services organization with a solid reputation and the ability to deliver on their promises.

It all starts with Trust.

The Bedrock of a Successful Partnership

Trust is at the core of every successful relationship. It’s what enables organizations to rely on their partners to do the job they are contracted to do. It’s what builds strong, mutually beneficial partnerships with outcomes that exceed expectations — instead of transactional interactions with potentially lackluster results.

UG2 builds trust by adhering to these 3 principles:

1. Accountability: We set clear and specific goals based on agreed-upon client KPIs in areas such as work order completion, safety, customer experience, and quality inspections. We communicate these KPIs to all employees, measure how UG2 is performing against them on a regular basis and make that information visible where employees are sure to see it. For example, we often post KPI’s at the location of time clocks.

2. Transparency: We don’t hide anything from our customers. They know exactly what we’re doing, what’s working well, and what, if anything, needs to improve. We regularly update them on our KPI performance and fully own any shortcomings. We implement course corrections as needed to continuously enhance performance and service delivery.

3. Proactivity: We never rest on our laurels. No matter how strong our outcomes may be, we innovate new ways to achieve even more. We do this by leveraging best practices honed over decades and using the latest technologies and industry innovations to inform data-driven decision-making, which leads to more cost savings, operational efficiencies, and customer satisfaction.

Reaping the Rewards

When you partner with a trusted, expert facility services organization, the benefits you gain are invaluable:

• Top-quality, reliable services: The provider’s operational expertise, technical know-how, specialized business experience, proven methodologies, and customer-centric approach result in consistently reliable, high-quality facility services.

• Cost control and savings: Not only are costs kept within budget, customers often realize significant cost reductions due to greater efficiencies, better equipment maintenance strategies, use of advanced and mobile technologies, and energy savings.

• Highly skilled talent: Facility employees get the coaching, technologies, training, development, and playbooks needed to be successful at whatever job they’re tasked with doing.

• Fast resolution: Staffing levels are designed to meet client needs in a timely way, with specialized expertise readily available. With the outsourcer’s advanced systems, best practices, and trained implementation teams, issues are resolved faster and more effectively.

• Well-maintained systems: Outsourcers ensure the appropriate level of proactive and preventative maintenance required for each building system based on the system’s overall impact on the customer’s requirements, budget, site commitments, and asset-preservation objectives.

• Safer facilities: Proven safety systems, training, compliance, and documentation help prevent injury and maintain workforce stability, minimizing customers’ risk exposure.

We earn our customers’ trust by teaming up with them to deliver superior facility services every day. Contact us today to find out how we can do the same for your organization.

UG2 recognizes our customers for their outstanding achievements

In such an unprecedented year, professionalism and commitment deserve to be celebrated, and that’s exactly what happened with this year’s TOBY Awards.

Winners were announced on November 17th, these awards recognize industry excellence in property management, building operations, and service. They’re awarded by the Boston chapter of the Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA), and winners will move on to the national competition, and if they also win there, they’ll progress to the international competition.

As a platinum sponsor, UG2 is proud to stand as a service provider in this thriving industry, and we are proud of our participation in this signature event and with BOMA. We congratulate our customers for their significant industry impact, earning them recognition at this year’s event:

Rising Professional of the Year
Rachel Winsor
JLL

Property Manager of the Year, High Rise
Heidi Cerullo
CBRE

Chief Engineer of the Year
Arthur Baxter
Oxford Properties Group

250,000 – 499,999 SF Winner
125 Summer Street
Managed & Owned by Oxford Properties Group

500,000 – 1 Million SF Winner
100 Northern Ave
Managed by CBRE, Inc.
Owned by 100 Northern Avenue, LLC

Congratulations to all winners. Good luck at Nationals!

When selecting a partner, there’s much more to facilities management than equipment maintenance

There are certain assumptions that tend to come up with facilities management (FM) and its role in building operations. You might think it’s just maintenance of systems like HVAC, cleaning and disinfection—especially right now—and repair of everything from complex equipment to squeaky door hinges.

