Pronghorn Solutions Group - Retrofit Software Case Study

Pronghorn Solutions Group (PSG) is a lighting retrofit contractor in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in lighting retrofits. As a practice, PSG had been collecting audit data on paper notes and then painstakingly transferred the data to Excel, until they began to run into significant bottlenecks with the development of each retrofit project. Typical process breakdowns including arduous data collection and transcription errors, mundane-looking proposals, and overall project inaccuracy. Brian Kutolowski, Director of Strategic Accounts at PSG knew it was time to “retrofit” his own internal process and look for a digital solution to take PSG to the next level. “The paper notes and Excel spreadsheets work fine when you’re doing ‘onesie, twosie’ jobs, but we wanted to be doing hundreds of jobs. There’s no way you can ever run a retrofit business using spreadsheets, that’s just a hobby at that rate. It was time to look for a more advanced method” said Kutolowski.

Seeking a solution tailored to their needs, PSG initially settled for a retrofit software with a low upfront cost. While their chosen software vendor offered some initial flexibility and appeared to listen to their feedback, it became quickly apparent that the vendor was ill-equipped to handle their needs. Things came to a head when after securing a national, multi-site roll out, the software became glitchy and the servers could not handle the volume of data required for PSG’s projects.

“While the vendor we chose had told us they would build us ‘exactly what we wanted’, the software ended up being expensive, painful and glitchy. We had to add functionality such as controls and spent countless hours as their developer and debugger instead of as a customer. The servers could not handle the volume of projects we wanted to push through the system as we were doing 1000+ projects with 30 people using the software everyday” said Kutolowski.

As growing pains mounted, the software vendor chosen by PSG shut their doors in early 2018. “This particular software built their platform based around what they thought ESCOs and retrofitters needed but in the end, we spent too many hours helping them develop the software instead of going out and winning projects. The software was relatively simple to use, but the number of bugs and storage issues we experienced wasn’t worth it in the end and it was time to search for another solution once they went out of business” said Kutolowski.

Armed with prior experience with the use of retrofit software, PSG began the search for software that would better suit their needs in terms of customization and flexibility. With the goal to continue closing major accounts, PSG aimed to focus their time and efforts on developing retrofit projects rather than aiding in the development of a software.

After an evaluation of a few retrofit software options, PSG made the switch to SnapCount based on the ability to help them grow as a company and the superior architecture of a purpose-build solution. Some of the key factor in their decision included:

• The audit, quote, and proposal functionalities in SnapCount providing greater detail than the previous software

• A cleaner, faster overall experience especially while developing solutions for a project

• A more professional and concise proposal offering

• A dedicated, expert support team that was helpful and quick to respond