During the ninth annual National Comfort Institute Summit, held in Palm Harbor, FL in early February, NCI announced its transformation from a membership and training organization with a level-based membership structure, to what CEO Dominick Guarino and President Rob Falke described as "MyNCI, A New Way to Have It Your Way."
According to Guarino, "numerous members provided NCI valuable feedback about what they need most from us — almost unanimously they asked for better tools to help make Performance-Based Contracting a profitable, growing part of their businesses. We listened, and we've invested in the people, tools, technology, and content to give members as much value as possible from their NCI membership."
The new "MyNCI" breaks down what Guarino describes as walls between membership levels, and incorporates the changes members requested, allowing each member to choose the benefits best suited for his or her company. Plus, NCI has added a number of new member benefits and tools, such as ‘apps’ created and optimized for use on iPads. These 'apps' will improve accuracy, professionalism, and productivity for the contractors who use them.
These tools revolve around sales training, marketing services, technical training, home performance training, and more. The changes also include a redesigned website that uses dashboard navigation to tie into what NCI is calling the "iPad-ing" of business management.”
In addition to the evolution of the business, a number of contractors were recognized for excellence by the organization. These included the NCI contractors of the year — to Campbell Comfort Systems, West Deptford, NJ; James A. Wheat, Gaithersburg, MD; and Link Mechanical Services, New Britain, CT. This year's David Debien Technical Excellence Award was presented to Bobbie Bevill, Davis Services, Spartanburg, SC. The Vendor Partner of the Year award went to Goodman Manufacturing.
NCI presented it's 2012 Chairman’s Award to Vince DiFilippo of DiFilippo Services, Paoli, PA,
For more information, visit nationalcomfortinstitute.com. — Mike Weil