In the late 1970s, HVAC contractors George and Glenn Slay struggled to find ways to automate their company’s business and field service sides. These were the early days of the computerization of the HVAC Industry, and for the Slay brothers, there just wasn’t anything available that they felt would work for them.

So, they took matters into their own hands and designed their own software. It was based on an operating system called Theos. It worked so well that they decided it would be great to provide this software to other HVAC contractors around the country.

In 1980 they founded an organization called Coastal Computer Corp. in Fort Meyers, FL. Coastal’s software became the first package to provide an electronic dispatch board. Eventually the software was integrated with the Quickbooks® accounting system.

Some History

Over the next 42 years, Coastal Computer grew and evolved. Twenty-six years ago, it was completely updated and redesigned and became ESC – a Windows-based platform. Since then, the company has integrated with numerous partners, created its own accounting system, and built a tight integration with six other accounting systems.

After years of development, evolution, and changes, today this software is now known as FieldEdge by Xplor and services more than 40,000 users across many industries.

Eric Rausin joined the company in the mid-1990s after retiring from a career with the U.S. Navy, where he focused on leadership and inventory management. Today he serves as vice-president of research and development.

“One of the things that attracted me to this company was their desire for innovation and unending learning. They had great customers, incredible co-workers, and provided me opportunities to grow and advance,” Rausin explains.

What Is FieldEdge?

According to Rausin, FieldEdge is designed to be the nerve center for an HVAC contracting business. It handles customer management, dispatching, invoicing, estimating, service agreements, and item tracking. He says it also has real-time integration with both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, and can be used in the United States and Canada.

FieldEdge also includes other integrations to help contractors manage payments, GPS tracking, flat rate pricing, marketing, and more.

“Our secret sauce,” Rausin says, “is that we started as an HVAC company. The Slay brothers understood the contracting business and took the time to learn how other contractors operate and what issues they face by sitting with them. They translated everything they learned into the software.

“This is something we haven’t stopped doing over the past 42 years. And now we have a global presence with the resources and financial capabilities to keep us going strong for a very long time.”

Evolution and Acquisitions

What Rausin is talking about is FieldEdge becoming part of Xplor Technologies in 2021. Xplor is an international full-service, integrated payment solutions, and business management software provider.

In recent news, Xplor recently finalized the acquisition of Enterprise Selling Solutions, LLC (ESS) and its platform, HVACBizPro, to help HVAC contractors improve their sales process.

With this acquisition, FieldEdge has a new professional proposal feature, Proposal Pro, based on ESS’ digital tools. A press release states, “Designed to help HVAC businesses grow, the acquisition will bring real-time equipment pricing to technicians in the field and office, and live AHRI1 data to the FieldEdge platform.”

Rausin adds, “As new technologies develop, we will take advantage of them. We want to make it easy for people to do business with us and help them process payments easily.

Click Below for the Next Page: