Spartan Mowers Releases 2025 Product Lineup
Jessica Schwartz
Snow And Ice Services Standards
Early this year, the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) released SIMA-10-2020 Standard Practice for Procuring and Planning Snow & Ice Management Services—the American National Standard for the commercial snow and ice management industry approved by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). This was the result of an industry-wide effort, and snow contractors can gain information on contracts, scope of work, and monitoring and documentation of their work. Leading up to publication of the SIMA-10-2020 Standard document, SIMA recognized the industry’s lack of resources for those seeking to hire quality commercial snow and ice management services, and so convened a diverse Stakeholder Advisory Group. This group included snow contractors and facility management professionals, and its Standards Development Committee to help craft and approve an initial standard. As an ANSI-Accredited Standards Developer, SIMA then went through a rigorous process to publicly announce this standard, including a public review period, consensus body vote, and finalization following standards policies. The Standard Practice for Procuring and Planning Snow and Ice Management Services covers the following: General Procurement: Includes recommended minimum snow services contract term lengths, optimal contract award dates, and general information related to the use of subcontractors. Level of Service (LOS) and Scope of Work (SOW): Identifies descriptions of desired outcomes, service time frames, and service priorities related to LOS. It also emphasizes guidelines for SOW, including site assessment and inspection recommendations, as well as information related to environmental, architectural, and equipment considerations. Monitoring Procedures and Documentation: Establishes minimum guidelines for snow service documentation/reporting, ...
Snow And Ice Services On The Horizon
By Phill Sexton Who in their right mind thinks of planning for winter in July? In my own career, I’ve learned by experience and from other professionals to consider July 5th the start of the winter planning season. For some “snow only” firms throughout North America, July might be considered a late start preparing for the next winter season. But, whether you are a “snow only” operator or a landscape or turf management company providing snow and ice services to a subset of your clientele, the standards for resource procurement, training, and preparation are the same. The Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) has developed a timeline for winter operations, and their clients—typically facility managers and property managers. Utilizing this timeline (see opposite page) as an industry standard will help you to organize your sales and operational responsibilities into categories of focus. Setting Up Sales Renewals of existing contracts are best to initiate at the tail end of the existing snow season. Yes, a common reason for not doing this is: “My clients don’t want to talk about snow until later in the summer or in the fall.” This then gets pushed till the beginning of the next season. My experience has been when you initiate the renewal process at the end of the current season and give clients an incentive for renewing during that time period, more often than not it’s what the client wants. You simply need to have the confidence to do this. RFPs (requests for proposals) ...
