Technology in HVAC&R:

Technology is always at the forefront of mind for the team at Chillex Group. Specialists in HVAC design, project management and site inspection and advisory services to new build and retrofit projects, the Auckland-based provider also has a team of experts that provide ongoing service and maintenance support to HVAC equipment.

Productivity and profitability

Making the move from paper to online records across all its business units, including maintenance and construction, has allowed Chillex to automate many operational tasks – saving time and resources.

“We use Simpro for our job management, and that has helped us move away from paper and keep everything in soft copy,” shares Luke Steiner, business development manager at Chillex Group. “It’s used across both our business units – maintenance and construction – but it’s particularly useful for the maintenance side. In terms of scheduling jobs and recurring tasks, it automates everything as much as possible.”

Modelling is also used at Chillex to deliver the best results for clients.

“Our engineering team uses AutoCAD and BIM software, which allows us to do a lot of design work in-house,” says Luke. “We also use Arkturus – a data analysis plugin for Simpro – that helps us pull out lots of useful information so we can analyse it and make informed decisions on how we run the business.

“It’s technology like this that allows us to assess the productivity of staff or profitability of customers, KPI analysis and this type of information. So it’s really helpful in the commercial and KPI side of the business.”

Remote access

On projects in the past year, Chillex has also been installing business management software that can be accessed remotely. With heating ventilation systems, for example, it means the team can remotely access the current operations and be notified of any faults.

“What we’re trying to do in the next brief period is see how we can implement this in our maintenance to try to bring down maintenance costs,” says Luke. “If we can remotely diagnose issues, we can spend less time on site and help to reduce the cost for customers.”

Safety is another focus in remote working technology, with Chillex moving most of its health and safety processes from hard copy to soft copy – utilising platforms such as SharePoint, Teams and Simpro for reporting and analysis.

“We like this to be accessible to everyone on their phones and the mobile Simpro app so that it can all be accessed remotely.” for customers.”

Looking ahead

So what does the future hold?

“I’m looking forward to the future of AI and how that might be used in the market, as well as modelling in virtual reality – something that’s starting to come into play,” says Luke.

While 3D modelling is useful, Luke notes that it doesn’t allow you to really visualise yourself in a space.

“But if you can do that in virtual reality to really see yourself in the space and get a bit more of an idea of what things around you will look like, that will be an interesting development.”