Tolin Mechanical Cuts Quoting Time by 60% with Enriched Equipment Data
The Challenge
Tolin Mechanical has been a strong partner in adopting XOi’s technology to meet rising expectations from both clients and the business. From proving service quality with visual documentation to strengthening partnerships with asset-level insights, Tolin is delivering a more transparent, data-driven customer experience.
But the biggest impact has come behind the scenes — in how they quote.
With growing pressure to deliver more robust, data-backed proposals and manage rising risk in full-service contracts, Tolin’s Arizona leadership team turned to XOi’s enriched asset data to modernize their process. By capturing dataplate photos during routine field work and running them through XOi’s OCR engine, they can now generate complete equipment lists — including tonnage, age, and refrigerant type — without added site visits or manual decoding.
That field data has become a foundation for quoting, enabling more confident responses — especially for large, multi-site opportunities.
“We take on all repair risk under full-service contracts, so having access to accurate equipment age and refrigerant data helps us proactively manage that risk.”
– Mike Essig, Director of Operations, Tolin Mechanical
The Solution
Tolin uses XOi to access equipment data they couldn’t easily capture before. Over time, they’ve expanded its use across both service and sales workflows — embedding data collection directly into day-to-day operations.
Every dataplate photo now feeds into a centralized system, where enriched asset data is extracted automatically. Instead of spending hours tracking down equipment details, Tolin’s team can instantly access key specs — like model, serial, tonnage, age, and refrigerant type — and move straight into quoting.
That tonnage data also plays a key role in one of Tolin’s strategic service offerings. Through an exclusive energy-efficiency partnership, Tolin provides equipment treatments that are scoped and priced based on total cooling capacity. With enriched XOi data, they can quickly determine how much product is needed per site — without sending someone back into the field. In one recent example, they identified 1,200 tons of cooling across a single customer portfolio using OCR-extracted data from existing job photos.
“Being able to pull tonnage from data we already have in the system saves us a ton of manpower. It’s extremely valuable when we’re proposing sitewide upgrades tied to cooling capacity.”
– Mike Essig, Director of Operations, Tolin Mechanical
This process doesn’t just streamline internal quoting — it also delivers real value to customers. In one recent project, Tolin surveyed 1,600 rooftop assets across 140 locations, producing a complete digital inventory for a prospective client with no records of their own. That asset list became the foundation for an RFP with seven-figure implications.
“They’re using our equipment survey to build an RFP with seven-figure implications. Having the asset list in hand gives us a clear edge.”
– Mike Essig, Director of Operations, Tolin Mechanical
The Results
On average, each Tolin quote includes 15 pieces of equipment. Before XOi, preparing those quotes — including gathering dataplate details, organizing specs, and preparing quotes — took about 5 hours. With enriched asset data automatically extracted from field photos, the entire process now takes just 2 hours — a 60% time savings.
| Metric | Before XOi | With XOi |
|---|---|---|
| Time to complete a quote | 5 hours | 2 hours |
| Fully burdened labor rate¹ | $63/hour | $63/hour |
| Total cost per quote | $315.00 | $126.00 |
| Time saved per quote | 3 hours | |
| Cost savings per quote | $189.00 |
Tolin estimates that up to 250 proposals per year are positively impacted by this process. At $189 saved per quote, that translates to an annual labor savings of $47,250—without adding headcount or compromising quality.²
“I’d rather just run an enriched data report and have it in five minutes. We’re pulling tonnage and key specs instantly — no site revisit, no decoding model numbers. It’s a huge efficiency gain.”
– Mike Essig, Director of Operations, Tolin Mechanical
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¹Based on $90,000 annual salary × 1.4 burden rate ÷ 2,000 hours/year = $63/hour. A burden multiplier of 1.3–1.5 is commonly used in commercial service industries to estimate fully loaded labor costs, accounting for benefits, taxes, and overhead
² Annual savings estimate: 250 quotes × $189/quote = $47,250.