While all of those are, of course, a vital part of FM and should be daily priorities for any team, there are several other factors that private K-12 schools should be considering. It’s less about specific skillsets and more about how FM will fit in with your environment, especially because private K-12 communities have unique needs that must be understood. These factors include:

• Experience with K-12 campuses. If you work and/or live on a private K-12 campus, you already know it’s a distinctive environment, even when compared to higher education campuses that are similar in size. Do your potential FM vendors realize this as well? Choosing a team that has experience in this space is crucial, because they can draw on that previous experience to be more proactive in their approach.
• Prevention as a guiding principle. Of course, prompt reaction to maintenance and cleaning is a major part of any FM team’s strategy, but an emphasis should be on how to prevent those issues in the first place. Taking a proactive stance can lead to cost savings, increased efficiency, and operational excellence.
• Low turnover, if any. In an office building, seeing familiar faces for facilities management is nice, but in a school, it’s essential, because it builds trust. If your FM team, such as the cleaning crew, is seen as a revolving roster of strangers, that undermines the sense of community that private K-12 schools have as a foundation.
• School pride. Related to low turnover, FM employees will feel like part of your campus, and tap into that distinctive cohesion that makes your school special. They’ll feel a sense of pride, just as much as alumnus, staff, teachers, and students do. And when you feel proud to work somewhere, you care more. You work harder.
• Affordable in the right way. An outstanding FM team will be an investment, not an expense. That’s because the FM provider will focus on proactive strategies, ongoing training for their team members, and partnership with K-12 administration. All of those can increase efficiency considerably, and that reduces overall cost compared to FM providers who are simply not the right fit.

Facilities management is an important part of every private K-12 campus to ensure that buildings are cleaned and running well. As far as providing services, that should be the starting point that gets built upon, not the endpoint.

Value of an Experienced Partner

For more insight, check out our recent post, How Facility Management Can Be Part of Your K-12 Community and consider these factors when choosing your FM provider, even those who come in on a short-term basis.

As you think about how to keep your campus and your community safe and healthy, don’t hesitate to reach out to UG2 to learn how we can help. Our new UG2 ReNew^SM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health^SM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, no matter what return-to-school strategy you’ve chosen. We have experience being part of private K-12 spaces, and we take great pride in being part of the schools we serve.

Tackling work orders is important, but it’s also crucial to prevent them.

There will be issues that need to be addressed on a private K-12 campus, from equipment malfunctions and broken systems to process improvements and additional training. But not every facility management team approach these in the same way.

Some teams have a reactive position when it comes to repair and maintenance, and they dutifully go through work orders every morning to sort them according to urgency. There’s nothing wrong with addressing problems as they happen, but it’s also not the best strategy, because it doesn’t include tactics for preventing those problems in the first place.

With a proactive approach, a campus can run much more efficiently, because there will be a greater emphasis on maintenance and less on repair. Fortunately, it doesn’t take an overhaul to be proactive. It just takes attention to detail. For example, UG2 facility managers often “walk the campus” every week, specifically looking for minor issues to address. Those could be seemingly tiny problems, right down to a small crack on a stairway, or a door that doesn’t open quite right. Maybe there’s a little water damage at a corner of a ceiling tile.

All of these have the potential to turn into much larger safety issues. The stairway crack could become a tripping hazard, the door might break as a student is entering a room, that water spot may be from a leaking pipe that could burst eventually if it’s ignored.

A knowledgeable facility manager “knows” a campus, right down to what everything should look like and how it needs to function. Being proactive may look excessive to an observer, but the benefits can be significant:

• Cost savings: Consider the difference between taking 15 minutes to replace part of a pipe that’s leaking versus a 2-day shutdown of an entire part of the campus because of a major pipe burst, as well as the potential water damage from that event.
• Efficiency: When a facility manager is the one generating most of the work orders, that means repairs have become more minimal. The facility team can focus on more important maintenance issues without having the constant distraction of repair problems.
• Appearance and reputation: Everyone knows how it feels to be in a space that is well maintained, clean, and free of even minor issues. It simply feels better and helps a private K-12 school maintain its reputation for excellence — not just academically, but also operationally.

