UES is a Pathway to Code Acceptance

Give our service a chance we are confident you will be pleased

No one knows better than you that today’s tough market requires more than talent for success.  Successful companies use every available advantage to increase product sales. IAPMO’s Uniform ES serves as a conduit for review of your substantiating data and translation of that highly technical and complicated data into the information required by a prudent building department for acceptance.

Recognition for manufacturers can be found in the following ways:

• Have the code changed to indirectly reference your product. Consider that the code provides new editions every three years, with opportunities to make changes twice in that time. They will not allow you to put your product’s name directly in the code. Your product must be referenced indirectly in this method.
• Individually show each jurisdiction the testing documenting that you are an acceptable alternate to the code. Lots of man-hours. (See question 1 below.)
• Obtain an evaluation report from Uniform Evaluation Service. 

When your sales staff makes pitches, would the clients find a third party document summarizing all relevant code issues valuable? Especially if the third party is a group known and trusted by code officials?  If the document also concluded with a recommendation of product acceptance by the code official? More specifically, would that help sales? Would it be easier to sell with or against this advantage? 

Why wait until your competitor has the upper hand? What are you waiting for?

How do we justify spending this money?  Two words: Time Saving
First, let us also talk about the time you can’t measure. How long would it take your sales staff to travel to all the building jurisdictions in North America and convince them your products meet or are an acceptable alternative to the codes? Could this be done by a team of two in four hours? If so, assuming no travel time, the 20,000 departments could be won over once in about 160,000 person hours. If the actual labor cost is estimated at just $10 per hour, the total cost could be as much as $1.6 million. A Uniform Evaluation Report (ER) might save your company $1.6M. The report may convince almost all the departments, but you may still have to visit a few. That allows your sales staff to do what they do best: Sell to people who buy your product. 

Second, let us consider the time required to answer questions. A ER summarizes all the pertinent data for which the code official is looking. So, rather than look through multiple volumes of your product literature, necessary data is right there, where code officials know they can find it. How much money would you spend answering the same question over and over? Your inside sales staff might be overheard saying, “Hey, this fellow wants the answer to question No. 12. I wish I could play a recorded message.”  But with no report and no recorded answer, your staff is left bored answering the same questions all day.  Even at 10 minutes a call for each of the jurisdictions once a month, that is 400,000 hours of potential savings.   

A Uniform Evaluation Report could save money in jurisdiction outreach and in answering standard questions. This savings goes to your bottom line. 

What exactly do we get from the Uniform Evaluation Service?
Each report holder gets the backing of IAPMO with the code officials, including:

• Access by telephone and in writing to UES engineers to get your questions answered
• Listing on our new Website
• Timely completion of your report and continuing customer service. Our staff is available to answer your questions, and questions from consumers about your report.
• Economical cost providing great value.
• ISO/IEC 17065 recognition from ANSI
• Conformance with Sections 104.11 and 1703 of the IBC.

How does a Uniform Evaluation Report convey information?
First, code officials trust IAPMO and its Uniform Evaluation Service. It might be prudent to look over some of our current reports, click here. Each report provides information divided into the same sections. Each section is designed to quickly convey your products’ key information to the reader: 

• CSI Sections – Displays information helpful to the specifier
• Report Holder Information – Name, address, e-mail, phone
• Scope of Evaluation – Defines the code edition, properties evaluated
• Uses – Defines the areas of the building in which the product can be used as noted in the report and which code editions are satisfied
• Description – Contains key code related testing parameters
• Installation – Specific installation requirements key to code acceptance
• Limitations or Conditions of Use – In conjunction with the scope, defines areas of applicability
• Evidence Submitted or Substantiating Data – Details information submitted in support of the report
• Identification – Helps keep clones from using your report
• Drawings – Only if required

If I want to give my sales staff this advantage, just how long will it take to get a report?
Well, that depends a lot on your submittal. If the data is well organized, our staff has issued reports in as little as 40 days, but most are issued within three months. Everything depends on how quickly you can respond to our questions and requests for additional information. Our department goal is to respond to submittals in less than two weeks. Scheduling the factory inspection may affect the report’s effective date.  

OK, we are in — what must we do to get the ball rolling?
Just a few administrative steps will get the friendly staff of UES started developing your draft:

• Fill out the application DOWNLOAD HERE
• Send in your substantiating data (manufacturer’s descriptive literature, test reports and engineer’s seal stamped calculations, installation instructions, and any other relevant information)
• Submit payment of the basic fee
• UES staff will take it from there

OK, you have my payment and my data — what happens next?
Rest assured your data is safe and secure. Now there are many administrative steps with which we won’t bother you, but the process in a nutshell looks like this: 

• Director assigns the file to one of our expert consultants
• Comments are returned to UES, and UES filters and sends back to you for a response
• Your response might be to:
  • point out where the missing information is in the data provided
  • provide additional testing, sealed engineering calculations and/or drawings
  • reduce the scope of recognition
• The step above might be repeated until UES is satisfied it has the data necessary to substantiate all information contained in the evaluation report.
• The report is peer reviewed by UES staff
• The Evaluation Committee meets to review the final report and authorize issuance
• Your report is issued, posted to the Website, and your sales group has another arrow in their quiver to increase your revenue.