2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Glade Ross

Glade Ross, the visionary founder of Rossware, was honored with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Appliance Servicers Association.

This esteemed recognition celebrates his decades of innovation and dedication to advancing the appliance repair industry, providing cutting-edge software solutions that have transformed how businesses operate.

Achievements

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congratulatory messages

career achievements

Founded Rossware, transforming appliance service operations through innovative software.
Improved efficiency and customer service across the industry.
Actively supported trade associations and industry advancement.
Honored with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award by the United Appliance Servicers Association.

Innovator, Mentor, and Pioneer in the Appliance Service Industry

Glade's Achievements & Experience

Glade Ross’s journey in the appliance repair industry began early, working in his father’s Bellevue, WA appliance business as a teenager. There, he learned the ins and outs of deliveries, installations, and servicing. This hands-on experience set the foundation for his career. While attending BYU, Glade launched his own successful appliance service business to fund his education, managing the company while studying full-time. After earning his law degree and briefly practicing antitrust litigation, Glade returned to the industry he loved, starting a new appliance repair business in San Juan Capistrano, which quickly grew.

Always striving for efficiency, Glade developed software to streamline his operations. His innovative system enabled his single office employee to handle dispatch, accounting, parts management, and scheduling for six technicians, allowing Glade to scale his business while maintaining work-life balance. Recognizing its potential, he founded Rossware Computing to offer these solutions to other service businesses. Rossware soon became the leading software provider in the appliance service industry, empowering companies to operate more effectively and enhance customer experiences.

Glade’s contributions didn’t stop with software development. He worked closely with industry partners, manufacturers, and trade associations to integrate automation and improve processes for independent service providers. After decades of advancing the industry and mentoring peers, Glade retired in 2023, leaving behind a legacy of innovation, collaboration, and lasting impact on the appliance repair and service industry.

kind words from industry peers

congratulations, Glade

Congratulations, Glade on receiving this well-deserved award. As I have said to you in the past, I believe your contribution to the appliance service industry is second to no other person in elevating an appliance service company’s ability to provide the highest level of service experience through the use of technology. Not only were you able to provide software that allowed us to meet and exceed customer expectations, but you also helped facilitate the interfacing between service companies, parts distributors, and the manufacturers for which we provided warranty service. Gone were the days when we spent 2 hours starting at 6 am calling all of our customers to give them a time window. Instead, it became the touch of a button the afternoon before which started with a robocall, then advanced to email, and is now a texted link for which the customer can confirm, or reschedule their visit for a future date. It was like “Magic”! Gone were the handwritten receipts and the piles of mailed (and rejected) warranty service claims. Efficiencies were built into your software allowing achievable company growth due to the automation you developed. Hours of work turned into minutes. The way in which you could understand the issue and develop a solution was fascinating, and in my humble opinion, was borderline genius. I can’t count the number of times a suggestion was offered and you quickly came up with the problem-solving answer in your software.

Glade, congratulations on the lifetime achievement—that’s really cool, man. Anyway, I was thinking about a new export that would be super helpful for a project we’re working on. Are you the right person to talk to about that? All kidding aside, the influence you and your products have had on the industry cannot possibly be overstated. To say that ServiceDesk has stood the test of time would almost be a compliment to the concept of time itself—it’s a staple of our trade. I hope you never take for granted just how incredible and singular it is that you and your team developed it. You must be all too familiar with the challenges that come with being at the top, and yet, the same king remains in place. They cannot duplicate it because they do not share the same “why” as you. You see the industry for the people in it, not just the commodities of it, and I hope the future brings more leaders who share that vision. Thank you so much for all that you have done.

I think most people who know Glade Ross well would agree that he is both an inspiration and, at times, a frustration. I can say without a doubt that I would not be where I am today without Glade. He challenged me every day—to learn more, to do more, and to be better and more responsive to our customers and their needs. Almost every day for six years, I would nod along in agreement with something he said, only to immediately open Merriam-Webster.com to figure out the meaning of some word he had used. We worked together so well that I could finish his sentences and knew all of his jokes by heart. Working with him could be frustrating, though. His vision for ServiceDesk and how appliance companies should do business didn’t always make sense to me, and we butted heads from time to time over prioritizing feature requests—something I’m sure many users can relate to. However, how many companies have now structured their businesses and found significant success specifically by following the workflows and processes Glade planned out in ServiceDesk? Many small businesses have grown to tremendous success with Rossware by their side. I can’t think of a better recipient for this achievement award than Glade, for all the benefits his vision has brought to the industry and for how he has inspired my own success.