Value of an Experienced Partner

For more insight, check out our last post, How to Include Facility Management in Your K-12 Community and in an upcoming post, we’ll discuss the top factors schools should consider when choosing to outsource facilities management.

As you think about how to keep your campus and your community safe and healthy, don’t hesitate to reach out to UG2 about how we can help. Our new UG2 ReNew^SM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health^SM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, no matter what return-to-school strategy you’ve chosen. We have experience being part of private K-12 environments, and we take great pride in being part of the schools we serve.

Now more than ever, consistency is key. Facilities management can provide that, but only if it fits in with your school.

In a private K-12 environment, community is everything. Administrators, staff, teachers, parents, and students are all connected together in a unique way — fostering cohesion and belonging, making school feel like a second home for everyone.

That distinctive feeling is more important now than ever before, as we navigate through so much uncertainty. It’s also why the right facilities management team can make such a big difference. A team that handles cleaning, disinfection, maintenance, operations, and more, can heighten the sensation of safety that comes with community. But not every facility management (FM) team is the same.

Here are the two major elements that are important to determine if your FM can fit into your private K-12 environment:

• Low turnover, if any. In an office building, seeing familiar faces for facilities management is nice, but in a school, it’s crucial. Staff, students, and parents love getting to know “their” people.For example, at the private K-12 schools handled by UG2, students often practice their Spanish language skills with our cleaning crews, or wave to them in the hallway. They know our FM people as well as they do the school secretary, cafeteria employees, or bus drivers. One school even dedicated two yearbook pages to their favorite team member. That’s the kind of connection that builds trust and community.That’s simply not possible when you have high turnover, because not only are students and staff unfamiliar with these employees, but they also don’t make the investment of effort and time — automatically assuming that FM workers might be gone soon.
• School pride. Related to low turnover, FM employees will feel like part of your campus, and tap into that distinctive cohesion that makes your school special. They’ll feel a sense of pride, just as much as alumnus, staff, teachers, and students do. And when you feel proud to work somewhere, you care more. You work harder.That’s what we see at UG2 with our FM teams that handle private K-12 schools and their campuses. They use the phrase “our school” because there’s ownership and a sense of responsibility not just to UG2 or their managers, but to the whole school community.

Facilities management is an important part of every private K-12 campus to ensure that buildings are cleaned and running well. But that should be the foundation, not the endpoint. The right team will fit into your community, not operate outside of it.

Value of an Experienced Partner

For more insight, check out our last post, Why Private K-12 Has Unique Needs for Reopening and in an upcoming post, we’ll discuss how a proactive approach to facilities management can help your private K-12 campus in ways you may not have anticipated.

As you think about how to keep your campus and your community safe and healthy, don’t hesitate to talk to UG2 about how we can help. Our new UG2 ReNew^SM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health^SM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, no matter what return-to-school strategy you’ve chosen. We have experience being part of private K-12 environments, and we take great pride in being part of the schools we serve.

Recently approved by the EPA, this breakthrough technology could be a game changer

Imagine the possibilities of a surface-coating product that doesn’t just kill Coronavirus, but also protects against those germs for up to seven days, and potentially even longer. Fortunately, it’s not wishful thinking: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just given emergency approval for SurfaceWise^©2, a product from Allied BioScience Inc. that has been called “game-changing” and “groundbreaking” by EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. Already, it’s being prepped for use by American Airlines to make air travel safer for passengers.

Best of all? You can utilize it in your buildings, too.

