What should snow supplier innovation focus on in the next 5 years?

As SIMA continuously grows its process to influence the industry, we as an association are getting more specific in our analysis of trends. The next five years will be crucial in taking a maturing industry to the next level. Here are some thoughts related to suppliers of goods and services, and where you should be focusing your energy to grow your business:

Efficiency
Obviously, efficiency in equipment and production has always been a big focus. But at SIMA we feel that safe, highly efficient snow and ice management tools and techniques will be a key differentiator for our members moving forward. As market consolidation due to global and national trends continues to drive down the cost of snow and ice management, solid contractors will be looking for:

• High quality training and information to make them do their work cheaper/faster/more accurately
• High performance equipment to help them remove or manage snow in better ways
• Software to help them streamline their billing process and improve collections
• Dependable equipment that lasts long term, with lower maintenance needs

Record keeping
In the line of liability for slip and falls, the company that physically removes or manages the snow and ice gets stuck with a lions share of risk. A key place that will continue to seperate quality contractors (and disqualify others) will be in efficient, accurate recordkeeping, including:

• Weather forecasting and history/precip totals
• Service data including time on, time off, conditions, etc.
• Pavement surface temperature
• Amount of deicing/anti-icing product used

As the trend of large national and regional snow service management companies increases, the need for a formal, highly accurate and specific tracking system for snow contractors will grow.

Anti-icing and Deicing Innovation
In this area, the key moving forward will be to help snow contractors deliver high quality deicing/anti-icing services, with more accurate monitoring systems that allow them to report how much chemical was applied.
This serves two roles:

1. Allows the contractor to more acutely manage their systems through the ability to accurately measure their usage
2. More accountability and transparency to the purchaser of snow and ice management services, for billing and environmental purposes

Use of Video
Many snow and ice contractors are hands-on, very visual folks...they ain't big readers this bunch. The companies who can effectively create video marketing messages that educate their clients will have a great advantage over traditional marketing messages. The key word is education; good suppliers to the industry will invest time in understanding how their products can help improve the lives of their customers, and will use video and visual imagery to help snow contractors learn better ways of operating

What are your predictions for the next 5 years?