EnergyCAP Unmasked: Operations Department

They’re the geekiest of the geeks. Superheroes of cyberspace, they’re known for a techno-speak vocabulary that is just short of incantation. They mysteriously appear and disappear from secure server rooms like Clark Kent from a telephone booth, keeping odd hours to perform their computer network miracles at times when the demand for bandwidth is lowest. They’re the Operations team (Ops) at EnergyCAP. Today’s blog unmasks their valuable activity on behalf of our staff and our clients.

Currently, Ops at EnergyCAP is maintained by three full-time staff members: Adam Hegedus (Vice President of Information Technology, and Chief Information Officer), AJ Kertis (Senior System & Network Administrator), and Jeffrey Beck (System & Network Specialist).“The dedication that AJ and Jeff show to our customers and our staff is second to none,” said Hegedus. “I can always count on them to be willing to help in any situation.”

Since EnergyCAP is a software company, the trio serves EnergyCAP staff and clients by addressing a variety of computer hardware and software issues. Hegedus says that about 70 percent of his team’s time is devoted to supporting existing clients. His team worked on the “back end” of EnergyCAP’s popular Bill CAPture option, which uses a variety of advanced technologies to obtain electronic utility bills from client vendors and then automatically populate the EnergyCAP database with the energy information.

Hegedus has recently played a key role in integrating EnergyCAP’s online software with a new release of the EPA’s ENERGY STAR rating software. EnergyCAP provides a seamless web-based interface for transferring utility bill data to the EPA’s Portfolio Manager interface and returning an ENERGY STAR rating and reports.

The Ops team is responsible for conceiving and executing long-term action plans for improving the company’s software offerings, such as the recent move to acquire co-location facilities in the metropolitan Pittsburgh area for improved server performance, data security, and redundancy.

Some of the Ops team’s recent work tickets illustrate the variety and breadth of their day-to-day activities:

OPS-1894: Assist staff with projector test for Catalyst training conference.
OPS-1891: Provide database guest login information for Catalyst training conference.
OPS-1888: Fix printer.
OPS-1885: Update report files on appropriate servers and notify customer service.
OPS-1879: Migrate new customer database from implementation to production server.
OPS-1876: Assist staff with a permissions issue for a database.
OPS-1868: Supply equipment needed for a meeting.
OPS-1867: Correct issue with internal server performance.
OPS-1859: Resolve software licensing issue and reporting workaround.
OPS-1852: Run scripts purchased for a customer database hosted by EnergyCAP.
OPS-1851: Update access code for building security system.
OPS-1847: Update custom bill import application for staff.
OPS-1841: Bring new EnergyCAP-hosted database online for a client.
OPS-1831: Assist a client with login username updates.
OPS-1825: Help internal staff with website management issue.
OPS-1818: Push upgraded software to managed client production DBs.
OPS-1802: Respond to software installation request.

Looking to the future, Hegedus says that his team is working on an upgrade to the hosting platform to assure additional redundancy (insurance against data loss), fault tolerance, and performance speed. “The new hosting environment will take advantage of current technologies to allow us to be in tune with all aspects of the environment, and much better prepared for trouble or failure,” he said.

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