The only east-coast CIMS I.C.E. workshop scheduled for 2013 will be held on Monday, April 29 in Jacksonville, Fla., in conjunction with the NISSCO annual Buying Conference at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. The workshop is open to both ISSA members and non-members with participating NISSCO members receiving reduced pricing.  
 
“Attaining CIMS I.C.E. certification is no longer something to remain on the ‘to do’ list,” notes Mark Bozich, president of NISSCO.  “CIMS I.C.E. should be viewed as a mandatory requirement for all distributor and supplier field sales personnel, which is why we have worked with ISSA to bring this workshop to our Buying Conference this year.”
 
Why does NISSCO believe that CIMS I.C.E. is important? As Bozich points out, “A growing percentage of cleaning contractors, building facility service workers and facility managers are becoming CIMS certified.  Once a distributor’s customer attains a higher level of expertise than the distributor, that distributor’s educational value is reduced and the conversation becomes even more price focused.”
 
The Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) was created for facility service provider (FSP) organizations and applies to an organization’s management structure and performance systems and processes.
 
“Becoming I.C.E. certified provides additional tools for distributors and suppliers to help their customers meet accountability demands from upper management, address productive ways to clean for health, and cope with budget pressures,” states Dan Wagner, ISSA director of facility service programs. “More than 1,000 cleaning industry professionals are currently CIMS I.C.E certified and we expect many more to realize the necessity of adding this education to their dossier this year.”