Clever Energy

Clever Energy Boilers Ltd (CEB) is a very early adopter of remote visual assistance technology, having first used it four years ago to solve several process issues it had. CEB switched to Hostcomm in 2022 to improve their service and remote visual assistance is now critical to their continued success in this rapidly expanding sector, where the demand for solar energy and heat pump has increased substantially in recent months.

Clever Energy Boilers (CEB) has been trading for around 9 years and has in-depth experience in the supply and fitting of efficient, energy reducing boilers from leading manufacturers. It has successfully installed over 15,000 boilers across the UK.
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CEB uses remote visual assistance for several stages in its lead-to-cash process including the initial consultation, pre-install visit and customer follow up sessions.

It is a very early adopter of remote visual assistance technology, having first used it four years ago to solve several process issues it had. CEB switched to Hostcomm in 2022 to improve their service and remote visual assistance is now critical to their continued success in this rapidly expanding sector, where the demand for solar energy and heat pump has increased substantially in recent months.

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The Challenge

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Its previous provider was not meeting the high standards set by CEB and so they decided to trial Hostcomm's RVX service for a few weeks. There were a few historical service issues that CEB were trying to rectify:

• Better handle disconnects due to the network conditions, accidental hang-ups and abort/resumes due to time restrictions.
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• Capture a higher quality audio/video recording of the customer sessions for install preparation and compliance.
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• Consolidate session media (images, text capture, notes etc) into a document for the installation engineer and customer.

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CEB uses remote visual assistance as a strategic business process and therefore it is critical to its continued success. The service is used in sales, pre-install surveys and post-install support. Not only does the service need to be innovative and closely matched to CEB’s business, it also has to be reliable and easy to use.

The Solution

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Hostcomm’s RVX Remote Visual Experience service uses video and Augmented Reality (AR) to provide visual support in a variety of different use cases. In CEB’s case, the solution is utilised in the consultation, pre-installation and support phases of the project lifecycle.

Hostcomm RVX was able to address the three main issues that CEB had:

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• RVX uses the HD camera on the smartphone to capture live video and adapts automatically to changes in bandwidth resulting in a high quality live feed and recordings.
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• The session is ended prematurely for any reason or it has to be paused, RVX makes it easy to resume with one button press which means the session can continue without the host having to restart.
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• Media files are viewable in the RVX console and can be inserted into a customisable PDF session report automatically. This PDF can then be emailed to all parties. This automation cuts wasted time and the host can quickly move onto the next session.

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In Action

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“Hostcomm’s RVX service allows us to replace around 120 site visits each month with a remote visual survey, each visit was costing around £100 each” Daniel Atkins from the Technical Survey team said.
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When asked what features were the most valuable to the company, CEB mentioned "being able to have high quality images and a recording of the video to ensure that we are meeting the clients requirements and avoiding misunderstandings.”
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CEB also stated that, "the ability to annotate on-screen and use the pointer within the live session is incredibly helpful; it resolves any communication barriers and allows for a full understanding of the situation for both parties."
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CEB estimates that RVX will save them  £144K per year by replacing unnecessary site visits with remote visual sessions. They also expect to see other improvements such as increased productivity and project throughput.

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