Elander Mechanical is a family-owned plumbing and HVAC company in the Twin Cities that has been in business since 1982. Their business is built on a foundation of professionalism, integrity, and quality service. Elander’s innovative custom technology suite has helped them grow from a company with 25 employees to over 150 employees in a matter of just a few years.
The Back Story
Elander was already using an existing Claris FileMaker solution when they first connected with LuminFire. While their solution was working, they’d been struggling to reliably contact their existing vendor to make any requests for enhancements. While they had a capable internal IT resource who’d helped to create and maintain the solution, he couldn’t do it all on his and he was planning to retire.
Elander found themselves in need of a responsive team to assist them with maintaining and enhancing their solution. LuminFire could provide exactly what they needed.
Claris FileMaker Powers Digital Transformation
Elander’s custom FileMaker solution is key to their digital transformation and the fantastic growth of their business. As the hub of their operations, it tracks all jobs throughout each stage of their process, and since their crew spends so much time in the field, they’ve taken their technology mobile, using iPads and iPhones in the field to update and communicate with their FileMaker solution.
Compared to many other small-medium sized businesses, Elander’s technology is ahead of the curve. They differentiate themselves in the plumbing and HVAC market through the strategic use of:
- Apple technologies including iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Claris FileMaker-based custom software.
- Claris FileMaker solution that grows with their needs, allowing them to continuously innovate and adapt.
Starting with a Solution Checkup
At Elander’s request, we started by evaluating the foundations of their FileMaker system with our Solution Checkup. We examined the solution with an eye for correcting issues, making the system reliable and user friendly, and improving security. One of the deliverables was easy-to-read scorecard identifying the health of the various system components so that Elander had the information and recommendations they needed to make decisions about next steps.
FileMaker Server Issues Resolved
Elander expressed that there were some pain points with their FileMaker server. We found that the central database was bloated with documents and images making it unstable. Sometimes their server would crash, requiring an excessive amount of time to recover the file. As the system is mission-critical for Elander, downtime posed a serious disruption to business operations.
LuminFire resolved these issues and increased the server’s reliability by implementing cloud storage via BrilliantConnect code. We plugged security holes and made sure that backups were being completed regularly and reliably, both on-site and in the cloud. We moved gigabytes of image data out of the database and into the cloud taking advantage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 block storage, making the entire database solution much leaner.
Implementing a Development / Production Work Process
Working on Elander’s solution was a challenge because Elander’s solution was always in use. Using the BrilliantDeploy service, LuminFire set up a new server in the cloud for development and testing along with OttoFMS. Now the process to build, enhance, and test uses a development version of the solution, that later moves into production with up-to-date data after being tested without the risk of disrupting the daily business workflow.
Solution Enhancements
Once the application and website solutions were stable, we were able to move forward with Elander’s feature wish list. Among the enhancements we implemented were:
- A time card solution that is deployed as a mobile solution on iPads or iPhones to all their techs in the field.
- A scheduling dashboard that replaced their pen and paper process with an elegant digital solution.
Website Help To the Rescue!
Elander’s WordPress website had fallen victim to a hack. LuminFire helped Elander remediate the damage. We then migrated their website to our secure and reliable web hosting platform as well as plugged open security vulnerabilities to prevent future issues.
Our Technology Partnership
Several of LuminFire’s existing Brilliant solutions were exactly the right fit for creating the best technology solution to support Elander’s business. By utilizing LuminFire’s suite of products to enhance Elander’s Claris FileMaker solution, we were able to provide Elander with immediate value. Working closely with Elander’s Chief Technology Officer, we enhanced and modernized their solution, making for a better user experience and future-proofing their technology. LuminFire has become a trusted Elander partner.
“The LuminFire team has been awesome to work with. They were instrumental in getting everything working with our FileMaker Server and our solution enhancements. I have a degree in computer science, but in conversations with the LuminFire team, I have learned quite a bit. Thanks!” – David Stampley, CTO, Elander Mechanical
Let LuminFire’s FileMaker experts transform your technology. From routine maintenance to innovative development, we’re here to help. Schedule a free consultation today.
Tim Cimbura – CEO, CFO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with Claris FileMaker, Laravel, and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.