UG2 has formed a strategic partnership with Allied BioScience with the mission of offering this product to our customers. We’ve always been at the forefront of technology and innovation, continually seeking next-generation services. The ability to offer SurfaceWise2 fits in with that vision and gives our customers an opportunity to take advantage of this breakthrough.

“Being able to offer SurfaceWise2 as an option for our customers highlights what UG2 was founded on,” says company CEO Louis Lanzillo, Jr. “We have always sought out what’s next, and what will make the greatest difference for those who trust us with the health and safety of their employees and facilities. We’re very excited for what is obviously a major win for our customers.”

How It Works

Disinfectant sprays are helpful for killing germs, but the biggest drawback is that as soon as spaces and surfaces are used again, they become newly vulnerable. That creates a situation where cleaning and disinfecting must be done almost continually—an unrealistic scenario for places with even moderate foot traffic, like office buildings, warehouses, campuses, hotels, and other spaces.

SurfaceWise2 is unique, since it binds to surfaces upon application and continues to kill viruses and bacteria that land on it, including COVID-19.

The product doesn’t replace cleaning and disinfection, but instead, is considered a “finishing step” that offers protection between cleaning sessions. That can greatly extend the capability of a cleaning and disinfection crew and offers a higher level of safety when it comes to virus protection.

Although initial research proved its effectiveness for seven days, the company is doing tests to confirm that it may last much longer—potentially up to 90 days. How would your operations change if you knew every surface was protected from COVID-19 and other virus threats for three months at a time? That’s why it’s being called a game changer.

Value of Partnership

Under the current EPA authorization, American Airlines can only deploy the product in the state of Texas, which means that some of its planes won’t be sprayed with SurfaceWise2 unless they’re brought to the state specifically for that purpose.

Also, in terms of commercial use, SurfaceWise2 is far from widely available, and will likely take time to roll out into the marketplace, even when the EPA grants emergency authorization for all states, since demand is likely to be very high.

But UG2 customers get to skip to the front of the line.

Because of our upfront work in establishing a partnership with Allied BioScience, we’re able to offer this groundbreaking technology, and UG2 is one of the leading integrated facility service providers in the United States to have it ready and available.

For more information on using SurfaceWise2 in your organization, contact us today, and let’s start a conversation about how to change the game, together.

UG2 Partners with Allied BioScience to Use SurfaceWise©2 for Protecting Facilities from COVID-19

Becomes One of the Leading U.S. Facility Services Providers to Offer Breakthrough, EPA-Approved Antiviral Coating

 September 9, 2020 Boston, MA — UG2 today announced a strategic partnership with Allied BioScience to protect facilities against COVID-19. The facility services provider, renown for using innovative solutions to deliver safe and clean environments, is the first U.S. company of its kind to offer the breakthrough SurfaceWise^©2 antiviral coating to safeguard building occupants. UG2 will offer SurfaceWise2 as part of UG2 ReNew^SM, a comprehensive program designed to mitigate the risk of infection from COVID-19 and other viruses as people return to work, school, retail, and entertainment facilities.

SurfaceWise2 is the only surface coating approved by the EPA for continuous protection against COVID-19 with a single application. While the EPA testing initially proved its effectiveness for seven days, they are working with the company to design durability protocol to extend the claim for much longer – potentially up to 90 days.

“Being able to offer SurfaceWise2 as an option for our customers reflects the principles UG2 was founded upon,” says Louis Lanzillo, Jr., CEO at UG2. “We have always been focused on going the extra mile to deliver pristine and healthy environments as well as seeking next-generation technologies to make this possible. SurfaceWise2 adds a vital layer of protection, when combined with other key measures needed to properly clean and disinfect facilities. We’re very excited for what is obviously a major win for UG2 customers.”

SurfaceWise2 is not yet widely available. When it is, UG2’s early work in establishing a partnership with Allied BioScience will enable it to quickly offer this groundbreaking solution.

