Jul 28, 2021 |
Here at Powerhouse, we take safety as a top priority. Over the past several months, like most, we had to shift and pivot to align with the changing times. We recently had the opportunity to interview Sue McCarty, our Senior Vice President of Operations, to get the inside scoop on how Powerhouse has maintained safety in our remodel and refresh projects amidst a pandemic.
Our world drastically changed at the onset of COVID-19. Despite the challenges Powerhouse endured, when it came to completing our remodel and refresh projects, one thing remained: our company’s foundation – People, Process, and Technology. Powerhouse took an agile approach and pivoted by implementing strategies in these three core areas to keep employees and customers safe. Let’s take a look at how Powerhouse became stronger than ever to take on the challenges of tomorrow.
People – Keeping Employees and Customers Safe
Here at Powerhouse, we believe in creating partnerships and “raving fans.” In a pandemic, that means doing everything we can to partner with our
clients on COVID protocols. Sue explained that our safety managers got to work on a manual that outlined everything Powerhouse would require to prevent the spread of the virus, including barricading off areas, wearing masks and gloves, and even implementing temperature checks. By closely following these guidelines alongside the guidelines laid out by our clients, we were able to continue your projects while preventing the spread of COVID. In fact, Sue explained that our field employees are still following these COVID protocols, as we understand that your remodels and refreshes should not bring about worries of spreading the virus. Powerhouse worked tirelessly to keep your businesses looking better than ever while maintaining the safety of your customers and employees.
Process – Implementing Processes to Ensure Safety
Preventing the spread of COVID is a process, and luckily at Powerhouse, creating effective and efficient processes is 
one of our specialties. Powerhouse works with many essential businesses, meaning when our world seemingly stopped, many projects couldn’t. That’s when Powerhouse got to work implementing processes that were sure to keep everyone safe. “We put a checklist in place,” explained Sue, “[so] every single day the team would have a safety meeting and literally check a box” for every protocol item and person. By taking a proactive approach and quickly reacting when necessary, Powerhouse successfully completed a multitude of projects, prioritizing safety in each and every business we entered.
Technology – Utilizing Technology to Prevent the Spread
Constant, quick communication has always been a priority at Powerhouse, and this became ever so important once COVID hit.
Utilizing our best-in-class technology, Powerhouse integrated our COVID protocol safety checks into our digital platform. Just as our project managers can see our project milestones within our portal, they can now see the results of the safety checks every day, allowing them to be responsive to any issues and quickly pivot if need be. Connectivity between our field employees, project managers, as well as our clients became the key to ensuring safety, none of which would have been possible without our top-tier technology systems.
Project Spotlight – Persevering in a Pandemic
While discussing safely persevering during a pandemic, Sue could not help but rave about a major remodel program for a big-box retailer that Powerhouse recently had the honor of leading. Beginning in June of 2020, Powerhouse completely gutted and reinstalled an entire section of each store – 253 stores in fact – all while following COVID guidelines and maintaining safe work environments. Powerhouse was determined to finish the project and was happy to jump the necessary, constantly changing hurdles if it meant ensuring your safety and success. Sue was excited to say the program was a success on several levels. “Great program, raving fan of a customer, the team knocked it out of the park during some difficult times of transitioning through COVID,” Sue exclaimed. Now the client has a fresh new space in each store that is sure to draw in the customers, and the safety of their employees and customers was never compromised along the way.
Jul 13, 2021 |
We’re proud to share we’ve been awarded another group purchasing agreement for Facilities and Construction services supporting the healthcare industry. Vizient, Inc., the national healthcare performance improvement company supporting more than half of the United States’ healthcare organizations, has awarded Powerhouse a multi-year agreement that gives its members access to increased savings via collective buying power. This contract includes our core suite of services:
- Facility Maintenance: Scheduled and reactive services responding to any maintenance need.
- Exterior Services: Landscape, parking lot, snow and ice removal services.
- Rollouts: Consistent implementation of services within a specified timeframe across multiple locations to maintain brand feel and uniform functionality.
- COVID Response Services: Turnkey solutions to ensure safe environments for staff and customers/clients.
Vizient is recognized as the largest national company of its kind—representing an annual purchasing volume of more than $100 billion. Its diverse membership and customer base includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health delivery networks and non-acute healthcare providers.
“The healthcare market is changing. We’re witnessing a shift to increased outsourcing as the industry experiences labor challenges, particularly with respect to interior and exterior facilities management,” said Amber Alvarez, SVP Business Development, Powerhouse. “Working with organizations like Vizient enables us to ease the strain of this reality for healthcare providers through contracted pricing. As a trusted partner, Powerhouse can protect these organizations’ brands while ensuring functional, safe environments for their clients and patients. This frees them to focus on their core competencies versus implementing cost-center projects that do not generally drive revenue.”
