ENE experienced rapid growth in rebate programs since 2018, with their number of clients doubling and rebates offered jumping from 58 to 131, leading to a 30% increase in applications processed per month.
Complexities of rebate program expansion:
ENE’s client utilities required new levels of reporting which was further complicated by each municipality’s differing rebate requirements (e.g. disposal, size minimums, energy ratings, energy star certifications) and tiered rebate amounts based on system size. Additionally, there was a myriad of system requirements consisting of data points that had to be separately collected, validated, and recorded, requiring a large amount of tracking.
ANB provide a workflow solution that reduced rebate processing time by up to 75%:
Sarah Doherty of Energy New England commented, “It’s been wonderful working with ANB, and we would not have been able to continue our growth without transferring to this system. We can now use our resources more effectively and provide higher quality services.”
How ANB software functions for ENE’s specific needs:
eTRACK+
- The software provides configurable data fields which make it easier to fulfill requirements for each municipality
- Intuitive user experience provides a logical flow of questions for utility customers
- Embedded customer support provides help menus, how-to videos and contextual help for complex data fields
- Validation capabilities – e.g. MLP account verification is now on the front end of the process so ineligible accounts are rejected at the beginning of processes
- Automatically generated emails notify utility customers of status changes in their applications
- The software tracks direct correspondence made between ENE/each municipality and its customers then automatically updates status changes
- Ad-hoc reporting
- Dynamic applications offer conditional data fields– new fields can appear depending on what has been entered into a related data field
- Integration with the Energy Star database allows in-app model search and selection by model number
DRM
For utilities who are concerned with customers lack of internet access, DRM enables the automatic recognition and extraction of data from manually completed forms (hand written/typed into PDF) to automatically populate e-form data fields.
Compatibility with QuickBooks
ANB have created a report that is run in QuickBooks such that when a check is created, the check number and date is filled in this report. This report is then uploaded into eTRACK+ which automatically populates the information for each application and updates the status.
eTRM
The energy savings reporting option is connected to the Massachusetts Technical Reference Manual for instant value calculations.
Conclusion:
The automated workflow solution that ANB built for ENE has resulted in better customer service, fewer errors, and less training needed for employees. The MLP’s have also had increased customer satisfaction from representatives who find applying for credits easier, reporting clearer, and accessing/searching for specific applications more convenient.
