Agilis and Sprint Help HVAC Company Save $2M Annually

“Field Technicians now have all the information they need right at their fingertips such as customer address, job details, and pricing. Information is in real time and is very accurate. We have seen amazing results with Agilis.”

- John Barbahen, Programmer Analyst,
Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning

COMPANY OVERVIEW
Four Seasons Heating & Air Conditioning of Chicago is the country’s largest privately owned HVAC company. They are the largest independent Lennox Dealer in the United States.

CHALLENGE
During the air conditioning and heating seasons, Four Seasons can be hit with over a thousand service calls a day. These surges in service calls caused many problems such as inefficient work order dispatch, delayed field updates, excess paperwork in the field, and held up invoicing as much as 3 weeks from the time of service. Multiple calls had to be made to the service technicians to inform them of changes or updates to work orders. Paperwork that was filled out in the field took days or weeks to be hand entered into their back office system. Prior to engaging with Agilis Systems, Four Seasons had tried three other Mobile Resource Management applications without success.

SOLUTION
Four Seasons integrated its existing back office AS/400 application with Agilis to create a seamless solution for its mobile workers and office staff. The entire integration took only 5 days. Four Seasons created multiple forms using SmartFORMSTM for its Sales & Service/Repair departments eliminating the need for paperwork in the field. These customizable forms help capture current data in the field on their Palm Treo 700Wx. The information is transmitted in real-time back to their office where it is integrated into their billing system. Sales orders are also captured by the sales people via SmartFORMS for faster order processing.


RESULTS
Four Seasons has seen outstanding results after integrating with Agilis Systems. They have decreased their time in obtaining data from the field into the office by over 4 days. Due to real-time transfer of data, the process is now instantaneous. They have improved their billing cycle on average by 1 week. Now invoices go out the next day and cash flow has increased tremendously. They have reduced operational costs at the office and increased productivity in the field by reducing the time spent filling out paperwork. They have an estimated annual savings of $2,000,000.