Charlotte, North Carolina: Southern Elevator today announced “Intelevator”, a new elevator management system. Intelevator is a smart elevator management system that is data driven, provides state of the art monitoring and communications, and allows for targeted maintenance. Intelevator offers a new way for property managers, facility owners and business owners, to get everything they’d expect and deserve from their elevator service providers.
“The mission of Intelevator is to transparently allow our customers and future customers to validate the service they are receiving and the performance of their elevator equipment in real time.,” says Christopher Short, President at Southern Elevator Company. “My favorite feature of the Intelevator product is that it is using technology to improve maintenance services and transparently expose elevator operations to our customers.”
Features and benefits of Intelevator include:
- Complete visibility and control
- Higher uptime and tenant satisfaction
- Increased asset life and building profitability
- Insights and improved decision making
- Enhanced collaboration and accountability
Intelevator will be available starting July 5th, 2022. For more information about Intelevator, please visit www.intelevator.us
About Southern Elevator Company: Founded in 1949, Southern Elevator is a full-service elevator maintenance, repair and modernization company serving North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
An Interview with President of Southern Elevator Company Christopher Short
Tell me a little bit about yourself and Southern Elevator.
Southern Elevator Company was started in 1949 as a family run business installing commercial elevators throughout North and South Carolina, and Virginia. Today, Southern Elevator services well over 3000 units in our home footprint as well as elevators nationwide through subcontractor relationships. Our niche is providing customer service excellence and superior preventative maintenance, repair, and modernizations while maintaining a close relationship with our customers. I joined Southern Elevator in June of 2008 to work in business development. Through various promotions over the years, I became president in 2015 and am proud to lead a group of over 100 customer-focused industry professionals.
What was the spark that inspired Intelevator?
For years now I have believed that elevators needed to be connected to the IoT. Searching the marketplace for a supplier, I was unable to find any devices that would allow connection of different types/makes of elevators, such as the ones we have in our portfolio, to be connected. I discovered a company that was building to provide this type of technology in early 2019. In the fall of 2021, we partnered with Lift AI to provide us with their technology and build software integration into our ERP system that would take the data collected by the device and feed it onto our platform for information analysis and sharing with our customers to improve our services. The mission of Intelevator is to transparently allow our customers and future customers to validate the service they are receiving and the performance of their elevator equipment in real time.
How does the Intelevator System Work, is it compatible with all elevators? How is it installed?
The system works initially by being installed on the elevator cartop and plugged into the 110 outlet on top of the car. Once plugged in, a connection is made via cellular transmission to the Intelevator network operations center for data collection and interpretation. Intelevator works on any elevator, any age, and make or model. It is the first analytical device that can be installed on virtually any elevator worldwide!
What types of data can Intelevator collect and how is that data communicated to the customer?
The type of data that is collected by Intelevator consists of ride performance, passenger movement, trip counts, highest floors utilized, vibration anomalies, noise anomalies, and door operation. Once the data has been uploaded to the cloud in real time, it is processed through algorithms and displayed on dashboards for visibility. In addition, we have developed a monthly report that is sent out to the customer, by elevator, displaying the operational performance and characteristics for the present month as well as previous time periods that the device has been connected.
Can you describe the ideal Intelevator customer?
This technology is ideal for all customers. By transparently communicating operational performance, maintenance intervals, or work orders that still need to be done on the equipment, the customer is able to effectively and efficiently manage their elevators operations and performance by what the service provider has done or still needs to do.
What have been the biggest challenges so far with Intelevator?
The biggest challenge has been developing the product that would be compatible for all types of elevators, regardless of age, model, or make. Once that was figured out, the next challenge was to seamlessly deliver information to the customer in a way that could be analyzed and presented for further action.
Does Intelevator remove the need for elevator maintenance professionals?
Absolutely not. In our industry too often we’ve seen other service providers install analytical monitoring equipment that is supposed to solve issues with the elevators faster when they occur because “the device identifies problems quicker.” The truth is that this has lessened on site preventive maintenance and kept technicians away from the equipment in order to boost margins. This has resulted in a massive, deferred maintenance issue on elevator equipment nationwide. The intent and mission of Intelevator is to do the exact opposite; it’s utilizing technology in order to bring the service provider closer to the customer by providing targeted maintenance backed up by data for the operation and performance of their elevator, while enhancing communication as well.
Where is the data Intelevator collects stored and is the information private or shared?
The information collected is sent through the cloud into Intelevator’s network operation center where it is then transferred into our ERP system for analysis and decision making. The data is not private and is shared directly with our customers through a web application on their mobile device or desktop. In addition, there is a monthly report sent to each customer with all of the information collected on the elevator each month. Intelevator data is designed to be shared and transparent with the customer.
What is your favorite feature of Intelevator?
All of the above! My favorite feature of the Intelevator product is that it is using technology to improve maintenance services and transparently expose elevator operations to our customers. This is the highest level of white glove service that a company can provide. It truly demonstrates connection to the customer and partnership and taking care of their elevator equipment.
