A field service engineer’s job can be a bit like looking for a needle in an enormous haystack. For example, trying to isolate the cause of a customer’s inexplicably high heating bill in the month of August. And for the longest time, companies made do, thinking the challenges of troubleshooting, such as
scheduling inefficiencies and taking multiple trips to fix a problem were all part of the job.

Seattle-based contractor MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions turned that assumption on its head.

More efficient, proactive tech dispatch

MacDonald-Miller serves customers throughout the Northwest United States, ensuring that their buildings’ HVAC and other systems are running efficiently. Last year, the company rolled out a connected building solution using Azure IoT, Dynamics 365 for Field Service, and ICONICS smart building software. Together they’ve armed MacDonald-Miller with targeted HVAC performance data, so its field services staff can take a much more efficient, surgical approach to solving issues in the field.

With this new system, when sensors in a furnace, air handler, or other component generate an alert in ICONICS, the alert is passed through to Dynamics 365 for Field Service, which automatically creates a trouble ticket for service staff. The ticket gives service techs a complete repair history and explains the nature of the current issue, so they can load the right tools and parts in their vehicle before leaving the shop for the day. And with Dynamics 365, dispatchers can more easily optimize each tech’s time in the field based on their location and expertise.

These capabilities have revolutionized the way that MacDonald-Miller’s field techs do their jobs, and have helped the company take a more proactive stance in meeting customers’ needs:

• MacDonald-Miller’s field techs can solve machinery malfunctions and performance issues before they snowball into something bigger. As a result, the energy efficiency rating for its customers has increased by 10 to 20 percent, saving them a significant amount of money and going a long way toward increasing their loyalty.
• Field techs are equipped with everything they need to do their jobs effectively, with the confidence of knowing the nature of a problem ahead of time. Tablets and wearable tech, like Microsoft HoloLens, enable them to access records, document their work, and immediately share it with customers.
• Increased scheduling efficiency allows MacDonald-Miller to service more buildings without needing to hire more staff.

Impressive ROI in under a year

With its new facilities solution in place, MacDonald-Miller reduced time-to-completion for service calls by nearly two weeks. And having a better system for capturing leads and passing them on to the marketing team has helped increase profits and improve targeting of potential customers. Boston-based Nucleus Research found that these and other improvements accrued to a 282 percent return on MacDonald-Miller’s investment, with a payoff in just over eight months.

Perhaps most importantly, MacDonald-Miller set itself apart from the competition through a newfound ability to harness the Internet of Things and use it to help its customers be more energy efficient, which company CIO Brad Bussick says is critical in today’s market: