BuildingReports Blog

"A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large." - Henry Ford

Selling a product is a far different prospect than selling a service. Generally, buyers will know the fundamentals of what your product is, how it works and maybe even why they need it.

Services on the other hand can be a far more nebulous value proposition to try and define for a prospective customer. You can't hold it in your hand, and understanding how to differentiate the value of one service over another can ultimately come down to preconceptions and hinge upon 3rd party references.

To win in today's competitive marketplace, service companies must begin to think differently about how they go to market, position their service offering and solve for their customers' challenges.

BuildingReports has partnered with Janam to offer a new custom device, built specifically for the inspection of high-security and restricted areas where devices with cameras are prohibited. The Janam XM5 provides the same benefits as other ruggedized devices from Janam, but the new custom device allows us to provide an alternative for those Service Members that have requested a camera-less solution.

Inspector's Boot Camp, a leading training resource for the Fire and Life Safety industry, is proud to announce its partnership with Liberty Mutual to present a week-long, in-depth automatic Automatic Fire Sprinkler Inspection Boot Camp. The event is currently scheduled for June 1-5, 2015 at Liberty Mutual's state-of-the-art fire labs in Wausau, Wisconsin.

This event is in addition to this year's Fire Alarm Inspection Boot Camps to be held at Aiken Technical College's FAST Lab in Aiken, SC on the following dates:

• May 18-22, 2015
• September 14-18, 2015
• November 9-13, 2015

After a decade of fire and life safety inspection training excellence, Inspector's Boot Camp will become a part of the new BuildingReports University in 2015 (more information will be provided during the official launch).

ScanSeries 2.1 for iOS is now available for download from the Apple App Store. In addition to updates and modifications based on your feedback, this release also includes several enhancements to improve the user experience and add important functionality to the leading mobile fire and life safety inspection application.

According to a recent study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (The ever-changing global service provider industry: Key findings for 2010), businesses ranked the following strategic differentiators as their top ten considerations when selecting a service company:

1. Skills & training of workforce
2. Depth of industry knowledge
3. Quality of customer service
4. Depth of process knowledge
5. Low cost of service delivery
6. Recommendations by other companies
7. Customization of service delivery
8. Market reputation
9. Track record of management team
10. Time to complete project

Inspector's Boot Camp, a leading training resource for the Fire and Life Safety industry, has announced 2015 dates for it's week-long Basic Fire Alarm Inspection Training in Aiken, SC:

• May 18-22, 2015
• September 14-18, 2015
• November 9-13, 2015

Dedicated to enhancing the value of inspectors through education, certification, and quality hands-on building inspection training using the latest inspection tools and technologies, graduates of IBC represent some of the leading service providers of building inspections.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), in 2001 there were more than 85,000 nonresidential fires resulting in direct property loss estimated at over $2.4 billion. To mitigate the sizable risk, organizations such as the Automatic Fire Alarm Association (AFAA) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) have long advocated a balanced approach. That is to say, rather than relying simply on fire detection (i.e. smoke alarms) or suppression (i.e. sprinklers and fire extinguishers), that builders and facility managers leverage both in coordination with each other.

As a sponsor of the 51st American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) Annual Conference and Technical Exhibition August 3-6 in Chicago, Illinois, BuildingReports provider event goers with an early glimpse at healthcare facility compliance performance. The data and analysis are based on data from the inaugural Fire & Life Safety Inspection Benchmark Report.