Residential Systems Article: D-Tools is Finding New Ways to Help Customers Succeed

D-Tools wants to ensure its customers not only purchase its software but also use it effectively. This initiative is led by CEO Randy Stearns, who is guiding the company into the future.

“We want our finish line to be the customer being successful with our software, with the sale [of the D-Tools package] as simply a milestone along the way,” Stearns said. “That’s particularly critical now as we move to the cloud and customer retention becomes everything. The customer can turn on and off the software any given month.”

Since Stearns became CEO, he has established a customer success team and a professional services group that manages all company trainings, which are offered regionally, online, and twice a week via webinar. The company also provides software orientation and implementation support calls with every new customer, including trial users.

“We get about 200 customers that sign up for a trial each month,” Stearns explained. “And, we’re reaching out to every single one of them and making time to make sure they get up and running with the software successfully.”

D-Tools aims to simplify and streamline the sales process for integrators. The rewritten mobile proposal app, Mobile Quote 2.0, is designed to create accurate project scopes and budgets in real time. It allows salespeople to display price breakdowns by system, room, and as equipment versus labor using tables and graphs. This helps eliminate uncertainty for both salespeople and clients regarding whether the proposal price will meet budgetary parameters.

The company is also transitioning to a cloud solution, aiming to reimagine how proposals are presented. Instead of static PDFs, proposals may include multimedia elements such as videos from business owners or similar installations, enhancing the sales process for the industry.

Stearns envisions D-Tools becoming the business software platform that unites the industry, particularly in how integrators run their businesses and communicate with clients and vendors.

“We want our system to connect systems integrators with their clients, in terms of sales management and a CRM. Our Mobile Quote app will be more interactive with the client during the sales process, and for project management where clients can actually view project status and get updates live online,” Stearns said. “Then, after the project is complete, we will help manage the service communication process through our platform.”

The platform also facilitates communication between integrators and vendors through its product library and a new cloud-enabled design collaboration feature. Multiple users can now work together on a system design, allowing, for example, an integrator to invite manufacturers or partners to assist with design tools directly within the D-Tools environment. Outputs from these tools can be pushed into proposals or drawing packages for projects, enabling a seamless design process.

D-Tools already offers a purchasing portal, and the new design collaboration platform allows architects and designers to collaborate on speaker placement or share project updates with general contractors.

The company is working to integrate with other design software providers, such as Portal, ProjX360, Domotz, and Ihiji, to provide an end-to-end solution for integrators. D-Tools does not include product cost in its library but allows customers to access Portal’s cost data if they have an account.

By partnering with Domotz and Ihiji for remote system monitoring, D-Tools extends the lifecycle of its software. The integration will allow data from Domotz to be visualized in a planned view of a house, with device placement flags indicating device health or data flow, enhancing both technologies for integrators and end users.

To learn more about D-Tools and its offerings, users can sign up for a free, personal online tour or download a free 30-day trial.

About D-Tools, Inc.

D-Tools, founded in 1998 and based in Concord, California, is a worldwide leader in accessible, highly accurate system design and documentation software. Its flagship product, System Integrator™ (SI), utilizes Autodesk® AutoCAD and Microsoft® Visio to facilitate comprehensive system design, documentation, and project management. D-Tools enables residential and commercial integrators to streamline business processes and increase revenues while reducing the time and cost associated with the installation and integration of low voltage electronic systems. More than 5,500 companies in 87 countries use the D-Tools platform to reduce time, costs, and streamline the system integration process.

Credit: Residential Systems Magazine