Modernizing Field Services for Solar Installations

Reducing cost and increasing productivity with a custom field service application

Background

Our Client is a mid-size field services company, providing residential solar installations and services in the Greater New York City area.

Having grown to a team of 180 and 5 locations, the Client had difficulties managing the logistics and field service operations manually. Dispatching was done on calls and emails, and jobs routing required over 12 hours of effort daily. Simply put, there was no easy way to create proper routes for the technicians, track their status and job location throughout the day, and create work orders electronically. Field technicians used paper forms with carbon copies that would be entered in the system manually at the end of the day, which took time and was prone to human errors, causing improper billing.

What We Did

• Developed a web-based dispatch module with live map view of all technicians, dashboards, and job details

• Ingested data from QuickBooks, Salesforce, and the warehouse management system

• The module included ML-based routing, cutting the time from 12 hours to less than 2 hours

• Developed mobile apps for technicians, with features like status updates, auto-emails to customers with location updates, van and warehouse parts availability, electronic work orders, e-invoice, etc.

Our Difference

By developing the app, we eliminated manual process and streamlined the Client’s operations. This resulted in cost savings of over $200k annually and a 12% revenue increase due to higher customer satisfaction and cross-selling, increased productivity, and invoice accuracy.