Kirlin Florida replaces tedious data collection with ruggedized Surface Pros
Kirlin Florida (part of The Kirlin Group) has been a preeminent leader in the mechanical contractor field since it opened its Florida office in 1982. Today, Kirlin is in every major region of the state, and their management team continues to push both the success of their services, and their customer satisfaction higher and higher. Their problem for the longest time, however, was the tedious and cumbersome way they collected their business data.
Customer Challenge
For years, a Kirlin foreman would have to amble around a construction site, take notes, and then record those notes via data entry into a desktop computer. This was complicated and time-consuming and the data retention was not always accurate. This impacted productivity, efficiency, employee morale, customer satisfaction and revenue.
The continuous activity of having foremen collect data this way tacked on excess labor costs and waned on customer relations. With all the emerging technologies available to companies in the mechanical contractor industry, there had to be a better way to capture construction zone data.
Finally, Kirlin found the answer in Microsoft Surface tablets with a premium rugged Surface case for protection.
MobileDemand Solution
Kirlin put rugged Surface Pro tablets in the hands of six different foremen over four construction sites. The Surface tablets empowered the foremen to connect wirelessly to the office servers using the Surface’s hotspot capability – streamlining data retention, enabling email connectivity, and saving time.
Plus, when outfitted with the rugged cases, the Surface tablets were safe to use even under the most hectic construction sites. Construction debris, dust, and rugged weather have not been an issue and the easy-to-carry case helps prevent accidental drops and damage.
Results
The dramatic uptick in efficiency due to the use of the Surface tablets with rugged cases was seen on day one. Since then, Kirlin Florida has seen drastic increases in time saved and lower expenditures due to construction site real-time data collection.
Project managers are better connected with foremen and can address problems immediately as they appear. Employees across Kirlin can mobilize freely without worrying about the protection of the Surface tablets – lending peace of mind. In a world of construction sites, this was one investment that pays dividends time and time again.
“We rely on products that allow our foremen to be productive and efficient. We will continue to deploy more of MobileDemand’s rugged products in the future.”