Aubin Pélissier found a robust work order management solution that was easy to integrate to their ERP system, thanks to Praxedo.

Tell us briefly about your company and what you offer.

Established in 1955 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Aubin Pélissier specializes in refrigeration, air conditioning, ventilation, control, plumbing, heating, and natural gas solutions. We have 72 field technicians that install, design, maintain and repair HVAC systems for residential, commercial and industrial comfort. In a nutshell, we’ve been heating and cooling experts for over 65 years.

Can you describe Aubin Pélissier’s pain points before implementing Praxedo software?

Paper work orders

Our technicians were creating and submitting their work orders on paper which was consuming a lot of our time, forcing technicians to travel way too much, and we needed an automation system that worked.

The organization and planning of our work orders was done using our internal ERP system which wasn’t the most efficient way. With 72 HVAC technicians in the field, customer requests were getting too complicated to manage without a specialized field service management software to help us.

Manual entry was super slow

Our internal administration team wasn’t being as productive as they could be. They were forced to do manual, double entry of everything into our ERP which was getting tiresome.

No visibility into our inventory

We had no insight in real-time on inventory levels. In other words, we didn’t know what parts were being used and what was available without having to call members of the team to ask them, further complicating matters.

We needed a faster invoicing process

The invoicing process was long and cumbersome. It was taking the admin team quite some time to send invoices to customers for the work that was completed a while back.

What led you to Praxedo to solve these challenges?

Flexibility in the forms
 
We liked the flexibility Praxedo offered in terms of work order forms. Everything is highly configurable so we can set them up for our unique business needs. We can add certain fields to guide technicians to submit only the information we want captured which we could not do before. We have fewer errors today because of this and our data has become a lot more reliable.

Its integration capabilities

The integration capabilities via Praxedo APIs have simplified the entire process for us. With the help of customer support, we easily connected our new field service management solution with our existing ERP system for payroll and inventory tracking purposes. This change has eliminated double entry for the admin team, for good.

How do you use Praxedo?

All of our dispatchers and refrigeration experts in our service department use Praxedo.

Dispatchers

Dispatchers organize and plan schedules using the web platform. They can send updates on schedule changes, or emergency requests to anyone in the field. Praxedo makes it easy to view the master schedule and track the mobile team’s activities in real time.

Field technicians

Our field technicians which include our maintenance professionals as well, receive their work orders through their mobile apps and they’re able to close them out onsite for residential and commercial jobs. They also use it to complete small residential contracts for wall-mounted and central air conditioning units. The mobile app means fewer visits to and from the main office, and no more lost work order reports at the end of the day.

How does using Praxedo benefit your organization?

Easy integration to our existing third-party system

Praxedo is linked to our existing ERP system called Ogasys using its APIs for work order management, payroll and inventory tracking. We also have it integrated with Geothentik for geolocation for our trucks.

Our customers are happier

Customers now get clear, concise views of the status of their work orders versus having no insight into relevant information with paper. They don’t have to sit there wondering if a technician was dispatched for a particular job, or whether the job was complete.

Intelligent scheduling and work order management

Optimized scheduling and digitized work order management allows us to respond to requests quicker, and get paid faster.

How do you envision your future collaboration with Praxedo?

We are constantly evolving and thinking of offering additional training internally to really maximize and optimize all functions that have been integrated.

If you could summarize the Praxedo solution in 2 words, what would they be?

Flexibility: the versatility of the forms has truly helped us capture the right information so we can use it to improve and grow our business.

Integration: its integration capabilities have been a game changer for us. We could still keep what was working for us like our ERP, except we now have a specialized field service management solution linked to it to help provide a 360 degree view of our activities that take place in the field.