Ideal Boilers has over a century of experience in British manufacturing and the company continuously strives to meet the ever-changing demands of the heating industry.
Now, the international firm takes its next steps into the Smart Heating arena by partnering with C4DI members Sauce, to create an application that seamlessly fuses with their iconic models.
Ideal commissioned the creative software development team to design a digital solution that gives customers full control of the heating in their home, from anywhere in the world.
“We’re very proud to work with one of Europe’s largest boiler manufacturers,” enthuses Matt Gibson, Sauce Co-Founder.
“Ideal could have easily opted to partner with pre-existing smart home technologies, however, they wanted an app that would be tailored to their customers' needs whilst directly integrating with their boilers.”
The result is Ideal Touch Connect, a programmable room thermostat with a vast array of exciting capabilities, including advanced scheduling, fault reporting, internal and external temperature monitoring, and customer service support.
Multiple users can access the app at one time, so anyone in your household can monitor and alter the temperature of your home from any location, whether they are sitting in the living room or just about to board a train.
“You can set it up so it turns your boiler on just in time for when you get home. Meanwhile, if you’re away on holiday, you can set periods of inactivity so you don’t waste any energy while you’re away.”
On top of this, the clever technology collects all sorts of useful data, such as how and when customers use their boilers, and if the elements are running efficiently. This data is then stored in middleware, which is a software that glues the client-end and back-end systems together.
“The data received from the boilers creates a pool of information that can be drawn from to gain an insight into how Ideal could develop their offering to customers,” Matt explains.
“This kind of data will have a huge impact on Ideal as a business, especially when inputting into future product development.”
In the meantime, the work has facilitated the development company’s growth tremendously, enabling the talented team to expand from three to fifteen during the past year.
Sauce and Ideal are continuing to develop the application, with future updates yet to be announced.
“In the future, the application will become even smarter, getting to know the homeowners and respond to suit their lifestyles,” Matt adds.
If you would like to find out more about Sauce and their fantastic work, please visit their website.