Inside Vixxo · AI in operations
How AI Gave a Retail Facility Team Its Day Back
Inside the automation Vixxo Facility Solutions built for a national retailer program with thousands of locations.
Key takeaways
- A national retailer program with thousands of locations was generating survey data, site folders and quote packages by hand, one location at a time.
- Vixxo connected the tools the team already used so that survey answers fill the tracker, build the site folder and produce the quote package automatically.
- The team member who builds these packages said each one used to take about 45 minutes to an hour. After the automation, the repetitive assembly is done by AI before they manually open the folder.
The situation: a big new program with high expectations
When a major national retailer brought thousands of locations to Vixxo, the whole organization was excited. The program was also demanding, and the team supporting it was feeling the pressure.
The program did not yet have a system built around it. Field surveys for equipment such as air conditioners and coolers were coming back through a form tool, and all of that information had to be logged in a project tracker before a job could move forward. Then came the quotes, and the customer was starting to feel the wait.
What the work looked like before, and after
For each location, a team member used to handle every step by hand. None of these steps required expert judgment, but all of them took time, and they repeated for every site.
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Before: by hand, every site
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After: assembled automatically
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What VIXXO built
The automation works in two stages, followed by a person.
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Stage one Intake |
→ |
Stage two Quote package |
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Final gate Human review |
Stage one: intake. When a survey comes back, the system fills the project tracker row automatically. At the same time it creates the site’s folder in SharePoint with the right subfolders, files the survey in the surveys folder, and adds a link from the tracker row to that folder. One click takes a team member from the tracker to everything about the site.
Stage two: the quote package. A second tool reads the tracker and generates four sheets, including a tax sheet and a quick-reference sheet of the survey notes. They land in the site folder, ready to open.
From there, the team member opens the folder, checks the sheets and sends them. Vixxo is now adding a third piece: collecting purchase order numbers from emails and attaching the number and a link to the right tracker row, so nobody has to do that by hand either.
The human check is on purpose
The package could be pushed into the client’s portal automatically. Vixxo chose not to.
“Before anything reaches the client’s portal, we review it carefully and make sure it’s right.”
- Peter Cardinal, Director, Design & Integrations at Vixxo Facility Solutions
A person reviews every package before the client sees it. The automation removes the assembly work. It does not remove the judgment.
The result: time back in the day
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45–60 min per package, the old way |
The team member who builds these packages told Peter that each one used to take about 45 minutes to an hour. Now the assembly is finished when she opens the folder. |
Lessons for operations teams
| Start with steps that need no judgment | Data entry, folder creation, filing and linking are good candidates. Quote review and client delivery are not. |
| Keep a person at the final gate | Automation can assemble the package. A person decides whether it is right to send. |
| Expect to connect several tools | The value comes from linking the systems your team already uses, and that takes patience. |
| Share what works | Vixxo’s projects group runs a small internal AI council that meets monthly. Each member keeps a project of their own. When someone gets stuck, the group points them to a teammate who has solved a similar problem and hands over a working start instead of a long explanation. |
Frequently asked questions
Does this replace the people who build quote packages?
No. It removes the repetitive assembly so they can spend their time checking the work and talking with the client.
Why not automate delivery to the client portal?
Vixxo wants a person to confirm each package is accurate before the client sees it.
Do you need to be a developer to build this?
Peter does not write code. He builds with an AI coding assistant and focuses on the process the team follows.
What happens with the survey data?
It fills the project tracker automatically, and the original survey is filed in a matching site folder with a link back to the tracker row.
Conclusion
For a program with thousands of locations, small manual steps add up to days of work and a customer who feels the delay. Automating the repetitive steps and keeping a person at the final review gave one team its time back without giving up accuracy.
Spend less. Stress less. One work order at a time.