 

About UG2

UG2 sets a new standard for excellence in comprehensive, integrated facility services. We deliver innovative solutions, pristine environments, and a passion for customer service from a team with more than 350 years of experience in the facilities maintenance industry. Our solutions include Janitorial Services, Operations & Maintenance, and Workplace Solutions for clients in Commercial, Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Life Science, Public Venue, Retail, and Industrial markets. We use advanced technologies to deliver efficient service, constantly refine our processes to ensure our team continues to lead and emphasize a culture of excellence. UG2 is based in Boston with regional offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Northern California and Chicago. UG2 has been recognized as one of the fastest growing privately held organizations in the industry. For more information, please visit www.ug2.com and follow us @UG2IFS.

General solutions and resources may not be sufficient

Every private K-12 administrator, teacher, and parent has been embroiled in the heated back-to-school discussions for months, and as those debates continue, one huge point is clear: reopening requires thorough preparation and planning.

With private K-12 environments, prepping for probable student re-entry is only one part of the equation, and it’s possible you may be falling short if your only focus is increased cleaning and disinfection. There are key questions that need to be answered before you can reopen:

• Open on different schedules. Although many private K-12 school buildings are closed, many spaces must remain open to support residents or faculty living on campus. Space utilization will impact the ability to stagger residential and/or commuter student schedules so that classrooms and other spaces can be cycled and serviced on different days. How can you perform cleaning and engineering services in spaces that are always populated?  How can you communicate complex scheduling requirements to ensure the right rooms are disinfected?
• Multiple facility types. Student dorms, classrooms, science labs, sports arenas, fitness centers, cafeterias, common areas, libraries, offices, auditoriums, music practice spaces—the list goes on and on when it comes to the types of spaces on a typical private K-12 campus. How can you ensure that all of these facilities can be disinfected and made safer on a consistent basis, given the size, complexity, and variety of these spaces?
• Budget considerations. Tuition serves as a primary source of revenue for K-12 private schools, but institutions will be challenged by lower enrollment rates, higher spend on cleaning services, lower alumni gifts, and potential faculty recruitment struggles. How can you do more when you may have less to spend?
• Greater interaction. Even with controls like better social distancing in classrooms and dining spaces, students still gravitate toward one another. What about sports teams? Even with spectators socially distanced, players need to be in close proximity, and often can’t wear masks as part of practice and play. How will you handle the potential rise in infection risk that comes with more interaction?
• Keeping the community strong. One particularly unique aspect of a K-12 private school is the close-knit community that brings together educators, administrators, parents, students, and staff. Ensuring they all feel supported and safe is crucial, and that requires more communication about what’s being done to keep everyone healthy. Do you know what to convey when it comes to assuring all stakeholders that you’re doing as much as you can?

Because of factors like these, private K-12 education requires a unique approach that addresses these issues on multiple levels. That leads to the biggest question of all: How can you reopen safely when resources may be limited?

Value of an Experienced Partner

Awareness of the unique needs of a campus environment is just the first of many steps toward creating a cohesive, meaningful plan for reopening. In upcoming blog posts, we’ll go more in depth regarding a proactive approach to facility services, and the importance of operations coordination.

Be sure to check back for more blog posts, and don’t hesitate to contact UG2 to talk about your specific needs. If you work in the private K-12 education space, now is the time to build capability and resources for reopening, and UG2’s deep experience and insights have proven valuable to a range of educational customers.

Our UG2 ReNew^SM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health^SM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, well before anyone returns to school—and long after they’re back, too.

Using the same strategies as corporate or business facilities isn’t a good fit, and here’s why

As organizations of every type look ahead toward reopening after Coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders, they are naturally planning for increased health and security for their employees. That includes making sure shared workspaces are appropriately spaced, air systems have the best filters, and high frequency touch points are part of the regular cleaning protocol.

