iPad Mobile Computing for Energy Conservation

Tracking Energy Usage for Johnson Controls

Lighting a factory, office building, or research facility is no easy task when you want to cut energy costs. To do it right, you need to chart every fixture, the power it consumes, and its output. That's why Atlanta, Georgia-based developer 360Works employed FileMaker Go for its client Johnson Controls. "They needed an accurate way to audit facility lighting systems," says 360Works developer Sterling Rouse. "With Go, they're able to take accurate notes in the field on an iPad and get clean records for their main database. It's a great solution and it was incredibly easy to implement, compared to building an iPad application from scratch."

Cutting energy costs without the paperwork

During a field audit, Johnson Controls collects reams of data.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]Traditionally, the company's auditors took notes by hand with pen and paper. It was the tried and true way of getting complete audits. "They would fax the notes to the main office, where someone would transcribe them and put them into the database," says Rouse. "It was a multi-step process and they needed a way to log the data more accurately and avoid transcription errors. We were in the middle of creating a custom iPad application when Go was released.”

Rouse created a stand-alone FileMaker Go database for Johnson Controls auditors in the field. He chose to create a separate database for simplicity and ease of use. "First, we weren't sure what kind of Internet connection they would have in the field, so we didn't want to have to access a database remotely," says Rouse. "Secondly, they need a fast and efficient way to enter data about an audit into the iPad on the go. We made a simple, quick interface to make things fast and accurate."

Johnson Controls auditors can now visit a site, enter data and take notes on their iPads, then transmit the data to the main database when they return to the head office or when they have a reliable Internet connection. "Audits take a couple of days. At the end, they push the data back to the main database," says Rouse. "It'll save a ton of time and there shouldn't be any transcription errors in the audits."

For more information about Johnson Controls visit www.johnsoncontrols.com

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