Celebrating Excellence: Meet the Ignite 2024 Inaugural Customer Award Finalists

Aspire and FieldRoutes will present their inaugural Excellence Awards during a ceremony showcasing customer success at Ignite on Aug. 26-28 in Orlando, FL.

"We appreciate our customers' partnership with us and look forward to celebrating with them at Ignite," said Mark Tipton, CEO for Aspire and FieldRoutes. 

"I love that we get to work for contractors, some of the hardest-working people on this planet. They do so much to make our lives more enjoyable."

The company values for Aspire and FieldRoutes – to boldly innovate, put others first, drive success, and finish strong – form the foundations for the awards. Nominations were submitted during the summer in the weeks leading up to Ignite, which will attract hundreds of customers in addition to business partners of Aspire and FieldRoutes.

Finalists Are Set for Founders’ Award, Aspire Excellence Awards

They've taken software designed to make their lives easier and developed even more efficiencies for their field service companies and employees.

They've worked with the software company's teams to offer invaluable feedback and guidance to entrench those platforms as industry leaders, and they've championed their relationships with us to colleagues in the profession. Becky Bailey, of Ground Pros Inc.; Bob Grover, of Pacific Landscape Management, and Breanna Neerland of Kwik Kill Pest Control are the three finalists for the inaugural Founders' Award, which will be presented to one recipient as the special honor at the first Aspire & FieldRoutes Excellence Awards ceremony on Tuesday at Ignite.

In addition, Aspire and FieldRoutes will present four awards inspired by the company's core values: boldly innovate, put others first, drive success, and finish strong. Recipients will be announced for the Trailblazer Award, Impact Award, Rookie of the Year Award, and Excellence Achieved Award.

Nominations were submitted by companies and by Aspire or FieldRoutes team members.

Continue reading, meet the finalists for the Founders’ Award and the four other Aspire awards, and see why we are thrilled to celebrate our customers.

Founders’ Award

About the Award: The Founders’ Award, which will be presented to an Aspire or FieldRoutes customer and will culminate the ceremony at the Orlando World Center Marriott. The Founders’ Award will recognize an individual who embodies the true spirit of the company's core values over a period of time. This person will be recognized for their immeasurable contributions to their industry, to their community of peers, and to the people and communities around them. Their work could include activism and support within the industry, mentoring and coaching, furthering the causes of their industry across communities, and establishing an indelible legacy.

Meet the finalists

Becky Bailey, Senior finance associate

Ground Pros Inc., Itasca, IL

About the finalist: "Becky has become the MVP of our team, particularly with her instrumental contributions to our successes in leveraging the Aspire platform. Her creativity and forward-thinking approach have set a new benchmark in how Aspire can be utilized to achieve business success, making her an exemplary candidate for the Founders’ Award." – Stacy Stroh, Ground Pros branch manager. 

Bob Grover, President

Pacific Landscape Management, Hillsboro, OR

About the finalist: "Bob is a long-time advocate for the landscape industry and Aspire software. He was an angel investor, and his company was an early adopter of the software. [He] is the perfect inaugural recipient of the Founders' Award." – from the nomination.

Breanna Neerland, Operations manager, managing partner

Kwik Kill Pest Control, Madison, WI

About the finalist: "Breanna has helped our Implementation process and is willing and able to roll her sleeves up and dig into migrating from ServSuite to FieldRoutes. She has been a great advocate to her employees to get them on board learning the software. She is a great resource and will talk to anyone about their experience."

Aspire also will present four Excellence Awards. Meet those finalists:

Trailblazer Award

Boldly innovate.

About the award: This award recognizes an Aspire customer – individual, team, or organization – who has adopted the Aspire platform in such a way as to support a unique aspect of their business or drive success in a unique and new way. The recipient has used the Aspire software and possibly integrations or partners in a creative way beyond traditional use cases in landscape and commercial cleaning. The results led to fundamental shifts in one way or another – either financially, operationally, or structurally – or brought a new aspect to their business. 

Meet the finalists

Seth Pflum, President and chief operating officer

Grunder Landscaping, Dayton, OH

About the finalist: "Seth Pflum has done an amazing job integrating Aspire at our firm. Since implementing Aspire in January 2020, the company has grown sales from $4.5 million to over $13 million for 2024. We have leveraged the product to change how we do business, eliminating overhead and waste in all aspects of the business." – Marty Grunder, founder Grunder Landscaping.

Jessica M. Scott, Pool operations manager

Glengate Company, Wilton, CT

About the finalist: "Glengate’s Jessica Scott demonstrates how she is an Aspire trailblazer and innovator by running pool maintenance and pool operations exclusively through Aspire’s landscaping software. The success achieved by Glengate’s pool maintenance and operations since going live on Aspire software: Pool revenue from $4.8 million to $10.1 million; net income from 4.6% to 14.2%; and client count from 375 to 600" – nomination by Glengate Company.

Suzanne Wilutis (vice president), Nicholas Geoghegan (director of operations), and Jessica Geoghegan (controller)

Mahoney Associates LLC, Southampton, NY

About the finalists: "Mahoney Associates, specifically Suzanne Wilutis, together with the help of Nicholas Geoghegan and Jessica Geoghegan, has significantly enhanced our ability to centralize data management, enhance financial forecasting, and optimize resource allocation. Mahoney Associates’ commitment to innovation and efficiency has greatly contributed to our company’s success." – nomination by Mahoney Associates.

Impact Award

Put others first.

About the award: This award recognizes a current Aspire customer – individual or business organization – and their contributions and impact to a wider community. The recipient has brought significant value to others in any number of communities. Examples could include, but are not limited to:

• Contributing and participating in their local community in any number of ways, to bring improved quality of life and services to the people around them.

