PORTLAND, Ore. - AirAdvice Inc., developer of the AirAdvice® HVAC-IAQ™ Program, has tapped 25 HVAC professionals across North America to test and shape the next generation of its online IAQ management: the new AirAdvice SmartWeb™ Tools.

AirAdvice SmartWeb Tools is a suite of online IAQ business tools that deliver new ways for HVAC professionals to create, sustain, and manage a profitable IAQ business.

“At AirAdvice, we count on contractor input to drive all of our IAQ product innovation and development,” said Lucas Klesch, AirAdvice product manager. “For each new development, we choose an Innovation Team. These groups of HVAC industry volunteers come from a broad range of business types and locations and each bring different areas of expertise. Their feedback helps us ensure that we’re meeting real-time, right-now contractor needs and providing real value with every diagnostic and business management IAQ tool we deliver.”

AirAdvice unveiled the SmartWeb Tools to the 25 HVAC professionals serving on the SmartWeb Innovation Team in a series of October sessions that took place at AirAdvice headquarters and at other locations across the country.

Each member of the Innovation Team offered input based on his or her specific area of HVAC expertise. AirAdvice used the feedback to shape and fine-tune the SmartWeb Tools system.

“I now have a tool that will rival my [AirAdvice] IAQ business advisor in terms of the power this system gives me,” said Innovation Team member Jonathan Moscatello, comfort advisor at Oregon Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. “The placement and proposal features, to name just a couple of the things I saw here today, are going to be invaluable. Process is critical - SmartWeb Tools is going to make my job a lot easier. It puts everything at my fingertips.”

SmartWeb Tools is designed as a one-stop IAQ management resource. All-new and updated features allow owners to set goals and track sales performance; motivate employees to engage in IAQ diagnosis and sales; and provide fast access to data, reports, and the most current HVAC-IAQ resources and information.

A key SmartWeb Tools feature is the IAQ Dashboard. Graphic displays deliver at-a-glance summaries of all aspects of IAQ business management - overall sales and employee performance data, IAQ test data and placements, and running tallies tracking IAQ sales opportunities and issues by category. The IAQ Dashboard also provides one-click report generation and dispatch placement tools, as well as links to resources, information, historical test data, and IAQ business and marketing tips.

“This IAQ Dashboard ties it all together,” said Innovation Team member John Rodarte, commercial IAQ project manager at AAA Heating & Cooling. “This lets me account for everything all the way down the line.”

Innovation Team member William Efird, a manufacturer territory manager, shares Rodarte’s view. “All the information you need is right here,” said Efird. “The streamlined dispatch and placement tracking is really going to help our owners and support them in running their IAQ business.”

On hand to listen to and implement the Innovation Team’s suggestions for fine-tuning the AirAdvice SmartWeb Tools were members of the AirAdvice technology and product development teams: Lucas Klesch, product manager; software engineers Erik Dewhurst and Andrew Ettinger; IAQ business advisors Eric Cooper and Desiree Fitterer; and web designer Roger Gilliam.

“Thanks to the input from the SmartWeb Innovation Team, we know we’re right on track with delivering the key IAQ business tools that will help drive our contractors’ success,” says Klesch. “Their time and effort will pay off in that it will help all of our contractors to meet their IAQ business goals.”

More than 1,500 HVAC contractors across North America use the AirAdvice HVAC-IAQ Program. For more information, visit www.airadvice.com.

Publication date:12/11/2006