The Powerhouse team is consistently evaluating total returns on investments, ensuring our methods and processes deliver quality, consistency, and overall value—whether delivering on-demand services for single or multi-location organizations of any size. To this end, streamlined processes and smart technologies enable us to implement today what will move people through the experiences of tomorrow with ease and efficiency.
“Today’s climate calls for service providers to be nimble, scalable and hyper responsive. Powerhouse is structured to accommodate those demands, providing single-point-of-contact program management paired with dynamic, tech-driven oversight. Between these advantages and our commitment to deliver an unparalleled sense of urgency across all possible facilities management functions, we believe we can help healthcare organizations thrive,” added Amber.
We’re honored to be part of Vizient’s supplier network and look forward to working with its members.
Jun 16, 2021 |
Powerhouse has just announced a new healthcare group purchasing agreement for Environmental and Facilities Management Services with Premier Inc. Effective through March 31, 2022, the new multi-year agreement allows Premier members, at their discretion, to take advantage of special pricing and terms pre-negotiated by Premier for:
- Facility Maintenance: Scheduled and reactive services responding to any maintenance need.
- Exterior Services: Landscape, parking lot, snow and ice removal services.
- Rollouts: Consistent implementation of services within a specified timeframe across multiple locations to maintain brand feel and uniform functionality; including remodels and refreshes.
- COVID Response Services: Turnkey solutions to ensure safe environments for staff and customers/clients.
Premier is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,100 U.S. hospitals and approximately 200,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. The group purchasing organization is focused on enabling better care and outcomes at a lower cost. We’re proud to be awarded this contract as we believe we have a unique awareness of this space.
“Our facility maintenance and exterior teams understand that in-patient care facilities’ urgency isn’t just expected, it’s critical,” said Amber Alvarez, SVP Business Development, Powerhouse. “We have extensive experience forecasting as well as scaling to meet our customers’ needs quickly, regardless of whether the programs be turnkey or custom. Further, our operational infrastructure along with our proven methods of customer support are uniquely designed to reduce the administrative burdens associated with overseeing facilities management projects. These advantages were designed to support outsourced supply chain operations typical used by healthcare organizations.”
With a team of more than 900 employees and skilled partners nationwide, Powerhouse currently services over 125,000 locations a year. Our core competencies run the gamut of project scopes required by the largest healthcare providers and commercial marketplaces as well as the smallest—including on-demand services for single or multi-location organizations.
“We understand that the administrative costs required to effectively run hospitals, clinics and other healthcare services locations can be significant. Which is why engaging with Premier is so important. Through this group purchasing agreement, we believe we can help healthcare customers put their best foot forward with respect to aesthetics, functionality, and safety in the most efficient way possible,” continued Amber.
Our use of streamlined processes, smart technologies, and national network enable us to implement today what will move people through the experiences of tomorrow. We look forward to putting these resources to work for Premier’s membership.
Jun 2, 2021 |
Stronger Together, Inside and Out.
Let’s Face It… This is a POWERFUL partnership!
We’re excited to announce that Powerhouse has acquired DENTCO®, a national exterior services provider headquartered in DeWitt, Michigan. The 44-year-old company offers a complete suite of all-season property management solutions addressing Exterior Services issues for active as well as idle facilities. This deal is Powerhouse’s second major transaction resulting in it becoming one of the four largest national managed services companies in the exterior space. As a result of the partnership, all Powerhouse Exterior Services Management (ESM) programs will be powered by DENTCO, which will retain its current leadership and 175 employees—making Powerhouse’s total employee base more than 900 people nationwide servicing more than 125,000 project locations annually.
DENTCO’s success to date hinges on scalable operational strategies and cultural elements backed by smart technologies that all align with Powerhouse’s current approach. The integration of DENTCO’s proven best practices and tools, wealth of ESM experience, and asset-light field staffing methods with those already employed by Powerhouse are expected to enhance Powerhouse’s exterior services offering.
“DENTCO has an impressive reputation in the ESM industry,” said Robert Blake-Ward, Principal, Powerhouse. “We have an immense amount of respect for the organic growth the company has achieved throughout its history, which is due to the steadfast commitment and creativity of its team members. They’ve introduced service offerings and account management methods that put the customers’ needs first, successes that have produced raving fans over the years. The combination of DENTCO’s skillsets with Powerhouse’s resources and wider customer base nationwide will enable us both to better serve our clients with deeper and broader capabilities. We welcome their team and look forward to growing together.”
