29 January 2026

 

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in business—except, until recently, in the places where much of the real economy actually works. That is beginning to change. Earlier this year, Simpro Group, a global provider of operating software for trade and field service businesses, acquired Delight, an AI-powered customer engagement platform designed to turn completed service jobs into repeat revenue. In an exclusive interview with MoveTheNeedle.news, Simpro Group Chairman and CEO Fred Voccola explains why the acquisition is about far more than adding a new feature. By bringing automated, data-driven customer engagement directly into Simpro’s core field service platform, the company is applying AI not just in the office, but in the day-to-day reality of field operations—where labour shortages, rising costs, and thin margins have made efficiency existential.

What makes the move particularly noteworthy, Voccola points out, is not the use of AI itself—now commonplace across many industries—but where Simpro is applying it. Field services remain one of the most operationally complex and digitally under-served sectors of the economy. Work happens on the move, schedules change constantly, and profit margins leave little room for error. By embedding AI-driven customer engagement directly into the same system that runs jobs, schedules, assets, and invoicing, Simpro is extending intelligence from the back office into the field—and then back again, closing a loop that has historically been manual, fragmented, and inefficient.

An operating system for the trades

For readers less familiar with Simpro, the Group is the global leader in AI-first operating software for the trades, supporting more than 24,000 businesses and over 450,000 users across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.

Those users range from small, owner-operated firms to large, multi-location enterprises across electrical, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), plumbing, security, fire safety, and facilities services. Despite their diversity, they share the same operational DNA: mobile workforces, unpredictable workloads, and constant coordination between the field and the office.

Simpro’s differentiation, Voccola argues, lies in its ambition to be more than a job management tool. “Most legacy platforms focus narrowly on dispatching, job tracking, or invoicing. Our intent is fundamentally different. We are building a complete, unified operating platform that supports everything required to run a modern trade business—not just the day-to-day logistics of service work.”

That distinction matters. Fragmented software forces trade businesses to stitch together scheduling tools, accounting systems, customer databases, and marketing platforms—often manually. Simpro’s approach is to unify those functions so that operational data flows continuously across the business.

Why AI matters more in the field than the office

While many AI deployments focus on automating administrative tasks, field services face a different challenge: constant disruption. Voccola refers to these as “chaos variables.”

“Trade professionals know how to do their jobs. What hurts efficiency and profit are the variables they can’t control—traffic delays, technician availability, truck issues, customers not showing up, and subcontractors missing updates.”

In this environment, static plans quickly become obsolete. Simpro’s AI-first approach is designed to respond dynamically. The platform can “dynamically adapt schedules, reroute work, and optimize outcomes based on thousands of inputs, including technician skills, job economics, customer preferences, and real-world conditions,” Voccola points out.

Rather than presenting insights after the fact, AI operates continuously in the background, constantly adjusting and improving how the business runs. That means customers spend less time reacting to problems and more time running and growing their business.

Why Delight had to be acquired, not integrated

Against this backdrop, Simpro’s decision to acquire Delight rather than maintain a partner integration becomes strategic rather than opportunistic. “In an AI-first world, the most important ingredients are access to data and deep contextual awareness of how every part of the business interacts to drive profit and efficiency. Those things are impossible to fully achieve through a loose integration,” says Voccola.

Simpro already sits at the centre of operational data: jobs, customers, assets, scheduling, and financials. Delight adds a layer that turns that data outward, toward customer engagement and demand generation. “When customer engagement and demand generation live natively inside that system, AI can understand context—not just isolated events—and act intelligently across the entire business,” Voccola explains.

This integration directly supports Simpro’s core mission of improving profitability in an industry where margins are tight. “Many trade businesses operate on margins of around 10%, largely because demand is unpredictable and follow-up is manual. By embedding Delight directly into the platform, we can convert completed work into repeat revenue and more predictable demand—raising lifetime value without adding overhead,” says Voccola.

Moving upstream from service delivery

Traditional field service software is focused on execution: getting the job done once it has been sold. Delight changes that dynamic. “Delight helps ensure there’s always another job coming next,” says Voccola.

By analysing historical jobs, assets, and customer behaviour, the platform can automatically identify when follow-up, re-service, or upsell opportunities make sense—and act on them. This shifts marketing from a reactive activity to a continuous, data-driven process.

That shift matters because growth in the trades is expensive. “Acquiring a new customer typically costs 5–7x more than generating repeat work from an existing one, yet many trade businesses still treat each job as a one-off transaction,” Voccola points out. Existing customers, he adds, are cheaper to serve, more predictable, and less price-sensitive. The challenge has never been recognising the value of repeat business; it has been executing it consistently. “Without the right systems, most trade businesses lack the time or tools to consistently follow up, re-engage, and capture that value.”

Delight automates that execution. Using real operational data, it drives reminders, follow-ups, and re-service opportunities at the right moment, without adding administrative burden or marketing spend. “Customers using this approach have already seen up to 20% incremental revenue through higher lifetime value, more predictable demand, and stronger margins,” Voccola notes.

Importantly, this growth comes from better use of existing data and capacity, not from longer working hours or larger teams.

What customers will notice first

For existing Simpro customers, the impact is immediate and practical. “The first thing customers will notice is how easy it is to put repeat revenue on autopilot,” says Voccola. Campaigns can be set up in minutes, automatically reaching out to past leads, quotes, and completed jobs.

Because Delight is fully integrated, data stays continuously in sync. “Customers can see exactly what’s working through real-time performance tracking, while the AI handles targeting and timing in the background,” Voccola explains. The result is a clear return on investment, less administrative effort, and a new revenue stream built directly into the system they already use.

Balancing acquisitions with organic growth

Simpro is careful to position acquisitions as complementary to internal innovation, not a substitute for it. “The majority of our innovation comes from our own product and engineering teams, who are building and improving the platform around the clock based on direct customer feedback and real-world trade workflows,” says Voccola.

Acquisitions like Delight are used selectively to accelerate solutions to specific problems. “When we acquire technology, we bring it fully into the platform and product organization, aligning it to our AI-first architecture so customers get native capabilities—not disconnected tools,” he adds.

What becomes possible next

Summarising, Voccola beieves the acquisiton of Delight allows Simpro to move customer engagement from something that happens after the work into something that is intelligently orchestrated alongside the work itself.

Because Simpro already manages live field activity, new scenarios become possible. “If a technician finishes a job early and is already in a neighborhood, the platform could automatically trigger targeted outreach to nearby customers—offering inspections, add-on services, or preventive maintenance while capacity is available,” he explains.

Other opportunities extend to cash flow and customer quality. “When integrated with payments, the platform could intelligently prioritize engagement toward customers who pay faster or generate higher lifetime value—helping trade businesses improve cash flow, not just revenue. Helping trade businesses earn more for the work they already do, without adding complexity or overhead.”

In an industry that has long operated without much technological fanfare, this may be one of the most practical—and impactful—applications of AI yet.

 

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