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Boston — Oct. 16, 2014 – Managers who run groups of small commercial facilities such as restaurants and retail stores don’t do their work at a computer desktop. They’re constantly on the move, whether meeting with location managers, troubleshooting equipment issues, or performing a dozen other tasks that make their day chaotic.
That’s why Powerhouse Dynamics, creator of the award-winning SiteSage enterprise energy and asset-management system, is beefing up its mobile app, providing a series of control and reporting enhancements designed to turn the mobile device into the only device managers need for complete facility energy and equipment-operations management.
The SiteSage mobile app provides users with a clear and comprehensive view of equipment performance in their facilities from any location. This gives managers the information they need to make quick decisions regarding energy use and equipment maintenance and repair, helping to avoid serious problems that could come in minutes, or days, if undetected.
If someone on site highlights an apparent problem with a piece of equipment, the manager can log into the SiteSage mobile app the moment the problem is reported, assess the information, and make decisions in real-time. This allows facility managers to identify equipment that is not working properly, diagnose the problem, and decide if they need to dispatch a service repairman. Moreover, it means that they can accurately guide repairs and check to ensure that they were done properly.
The app has always enabled real-time changes to HVAC, but now also offers the ability to turn equipment on and off remotely via the recently released SiteSage Controller.
“Having the flexibility to check equipment energy usage of one of our restaurants while I’m en route to another has been incredibly helpful,” said Scott Amerault, director of facilities for Pepper Dining Inc., a Chili’s franchise. “I’m constantly on the road checking on the 104 restaurants I’m responsible for and don’t have as much time as I would like to sit at my desk to monitor energy usage and equipment performance. The SiteSage mobile app helps me do that and identify when I need to reach out to any location when I may have an opportunity or to help troubleshoot an issue.”
Powerhouse Dynamics CEO Martin Flusberg said, "Our customers are logging into SiteSage from their smartphones twice as often as they are from their computers. We recognize the need to move to a ‘mobile first’ approach with our customer base and will continue to enhance the control and reporting features of our mobile app so that it can be even more tightly embedded in day-to-day facility operations.”
One of the additions that SiteSage customers requested was more timely access to information on equipment schedule adherence. Users of the SiteSage system receive a weekly “off-hours” report via email that displays where facilities are wasting energy by not following equipment schedules and what that is costing in terms of lost profits. The new version of the SiteSage mobile app makes this report available at any time, so that managers can more quickly address issues that have been identified.
“Energy and facility management systems are increasingly adopting and expanding their offerings to leverage wireless and cloud-based systems," said Noah Goldstein, research director at Navigant Research. “These enable real-time control and monitoring from remote devices, changing the way facilities are being managed. The dominance of traditional control rooms will shrink as users adopt mobile-first strategies, providing real-time intelligence and relevant analytics.”
The SiteSage mobile app is free for users of the SiteSage system. The new version is now available for iOS and will be available for Android users shortly.
