How Vision Helped Brennan HVAC Ditch The Paperwork, Save Time, And Power A More Profitable Year

Outdated systems and disappointing solutions

Brennan’s leaders saw a clear path to higher profit: Focus on preventive maintenance and growth. To get there, the team needed a new platform that would integrate with its existing systems and support its growth plans.

But the search for the right software hit several roadblocks, said Sal Masciarelli, vice president at Brennan.

“Everything was kind of a strikeout, or we were just going to back ourselves into another corner with just another customized piece of software that would cause problems down the road,” Masciarelli said.

Masciarelli found that most software wasn’t built to grow with the company and its needs. A customized solution would only take Brennan so far, and it would become obsolete once growth demanded new capabilities.

He also worried about the problems that would follow: messy integrations, technical issues to sort out and manage, or outgrowing the software down the road—and searching for a new solution all over again.

“You’re only able to upgrade so much before we would be locked in and unable to grow, change or adapt,” Masciarelli said.

On top of those concerns, manual processes drained the company's productivity and profits, especially when it came to service agreements. 

The paperwork didn’t just slow down the office. It also held back technicians. Techs had to fill out paperwork on-site, return to the office to enter information and log their hours.

Masciarelli found Davisware’s software on a third-party site that listed the best HVAC platforms. He contacted Davisware, tried Vision and decided it was the best solution to tackle Brennan’s challenges.

Vision software boosts efficiency and slashes manual work

Right away, Masciarelli saw results right away. By connecting the office and the field, Vision lightened his team’s workload, drove efficiency in the field and cut the manual clerical work that bogged the company down. “The guys are able to go get parts without coming to the office,” he explained.

Office staff no longer spend their time entering data and filling out documents. Instead, they reach out to customers, manage service agreements, and lift sales. Vision also gives the Brennan team insights that help it build even more efficient processes.

“It’s easier to see our profit on a project. Maybe if we didn’t do so well on a project, what did we do wrong? Did we not estimate enough time? Did we overestimate materials? Did our guys camp out on a project?” 

With Vision’s reports, Masciarelli and his team now have clear visibility in job costs. They use it to answer these questions, make improvements, and increase profit.

Software leads to time saved, deeper insights, and higher profit

Masciarelli said Brennan has saved a lot of time calculating since adopting Vision. In fact, comparing the time the company once wasted with the time it saves now makes him a bit queasy.

“Just on preventative maintenance alone, 16 hours per month. Hours for adding time for the guys: four hours there a week. I couldn’t even put a number on it,” Masciarelli said as he estimated the time Vision saves his team. “I’ve thought about it, but it has made me sick to calculate it. I just know that we’re saving.”

Vision also makes it easy to manage service agreements with less effort and spot the opportunities that grow the bottom line.

Brennan now sees which service agreements are profitable, which contracts aren’t worth keeping and how to grow the most valuable agreements. That visibility helped Brennan increase profit in a short time, Masciarelli said.

“We did grow and had a more profitable year and a half since we joined Davisware. We’ve been able to grow in other directions to have a competitive advantage in the market we’re in.”

Vision helps Brennan reach more customers, adjust processes for higher revenue, and increase profit. As the company grows, its leaders can rely on scalable software that keeps up with their needs, no matter how big Brennan becomes.

Vision software leads to growth

Masciarelli said Vision gave Brennan the missing link it needed to launch toward its goals.

“This was the last piece of the puzzle,” he said.

Because Vision scales with the company, Brennan plans to grow alongside Davisware and adopt new enhancements as they roll out. 

“In the future, it’s going to be growing with the product,” Masciarelli said.

In the meantime, he wholeheartedly recommends Davisware wholeheartedly. Well, just not to his competitors. 

“I will tell anybody 100 miles outside of the Cleveland area to use this software,” he joked. “I feel like it gives us a competitive advantage and lets us do things we weren’t able to before.”

ECI’s Davisware Vision is all-in-one field service management software that connects scheduling, dispatch, mobile techs, parts and billing in a single platform. Vision, the successor to S2000, traces its roots to the field service industry’s first dispatch board, the “Dboard,” which Davisware introduced in 1987. Today, the industry-leading platform helps medium-sized commercial field service companies simplify operations, save time and money, and increase profit.