The need
Over years of working with the same customer, an integrator installs, removes and replaces a lot of equipment at their site. Some of it arrives through the original project. More comes through change orders. More still through service calls, warranty swaps and upgrades years later.
D-Tools records each of those events in its own place. The original project has its item list. Each service call has what was used on it. Serial numbers are captured in several places. What does not exist is the answer to a simple question: what is installed at this site right now, and how did each piece get there?
So when a technician is dispatched to a property they have not visited, or a salesperson is quoting an upgrade, or someone needs to know whether a failing component is still under warranty, the answer has to be reconstructed by opening the original project and then every service call since. For a customer relationship spanning years, that is not practical, and it gets less practical the longer the relationship lasts.
Why this matters
The installed base is arguably the most valuable record an integrator owns. It drives service accuracy, upgrade and replacement conversations, warranty claims, and the ability to send any technician to any site rather than only the one who did the original install. Today that record lives in people's memory or a separate spreadsheet, which means it degrades exactly as the relationship becomes more valuable.
Possible directions
Exploratory, not commitments.
- A running list per account or site of what is currently installed, assembled from the work already recorded against that account.
- Each entry traceable back to what put it there: the project, change order or service call it came from.
- A history view showing what was added, removed or replaced over time, not just the current state.
- Serial number visible where captured.
Open questions
- Should this be per account, or per site where a customer has several?
- How are items removed or replaced recorded, given that today's records show what was used rather than what was taken out?
- What happens with historical customers whose earlier work predates any tracking?
- Should this cover everything installed, or only serialized or major equipment?
- How does it relate to inventory and asset tracking, which already capture some of this?
