Outsourcing janitorial services makes sense with ABM.

The business of cleaning and maintaining America's office buildings, retail, commercial, industrial, educational and healthcare facilities is huge, with over $50 billion spent annually on janitorial services alone.

Competition in the janitorial service business can be intense, as owners and property managers seek contractors that can provide added value and services not provided by the traditional "morn and pop" operations that still persist in the profession.

American Building Maintenance Co. of New York (ABM), a subsidiary of ABM Industries Inc., the largest facility services contractor listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is dedicated to raising the bar for quality standards in janitorial services.

Our company was recently awarded the rare ISO 9001 Certification for our building maintenance operations at 31 West 52nd Street in Manhattan, marking only the fourth such designation ever in the United States.

ISO 9001 is rapidly becoming the most popular quality standard in the world, with thousands of companies adopting these customized standards as the ultimate mark of quality. ISO 9000 certification can be applied to all types of organizations, no matter their size or what they do.

The grueling standards, developed and customized to the particular industry or product produced, help organizations achieve standards of quality that are recognized and respected throughout the world.

While ISO 9001 Certification represents the pinnacle of quality standards, the lengthy review process and costs associated with maintaining this certification year after year may not be right for every owner.

That's why ABM applies the principles and procedures learned from this process to every assignment we take on, which is one of the reasons ABM is becoming the company of choice for many of New York's leading owners when it come to outsourcing their building maintenance services

For a variety of reasons, the trend towards outsourcing janitorial and other building services continues. Outsourcing janitorial services allows building managers to focus on their core operations.

Handling janitorial services in-house adds to your costs because you have to hire someone to oversee scheduling, benefits, staffing and all the other details. When you hire a contractor, this administrative overhead is built into the rate.

Outsourcing also makes it less difficult to secure part-time help as needed, based on the peaks and valleys of your building operations.

Also, outsourcing often insures better training, more thorough background screening, staff continuity and greater liability coverage, which can be extremely attractive.

While subcontracting of janitorial services has sometimes been viewed as simply a way of keeping down salaries and benefits, it also insures that building owners comply with all federal and state labor laws and regulations. As the largest employer of 32BJ workers, ABM's New York City area hourly employees enjoy excellent benefits, the finest training and superior management/employee relations, which translates to a workforce retention and satisfaction rate that guarantees the continuity and quality of ABM services.

The big drive for everyone in property management today is how to consolidate operations.

Everybody wants to create strategic relationships with each of their vendors, and ABM fills a niche that is tough to replicate with divisions spanning, Electrical, Janitorial, Security, Engineering, Parking and Lighting.

We are always trying to align our interest in terms of our clients. One way that top service providers like ABM offer added value is by bringing people with property management backgrounds into the fold, so that our clients can see that we understand the bigger picture as well. This gives us a better platform for approaching and relating to clients.

Enhancing our staff with employees that think as property managers brings in a wider understanding of the management and logistical needs of clients. This formula has garnered excellent feedback and success.

As a subsidiary of ABM Industries Incorporated, the largest facility services contractor listed on the New York Stock Exchange with annualized revenues in excess of $2.1 billion and more than 62,000 employees, ABM provides janitorial, parking, engineering, security, lighting, mechanical and network services for thousands of commercial, industrial, institutional and retail facilities in hundreds of cities across North America.

In addition to American Building Maintenance Co., the ABM Family of Services includes ABM Janitorial, Ampco System Parking, ABM Engineering, American Commercial Security (ACSS), Amtech Lighting, CommAir Mechanical and ABM Service Network.