Those are valuable, important steps for every company. However, if you’re a college or university, stopping there means you’re stopping short by a potentially huge degree. Higher education campuses are distinctive in their needs, for multiple reasons. Key questions that need to be answered before you can reopen:

• Open 24/7. Although some campus buildings do close, and there are offices that can be cleaned overnight, campuses themselves have numerous spaces that are always open because people live there. How can you perform cleaning and engineering services in spaces that are always populated?
• Multiple facility types. Resident dorms, classrooms, science labs, sports arenas, fitness centers, cafeterias, common areas, libraries, offices, lecture halls, auditoriums, music practice spaces—the list goes on and on when it comes to the types of spaces in a typical campus. How can you ensure that all of these can be disinfected and made safer on a regular basis, given the size and complexity of these spaces?
• Budget considerations. Obviously, there are small businesses that need to function with limited funds, but higher education is on a whole different level. With Coronavirus-related issues like lower enrollment rates, decreased public funding, and lower alumni gifts, budgets that were already stretched tight may be close to breaking. How can you do more when you may have less to spend?
• Greater interaction. Even with controls like better social distancing in classrooms and dining spaces, college students still gravitate toward one another. And what about sports teams? Even without spectators, these players need to be in close proximity, and often can’t wear masks as part of practice and play. How will you handle the potential rise in infection risk that comes with more interaction?

Because of factors like these, higher education requires a different approach that addresses these issues on multiple levels. Although some will choose to delay reopening, that can be highly problematic as well. A recent opinion piece by Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, highlighted the potentially catastrophic ripple effect that could come from staying closed.

That leads to the biggest question of all: How can you reopen safely when resources may be limited?

Value of an Experienced Partner

Awareness of the unique needs of a campus environment is just the first of many steps toward creating a cohesive, meaningful plan for reopening. In upcoming blog posts, we’ll go more in depth about operations leadership, planning, outsourcing, reopening phases, specific cleaning protocols, and engineering.

Be sure to check back weekly for these posts, and don’t hesitate to contact UG2 to talk about your specific needs. If you’re in higher education, now is the time to build capability and resources for reopening, and UG2’s deep experience and insights have proven valuable to a range of prestigious higher education customers.

Our new UG2 ReNew^SM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4Health^SM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, well before anyone returns to campus—and long after they’re back, too.

Stanford University Provides Financial Support to UG2 Employees Affected by Pandemic-Related Layoffs

Like every other college and university in the country, Stanford University had to close substantial portions of its campus as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Many of the UG2 employees who clean and maintain parts of the campus were immediately affected due to temporary layoffs. But they won’t be lacking support— Stanford decided to provide financial assistance to these employees, in recognition of the incredible work they do to keep Stanford’s campus community healthy and safe.

“Stanford is very generous in their support of these employees, who are well respected and regarded by everyone at the University, from staff and faculty to students,” said Louis J. Lanzillo Jr., CEO at UG2. “We believe the University’s resolve to see that these employees are cared for is a reflection of the professionalism and importance these hardworking UG2 team members bring to Stanford, and we are extremely grateful to Stanford for providing assistance during these challenging times.”

UG2 will coordinate payments that will help minimize the financial impact of these Coronavirus-related layoffs. UG2 employees who have been working at Stanford and are now laid off can expect to receive payments over the coming weeks.

How UG2 is working to help you thrive in the “new normal”

Since our founding, UG2 has made the safety and well-being of our people and customers our top priority. We have also been dedicated to utilizing sustainable practices, providing five-star customer service, setting the industry’s best practices, innovation that moves us forward, and partnerships that enable our customers to navigate through any challenge.

Now, we’re leveraging our foundation to launch UG2 ReNew^SM a program that helps our customers, not just mitigate risk, but also thrive in the “new normal” and instill a higher level of comfort and security for the people who occupy and utilize their facilities. We’re taking our industry-leading level of cleaning and boosting it to next-level cleaning and disinfection services to make sure we’re in-line with what customers need in the post-pandemic era. Additionally, the ReNew program offers innovative, customized components that address the unique needs of the most demanding customers in the various industry segments we service.

