Operator Technologies specializes in hardware that monitors the mechanical operations of commercial buildings. They partnered with Invoke to develop a software solution that could proactively alert users to issues and provide historical data for technicians.

Understanding a Technician's World

Our collaboration began with a site visit to a local hospital where Operator’s hardware was installed. We learned that technicians entering large mechanical rooms often couldn’t detect gas leaks until physically checking the monitoring devices. Without Operator’s monitoring technology, harmful gas leaks go undetected, tragically leading to fatalities in recent years.

Our Approach

Our approach with Operator was to design and build just enough to start testing and validating with real users. This included extensive feature planning discussions between our teams to rigorously evaluate and discern the most essential features to get right:

• Push notifications: Making sure users are notified when a gas leak is detected.
• Alerts visualization: Visualizing a sensor’s history of alerts and anomalies.
• User Management: Technicians need the right access to buildings they are servicing.

Proving Product Viability Within the First Month

The planning, design and build of the project took a little over 3 months. Since releasing the product in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in late October, Operator Technologies have seen at least three instances, where the app was able to warn technicians of potential dangers.

Invoke at TechCrunch Disrupt

In other news, a few of our team members flew down to San Francisco last month for TechCrunch Disrupt. It was no surprise that the big themes were, Scaling Tech Startups and AI-Driven Growth at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt. Founders were told, if you want to win with AI, you’ll need to own your space—become the expert, communicate clearly, and either disrupt the market or offer real win-win value.

The vibe of the conference was nothing short of optimistic for AI’s potential, but the emphasis was on precision, real value, and the ability to adapt fast. As we look towards the new year, it will be interesting to see which products find creative ways to access unique data, which is where real differentiation happens.