The Future of Field Data Collection
There are many data points that go into modeling a home. As you know, recording this data during an inspection and then inputting all of these variables into a rating tool can be painstaking and laborious.
We have seen rating companies record and import inspection data in a few different ways. Some rating companies use an assembly line style rating process where the field inspector writes down all of the data and then a separate data inputter works in the office and transcribes data according to a predefined workflow or in real-time as the data comes in. Some rating companies will do a similar assembly line process, but the field inspector also acts as the data inputter. At the end of their day in the field, they input all of their inspection data into Ekotrope manually. On the other hand, multi-family rating companies face similar difficulties, albeit alleviated some by sampling. Those that record unit level inspection results face a monumental data entry task - especially if a change is needed after sampling protocols were completed.
Even with tools like HouseRater, EnergySMAC, or custom made in-house tools, the process of loading inspection data into Ekotrope is not seamless and therefore requires manual duplicate data entry which is prone to error. Most often these tools utilize the XML connection with Ekotrope RATER. Due to that tool being built to import data from other rating softwares it must use their data structure which can cause issues with the data. Further, they often require the data transcriber to rifle through new library components and models that have been duplicated rather than being matched to existing components and models.
All of that is to say, the process of importing inspection data as it exists today is time consuming, costly, and error prone. Beyond that, it can negatively impact your builder clients as the backlog of data that needs to be transcribed creates a bottleneck in your ability to share critical reports with builder clients. We’ve heard from you just how painstaking and time-consuming this process can be, and we are now solving this problem with our latest engineering effort.
Meet Inspection Sync, Ekotrope’s newest innovation that enables raters to seamlessly integrate their inspection tool of choice with Ekotrope RATER. Inspection Sync aims to streamline and expedite your data collection and inspection process by enabling you to easily import data with your preferred inspection app. In doing so, it automatically looks up the specified mechanical systems in your component library for you and allows you to update wall components based on insulation grade without having to create a new library component.
Inspection Sync allows you to spend less time manually transcribing data from external tools, speeding up the entire process thus allowing you to update your projects and share critical information with builders in minutes- not hours or days. The typos and mistakes that can occur that cause undue failures, requiring backtracking, added QA costs, and ultimately unhappy clients are a concern of the past, as Ekotrope will automatically update all applicable fields of the energy models and then notify the user, detailing whether or not the transmission was successful.
This add-on to Ekotrope RATER is our newest development aimed to streamline the rating process and improve the Ekotrope RATER experience. In an effort to make your process as swift and efficient as possible, we recommend that rating companies who experience the issues outlined above reach out to us at sales@ekotrope.com to learn more about Inspection Sync. You can also learn more about the tool here and here.
