Overview
When the founding partners at AspirEnergy made explosive growth a company imperative, there was no looking back. After an honest review of their internal processes, they knew the current pencil, paper and Excel spreadsheet methods were incompatible with their growth mandate. With the goal of managing multi-site, multi-state projects with more speed and accuracy, they sought out a more modern, digital approach to their operation.
After adopting the SnapCount® retrofit software solution, AspirEnergy was able to easily manage complex retrofit projects with multiple locations across the United States in one central location, and increase efficiency and accuracy.
The Problem
Founded in 2014, AspirEnergy is an energy solutions company that helps commercial properties increase long-term value by reducing operating costs through sustainable solutions. As they began to take on larger, and a greater volume of projects, they soon realized their operation was hamstrung by their highly manual methods of data collection and management.
Using the traditional auditing method of pencil and paper, AspirEnergy observed that the transcription process from the audit notes taken in the field to an Excel based proposal was creating a throughput bottleneck. Spending extra hours transcribing notes and attempting to create proposals in Excel meant there was little to no time for auditors to get back into the field and conduct new audits. “Data Entry is a non-value-added task”, said Rishi Shah, Co-Founder of AspirEnergy. “the paper and excel method was severely limiting the growth of our company”.
In addition, transposing of photos, videos or voice notes taken in the field was impacting accuracy. Since these various details were not organized in one single place, they could not easily be linked to one another, causing a data accuracy crisis. This also effected labor costs as second trips back to a facility were often required.
The Solution
With the problem clearly defined to AspirEnergy, they realized the speed and accuracy of the audit and proposal required drastic improvement. This led AspirEnergy to search for a tablet-based lighting retrofit software that would meet the following requirements:
- Enable comprehensive audits on a disconnected tablet
- Manage multi-location projects in one platform
- Improve audit accuracy by associating photos, videos or voice notes with particular rooms and fixtures
- Ability for an auditor at the main office in New Jersey to view photos of fixtures and complete an audit
- Generate proposals from within the platform to eliminate the days of time spent manipulating Excel spreadsheets
AspirEnergy discovered SnapCount in 2014, and after an evaluation of SnapCount and its competitors, selected the SnapCount digital solution. “The choice was a “no-brainer” according to Shree Shah, Co-Founder and Principal of AspirEnergy. “We chose SnapCount due to the greater level of detail that it offered compared to the competition”, said Shree. AspirEnergy knew that SnapCount would enable the management of a multi-location project with detailed proposals and audit accuracy for each location. SnapCount allowed AspirEnergy’s auditors to take photos or videos in the field and transfer them to the experts back to the New Jersey office to be evaluated. This eliminated a second trip to the facility for the auditor, freeing up time for additional audits.
The Results
Utilizing SnapCount to manage national account projects with hundreds of moving parts, AspirEnergy increased project completion speed by 30%. Quicker field data collection and the elimination of manual data transcription lead to a more efficient audit. In addition, proposal development also improved as spreadsheet manipulation was replaced by mere clicks in SnapCount.
The Aspire team reduced proposal turn time from one week to 48 hours, as SnapCount delivered and end-to-end audit-to-proposal process that produced a professional and compelling customer proposal. The collapsed delivery time enabled auditors to return to the field more quickly to audit and quote additional projects.
With improved project speed and proposal generation, AspirEnergy in turn increased project win rate percentage by 25%. The ability to produce a professional, detailed proposal in a prompt manner was a game changer for AspirEnergy. Using SnapCount, AspirEnergy auditors could perform audits that collected greater detail than their competitors at an unmatched pace.
AspirEnergy Reaction
Given the ability to manage national projects and quickly turn around proposals in SnapCount, AspirEnergy was extremely satisfied with their choice of SnapCount over other retrofit software. “Before SnapCount, it took us a week to generate a proposal. Now we guarantee a 48-hour turnaround time. This helps show our customers that we are interested in their project and we are responsive. We are currently managing a project with 30+ locations, all from within SnapCount. We couldn’t do it without SnapCount”, said Scott Earp, Assessment Specialist at AspirEnergy. “We’ve helped change businesses forever using SnapCount – one customer told us that the savings we provided them on their retrofit project was turned into a raise for all of their staff. Even with a few competitors in the market to choose from, SnapCount, was the clear choice.”