DENTCO’s suite of services includes landscape management, snow and ice removal, parking lot maintenance, parking lot sweeping, and dark store maintenance. Founded in 1977, the company launched as a local exterior services partner serving the Michigan area. Today, DENTCO stands as a major national player overseeing more than 8,000 active sites.
DENTCO’s evolution largely mirrors that of Powerhouse. Over the years, DENTCO focused heavily on quality service, developing streamlined workflow processes and integrating dynamic technology tools to help customers more easily manage their ESM contracts. Further, like Powerhouse, DENTCO established a solid network of skilled contractors to execute on those contracts.
“Powerhouse and DENTCO share some critical core competencies without question,” said Scott Milnes, President, DENTCO. “Now we are able to offer new capabilities to our customers, such as facilities maintenance, rollout and remodel services, without compromising our values. It will also enable us to tap additional resources in operational areas that will strengthen our already solid service delivery. For Powerhouse, we see an opportunity to leverage our knowledge and experience that led to DENTCO to becoming the nation’s number one ESM provider. The combined company will result in an even more valuable commercial infrastructure management partner. We’re confident customers as well as staff members will reap the benefits moving forward. We look forward to being part of the remarkable team that implements today what will move people through the experiences of tomorrow.”
About DENTCO®
Headquartered in Dewitt, Michigan, DENTCO is a leading provider of outsourced exterior services management by utilizing a proprietary software suite. The Company provides landscape management, snow and ice removal, parking lot maintenance, and dark store maintenance. The Company’s utilizes a network of contractor partners across all 50 states and services over 8,000 active sites. For more information, visit dentco.com.
Apr 27, 2021 |
Some may say that the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active and first costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record. According to the NOAA, the 2020 season produced 30 named storms (top winds of 39 mph or greater), of which 13 became hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or greater), including six major hurricanes (top winds of 111 mph or greater). This is the most storms on record, surpassing the 28 from 2005, and the second-highest number of hurricanes on record.
We know that mother nature is fierce – the only way to truly get back to business quickly and efficiently is with a thorough hurricane preparedness plan that helps protect lives and property.
So how does one map out a plan that fits your location’s needs and budget?
Power of People
Having a dedicated team that understand the ins and outs to Disaster Relief strategies is key. You need a partner that will be there every step of the way starting at the pre-storm preparations through the post-event cleanup and build back stages. Your plan must go beyond gathering boardups and sandbags… you must have a mapped out a strategy for identifying and blocking off emergency situations. Have assessed the overall safety and security of your facility? Do you have a triage plan for mold remediation or restoration for water damaged floors? This is where bringing in an outside partner that specializes in Facility Maintenance can help pinpoint key areas of focus and guide you to map a hurricane preparedness plan that fits your needs.
Power of Process
Turn-key services are critical when it comes to hurricane prep. You and your facility maintenance partner must schedule regular on-site surveys to ensure each area is covered and accounted for from the external parking lot structures… to the internal signage directing your employees and customers to safety. After you have mapped out a plan for your location, what items are on your list that you may have pre-cut and stored materials for boardups, pre-ordering sandbags and even planning for temporary power outages with generators on stand-by. Any pre-planning that can be completed prior to the hurricane season, allows peace of mind from a budgetary standpoint to lock-in on cost. We all know that material cost can certainty increase during times of crisis when materials may run short.
Power of Technology
Communication is the next important “check box” to add to your hurricane prep list. As we mentioned above, in times of power outages, do you have a plan for backup generators? How do you currently monitor or track the storm – so know when you need to get the backup powers ready to roll? That is where your FM partner must shine. When determining a partner, you need to ask them:
How do you streamline communications?
How do you track the storms and guide our facility with the “next steps”?
What type of project management system do you use?
What is your team’s availability?
Knowing storms can shift in a matter of hours, you and your facility maintenance partner need to have a communication strategy fully laid out within your hurricane prep plan.
Just remember, when it comes to pre-planning, or if you are in the midst of a natural disaster – having a high sense of urgency, constant communication and experienced resources will be critical to getting you back to business quickly and safely!
*NOAA - Record-breaking Atlantic Hurricane Season Draws To An End, November 24, 2020.
Feb 22, 2021 |
At Powerhouse, we believe your facilities tell a story about your brand. Our facility maintenance services keep that story fresh, updated and looking like new. Over the past 12 months, just like everyone, our teams quickly learned, adapted and changed within our surroundings due to this virus. Keeping your facility looking updated and new is arguably more important than ever before, especially when there is a focus on health safety protocols and creating stable environments.
