BUILT BY
TECHNICIANS
We didn't set out to build software. We set out to fix compressors. Six of us use this every day. Built for a shop our size, because that is the shop we have.
We were technicians first, software users second.
We started repairing compressors in the Northwest in the 1990s. As a family-owned business, we serve the industries that feed, clothe, house, and defend our communities. At first, we used paper for everything. As our customers and our team grew, that paper became cobbled-together software. It served us until we outgrew spreadsheets and tools that did not fit our work. The alternatives were either too expensive or designed for a different type of business. So we built our own.
Check out our service company →Within the company we had over three decades of experience building software and websites for Fortune 200 companies and mom-and-pop companies. Because of this experience we've been building internal tools to help us deliver for our customers.
If you are curious, NORDVEST means "Northwest" in Swedish. Our owner has Swedish heritage. The name connects the product to Northwest Compressor, our service company, and to the founder who built it.
No signal in the basement, and no software that knew what an air-end was.
Many of the sites we visit have poor or no cellular service. Asking for the Wi-Fi password is not always practical. Our paperwork was accurate enough, but unanswered questions created distrust in the field. When it mattered, the data did not tell us whether a filter had been changed on the last visit.
We looked at the big field-service systems. A $5,000 monthly price and a six-month implementation did not fit our business. The smaller apps focused on residential work or short projects. Our long-running industrial customers needed a system built for their work.
Built out of necessity.
Plenty of shops our size just live with that gap. We had one advantage most of them don't, which is the three decades of software experience above. Build-versus-buy comes out differently when you don't have to hire the build out. NORDVEST is the internal tools we'd been writing for years, finished properly.
Every feature in NORDVEST was either a pain we felt directly or a pain we heard from other compressed air service companies.