Johnson Controls has won an award for its EasyParts website, following a dramatic shift among customers to online ordering of spare parts for chillers and air conditioning equipment.
The pioneering service, led by the company’s IR & HVAC Parts business, was crowned Online Initiative of the Year 2017 at the ACR News Awards, held at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel, in London last week.
EasyParts is a transactional website that enables engineers to purchase chiller spares quickly and easily online. It has transformed the speed with which companies can source essential spare parts for chillers and air conditioning service and maintenance.
Customers use the site to identify and purchase components for York chillers, such as compressor parts, valves, motors, bearings and consumables. Top selling items include oil filters, temperature sensors, York Oil, top cylinder head gaskets and drier cores.
Alpesh Trivedi, product manager, said: “The aim was to create an Amazon-type site for the air conditioning and refrigeration industry, as most people are familiar with it and comfortable using it. Following the roll-out, EasyParts is now being used by a majority of our customers across the UK, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. It has been an unqualified success.”
Since being set up, a total of 96,590 orders have been placed by 2,838 active users, and the user-base is growing all the time. As a result of this rapid take-up, it has proved to be a multi-million-pound success for Johnson Controls.
For engineers, the benefits include 24/7 access to spares with expedited delivery; visibility of real-time stock levels and order status; quick identification of components using photographs of parts; expert support from the online customer help team; comprehensive stock-holding; access to unusual items, including RAL-coded paint and even replacement equipment labels.
The site is designed to be dynamic and grow over time. As new chillers are manufactured and installed, the knowledge base is constantly updated.
Johnson Controls provides support and training in the use of the system at its Basildon site, or on-line. It also demonstrated how it works to visitors at the last ACR Show, and will be continuing this educational work at the next national show, at Excel in January 2018.
