Groove, HPS strike property-tech access deal for member institutions
HPS members in education, healthcare and senior living can use Groove as a single vendor for connectivity, safety and building technology services.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
2 min read
Groove Technology Solutions has formed a partnership with HPS that gives the group purchasing organization’s members access to bundled property-technology services at preferred pricing. The deal targets schools, healthcare providers and senior living operators that may lack the staff to evaluate and oversee several technology vendors.
HPS is a purchasing organization serving member institutions nationwide, with a base that includes senior living communities, schools, education organizations, senior nutrition programs, county governments, religious organizations, camps and correctional facilities. Group purchasing contracts are commonly used by resource-constrained institutions to reduce procurement work and standardize vendor relationships.
Under the agreement, HPS members can buy a range of Groove services through one relationship. The offering includes building infrastructure such as public safety distributed antenna systems, managed Wi-Fi, phone and DIRECTV services, and security tools including video surveillance and access control.
Groove will serve as the single point of contact for design, installation and ongoing support across those services. That structure is intended to replace separate vendor arrangements for connectivity, life-safety infrastructure and property security systems.
The partnership is being positioned around a common operating problem for education, healthcare and senior living organizations: high expectations for connectivity and safety, with limited internal technology staff. In those settings, outages or poorly integrated systems can create problems for residents, patients, students and employees.
Nathan Stock, HPS director of clinical and ancillary contracting, said the organization sought a partner that offered more than a discount, pointing to Groove’s ability to provide infrastructure and support through one team. His comments cast the arrangement as a vendor-management tool as much as a pricing agreement.
Groove, based in Salt Lake City, provides integrated property technology for senior living, healthcare, education, multifamily and hospitality properties. Its services include managed television, Wi-Fi and phone, smart building technology, access control, security systems and the infrastructure used to connect those systems.
HPS members will also receive access to property technology services for institutional facilities that include 24/7 U.S.-based support, according to Groove. The company also cited its Groove Guarantee and a 4.9-star average across more than 1,700 verified Google reviews.
Lance Platt, Groove’s president and chief executive, tied the partnership to HPS’s long record with members, saying more organizations would gain access to managed technology without having to run it themselves. HPS was founded more than 75 years ago.
The agreement adds another channel for Groove in sectors where facilities often need a mix of communications, entertainment, security and life-safety infrastructure. For HPS members, the business case rests on whether a single bundled supplier can cut procurement friction and simplify long-term support.