Raising the bar in snow and ice

SIMA provides free industry best practices and standards

By Martin Tirado, CAE
In October 2017, SIMA mailed 30,000 readers of Snow Business magazine in North America our Purchasing Snow & Ice Management: Quality RFP Creation and Best Practices. It’s the newest publication in our reservoir of resources that will become industry standards. And it’s free (download here) for anyone interested in reading and implementing it into their business practices. 

The Purchasing Snow & Ice Management document is rich in detail and specificity on the essential components of what should be included in the final agreement that properties have with snow and ice service providers, such as level of service, how to build and define a scope of work, contractual terms and definitions and more. Similar to other SIMA best practice publications, this document was developed with input from a broad and diverse stakeholder group, not just service providers. Property owners and managers can use and adopt the contents to the same extent that service providers can. That’s a win-win business proposition that enables long-term trust and value.

As this best practice document is used by more professionals every year, it naturally becomes an industry standard. The same can be said of all of SIMA’s best practices, which are free for download at www.sima.org/bestpractices.

SIMA creates its best practices for free to serve the needs of the professional snow and ice industry. We will continue to do so and are committed to the following principles of best practices and standards:

Open Access. Guides are available to all industry stakeholders at no cost, regardless of whether they are members of SIMA.

Education. SIMA spearheads educational partnerships and communication programs to help all parties adopt best practices.

Comprehensive. Best practices documents are reviewed by a large group of industry stakeholders representing multiple areas of expertise.

Quality Control & Transparency. The best practices documents are living documents, and suggestions, recommendations or concerns can be submitted online at www.sima.org. 

The feedback SIMA has received on our best practices and standards has been positive in many ways. We will continue to lead with professionalism as we expand our inventory of industry best practices and standards. Our next step will be further developed at our 2018 Season Opener event, tentatively scheduled for September in Milwaukee, WI. An announcement on the exact date, hotel location and agenda is coming soon. For now, please download, read and share the snow and ice industry best practices and standards, the glossary of terms, and best practices checklists. More are on the way. 

Martin Tirado, CAE, is chief executive officer of SIMA. Email him at martin@sima.org.