Partner Profile:
Industry: Solar energy
Size: Enterprise
Partner Type: Consulting Partner
Results
- ENACT's customer, Apex Solar, has doubled their revenues since using Zoho and ENACT.
- 10+ companies who also want ENACT have signed up for Zoho CRM.
- ENACT’s market presence and user base have expanded to Asia, a market they didn’t expect to enter so soon.
- ENACT avoided spending 6 months developing their own integration.
The Product Management team at ENACT wanted to provide users of their own software with a call-center management, business reporting, and marketing automation solution that would work seamlessly with the ENACT platform. But the team was wary of sacrificing six months to develop their own integration when they could have used that time to build out more of their core platform capabilities in the solar energy sector. When the only way forward was to integrate with other software options, they didn’t hesitate. They chose Zoho.
About ENACT SYSTEMS
ENACT’s end-to-end business platform accelerates sales, financing, and operations for solar project developers, distributors, and installers. It also provides marketplace and analytics services for a range of industry stakeholders. The company is headquartered in San Ramon, CA, with offices in Bangalore, India.
Time is Money, and Six Months Was Too Costly
The distributed solar market is growing rapidly. As ENACT’s customers—installers, distributors, and funds—grew their businesses to user groups of 50 or more per company, they needed call-center management, business reporting, scheduling, and marketing automation solutions that would scale with them.
In fact, Apex Solar, a solar developer in the state of New York, was using three different applications from three different vendors. Because these applications were all different systems that didn’t easily work together, it was very difficult for teams to collaborate productively.
But ENACT’s platform was very focused on solar industry-specific design, project management, financing, and workflow needs, and the company had no plans to spend the time and money to develop such feature integrations themselves. And Apex Solar didn’t have a budget for a built-out IT team to fill in the gaps.
Rick Becker, VP of Product Management, knew he had to have a system that would provide ENACT’s customers an integrated end-to-end platform. So when the only way forward was to integrate with other software options, he didn’t hesitate.
The Perfect Combination: A Single Sign-On and Quality Customer Service
He chose Zoho CRM for three major reasons: The interface was extremely easy to use, the APIs were powerful, and it meshed well with ENACT’s similarly intuitive and robust platform. With just two new buttons to get used to and the added benefit of a single sign-on approach, the ENACT-Zoho integration provided what Becker calls a “seamless interconnection” between the two systems, without having to leave the ENACT workflows.
Users are able to take, for example, a workflow status or production information from ENACT, carry it over into Zoho, and then use the power of the CRM’s dashboarding and reporting to create a lead and transfer it—with all of its details—into the ENACT platform. From there, once a quote is created, a single click sends the proposal and any other required information back into Zoho CRM.
One of the greatest value-adds Zoho provided for ENACT was the fact that it reduced the time it took ENACT to onboard customers new to Zoho, thanks to the CRM’s single sign-on feature and Zoho’s exceptional customer service. “Any time a company brings on a new software program to help improve efficiencies and cut costs, there will inevitably be challenges and speed bumps. The level of support and timeliness of that support in setting the system up, making adjustments, and fixing bugs is impressive.”
ENACT Enters a New Market Sooner With Zoho
Several ENACT customers now utilize the ENACT-Zoho integrated solution. They appreciate the successful scale-out and ease of access for multiple business functions on one platform.
A lot has changed for Apex Solar: What was once three different systems that didn’t work together is now one integrated platform, handling the sales, marketing, and reporting they need to run their business.
And a lot has changed for ENACT, too. Integrating with Zoho has propelled them to expand their market presence and user base to Asia, where Zoho CRM already has a large user base. In addition, almost a dozen companies in the US who also want ENACT have signed up on Zoho.
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