ACQUISITIONS - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended																						12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended							12 Months Ended
	Oct. 31, 2011	Jul. 31, 2011	Apr. 30, 2011	Jan. 31, 2011	Oct. 31, 2010	Jul. 31, 2010	Apr. 30, 2010	Jan. 31, 2010	Oct. 31, 2011	Oct. 31, 2010	Oct. 31, 2009	Oct. 31, 2011 Janitorial	Oct. 31, 2010 Janitorial	Oct. 31, 2009 Janitorial	Oct. 31, 2011 Security	Oct. 31, 2010 Security	Oct. 31, 2009 Security	Oct. 31, 2011 Engineering	Oct. 31, 2010 Engineering	Oct. 31, 2009 Engineering	Oct. 31, 2011 Customer Contracts Year	Oct. 31, 2011 Investments in unconsolidated affiliates, net Year	Oct. 31, 2011 Trademarks Year	Dec. 31, 2011 Minimum	Dec. 31, 2011 Maximum	Oct. 31, 2011 The Linc Group LLC	Dec. 01, 2010 The Linc Group LLC	Jun. 30, 2010 Diversco	Jun. 30, 2010 Diversco Janitorial	Jun. 30, 2010 Diversco Security	Oct. 31, 2011 Diversco Customer contracts and relationships Year	Oct. 31, 2011 L&R Group	Oct. 01, 2010 L&R Group	Oct. 31, 2011 L&R Group Customer Contracts Year	Oct. 31, 2011 L&R Group Favorable Leases and Other Year	Oct. 31, 2011 L&R Group Other Consumer Loans and Leases Year	Oct. 31, 2011 L&R Group Noncompete Agreements Year	May 31, 2009 Control Building Services, Inc., Control Engineering Services, Inc. and TTF, Inc	May 31, 2009 Control Building Services, Inc., Control Engineering Services, Inc. and TTF, Inc Janitorial	May 31, 2009 Control Building Services, Inc., Control Engineering Services, Inc. and TTF, Inc Engineering	Oct. 31, 2009 Control Building Services, Inc., Control Engineering Services, Inc. and TTF, Inc Customer contracts and relationships Year
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Business acquisition contingent payments, payment period																								2 years	5 years
Business acquisition aggregate purchase price																											$ 298,720,000	$ 30,390,000					$ 34,664,000					$ 15,081,000
Business acquisition initial aggregate purchase price																												30,600,000
Assets distributed as consideration																																	164,000
Direct acquisition cost																											5,200,000	200,000										81,000
Contingent consideration																																						1,600,000
Revenues	1,081,343,000	1,076,247,000	1,060,083,000	1,029,169,000	901,373,000	869,029,000	855,461,000	869,884,000	4,246,842,000	3,495,747,000	3,481,823,000	2,380,195,000	2,306,098,000	2,346,257,000	350,377,000	336,249,000	334,610,000	899,381,000	382,629,000	341,462,000						512,900,000
Additional contingent consideration, installment amount																																						500,000
Operating profit									117,568,000	108,839,000	92,107,000	140,621,000	140,007,000	139,170,000	7,968,000	7,487,000	8,221,000	33,384,000	22,931,000	20,346,000						11,100,000
Business acquisition effective date																											Dec. 01, 2010	Jun. 30, 2010										May 01, 2009
Weighted-average amortization period for the acquired intangible assets																					14	10	4								11			11	4	6	10				12
Goodwill and intangibles assets expected to be amortizable for income tax purposes	224,600,000								224,600,000
Contingent consideration payments related to acquisition	700,000								700,000
Purchase price allocated to intangible assets																											87,000,000	10,800,000	9,200,000	1,600,000			6,200,000					9,080,000	7,200,000	1,900,000
Purchase price allocated to goodwill																											156,134,000	13,106,000	11,100,000	2,000,000			30,160,000					5,594,000	4,400,000	1,200,000
Deferred taxes																																$ 0