b'INDUSTRY NEWS SUMMER 2021Imperial Suites expandsAires celebrates 40th offerings in Montreal anniversary, announcesImperial Suites expanded its inventory in downtown Montreal innew VP operationsthree of the most popular towers located in the citys core. Tour des Canadiens I, II and III all offer luxury, state-of-the art amenities and,Aires is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Founded in 1981 in many suites, a stellar view of the city. All the apartments have aas an international freight forwarder, the company has grown designated workspace, in-suite laundry and private balcony.over the years into a leading full service global mobility provider, with 10 offices worldwide delivering service in 176 countries.Imperial Suites is a Canadian corporate housing provider with suites in key urban centres that include Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal.The biggest risk I ever took was making the decision to leave It is part of the Furnished Homes Canada network, which has offi- the security of a pay cheque to start the company with my life cially grown to over 100 cities within Canada. savings, noted Aires founder Jim Putt. Everything that Aires has become started with that risk.As Aires evolved from a freight forwarder to a full-service provider in the 1990s, part of the companys growth strategy was to ensure A peek into Companionit kept up with emerging technologies. It brought in Bryan Putt, now its CEO, to develop those technology solutions. Aires knew by CapRelo that technology tools were the key to taking our business to the next level, said Jim Putt. Our technology platform was built with CapRelo released an expansion to its Companion dashboardthe idea of taking a world-class service and developing a system to library and reporting suite, which provides interactive visual- deliver that service at an even higher level.izations and business intelligence capabilities, with the ability to create custom views and a personalized experience. According to Aires president Jeff Wangler, the companys culture is still influenced by Jim Putts vision. He taught us to This latest innovation was rolled out in direct response tostay positive, to help our team members grow, and to create a client feedback and user analytics, said Wesam Sarsour,culture of exceeding our clients expectations. We are so excited CapRelos senior director of information technology. The aimto have four decades under our belt and look forward to the is to provide increased functionality and interactive capabil- decades to come.ities to users, and to add more transparency to the overall employee experience. In other news, Aires promoted Barbara Zuendt Overbay to the role of vice president, operations. Earlier, Overbay managed Unlike other tech in the global mobility space, our tech- Aires Northeast Region teams, while in her new role she will nology is a proprietary product developed, supported, andhave oversight of its operations teams globally. I am excited maintained in-house, which allows us to be more agile andto have the opportunity to work more closely with all our responsive to client needs, noted Sarsour. offices in helping Aires to consistently deliver our services and ensuring excellent customer satisfaction scores, said Overbay. QMM reaps awards during its 25th anniversary yearQuality Move Management was recognized withhas received the Cross Border Agent of the Year award for awards in four key categories during the 2021 Alliedproviding outstanding customer service, achieving incre-Van Lines Virtual Operations Conference lastmental fleet growth and delivering exceptional quality. April. The moving company was recognized in the following categories: Top Safety Record, Top Cross- This year, the company was also awarded the 2020 Allied US Border (fleet growth/safety/quality scores), TopCSA Performance Award in recognition of its firm commit-Quality HaulerDivision 1 (QMM Vancouver) andment to safety, while its Vancouver and Edmonton branches Top Quality HaulerDivision 3 (QMM Edmonton).were recognized as Overall Quality Hauling Agents in their respective categories. The honours were especially noteworthy given that QMM is in the midst of celebrating its 25th year in business. ItThe Allied Van Lines awards are handed out annually to also marks the fourth consecutive year that the companyAllied agents that excel in a number of different categories.10PERSPECTIVES Summer 2021'