On May 6th, Solution 105 proudly marks 25 years of serving the commercial real estate industry. This significant milestone shows our commitment and the trust our clients have placed in us. We want to thank our clients, some of whom have been with us since the beginning. We’re also grateful for the support of our community leaders, suppliers, employees, families, and friends, who have been instrumental in our journey.
The early years
The business was born in 1999, fueled by passionate, entrepreneurial ambitions and a vision to assist businesses in navigating the upcoming deregulated electricity industry. At that time, the services offered by utility companies lacked the customer focus we believed was crucial. When we first started, we envisioned Solution 105 as a small niche family business – Edmonton-born and raised!
However, the more we got into it, the more we grew.
The growing years
Over the years, we have become skilled at anticipating our clients’ needs. Active listening and understanding allowed us to develop new services and products that would better help them. We started with procurement but then grew to offer energy forecasting, budgeting, budget variance reporting, cost allocation reports, and benchmarking.
The electricity market’s deregulation changed a lot! Customers had to navigate a new metering and rate calculation complexity, so we created a billing engine to calculate energy bills in this new environment. Over time, we added more services, including submetering, ESG reporting, and BOMA BEST/GRESB support.
With every service, we take the time to listen to and educate our clients. We want to find solutions and help make sense of the complicated energy industry.
Saving energy and money
The more we listened to clients, the more we could offer, which helped them reduce energy use and save money! In our first year, we saved a local hospital $100,000 with a load-shedding program. Later, a shopping mall in Red Deer put $124,000 back into its pocket after we found an error in the electric utility company’s data, which was the problem.
We started operating significant submetering contracts, troubleshooting issues, and taking on larger clients. We now work with companies and buildings across the globe, from Melbourne to Singapore to Atlanta. And recently, we’ve saved a single client $13 million in just seven years!
Since 1999, Solution 105 has helped clients save over $200 million!
What sets us apart?
If you’ve met our team, you know we are easy-going, friendly, caring, and available to help. We operate as an independent third party, which means we can offer unbiased advice that is in your best interests. Our pricing is fair, and we are committed to really listening to and helping our clients, resulting in many long-term customers.
Moreover, we deeply understand the utility industry, and we have the experience to back that up. We love what we do, want to help the planet by reducing energy consumption around us, and genuinely feel excited when we see success for our clients.
We’re in the community!
As mentioned, Solution 105 is a local Edmonton company, and we love where we live. As such, we understand how important it is to help take care of the environment, people, and community around us.
Over the years, we’ve volunteered as a team for several exceptional non-profits and charities in Edmonton, including the Edmonton Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity, and participated in Downtown and River Valley Cleanup events. Moreover, we put our money where our hearts are and are proud to support many other charities with ongoing donations.
We’re also involved in scholarship programs and secondary education, including the U of A scholarship program, U of A Business Co-op and IT program and programs at Norquest College and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Our President and CEO, Chris Vilcsak, has been on many boards, including BOMA, the Canadian Condo Institute and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.
Thank you!
We have loved being part of this business community for the last 25 years. We are grateful for your business and support as we navigate a changing world together. Working with you has been a pleasure, and we look forward to many more years to come!
If you need help managing your utilities, call us!
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