by Brianna Crandall — January 14, 2019 — Global facility services outsourcing provider ISS Group announced major new outcome-based partnership contracts in recent weeks with Vattenfall, Swisscom and UBS. ISS Group provides facilities management (FM), cleaning, property, office support, catering, and security services through more than 480,000 employees to businesses in more than 70 countries around the world.
ISS and Vattenfall sign seven-year Vested partnership
ISS and Vattenfall have entered into one of Sweden’s and the Nordic countries’ largest agreements for FM services, a flexible outcome-based partnership designed to deliver on the parties’ mutually developed vision and objectives. Vattenfall is one of Europe’s largest producers and retailers of electricity and heat. Its main markets are Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK, and the group has approximately 20,000 employees. The parent company, Vattenfall AB, is 100% owned by the Swedish state.
ISS announced major outcome-based partnership contracts in recent weeks with Vattenfall, Swisscom and UBS. Image courtesy ISS
After working together since 2006, Vattenfall and ISS signed an official Vested agreement across the Nordic countries, formalizing the outcome-based approach to collaboration, cost leadership and sustainability at Vattenfall’s 250+ sites across Sweden as well as Denmark, and Finland. Vested is a business model designed to create highly collaborative business relationships that enable true win-win relationships in which both parties are equally committed to each other’s success. Vested is based on award-winning research conducted by the University of Tennessee College of Business Administration and funded by the US Air Force.
Through this close Vested partnership model, the two companies together aim to provide more productive, cost-efficient, attractive and sustainable facilities and workplaces that support Vattenfall’s vision in becoming fossil-free within one generation.
Vattenfall will become a Global Corporate Client of ISS, and under the terms of the agreement, will benefit from ISS Group’s global scale, with support from ISS Global Operational Excellence and its key account-focused concepts, tools and technology. ISS will deliver 25 “soft,” “hard” and specialized core services, including waste management, property maintenance, and catering. The seven-year agreement came into force on January 1, 2019.
Jeff Gravenhorst, ISS Group CEO, remarked:
Our long-term relationship with Vattenfall, now evolving into a new phase, exemplifies the strength of our key account-focused strategy, and this Vested agreement showcases how we can bring real value to customers: in mutually beneficial partnerships where together we can drive innovation, sustainability and employee wellbeing — with a positive impact on society as a result. I look forward to the close collaboration ahead.
Magnus Hall, CEO of Vattenfall, stated:
Through this partnership with ISS, we can keep focus on our core business within Vattenfall and continue our journey towards fossil-free living within one generation. We can adapt more quickly to the outside world’s requirements and reduce our costs. ISS will contribute with what they know best — real estate and facility management services — supporting us in setting the highest standards for our own work.
Kate Vitasek, founder of the Vested methodology and lead researcher at the University of Tennessee, added:
Both Vattenfall and ISS are at the forefront of the market when it comes to understanding the need to transform how they do business together, and with this officially certified Vested deal, they have created a highly flexible win-win contract that will sustain the companies into the next generation of outsourcing.
Swisscom and ISS renew partnership for five years
ISS and telecommunications provider Swisscom (majority-owned by the Swiss Government) have renewed their agreement early, extending from January 1, 2019, until the end of March 2024 under a new contract model that emphasizes transparency, efficiency and innovation.
ISS and telecommunications provider Swisscom have renewed their agreement early under a new contract model that emphasizes transparency, efficiency and innovation. Image courtesy ISS
The renewed service agreement comprises 24 data centers, around 60 office buildings, and more than 1,000 operational buildings, with a total space of approximately 1,100,000 million square meters (sq m). ISS has since January 2015 been responsible for all infrastructural and technical FM services across Swisscom’s entire building portfolio — data centers, business parks, and a large number of office and operational buildings.
ISS provides a complete range of services, from FM consulting and energy as well as environmental management through to staffing the reception desk and providing support and maintenance for building services engineering.
With the contract extension, both parties have agreed on a new operational model with a focus on outcome-based cooperation, in which ISS assumes additional responsibility and criteria such as transparency, efficiency and innovation will increasingly be taken into account. The service-level agreement (SLA) addresses Swisscom’s needs to optimally mitigate operational risks and control the resources deployed on a building-specific basis. Overall, this is expected to lead to leaner administrative processes and more efficient interface management, increased transparency and lower costs.
UBS and ISS extend partnership to 2025
UBS AG and ISS A/S have entered into a new seven-year agreement that went into effect January 1, 2019, which retains and extends the provision of IFM services to UBS Buildings and employees in Switzerland and the UK.
UBS Group is a Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland that maintains a presence in all major financial centers and is known as the largest Swiss banking institution in the world.
ISS will continue to support all operational UBS sites in Switzerland, comprising headquarters, branches, office buildings, and data centers, as well as providing integrated services in the UK including the London headquarters and regional offices.
Highest possible rating on IAOP Global Outsourcing Top 100 list
In other company news, ISS achieved the highest possible rating on the IAOP Global Outsourcing Top 100 list, for the fifth year in a row. Every year IAOP, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) releases a ranking of global outsourcing companies across all industries, and again this year ISS received five stars — the highest rating possible, with an overall score was 7.24 out of a maximum of 8 (the average overall score for the Global Outsourcing 100 list was 4.81).
Strategy update: ISS to increase organic growth by accelerating Key Account transformation
ISS also announced its ambition to increase organic growth to 4%-6% per annum by accelerating its transition towards Key Account customers. A two-year program of expedited investment, encompassing services (e.g. workplace, technical, catering) and platform (e.g. technology, data and innovation), will materially enhance ISS’s delivery capabilities. Investment will include project-related operating expenditure, capital expenditure and selected M&A, strengthening ISS’s ability to protect and care for customers’ property, people and environment.
Capital will be reallocated from areas that are not core to the Key Account strategy to help fund this transformation, so non-core operations in 13 countries will be divested — Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania.
ISS UK retains position as the top FM brand
In further news, in the largest industry brand survey in the UK, ISS has retained its position as the top FM brand and further improved on last year’s results. This year ISS UK gained top position in two more categories: “most innovative” and the “most visible in the market,” in addition to again being voted the “top service provider,” “most customer focused” and “best value for money.”
The 2018 Brand Survey by i-FM, which is said to be the largest of its kind in the industry, measures brand perceptions across the UK FM industry. Survey participants provide a representation of the UK industry as a whole, including employees at service providers and in-house FMs. The analysis focused on multiservice providers but was also supplemented by results on single-service brands in the cleaning, catering and security sectors.
For more information about ISS Group services around the world, visit the company’s website.
