Conversations from The EDGE with Service Logic

COVID-19 exposed how important indoor air sanitization is to human health. People are hyperaware of the fact that indoor air quality can negatively impact their physical and mental health. As a result, the market is flooded with all sorts of products that claim to protect people from a multitude of airborne assailants: pollen, dust, bacteria, and—of course—viruses. But how do consumers know what works? More importantly, who can businesses partner with to find solutions that work? Guest Aedan Fida, CEO and Co-Founder of Blade Air attempts to answer this question on today’s episode of Conversations from The EDGE with Service Logic. He responds to pointed questions from hosts Michelle Dawn Mooney and Greg Crumpton, Vice President of Service Logic, about the ebb and flow of interest in indoor air quality and how businesses should meet customer needs. Fida believes what makes Blade Air different is that they’re concerned with the entire HVAC system, not just the products they sell. He wants to address what people are looking for to avoid “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.” Put another way, Fida said Blade Air aims to “find the right solution for the right problem.” In doing so, they’ve celebrated major wins like partnering with the Peele School District in Canada to install HVAC solutions in every school building. Aedan Fida is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blade Air. Blade Air’s founders came together to find a way to create replaceable cartridges that can both save money and time. They’ve found success in Canada, having serviced over a billion cubic feet of air. Blade Air hopes to expand into the U.S. market to meet the challenges of horticulturists, businesses, and schools. Listen to today’s episode on Apple Podcast, TuneIn, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

COVID-19 exposed how important indoor air sanitization is to human health. People are hyperaware of the fact that indoor air quality can negatively impact their physical and mental health. As a result, the market is flooded with all sorts of products that claim to protect people from a multitude of airborne assailants: pollen, dust, bacteria, and—of course—viruses. But how do consumers know what works? More importantly, who can businesses partner with to find solutions that work? Guest Aedan Fida, CEO and Co-Founder of Blade Air attempts to answer this question on today’s episode of Conversations from The EDGE with Service Logic. He responds to pointed questions from hosts Michelle Dawn Mooney and Greg Crumpton, Vice President of Service Logic, about the ebb and flow of interest in indoor air quality and how businesses should meet customer needs. Fida believes what makes Blade Air different is that they’re concerned with the entire HVAC system, not just the products they sell. He wants to address what people are looking for to avoid “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.” Put another way, Fida said Blade Air aims to “find the right solution for the right problem.” In doing so, they’ve celebrated major wins like partnering with the Peele School District in Canada to install HVAC solutions in every school building. Aedan Fida is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blade Air. Blade Air’s founders came together to find a way to create replaceable cartridges that can both save money and time. They’ve found success in Canada, having serviced over a billion cubic feet of air. Blade Air hopes to expand into the U.S. market to meet the challenges of horticulturists, businesses, and schools. Listen to today’s episode on Apple Podcast, TuneIn, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

There is so much technology out there that can help improve the efficiencies of your business - but much of it is hard to use, hard to understand, and even harder to integrate. People are afraid to adopt - but they shouldn’t be. For one consumer in the HVAC and mechanical service industry, integrating a system that could continuously monitor, observe, and alert if there were any anomalies before catastrophe could occur was a no brainer. What system did they use? In this episode of Conversations from the Edge with Service Logic, host Michelle Dawn Mooney speaks on everything you need to know about Volta Insite, with guests Denis Kouroussis, CEO of Volta Energy, and Greg Crumpton, VP of Service Logic. “It’s well-researched and developed methodologies that we’ve come to put together and effectively be able to also see the results of what we gather because we help our customers…We have an engineering back-end team that looks at the data, interprets the data, works with the facility or the operator to understand what the data means…,” said Kouroussis. Crumpton reflected on the value of the tool, “So if we can have a tool that proactively tells us ‘Hey, you know, you’ve got some issues going on’, we can shut that system down for an inspection way before we have a failure. So, that to me, was really appealing of how this can be beneficial.” Denis Kouroussis has been the Founder and CEO of Volta Energy for over 14 years and is also the Founder and CSO of Atom Power. Prior to this, Kouroussis worked in various roles throughout the technology and mechanical industries, including as a Field Applications Engineer for Apache Design Solutions and as the Senior Methodology Engineer for AMD. He holds his BASc in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering, and his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto. Greg Crumpton is VP of the largest privately held HVAC-Mechanical Services company in the United States. He carries over 40 years of experience as a full-service mechanical and mission-critical environments contractor. Alongside his work with Service Logic, Crumpton also serves as an adviser for several start-ups, including Global Venture Consulting and Atom Power, amongst others.