• Participating and helping drive the Aspire in the Classroom initiative (Aspire in higher education curriculum).

• Supporting and advancing the green or clean industries through association work, expanding their presence, volunteer contributions, or in other ways.

• Being an Aspire Ambassador by supporting Aspire’s efforts to be the beacon within the green and clean industries and by partnering with Aspire teams to share their experiences, insights, and feedback with Aspire internal teams through speaking engagements, hosting events, contributing success stories, supporting reference requests, providing referrals, and more.

• Building and maintaining a winning company culture recognized as a leader in the industry or regionally.

Meet the finalists

Scott Knussmann (account manager) and Roxanne Jones (business development)

Sunscape Landscaping Services, Austin, TX

About the finalists: "Scott's mission is to be there for others, to take the time to make sure they understand, and then leave them with the confidence to do it themselves. Roxanne Jones and the SA team have volunteered at Morgan’s Wonderland (an ultra-accessible park for children) since the end of April. They donate time, plants, tools, and advice and guidance." – Christine Cabrera, human resource specialist, Sunscape Landscaping.

Olinda Ramirez, Chief finance officer

Priority Landscapes, Hutto, TX

About the finalist: "Olinda is the poster child for Aspire. [She] has been the power user for the company since day one. She has taken the reins and created in-house training tailored to company needs and learning styles. She has spoken at the 2021 and 2022 conferences and has always been willing to advise and assist anyone Aspire sends her way.”  – nomination by Priority Landscapes.

The Team 

Focal Pointe Outdoor Solutions, Caseyville, IL

About the finalists: "Focal Pointe volunteers services at schools and non-profits, does an Earth Day program, decorates first responders' homes for Christmas, are members of the St. Louis Green Business Challenge, has a fantastic intern program, and runs the Focal Pointe Family Foundation that aims to serve those that have experienced a traumatic loss of a family member. Focal Pointe truly Puts Others First." – from the award nomination.

Rookie of the Year Award

Drive success.

About the award: This award recognizes an Aspire customer who is driving early success with the software. The recipient has pushed and armed their company’s team to adopt The Aspire Way early and often, completing implementation on time and adopting major modules. In addition, the recipient crafted and implemented an internal plan to train and drive adoption by team members across functional areas and levels of the business. The Rookie of the Year Award recipient has built a solid foundation for long-term success.

Meet the finalists

Eric Hill (president) and Amanda Rhodes (vice president)

Fay-Ark Lawn, Farmington, AR

About the finalists: "Eric and I were a two-person team at the time, running everything for the $2.7 million company. As the implementer, I became the project champion and hit the ground running. Upon graduation and going live, we are really seeing the wonderful results of choosing Aspire. It was worth every minute I put into it." – Amanda Rhodes.

Degen Kelly, Director of operations

Outdoor Pride, Manchester, NH

About the finalists: "Outdoor Pride has been an exemplary Aspire client. Degen and his team consistently try to push Aspire to its limits in the best way. They are proactive in learning new modules and discussing best practices. Their reporting practices are already top-notch. I truly believe that within the next two years, they will be a pillar of Aspire greatness among our customers within the next two years." – from the award nomination.

The Team

Heritage Landscape Services, La Mesa, CA

About the finalists: "We just completed our first year in Aspire. For implementation, we put together a team that spanned all aspects of our business – sales, operations, client services, finance, and IT. In the last year, we have been able to move our maintenance bottom line up 7%. To say that the Heritage team is all-in is an understatement." – Shandra Brannon, chief operating officer.

Excellence Achieved Award

Finish strong.

About the award: This award recognizes an Aspire customer who is finishing each year stronger than the last through organic growth and expansion. By integrating The Aspire Way into their daily operations and the company’s services offerings, they see impactful and incremental growth financially, geographically, or through new or expanded offerings. The recipient and team have created a strategy and corresponding plan to drive continued growth and efficiencies in multiple areas of their business. This has been done through improved internal processes, sales, and operations but also might have leveraged one or more technology integrations with Aspire products or our related technology partners.

Meet the finalists

Angie Cooke, Aspire trainer

Down To Earth Landscape & Irrigation, Maitland, FL

About the finalists: "Angie Cooke continues to prove herself as an invaluable Aspire trainer for the entire Down To Earth Landscaping company. She is constantly creating specialized reports and KPIs that provide the most relevant information all departments need to realize. Having someone as knowledgeable as Angie Cooke allows our company to not only grow but thrive." – Jaclyn Yamrich, officer manager, Down to Earth Landscape & Irrigation

Mike Mendez, Director of operations technology

Mariani Premier Group, Lake Bluff, IL

About the finalist: "Mike has more than 18 years of IT/operations landscape experience at Mariani Landscape, while it grew from about $20 million to $90 million in annual revenue. Mike regularly works to expand the capabilities within Aspire. [He] brings excellence to every area that he is involved in, while always finding a way to be available to help out others (both inside and outside of MPG)." – Matthew Punnoose, ERP implementation program manager, Mariani Premier Group.

The Aspire Team 

HeartLand Company, Kansas City, MO

About the finalists: "HeartLand's partnership with Aspire has facilitated our growth. Aspire has helped us integrate and manage the business by speaking the same language. The Aspire Team at Heartland utilizes and implements Aspire's best practices and promotes continuing education through HeartLand University. The team comprises Alex Cato, Amy Groves, Amy Parsons, Brenda Hampton, Dan Stacy, and Leah Marx." – Amy Groves, senior production controller, HeartLand Company.