Brief History
Energy Efficiency Pros is an industry leader in providing sustainable, low energy commercial lighting retrofit solutions, with a wide range of high-efficiency LED lighting solutions, fixtures, and lighting control systems. EEP offers an unparalleled combination of expertise, energy and cost savings. Don Arrigo founded the company in 2010 to meet the need for high-efficiency commercial lighting retrofit solutions. In addition to the environmental benefits, their LED fixtures provide energy savings of 50-80% over traditional lighting, while increasing lighting quality and safety. EEP has experience modernizing lighting systems for hotels, apartment complexes, warehouses, and other commercial buildings and spaces throughout North America.
The Problem
Like many businesses that are growing, systems, processes and procedures tend to lag the growth. Energy Efficiency Pros came to VARC Solutions with a problem. They had lots of spreadsheets, documents being passed back and forth, different methods (often people dependent) for tracking sales in their pipeline, and an adhoc mishmash of systems cobbled together. And above all that, they had very little visibility into where things were at and how things were going. Important details about their projects went missing until the last minute, creating a very chaotic situation and lots of fire drills.
We had very little visibility into where things were at and how things were going. Important details about their projects went missing until the last minute, creating a very chaotic situation and lots of fire drills.
All of this came to a head in 2019 during a busy sales month when the challenges of not having a cohesive back office and CRM became all too clear.
The Solution
VARC Solutions worked with Energy Efficiency Pros to uncover the root of the problem and build a scalable solution. A crucial theme in this process was bringing together their systems, processes, and data into a cohesive system. Being able to track everything in one place was a big need.
VARC Solutions built a CRM for managing their sales pipeline as well as a backend system for handling quotes, invoices, payments, and work orders.
The last piece of the puzzle was making sure all of this was connected to their QuickBooks accounting system through VARC Solutions’ Q2QConnect program, enabling them to manage their sales-through-fulfillment process in Quickbase and transferring the financially relevant details to QuickBooks for financial reporting.
The Results
Now, everything is in one place. This has enabled Energy Efficiency Pros to hold their sales representatives accountable to getting all required data into the system up front…leading to a smoother fulfillment process for their customers and greater customer satisfaction.
EEPs Owner and leadership team now have a clear line-of-sight into their entire business. This has improved management’s oversight and team accountability. Important details are no longer forgotten until the last minute. Systems, people, and processes are more organized and efficient as a result.
But that’s not even the best part. Whereas things before were chaotic, with people just doing their own thing, now everyone is following the same process so management is confident knowing things are happening and are going to continuing happening as expected. This has made EEPs operations and business more scalable.
We now have a clear line-of-sight into our entire business. This has improved our oversight and team accountability. Important details are no longer forgotten until the last minute. Systems, people, and processes are more organized and efficient as a result.
Sales managers can now keep an eye on the CRM/sales pipeline, follow up with sales reps, see projects which are falling outside of expected timelines, and engage to solve the problems. It’s easier now to identify if the problem is somewhere in the process, or isolated to individuals or specific locations of their business. Such accountability has led to business growth.
The owner Don now knows exactly where opportunities sit. With a clearer view of what’s happening in the business, he is better able to lead the company and provide strategic direction on where they are going in the future.
At Energy Efficiency Pros, the future is very bright!