Business & Tech

Paramedic's Paperless Device Used in Levittown

First responders in Levittown use paperless device developed by a paramedic who is also president of Allegiance Technology in Hatboro.

By Theresa Katalinas

John Hill is all about saving.

In his nighttime job as a paramedic for Second Alarmers Rescue Squad, Hill, of Upper Moreland Township, strives to save people’s lives.

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During the day, Hill, president of Hatboro-based Allegiance Technology and field service workers, time, paper and money.

Locally, a Levittown HVAC company and first responders in Levittown and Fairless Hills use equipment developed by Hill.

In the years before the iPad was a household name, Hill bought a tablet PC and developed a software program to be used in conjunction with it. Dubbed Toolbox Forms, the Windows-based program converts existing paper forms into electronic versions that can be integrated with any database or accounting program.

“It comes with a pen. You can write with this,” Hill said. “The pen is your mouse.”

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The tablet allows people from fields such as home inspection and HVAC the ability to email a completed form to customers instantly instead of scribbling out work orders that are sometimes difficult to read and eventually must be input into a computer.

The tablets that Hill sells in conjunction with the software program come equipped with cameras and bar code readers to help with inventory. The devices will be used soon in 380 DSW Shoes stores as part of a $1.2 million sale – the largest in his company’s history.

“They don’t have to learn very much new,” Hill said of his customers. “They love it because they barely have to write anything.”

So far in 2013, Allegiance Technology has netted $1.8 million in sales, which was the company’s total for all of 2012. In the three to four years prior to that, Hill said annual sales ranged from $1.8 million to $2.1 million. 

“This was the best year ever because of the DSW deal,” Hill said.

Becoming his own boss

Hill, who in 2002 had worked for 14 years in EMS, had decided that he needed a “break” from paramedic work.

“I never liked any of my own bosses,” he said. “I want to be my own boss.”

And that he is. 

Since forming Allegiance Technology in July 2002–originally out of a Horsham office–Hill has watched sales grow from about one per month to one per week then a couple a week to the “thousands” of customers he now has.

“It was so busy that the phones would just ring all day long,” Hill said of the year 2005, as it relates to his small company which he describes as looking to have a national reach.

The first year at the helm, Hill said Allegiance Technology was pretty much a one-man show. The following year he hired an employee and an office manager and now employs half a dozen workers, many of whom live out of state.

“Everybody uses skype for instant messaging,” Hill said. “Most of our customers are everywhere else.”

Locally, Hill said Souderton Ambulance, a Levittown HVAC company and first responders in Levittown and Fairless Hills use the equipment.

Despite having a natural in with the Second Alarmers, Hill said he does not see the nonprofit EMS group–which serves Hatboro, Upper Moreland, Abington, Upper Dublin, Whitpain, Jenkintown and Rockledge–offering the paperless technology anytime soon.

“Everything is a cost on the EMS side,” Hill said.

Still, even as Allegiance Technology flourishes and he moves from his hands-on role to one “more presidential,” Hill said choosing one job over the other is next to impossible.

“I love both jobs,” Hill said. “That’s my problem.”


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