There is so much technology out there that can help improve the efficiencies of your business - but much of it is hard to use, hard to understand, and even harder to integrate. People are afraid to adopt - but they shouldn’t be. For one consumer in the HVAC and mechanical service industry, integrating a system that could continuously monitor, observe, and alert if there were any anomalies before catastrophe could occur was a no brainer. What system did they use? In this episode of Conversations from the Edge with Service Logic, host Michelle Dawn Mooney speaks on everything you need to know about Volta Insite, with guests Denis Kouroussis, CEO of Volta Energy, and Greg Crumpton, VP of Service Logic. “It’s well-researched and developed methodologies that we’ve come to put together and effectively be able to also see the results of what we gather because we help our customers…We have an engineering back-end team that looks at the data, interprets the data, works with the facility or the operator to understand what the data means…,” said Kouroussis. Crumpton reflected on the value of the tool, “So if we can have a tool that proactively tells us ‘Hey, you know, you’ve got some issues going on’, we can shut that system down for an inspection way before we have a failure. So, that to me, was really appealing of how this can be beneficial.” Denis Kouroussis has been the Founder and CEO of Volta Energy for over 14 years and is also the Founder and CSO of Atom Power. Prior to this, Kouroussis worked in various roles throughout the technology and mechanical industries, including as a Field Applications Engineer for Apache Design Solutions and as the Senior Methodology Engineer for AMD. He holds his BASc in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering, and his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto. Greg Crumpton is VP of the largest privately held HVAC-Mechanical Services company in the United States. He carries over 40 years of experience as a full-service mechanical and mission-critical environments contractor. Alongside his work with Service Logic, Crumpton also serves as an adviser for several start-ups, including Global Venture Consulting and Atom Power, amongst others.

According to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry. In 2020, approximately 351 out of 1,008 construction fatalities were due to fatal falls to a lower level, which accounts for about a third of all on-the-job deaths in the construction industry. These deaths cause significant problems for workers, their families, and the construction companies they work for. However, these deaths are preventable; therefore, what equipment can be adopted to safeguard workers from falls? On today’s episode of the Conversations from the Edge podcast, host Michelle Dawn Mooney speaks with Greg Crumpton, the Vice President of Service Logic, Nathan Sollenberger and Ryan Kerfien, Co-Creators of the SafTDek product, about the role of SafTDek in optimizing safety for construction workers. “The SafTDek Condenser Railing system was designed to prevent falls at heights. This product becomes useful when workers need to climb to reach a certain height to do their jobs. The financial implications of falls are quite significant, with each fall costing the company about $100,000. If there is a fatality, it quickly exceeds a million. This safety system is an excellent opportunity for people on-site to conduct pre-safety audits to ensure maximum protection against falls,” explained Sollenberger. “Service Logic is interested in the SafTDek Condenser Railing system because it is essential to provide better safety platforms for our thousands of employees. Many clients always want an assurance that contractors working on their job are being safe. This is to avoid litigation issues. Therefore, SafTDek is a great tool to build a great relationship between contractors and their clients,” noted Crumpton. “Workers do not have to worry about risks when they have the right safety tool such as the SafTDek Condenser Railing system. Coming up with something that makes other people safer is something that makes me proud. About 320,000 replacement fan motors are sold every year in the U.S., and this is just on-demand service replacement jobs. We should be up on these units quarterly doing fan inspection- this is lots of trips to the top of an air-cooled condenser. When you think about that across various companies, the need for SafTDek as a safety tool becomes paramount,” added Kerfien. Nathan Sollenberger is a Co-Creator of the SafTDek product. He has worked as a project engineer with Hoffman & Hoffman, Inc. and has worked in the industry since 2014. Ryan Kerfien is a Co-Creator of the SafTDek product. He received a B.S. in Technology Education from the State University of New York at Oswego and an M.BA. in Business Administration and Management from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte Belk College of Business. Greg Crumpton is Vice President of Service Logic. He attended Clayton State College and studied business; he attended Georgia Tech University and studied finance and accounting, and AMA courses on business fundamentals. Crumpton has been with Service Logic for over 8 years.

