As seen in The Sunday Business Post 27th of July 2008.

Established in 1901 in Denmark, initially as a security company, ISS has diversified and grown its competencies, to become one of the largest facilities management companies in the world, operating in 50 countries with more than 440,000 employees. ISS is also among the top five employers in Europe.

 

The company entered the Irish market in 1995 through an acquisition and today employs more than 3,000 people in Ireland alone.

 

Thomas Hinnerskov, managing director of ISS Facility Services, Ireland, said: “ISS provides full national coverage of services, with offices located in seven regions throughout Ireland. We have offices in Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Galway, Drogheda, Waterford and Letterkenny.”

 

Internationally, ISS is the consolidator of its industry and has expanded substantially through organic growth and acquisitions. Since 1998, ISS has acquired more than 350 companies and added more than 200,000 employees.

 

ISS offers a wide range of service solutions, from single services to fully-integrated facility services (IFS) that combine all of the customer’s service and support functions in a single solution. Its specialist areas are cleaning, property services, catering, office support, facilities management and security.

 

“We offer in-depth knowledge and expertise across a full range of services, many years of experience in developing new methods and techniques, and a high level of service management and employee take over skills,” said Hinnerskov.

 

“Our objective is to lead facility services globally by leading facility services locally in the markets in which we operate. Integrated facility services is a partnership that helps our customers reduce costs and focus on their core business. The partnership evolves from ISS’s ability to combine people, services and management.

 

“The cornerstone of our success is embodied in a three-fold commitment – to quality, training and improved productivity.  Sustained growth is based in providing trained, skilled staff to carry out tasks specifically matched to each working environment,” he said.

 

“We believe that each customer has a unique combination of needs and the best service solution derives from a pool of values and know-how, which we combine to match each individual customer’s needs and requirements.”

 

In Ireland, ISS enjoys a turnover of €77 million, employs more than 3,000 people nationally and is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 registered.

 

ISS has engaged in a number of new strategic initiatives intended to help the service giant gain a foothold in the fast-growing market for integrated, global service contracts. Its recent global contract with Hewlett Packard (HP) marked a major milestone in the company’s ambition to be the world leader in integrated facilities services.

 

The deal with HP marks its first large multinational contract. Hinnerskov explained, “ISS service contracts used to be locally based and only a few were cross-border contracts with international companies. Those days are over. Now, ISS is ready to fight for international contracts with global customers.

“Customers seek to reduce the number of suppliers they have so that they can focus on the core business.  Large contracts are key to greater efficiency.”

 

While the large customers push down the price of the ISS service contracts, ISS management is confident that the company will achieve greater efficiency through synergies in large-scale operations, so that profitability is maintained.

 

Over the last year, ISS launched a unit focusing on international service contracts, but the company claims it is surprised by how quickly it has been able to attract a customer as large as HP.

 

“We anticipate that having landed such a large global contract with HP others will quickly follow,” said Hinnerskov. “ISS initially contracted with HP in six countries before HP hired ISS to cover its service needs in Europe. Asia, the Middle East and Africa – a total of 41 countries, including Ireland.”

 

The HP contract started in Ireland on July 1 and focuses on servicing 18 HP sites including the manufacturing plants in Leixlip and Galway.

 

The services being delivered to the Irish HP sites cover facility management and administration, facilities and building maintenance, grounds maintenance and landscaping, cleaning, catering and hospitality, office support service, including a helpdesk, pest control and washroom services.

 

Hinnerskov said it was by far the largest IFS contract in the country. “The trend in the service market is towards multinational contracts, which comprise a broader range of services,” he said. “The global outsourced facility services market totals €650 billion to €700 billion and it is experiencing annual growth of 6 to 7 per cent.

 

“The market is fragmented, with many small country-specific players. Only a few large players pursue international opportunities to drive consolidation.

 

“However, the market for so called integrated facility services reports annual growth rates of 12 to 13 per cent, compared with 6 to 7 per cent growth on the general service market.”

 

His assessment is that, with large contracts, the supplier inevitably builds a much closer relationship with the customer, within each country and globally, and sees it as the way forward for the industry.