HVACR Manufacturers Confident in Economic Outlook in ASHRAE Survey

Blog, Field Service, HVAC, Media Coverage

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Last updated Dec 23, 2019 at 12:14PM | Published on Feb 5, 2018 | Blog, Field Service, HVAC, Media Coverage

HVACR manufacturers remain optimistic about the upcoming year across the entire industry. In a recent survey conducted by the ASHRAE Journal, 89% of respondents are forecasting excellent or good growth in the industry, up 15% from the positive outlook heading into 2017 a year ago. For 2018, 74% of respondents are forecasting growth rates of greater than 5%, which is a 14% jump from a year ago, when only 65% of responders predicted high growth. Thirty-four percent of responding organizations who said their sales greatly increased more than 10% in 2016 said their sales increased significantly in 2017, up from 23% from a year before. And overall, business is better, as 69% of respondents reported higher sales in 2017, versus 57% in 2016.

“With this overwhelmingly positive outlook for next year’s HVACR business, more and more industry professionals will need to search out the newest and best equipment and products available to them,” said Stevens, manager of the AHR Expo.

HVACR moving forward with new technology

Fieldpoint was an exhibitor at this year’s AHR Expo in Chicago, bringing our HVAC field service management software to the expo floor at a time when many in the HVACR space are looking for innovative technologies to add to their organization.

Two-thirds of respondents to the survey reported they will be introducing new technology or products this year, as the market continues to demand greater innovation. Light commercial, office buildings, and manufacturing/industry sectors were forecasted to have the highest growth, with 70% of respondents expecting excellent or good growth, followed closely by heavy commercial, schools and institutional buildings, and data/telecom centers and hospitals, each of which ranked in the 60% to 69% range.

One dramatic shift, however, was that new construction was identified as the biggest market driver, as opposed to maintenance and replacement, which was seen as the biggest driver in 2017. With 45% of respondents seeing new construction as the growth engine of 2018, Fieldpoint showcased their project and job costing modules inside our field service software at the AHR Expo, which gives HVACR enterprises the ability to budget out their new construction installations, schedule technicians for the project, automate billing on a scheduled timeline, and ensure the project comes in on time and on budget.

With new construction, there are many moving parts that can be difficult to coordinate, including inventory, parts, resources, technicians and subcontractors, and most importantly, the budget of the project. Fieldpoint’s project and job costing tools not only offer solutions for all those difficulties, but also combine them with other field service management tools to dispatch technicians for regular maintenance and keep that portion of your business thriving.