Verde Solutions and SnapCount Case Study: Buy vs. Build

Verde Solutions is a national full-service energy efficiency and renewable energy firm that designs and installs LED lighting and renewable energy projects. The Verde Solutions team began conducting lighting retrofit projects after acquiring a lighting company that had created an internal platform to conduct audits and create LED lighting proposals unique to their needs. Operating then, at a smaller scale,this homegrown platform met all of Verde Solutions’ basic needs, but as the company grew and clients’ needs became more complex, it was apparent that Verde was becoming inhibited by the internal platform.

The internally built system used by the Verde Solutions team consisted of auditors collecting information on pencil and paper, and then sending the information back to the office in either Excel or PDF format. The individual responsible for generating the proposal would then parse the document line by line and input the solution into the internal software. “The biggest time suck was adding all of the audit data into the platform in order to create a proposal, this could take a day or two, slowing down the whole process” said Hanna Winter, Project Specialist at Verde Solutions.

Taking aim at larger sized projects, Verde Solutions began to analyze the shortcomings of their internally built software including:

• Messy, hand-written audits and photos taken on cell phones in the field
• Time consuming data transcription from paper to Excel or PDF
• Wasted time and resources sifting through the Excel or PDF document to load into their software
• Delayed proposal generation times of 1+ days
• Lack of proposal and document customization (i.e. purchase orders and work orders)
• Communication issues from team member to team member
• Inability to consistently stick to a project timeline, inhibiting the sales cycle
• No project management functionality from the internal software
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“As our project size grew it became very apparent that our internal software was restricting. We were using our resources and people to input data into the software, wasting too much time. We did not want our growth and ability to scale to be hindered due to a slow audit to proposal timeline. Our system did not allow us to pass audit information quickly between team members causing delays in proposal presentation times.” said Winter.

Seeking to remedy their struggles with their internal software, Verde Solutions began to evaluate their options for retrofit software. Searching for a user-friendly solution that could truly help them grow, Verde Solutions chose SnapCount to replace their homegrown system. “We wanted to find a platform that could do everything our in-house platform could not. I requested a demo from SnapCount and they got back to me within an hour and we haven’t looked back since” said Winter.

In selecting a digital platform to replace their internal system, Verde Solutions had a goal of bringing their entire process from audit to quote to project management all into one system. Verde Solutions sought to track vendors for projects, track project installation status, and create project purchase orders without ever leaving the software platform.  “We wanted to bring all of our processes together in one system, and looking at SnapCount’s competition, most of them had an audit app but no project management offering. With SnapCount we can manage all of our operations in one platform from start to finish and achieve a true ‘win’” said Winter.

A True Win

With their prior use of an internal platform, Verde Solutions experienced pitfalls in each department involved in a retrofit project. With time and resources being used inefficiently, a ripple effect was created throughout each department involved in a project, inhibiting Verde Solutions from achieving what they define as a true “win”.

“Each department has their own type of win. For sales it’s being able to get a proposal in front of a client in a timely manner. For our installation team it’s having the right material on site and installing a project with no issues. When the client is happy, it’s a win for every department. SnapCount addresses all of our needs to align every department involved from start to finish and helps us achieve the ultimate win for the client”said Natalie Bartolozzi, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Verde Solutions.

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