Sponsored Content

Strengthening the green industry was the driving force behind last year’s merger of SingleOps, Landscape Management Network (LMN) and Greenius, says Steve Samuels, the merged company’s senior account executive. The former GM/CFO of multiple businesses, including landscape and arborist companies, had served with SingleOps for four years before the merger went through October 31, 2024. He says the move has created “the premier software partner for North American arborists and landscapers.”

LMN, Greenius and SingleOps teams united at Oriole Landscaping for a joint on-site meeting, underscoring the strength and collaboration behind the merger. Photo courtesy of SingleOps.

According to Samuels, he remembers back when he took his current business from the whiteboard and pen-and-paper days to the digital era. “In 1995, I was among the first to be using software in the landscape business,” he notes. He adds that there was – and still is – pushback among some company owners when it comes to embracing the “business” side of things. “They don’t want to be in the office, they want to be outside and in the trees, solving issues for people. I found the real issue was them feeling uneasy about change, thinking it would be more work. But technological advancements have, undoubtedly, made this industry better.”

In the long run, according to Samuels, the main focus of the SingleOps/LMN merger is “to create real business outcomes for arborists and landscapers through deep partnerships and managing change together.

“It’s important to note that this is more about collaboration and innovation than about consolidation,” he adds. “Mark Sedgley (CEO of SingleOps/LMN since 2023) has been out getting to know this market, learning where we can add value. For us, it’s about communication and solving issues for the market. This merger strengthens the green industry by creating a more complete, connected platform and partner for contractors. It helps solve big challenges like labor, profitability and disconnected systems.”

Samuels stresses that the merger in no way dilutes the original arborist focus of SingleOps, but rather expands its offerings and adds more resources to build better products with greater value for the customer. “Our arborist focus remains strong, as evidenced by the addition of our recent ‘Tree Inventory’ feature,” he says, explaining that this feature allows arborists to map, track and manage every tree on a client’s property. “In bringing on LMN, we add features like budgeting for larger jobs. LMN is much more detail focused, while SingleOps is known for things like its simplicity, mapping and scheduling.

“As I’ve learned from Mark, we’re raising industry standards and creating partnerships that will ultimately benefit our customers. We’re trying to give professional-grade tools to more companies in the industry, which will help contractors get faster innovation, integrated workflows, better training and higher profitability as we move into the new digital age.”

Samuels says he looks forward to guiding customers into the right software fit. “I’ve used both products in my business, professionally,” he adds, “and which one to use doesn’t have to do with the size of the company, it has to do with needs. That’s my job, to meet with people and talk to them and try to find out what the best product is for their needs.”

Another aspect of importance to both SingleOps and LMN is placing the customer first and foremost, according to Mark Sedgley, who says, “We care deeply about our customers. And a first principle of ours in this merger is to minimize any sort of disruption to our customers. We remain committed to serving our customers and this industry in every way possible. The success of this industry is our shared mission.”

A screenshot highlighting the new Tree Inventory feature within the SingleOps platform. Courtesy of SingleOps.

Samuels expounds on that idea. “Some companies sell their software and then it’s, ‘Thanks for doing business with us, here’s your training manual, see you later.’ That’s not how we do things. We say, ‘Here’s this software, we’re going to guide and train you and lead you through this.’ Our goal is to try and help everybody get to the next level.”

When SingleOps merged with LMN, Samuels says he was somewhat surprised by how smoothly the merger went. “LMN already had a really good culture, and it was very similar to the way SingleOps operates. As a result, it (the merger) was way simpler and more seamless than I thought it would be. I believe we have about 200 employees now, and there are more than 4,000 green-industry businesses we serve.”

Samuels says he sees huge changes coming to the green industry in the next five to 10 years, noting that AI is becoming more and more prevalent in all aspects of landscape and tree care work. “I’m excited about this and the possibilities,” he notes. “The future of the industry is in making employees more efficient in their work – helping them create amazing client experiences in communities across North America.”

To that end, the future is looking bright and productive for the combined offerings of SingleOps and LMN.