The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department
State House Boston, MA 02133
(617) 725-4000
MITT ROMNEY
GOVERNOR
KERRY HEALEY
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 12, 2005 CONTACT:
Julie Teer
Laura Nicoll
617-725-4025
HEALEY HONORS BOSTON COMPANY WITH GOVERNOR'S AWARD
Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey today presented VFA, a provider of facilities capital planning software and services, with the Governor’s Entrepreneurial Spirit Award.
The Boston company is the latest recipient of this award, which is presented as part of Governor Mitt Romney’s “Jobs First” initiative. The award recognizes employers who best demonstrate the innovation that drives the Massachusetts economy and who inspire others to turn their ideas into action.
“VFA is helping numerous companies and agencies prioritize and manage the building space they need to operate and run a successful business,” said Healey. “Federal, state and local government agencies have benefited from these innovative services that manage properties more efficiently and use taxpayer resources more wisely.”
Founded in 1998, VFA introduced the industry’s first integrated facilities capital planning approach, Capital Planning and Management Solutions (CPMS™), that combines facilities capital planning business practices, building condition assessment, and software technology. Since VFA received contracts valued at more than $20 million from the US Navy Bureau of Medicine, the state of Louisiana, and New York City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, sales have grown five fold over the past four years. The company currently employs 120 people in their Boston headquarters and Vancouver office.
Unlike other companies founded during the Internet boom that used web-based products to solve business problems, VFA created a long-term approach for facility management. The company developed innovative software and consulting services that rapidly caught the attention of the federal government, educational institutions, state/local government, healthcare and corporate market sectors.
VFA has more than 250 customers including the University of Massachusetts, MIT, Harvard, the Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital. The company’s customer base includes many of the largest federal government property managers, Fortune 500 companies and multinationals, health care providers, colleges and universities, and state and local government agencies.
“Our technology allows very large and growing institutions to make smarter, better informed facility capital planning decisions,” said Jerry Kokos, President and CEO of VFA. “We have also been honored to help municipalities in Massachusetts such as Winchester plan for the building space needs. This award belongs to all of our employees and reflects their hard work and dedication.”
The City of Winchester, one of VFA’s clients, had concerns about its school facilities and city buildings that had recently undergone a round of renovations. City officials wanted an accurate measure for tracking and assessing buildings in need of repairs. The survey results helped the city better identify and prioritize capital costs. After the company assessed eight schools and 15 of the municipality’s buildings, the city was able to secure more than $7.4 million in bonds for school construction and repairs to city buildings.
Since the company was founded, VFA has performed assessments of more than 16,000 properties worldwide, totaling more than 750 million square feet of space. The company’s primary software product, VFA.facility, is used to manage more than one billion square feet of real estate assets.
###
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.