HillsBrother Consulting

hLight - Lighting System Installation Management

hLight is an application which manages project information pertaining to lighting system installation and retrofit. Until a few years ago, lighting retrofits and the resulting installations were managed through brutal assault of Excel spreadsheets. h-Light is different.

h-Light Manages lighting retrofits and new installations from initial audit to final installation-Including the generation of bid documents, ordering documents, energy conservation calculations, installation documents, and much more. Contractors using h-Light have been pleased by the accuracy of hLight's bid and purchase documentation. These guys are handling much larger jobs with greater accuracy and much less time than before -- they shudder at the thought of going back to a spreadsheet.

Not all of the benefits of hLight to a lighting contractor are obvious:

Companies using hLight have noticed that fewer spare parts must be purchased for a project. If a quality audit of the building in question is performed, then a very accurate bill of materials is generated by hLight. Therefore, the project manager is comfortable with a little less wiggle room with respect to the quantities ordered.
Parties have won bids despite the fact that their quotes are not the lowest received. This is simply by virtue of the detail of the bid and construction documents generated by hLight. When a perspective client asks, "man, why is your bid so much higher?", the answer is, "well look, our document takes you through every corner of every room of your facility. Those other bids don't even accurately reflect what you have as a lighting system.
Project managers find that they spend much less time on the phone with project foremen. This is due to the detail and accuracy of the construction documents generated by hLight. Foremen simply have fewer questions with respect to the intentions of the installation scope.
Installation projects are easier to set up. At the back of the construction document is a 'Parts Inventory'. This document tells the foreman exactly how many of each part associated goes where.

HBC is currently in the process of porting the hLight application to the Cereal environment. When this is completed, hLight services will be available by subscription or through the purchase of an hLight 'appliance'. There is still a lot of work to be done, but you can kick the tires on it by going here.