National HVAC Company Saves $2.2M by Modernizing With Azure

The Challenge

A leading HVAC services provider with over 140 locations across the U.S. needed a modern data platform and a new data strategy.

The client needed to exit their existing on-premises data center. Their goal was to modernize and migrate to Azure and replace outdated legacy technology. They also wanted to establish identity management and access control.

In addition, the company was struggling to find, analyze, and process data due to complex data systems. They had a lot of manual spreadsheets and multiple time entry systems. Getting data consolidated was a manual, tedious, time-consuming process, making it hard for users to access the data they needed.

The company also wanted to integrate several key line of business systems for better visibility into the business.

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Services

Data and AI

Industry

Manufacturing
Retail

Company Size

10,000 +

Establish a New Data Strategy and Build a Modern Data & Analytics Foundation in Azure

The company turned to 3Cloud to help them solve their data challenges.

First, 3Cloud helped the customer establish a data strategy using our proprietary Data Blueprint framework. The Data Blueprint laid out a plan to build a strong data management foundation to support the successful implementation, sustainability, and scalability of the company’s data and analytics transformation.

Using the roadmap established in the Data Blueprint, 3Cloud then built a new modern Azure Data Platform. We developed and integrated key lines of business systems (ERP, Estimating, Time Tracking) by developing pipelines/data modeling to send data into an Azure Data Lake then to a Data Warehouse.

In addition, we created Power BI reports and dashboards (Job Cost, Labor Analysis, Forecasting) to make sense of data from multiple sources, thus increasing visibility into the business. 3Cloud also implemented Power On technology that allows users to interact with and edit reports and see updates in real-time.

The Results

By partnering with 3Cloud to develop a new approach to data and analytics, the customer was able to eliminate manual data processes, saving time and enabling, easier, faster data access for users. The company’s new data platform will aggregate and centralize reporting for 20 operating companies (subsidiaries), reducing the complexity that made it a struggle to achieve visibility into the business.

Users now have access to real-time reporting, with the ability to interact with reports, make edits and get updates in real time. And the company now has a repeatable pattern for data management that can be applied across its operating companies for all future data and analytics initiatives.

More impactful, the client saw significant ROI with $2.2M in savings over 5 years vs. on-prem and the more flexible model enabled them to lower their capital expenditure (CapEx).