“Appenate truly focuses on being an actual partner. The company’s willingness to understand our unique needs makes all the difference.”
– Bryan Benton (Director of Information Technology, Wiginton Fire Systems)
“Appenate truly focuses on being an actual partner. The company’s willingness to understand our unique needs makes all the difference.”
– Bryan Benton (Director of Information Technology, Wiginton Fire Systems)
Case study: Wiginton Fire Systems
Thanks to Appenate, Wiginton Fire Systems can perform detailed data collection and analytics at a level that once seemed unobtainable.
Case study: Wiginton Fire Systems
Thanks to Appenate, Wiginton Fire Systems can perform detailed data collection and analytics at a level that once seemed unobtainable.
Business Goal
Replace the outdated system with a flexible mobile solution, simplifying form creation and data collection for regulatory fire protection system inspections.
Obstacles
An inflexible previous vendor required external assistance for any form changes, while technicians needed offline functionality and on-site printing capability for customer sites.
Outcomes
Appenate designed, tested, and deployed a fully mobile platform that made it super easy to create new forms, modify existing ones, and print them on-site.
Their Challenge
Wiginton Fire Systems has been creating and maintaining custom-built fire sprinkler systems since 1967. Their technicians perform critical NFPA-required inspections to ensure fire safety systems will respond appropriately when needed.
Their existing solution created all kinds of operational challenges:
- The current vendor had to handle all form changes, severely limiting flexibility
- The system fell short on several important operational needs
- Paper forms and the legacy Windows tablet solution needed replacement
- No ability to print forms on-site at customer locations
“Our previous system fell short when it came to several of our important needs,” said Bryan Benton. “On top of that, we had to ask the vendor to handle any form changes for us, which wasn’t ideal.”
The Appenate Solution
Appenate provided both software and professional services to design, test, and deploy a fully mobile platform that helped them go fully digital.
The comprehensive solution delivered:
- Flexibility for in-house form creation and modification
- Offline functionality for technicians in the field
- On-site printing capability at the customer’s site
- Detailed data collection replacing simple checkboxes
- Centralized database for analytics and reporting
“The Appenate team really understands our business — that’s why we like them and why we’re staying with the platform,” said Bryan. “They invested in learning our business and provided us with top-notch service.”
From basic paper checklists to detailed data analytics, Wiginton Fire Systems now performs data collection and analysis at a level that once seemed unobtainable.
Switching platforms is never a small decision. But for WFS, the results made it pretty clear they’d made the right call.
Improved inspection capability
Technicians are no longer just checking boxes on paper. They can collect detailed data about customers’ systems, enabling better service and maintenance planning.
Future innovation
Bryan’s goal is to create a customer portal providing inspection visibility for each property, helping identify upcoming service needs more efficiently.
Useful analytics
Because data is stored in a centralized database, Wiginton Fire Systems can perform analytics that enable useful reports and drive better decision-making.
Excellent customer service
The Appenate team took time to learn Wiginton’s business, creating desired forms and providing knowledgeable ongoing support.