What Is UG2 ReNew?

This operational roadmap includes communication strategies, technology and innovation enhancements, operational improvements, and contract structures that give you the ability to lower risk of infection and to offer peace of mind to anyone entering or working in your facilities. Places like these are like living, breathing ecosystems that require thoughtful care, and that’s why UG2 ReNew offers:

• Customized timetables and programs for reintroducing employees or students, with new procedures based on increasing rates of occupancy over a specific time frame.
• Cleaning and disinfection that focuses on leveraging different technologies and strategies for a comprehensive, innovative approach that increases health and safety.
• Expansive, effective strategies for operations and maintenance that optimize major systems like filtration, air exchange, air stream disinfection, and more.
• Communication of new behavior protocols with in-house janitorial and engineering staff, along with resources they need to achieve higher levels of safety, operational efficiencies and cleanliness.

Most importantly, UG2 ReNew offers the true sense of partnership our customers have come to know and appreciate. We’ve never just responded to short-term requirements; we focus on anticipating what every customer needs, and working collaboratively with them to implement mid- and long-term services that optimize investment and return. UG2 ReNew brings that same commitment to superior service, with even higher levels of cleaning, disinfection, and environmental management that can help to mitigate risk, now and into the future.

With UG2 ReNew, we will collaborate with our strategic partners and create customized plans for each portfolio and its unique business requirements.

Working Together in the New Normal

In many ways, the effects of the global pandemic will be the start of this new era in our industry. The anxiety, uncertainty, and sense of vulnerability will linger long after employees return to work, students arrive on campus, and schedules shift back toward pre-pandemic routines.

Even though we might return to favorite activities and professional habits, a mindset shift will stay in place—one that involves hyperawareness around cleaning, disinfection, social distancing, and other precautions.

This is the new normal. Everyone who maintains facilities needs to begin adopting practices that offer a higher level of service for healthy, safe environments. UG2 ReNew can be a key part of ensuring you have the resources, plan, and partnership needed moving forward.

Is it time to find a new facility services provider?

The first impression of your company is your facility. Tenants, prospects, customers, and guests form opinions based on how inviting it is. Is it sparkling clean? Are all public spaces in good repair and looking like new? Do all of the building systems function properly? Is the building is warm in winter and cool in summer? Are the restrooms spotless with every fixture working? Working with the right facility services provider will make sure that you can answer “yes” to every question.

Hiring the right company to manage your janitorial and operations & maintenance services is an investment in time and money – a positive working relationship, fair pricing, and a full array of needed services are all vital.

It’s easy to fall into a situation where everything seems good enough. But just as you periodically review your vendors and contracts, you should take a look at your facility service provider, too. Like most business relationships, it’s important to evaluate more than just the financial details. Take the following quiz to review some of the less-considered aspects of your relationship:

Evaluating Your Facility Services Provider

• Does your provider have an eye for detail? Facility services contracts outline provider responsibilities and deliverables as completely as possible, but there will always be things that come up that may not be spelled out. For the following example, choose how your provider responds:

  During routine cleaning, the janitorial staff discovers a loose tile in the bathroom. They respond by:

