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Founded in 1927 as an electrical repair services provider, the first major shift in Aetna’s business came with the 1949 introduction of a major new lighting technology – fluorescent lighting. As this new lighting source began to gain popularity in industrial and commercial facilities, Aetna recognized that the characteristics of this new light source would allow for increased efficiency through persistent and systematic maintenance. Aetna Corp. became the first company in the greater Boston area to offer service agreements for lighting maintenance at a fixed monthly charge.
 The experience gained in this new fluorescent technology and long-term maintenance agreements, quickly positioned Aetna Corp. as the premier indoor/outdoor lighting service company in the greater Boston area. Its ability to keep pace with new technology kept the company in the forefront of lighting system upgrades. Over the years, Aetna successfully upgraded systems such as incandescent to fluorescent, pre-heat to rapid start, mercury to high-pressure sodium and magnetic to electronic ballasts. With each upgrade, Aetna Corp. offered on-going maintenance of the new system.
With the start of utility-sponsored Demand Side Management (DSM) programs in the 1980's, Aetna found itself in a perfect market place position to utilize its extensive experience in lighting upgrades. During this period, Aetna Corp. designed and implemented numerous lighting upgrade projects in retail, commercial and industrial facilities.
In the early 1980's, Aetna Corp.'s market base was commercial, industrial and financial institutions in the metropolitan Boston area. Then, in 1985, a major effort to expand its share of the retail lighting maintenance market led to enlarging its service territory to include the thirteen Northeast states. Today, Aetna Corp.'s technicians provide monthly service to leading retailers from Maine to West Virginia.
In the late 1990s the concept of standardized, routine lighting system management through scheduled, persistent, consistent maintenance was expanded to outdoors lighting and sign. Aetna Corp. introduced its Outdoors Lighting Maintenance Program to provide a cost effective means to repair parking lot lighting, security lighting and signs.
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