Various strategies and techniques can be employed to combat the spread of respiratory viruses in buildings. These strategies aim to reduce the concentration of respiratory viruses in the air and on surfaces, making it less likely for people to contract the virus. Some of the most effective strategies include increasing ventilation and filtration, implementing social distancing protocols, increasing cleaning and disinfection, and encouraging the wearing of face masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE). Why is respiratory virus indoor transmission such an important topic, and why is it essential to have the basic knowledge to adopt the right ways to prevent such transmission? On today's episode of Conversation to the Edge by Service Logic, host Michelle Dawn Mooney chats with Kevin Boyle, Vice President of Products and Marketing at GPS Air, and Charles Waddell, Founder and CTO at GPS Air, to discuss how to mitigate the spread of respiratory viruses in buildings. They talked about: 1. The importance of respiratory virus indoor transmission and how to mitigate it 2. The common multi-layered solution approach 3. Testing in Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Respiratory virus mitigation in buildings requires a multi-faceted approach, including increasing ventilation and filtration, implementing social distancing protocols, increasing cleaning and disinfection, and encouraging face masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE). Building owners and managers must work with public health officials and experts to develop and implement effective respiratory virus mitigation strategies. "Multi-layer strategy is the concept where you use multiple technologies in combination with each other to get a better result,” said Charles Waddell, Founder and CTO at GPS Air. This approach aims to provide a comprehensive and effective solution by addressing different aspects of the problem. Some common multi-layered solution approaches include engineering and administrative controls, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), social distancing and hygiene practices, and monitoring and tracking. Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important aspect of respiratory virus mitigation in buildings. Poor IAQ can increase the risk of respiratory infections and aggravate existing respiratory conditions. “Buildings that are poorly ventilated or have high levels of indoor air pollution can create an environment conducive to spreading respiratory viruses such as COVID-19,” said Kevin Boyle, Vice President of Products and Marketing at GPS Air. In conclusion, respiratory virus mitigation in buildings is a complex issue that requires a multi-faceted approach. Improving indoor air quality is an important aspect of this effort, as poor IAQ can increase the risk of respiratory infections and aggravate existing respiratory conditions.

Various strategies and techniques can be employed to combat the spread of respiratory viruses in buildings. These strategies aim to reduce the concentration of respiratory viruses in the air and on surfaces, making it less likely for people to contract the virus. Some of the most effective strategies include increasing ventilation and filtration, implementing social distancing protocols, increasing cleaning and disinfection, and encouraging the wearing of face masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE). Why is respiratory virus indoor transmission such an important topic, and why is it essential to have the basic knowledge to adopt the right ways to prevent such transmission? On today's episode of Conversation to the Edge by Service Logic, host Michelle Dawn Mooney chats with Kevin Boyle, Vice President of Products and Marketing at GPS Air, and Charles Waddell, Founder and CTO at GPS Air, to discuss how to mitigate the spread of respiratory viruses in buildings. They talked about: 1. The importance of respiratory virus indoor transmission and how to mitigate it 2. The common multi-layered solution approach 3. Testing in Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Respiratory virus mitigation in buildings requires a multi-faceted approach, including increasing ventilation and filtration, implementing social distancing protocols, increasing cleaning and disinfection, and encouraging face masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE). Building owners and managers must work with public health officials and experts to develop and implement effective respiratory virus mitigation strategies. "Multi-layer strategy is the concept where you use multiple technologies in combination with each other to get a better result,” said Charles Waddell, Founder and CTO at GPS Air. This approach aims to provide a comprehensive and effective solution by addressing different aspects of the problem. Some common multi-layered solution approaches include engineering and administrative controls, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), social distancing and hygiene practices, and monitoring and tracking. Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important aspect of respiratory virus mitigation in buildings. Poor IAQ can increase the risk of respiratory infections and aggravate existing respiratory conditions. “Buildings that are poorly ventilated or have high levels of indoor air pollution can create an environment conducive to spreading respiratory viruses such as COVID-19,” said Kevin Boyle, Vice President of Products and Marketing at GPS Air. In conclusion, respiratory virus mitigation in buildings is a complex issue that requires a multi-faceted approach. Improving indoor air quality is an important aspect of this effort, as poor IAQ can increase the risk of respiratory infections and aggravate existing respiratory conditions.