Every day our team of FM experts work with clients to customize programs that cover everything from general maintenance inspections, all the way to emergency service programs, and everything in between. What no one could have expected, is how quickly our teams were able to assess the situation and quickly respond to our clients’ COVID requests. Looking back at the last 12 months, here’s what our Facility Maintenance team has learned:
A New Definition to Flexibility –
24/7, 7 Days A Week, 365 Day A Year
Historically, offering customized programs to align with our clients’ business hours is nothing new for Powerhouse. The moment the pandemic hit, limiting business hours and restricting the amount of people allowed within a workspace was a dramatic change. Our FM Account Managers immediately worked with each of our clients, ensuring our technicians could complete work orders during late evenings/nights when customers or employees would not be present. Thus allowing all stakeholders a safe environment to complete repairs.
As the COVID-19 virus continued to spread, many organizations grappled with handling COVID positive locations. If a client received notification of a customer or employee testing positive, our facility maintenance team was on stand-by, fully equipped with a pre-planned sanitary program. Powerhouse dispatched a cleaning crew to fog, disinfect with client pre-approved medical grade chemicals and wipe down contaminated locations. Our new mission – doing what it takes to create a safe environment so that everyone can get back to business.
Getting Creative –
Our team of Facility Maintenance experts like to call themselves problem solvers. Last March, no one would have ever imagined that this type of creative thinking would be added to their job descriptions. Yes, our teams have been perfecting restoration services and surveys/site inspections for years – but now let’s add PPE and become GBAC COVID-19 Certified into the mix. Knowing our clients had an immediate desire to get back to business, our teams began installing sneeze guards at cash registers, teller lines and pharmacy windows. Our team literally “walked” in the shoes of our clients, surveying locations, ensuring each facility followed COVID protocols. From signage to hands-free door opener installs, our team was there to assess each location, allowing our clients to get back to business efficiently and within budget.
Communication In A Digital Environment –
Our team utilizes best-in-class work order management technology that can integrate with most client platforms to provide quick response to all services needed. We’ve always strived to ensure our clients have visibility and communication every step of the way. The moment the pandemic hit and our country locked-down, being able to communicate digitally became a vital asset. With our Multi-Facility Management platform, Atlas – our clients can digitally and remotely generate workorders in a variety of ways, customize time-sensitive notifications, and highlight areas in need of additional attention… all right from a smartphone or laptop. Adapting to a digital environment has never been so easy!
What We’ve Learned…
To say the past 12 months have been challenging would be an understatement. One thing is for sure – as overwhelming as the past year may have felt, we have learned and adapted along the way. We came together to rethink our processes and procedures. We came together to get creative and produce a safer environment for all. We came together as a community, always looking for opportunities to help others through these difficult times. Our team at Powerhouse is proud to look back and say, we made history and we learned so much in the process.
How has your facility maintenance plans changed over the past 12 months due to COVID?
Email us with your story.
Powerhouse is ready to assist with any COVID Repairs and Replacement services:
clients on COVID protocols. Sue explained that our safety managers got to work on a manual that outlined everything Powerhouse would require to prevent the spread of the virus, including barricading off areas, wearing masks and gloves, and even implementing temperature checks. By closely following these guidelines alongside the guidelines laid out by our clients, we were able to continue your projects while preventing the spread of COVID. In fact, Sue explained that our field employees are still following these COVID protocols, as we understand that your remodels and refreshes should not bring about worries of spreading the virus. Powerhouse worked tirelessly to keep your businesses looking better than ever while maintaining the safety of your customers and employees.
one of our specialties. Powerhouse works with many essential businesses, meaning when our world seemingly stopped, many projects couldn’t. That’s when Powerhouse got to work implementing processes that were sure to keep everyone safe. “We put a checklist in place,” explained Sue, “[so] every single day the team would have a safety meeting and literally check a box” for every protocol item and person. By taking a proactive approach and quickly reacting when necessary, Powerhouse successfully completed a multitude of projects, prioritizing safety in each and every business we entered.
Utilizing our best-in-class technology, Powerhouse integrated our COVID protocol safety checks into our digital platform. Just as our project managers can see our project milestones within our portal, they can now see the results of the safety checks every day, allowing them to be responsive to any issues and quickly pivot if need be. Connectivity between our field employees, project managers, as well as our clients became the key to ensuring safety, none of which would have been possible without our top-tier technology systems.