  • Cleaning around it so as not to disturb it.
  • Cleaning over it and moving on.
  • Cleaning it as thoroughly as possible and reporting it to you so that your maintenance staff can fix it.
  • Fixing it as soon as possible to eliminate it as a trip-and-fall concern.
• Does your provider say no more often than it says yes? Building tenants often have new requests, such as offering snack walls or beer taps. When you ask your facility services provider to take on an additional service such as stocking snacks and changing kegs, how do they respond?
  • “No, that’s not in our contract.”
  • “Our insurance doesn’t cover food handling. We can’t help you.”
  • “Our employees are not trained to interact with tenants and building guests.”
  • “Sure! We’re happy to add this new service!”
• Does your provider’s team have the right skills to manage your needs? For example, if your O&M provider discovers a leak in your HVAC system during routine cleaning, how do they respond?
  • They ignore it. You’ll figure it out sooner or later and they don’t want to get blamed.
  • They tell you a week later, after the leak has already destroyed the boiler room floor.
  • The report it so that you can find a licensed tech on your own.
  • They repair it promptly with their own internal licensed tech, and let you know that the problem is solved.
• Do you have detailed insight into your account? If you ask for a review of services provided including an accounting of work completed, costs, and other details, how does your provider respond?
  • “No can do. Whatever is done is done.”
  • “Umm, give us six weeks to gather that info and get back to you. (In the meantime, we’re secretly hoping you forget…)”
  • “Let’s talk it through on a phone call.”
  • “No problem. I’ll resend the monthly reports we have been delivering, plus will show you how to generate them via your personalized online dashboard. I will be happy to help you create any custom reports you’d like by end of day.”

Score Your Answers

If it’s not obvious, the goal is to find a facility services provider responds “D” all the time. You need a partner that views your facility as you would yourself, and can see and identify things that need to be done. One that is willing to be flexible and add new services when you have a request. And one that has the trained staff to be able to manage all of your operations and maintenance needs – not just have you pay to farm it out.

Finally, you need a provider that has invested in technology and processes that track work and back it up with data. Look for timekeeping information on staff that’s tracked via advanced methods, data on savings achieved from doing O&M work in house vs. using external providers, and detailed information on when contracted services were performed. This type of recordkeeping is more than just for show – it is data that your provider should be tracking and using to make sure they are providing optimal services on your behalf, and to help them find ways to save you time and money with improved efficiency and solutions.

Bite the Bullet

If your quiz answers are not up to standard, then think about the other aspects of working with your vendor.

• Do you feel you are getting the appropriate level of service for your monthly and annual investment?
• Do you have other services you would like to outsource, but don’t feel confident in approaching your vendor?
• Are you confident that the vendor’s recruiting, hiring, and training programs will keep pace with your ongoing needs?

A “no” answer to any of these is just another indictor that it might be time to consider a new facility services provider.

Making the Switch

How do you go about making a change? The first step is to evaluate other options. Reach out to potential vendors and provide them with the following info:

• An overview of your facility – type of environment, systems, hours, tenants and guests, and any information about the functionality of your facility.
• A list of the services you currently outsource.
• The terms and conditions of your current contract – hours of operation, response times, performance indicators, and any other requirements that are important for your facility.
• A list of additional services you would like a vendor to bid on providing.
• Your budget or, at a minimum, budget range.

Ask the facility services vendor to provide a quote of services they can offer to match existing levels as well as their suggestions for additional services, including pricing. Also ask for the following information:

• Details on the vendor’s recruiting, hiring, and training programs.
• A sample of the type of reporting that the vendor provides to facility service clients.
• Information on the vendor’s advanced technologies, including things such as facial recognition for time keeping.
• Details on the key performance indicators the vendor will track on your behalf, and how they will measure their performance against them.

Once you have your proposals back, you can work with your team to review the information. You may be surprised to learn how much more value you can receive without over extending your budget.

Make sure to schedule an in-person meeting with the team that will manage your account, including your lead contact and company senior management. Personal fit is important in facility services – you want to make sure the vendor is eager to do what it takes to keep your facility at its best and that you would be happy to partner with them.

While it might seem daunting to research vendors and start with a new facility services company, you may find that the extra level of service more than makes up for the transition. Take the time to invest in finding the best for your facility – you will be happy to know that you have done the right thing to make that good impression.

Call to action:

We’d love to learn more about your facility and your team. Can we provide a proposal for next-generation services for you? Just send a note to our team to schedule a requirements-gathering phone call. We’ll make it easy to learn more! [link to appropriate email address]