How EnergyLogic Leverages Inspection Sync and DASH to Streamline Field Data Collection

Last month, we chatted with a few members of the EnergyLogic team about their roles at EnergyLogic and how they leverage Ekotrope’s Inspection Sync tool with their DASH platform to streamline the inspection and field data collection process. At EnergyLogic, Sam Chaney is a Senior Energy Rater and Jackson Hindman is an Information and Intelligence Support Specialist. 

They have been using Ekotrope’s Inspection Sync feature for just over a month now and have integrated it with EnergyLogic’’s DASH tool. DASH is EnergyLogic’s cloud-based, comprehensive field service management tool. Inspection Sync allows raters to easily download the final inspection report from an inspection application like DASH and upload it into Ekotrope RATER to quickly update Ekotrope models with field inspection results. This allows raters like Sam to spend a lot less time manually re-entering data into Ekotrope that they’ve already recorded once in the field.

During the session, Sam and Jackson shed some light on how their organization uses Inspection Sync with DASH, how it’s improved their processes, and more.

You can watch the entire conversation with Sam and Jackson here or read the highlights from our conversation below.

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Q: Can you walk me through how you do your data processing at the end of the day after you’ve completed your inspections and verified all of the data that you need?

A: Typically, I’ll go in order from last to first of whichever final[s] [inspections] I did that day. I use Inspection Sync so I’ll have my DASH data already entered from when I was in the field. Then I click on the final page of the DASH results where it says “Create JSON” and download it. Then, I open up my projects in Ekotrope and upload the JSON file. 

After that, I go to the job linked [to] Ekotrope and it will have the data in the new building design. I go into that and pull up the DASH results I recorded in the field and verify that everything is matching up. So far, it hasn’t been a perfect match but it mainly comes down to library entries not being the same or picking the first library entry that comes up in the list which may just be an unverified version of it. Windows sometimes have issues, but at this point that has been resolved almost entirely. 

I mainly just have to double check my work when I go into the inspection with report data at this point.

Q: Compared to what you were doing before where you were transcribing the data, what is the end of your day like now that you use Inspection Sync? Are you inspecting more homes because of it? Do you have more free time as a result of the time savings?

A: It’s definitely freed up some of my time. It’s not astronomical time savings wise, but I think 5-25 minutes per energy model is a fair average.

I think those time savings will increase once I don’t feel the need to double check everything. Right now, the first page of Ekotrope I don’t even have to look at because I know it’s going to be correct. You can also look at your emails and see which specific things you need to look for. But overall, it’s definitely saving me roughly 10 minutes per job at the moment. It just gives me more time and flexibility to do other things I have to work on like checking emails, Teams, etc.

So, going forward we are all set, but as far as retroactively integrating these things it’s like doing spring cleaning. For us, our Ekotrope library is extensive and integrating this tool has given us a reason to clean that up and get it under control. It’s one of those things where the more we use it, the more efficient it gets.

Q: Is there any added time because you have to go back and review the Inspection Sync data file to make sure things were copied correctly? 

A: I’d say that I factored that into my time estimate of an average of 10 minutes saved per energy model. 

When you import the JSON file into Ekotrope, sometimes you’ll have a few issues you need to look into as reported by the Inspection Sync email you get after you upload the file into Ekotrope. But basically, you’re all set after you upload it outside of just checking a few things to make sure they’re right.

It’s definitely a process change from what we’re used to. Once you’re used to the new process though, it’s just as fast if not quicker than our old process with manual entry.

Q: In terms of process change, are there any other things that have changed that were unintended or unexpected with adopting Inspection Sync? Has it changed your QA Process or your RFI process at all? 

A: Our RFI process definitely changed. I can’t speak too much in detail about it because I’m not super familiar with it but, the whole process changed for our RFI Manager, Mark, who submits file review and submittals for our RFI ratings. It made it a lot easier on that front.

Mark actually called Inspection Sync an “attitude changer.” While the time savings are still hovering around the 5-10 minute mark for now, it’s been a huge relief for the RFIs to not have to write every single tedious detail over again into Ekotrope at the end of the day. 

Q: So, going back to that library issue where it doesn’t always exactly match up, in DASH you are selecting a particular library component in the DASH app saying, “This is a Grade 1 2x4 R-13 something…” which is a library component in Ekotrope that’s also listed in DASH, correct?

A: Somewhat, DASH doesn’t have a library of components in the same way Ekotrope does. We have certain things that you can keep in a library, such as our Insulation section. But, really it’s like if you type in a model number in DASH that then goes into Ekotrope and it matches perfectly, then you’re good to go. 

The cases in which we run into issues are mainly due to case sensitivity. You do have to have the cases matching in both DASH and Ekotrope. The workaround here is establishing consistency across your team, for example just tell your team to put all model numbers in all caps in both places.

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We’d like to give a huge shout out to Sam and Jackson for taking the time to chat with us. We hope this conversation shed some light on questions you may have had about Inspection Sync. If you have any further questions or would like to learn more about the tool, please contact us at info@ekotrope.com.