ASHRAE Conference Wrap-Up: Day 1

The AHR Expo, an HVAC conference in Chicago, has attracted more than 2,000 exhibitors and 65,000 industry professionals. A small group of those exhibitors are software companies working to increase industry efficiency.

Most of the softwares are field management and project management solutions. Today, BuiltWorlds spoke to a sampling of the software companies to determine the characteristics that differentiate the various platforms. Here are our run-down notes from those conversations:

Fieldpoint – CEO and co-founder Rich Smart emphasized that Fieldpoint is both a field service and a job costing software. He also highlighted Fieldpoint’s ability to help users select and manage subcontractors. Since the majority of HVAC contractors use local subcontractors to complete field work, the industry needs a software that is calibrated to manage subs.

Bidtracer – Steve Barr, an account executive, highlighted that Bidtracer excels at transitioning the client from the bid phase to the project phase. “You don’t need to re-enter data,” he explained. With a click, all of your data is migrated from the bid phase to the project management phase.

Pointman – Andy Bagner, an account executive, emphasized that Pointman is user friendly. He claims he “can get your business up and running on Pointman in under an hour.”

FieldEdge – VP of Operations, Eric Rausin, emphasized, “we’ve been in the industry for 35+ years… We started off as an HVAC company. Our founders built the first HVAC software for HVAC contractors and we’ve expanded to the software company we are today. We created the first dispatch board, and of course, we have the only real-time [Quick Books] integration on the market.”

FIELDBOSS – Kristin McLaughlan, the marketing manager at FIELDBOSS, stressed that FIELDBOSS is a Gold Microsoft partner.

Foundation Software – Steve Antill, Vice President of Business Development, underscored their 30 years in the industry. He remarked that Foundation constantly learns from experience and is always streamlining the software.

mHelpDesk – Daniel Spence, an account manager, pointed out that mHelpDesk has received more 5 star reviews than all of its competitors combined.

Joblogic – Richard Pryce, an account manager, stressed that Joblogic is housed entirely in the cloud. Users do not need to install software or own a server.