Key Things to Know
- Simpro Group announced RAIN, the first major release built on its Lightning platform.
- The update spans three products: AroFlo, BigChange and Simpro.
- Cooper, a unified AI system, drives the new features and enhancements.
- The company claims a development pace roughly 10 times faster than traditional cycles.
- Features include an AI scheduler, a native CRM, AI photo validation, smart safety forms and field inventory control.
- Lightning customers get the updates at no additional cost.
- A price-lock guarantee caps annual increases at no more than 3% above inflation.
- The next milestone, codenamed THUNDER, arrives this year at Simprosium events in London, Sydney and Miami.
What Is RAIN?
RAIN is the first major wave of new features and AI-infused enhancements Simpro Group has built on its Lightning platform. The company, which develops software for field service trades, describes the release as proof that its recent Lightning launch is delivering on its promise. RAIN includes dozens of new features, more than 100 AI-infused enhancements and hundreds of customer-requested improvements.
What Role Does Cooper AI Play?
Cooper is the unified AI system at the center of Simpro Group’s platforms, and every RAIN feature was built inside it. When Lightning launched, it placed Cooper across the company’s field service management tools, a move Simpro Group says lets it build faster. Because each feature stays connected to Cooper, the AI continues to learn from real-world use.
How Fast Is Simpro Group Shipping Updates?
Simpro Group says it now ships new features and enhancements at roughly 10 times the speed of traditional development cycles. The company points to RAIN as evidence, noting the release arrived within a few months of the Lightning launch. That pace applies across all three platforms.
Which Platforms Does RAIN Cover?
RAIN covers three platforms: AroFlo, BigChange and Simpro. Features roll out across all three over the coming months. Some tools are specific to one platform, while others, such as real-time schedule re-optimization, extend to multiple products.
What Are the Features in RAIN?
RAIN introduces five headline features across the three platforms. They include:
- Intelligent AI Scheduler (Simpro): Cooper weighs location, skills, certifications and real-time availability to reduce drive time and assign the right technician to each job. Real-time schedule re-optimization also comes to AroFlo and BigChange, so the board updates itself when a job cancels or an urgent call arrives.
- Native Sales Pipeline and CRM (Simpro and BigChange): Users track leads, manage contacts and convert opportunities into jobs without leaving the platform.
- AI-Validated Photo Capture (BigChange): AI reviews each photo to confirm the correct evidence was captured, reducing follow-up visits and disputes.
- Smart Safety Forms (AroFlo): A user photographs the workspace, and AI identifies on-site hazards and writes them into the form before work begins.
- Field Inventory Control (Simpro): Workers manage stock from any job site by phone, checking materials, transferring stock between vehicles and running stock-takes without an office trip.
What Does the Lightning Price-Lock Guarantee Cover?
The Lightning Price-Lock Guarantee caps any annual price increase at no more than 3% above inflation for the life of the agreement. Simpro Group raised the point in the context of AI costs across the software market.
“AI is expensive, and the market is pricing it that way. Many AI-powered SaaS companies are raising their prices by as much as 50% a year,” says Fred Voccola, chairman and CEO of Simpro Group. “The trades earn every dollar the hard way. We built Lightning to make more of those dollars stick.”
Voccola adds, “Lightning was never about a single launch. It was about changing how fast we can show up for the field service trades. We put a brain in the platform, and with RAIN that brain delivered a more genuinely useful product, in just a few months’ time.”
What Comes After RAIN?
The next milestone, named THUNDER, arrives this year at Simprosium, the company’s annual event for the field service trades community. Simprosium takes place in London, Sydney and, for the first time, Miami. Simpro Group says the same development pace behind RAIN will bring Lightning’s AI agents to market and expand its JustAsk tool from a way to query data into one that helps run the business.