Safety, quality, and compliance training are essential, but are time-consuming and create administrative burdens for businesses. Greg Crumpton, Vice President of Critical Environments and Facilities at Service Logic, and Tony DeAscentis, CEO of Ving, chatted with host Tyler Kern about how Ving is changing this. Ving offers a safety, quality, and compliance training and monitoring management and communication platform targeting building, manufacturing, and service industries. A plethora of training topics are available, including OSHA, customer compliance, supervisory skills development, and more. Ving uses a combination of videos, audio, documents, assessments, hyperlinks, and QR codes. Supervisors monitor employee training progress through color-coded dashboards and reporting. The platform’s efficiency and scale allows supervisors to get training done amongst other day-to-day activities. Training is accessible on any personal device without a plug-in or sign-on. DeAscentis stated, “It’s really about empowering your leadership to be proactive as well as making sure the information, the training is easy to access for all your employees because that’s really what it’s about. Keeping that field, the decentralized field, in the know.” Ving boasts a 95 percent year-over-year renewal rate, which attests to their quality. Content is built from scratch to ensure information is retained and reused on the job. Courses can be used off the shelf, customized, or created from scratch by businesses. The app is an annual subscription that provides access to all features. Once the license point is determined, that determines the cost. “You get access to all features so that your people can use the tool to their advantage to create a sense of timeliness and accountability across the organization to interact with critical on the job training and information,” said DeAscentis. To learn more about Ving’s services, visit vingapp.com, servicelogic.com, or follow the Conversations from the Edge podcast on Spotify or Apple iTunes.

Safety, quality, and compliance training are essential, but are time-consuming and create administrative burdens for businesses. Greg Crumpton, Vice President of Critical Environments and Facilities at Service Logic, and Tony DeAscentis, CEO of Ving, chatted with host Tyler Kern about how Ving is changing this. Ving offers a safety, quality, and compliance training and monitoring management and communication platform targeting building, manufacturing, and service industries. A plethora of training topics are available, including OSHA, customer compliance, supervisory skills development, and more. Ving uses a combination of videos, audio, documents, assessments, hyperlinks, and QR codes. Supervisors monitor employee training progress through color-coded dashboards and reporting. The platform’s efficiency and scale allows supervisors to get training done amongst other day-to-day activities. Training is accessible on any personal device without a plug-in or sign-on. DeAscentis stated, “It’s really about empowering your leadership to be proactive as well as making sure the information, the training is easy to access for all your employees because that’s really what it’s about. Keeping that field, the decentralized field, in the know.” Ving boasts a 95 percent year-over-year renewal rate, which attests to their quality. Content is built from scratch to ensure information is retained and reused on the job. Courses can be used off the shelf, customized, or created from scratch by businesses. The app is an annual subscription that provides access to all features. Once the license point is determined, that determines the cost. “You get access to all features so that your people can use the tool to their advantage to create a sense of timeliness and accountability across the organization to interact with critical on the job training and information,” said DeAscentis. To learn more about Ving’s services, visit vingapp.com, servicelogic.com, or follow the Conversations from the Edge podcast on Spotify or Apple iTunes.

The HVAC industry has long been male-dominated, but women are joining the field in larger numbers and making an impact. One of those is Brittney Johnson, Maintenance Sales Representative, Commercial Mechanical at Commercial Mechanical Utah. She spoke with Conversations from the Edge host Hilary Kennedy about her career. Johnson explained that after high school, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She tried community college and other paths but still didn’t have a calling. When she moved to Wilmington, NC, her father, who worked in the HVAC industry, prompted her to look into a customer service job. “I started the job and did that for two-and-a-half years. It became stagnant, and I decided I wanted to get into sales.” There weren’t any sales positions in Wilmington, so Johnson applied for a job in Utah. She earned the role and moved across the country. In transitioning from customer service to sales, Johnson said, “It was lots of learning. I didn’t know much about the equipment. I also spoke to other women in business. It was saying yes to something that scares you.” Does being a woman in HVAC have advantages? Johnson thinks so because “women have more of a willingness to collaborate and prefer to work in groups.” Johnson appreciates team building and supporting others. She named several women that are inspirations to her as she continues her career. “It was great to see somebody like me closing big deals and doing the same work as men.” Johnson admits it’s a challenging career, but that’s also what’s great about it. “I enjoy not just selling a product. I’m selling something I know will be beneficial to the customer, which makes me feel good. I’m here to help you with your building.”