The Goal

Dvinci Energy approached us early in their start-up days with a system that did the job but had room to improve. Our goal was to fill the gap between the end customer, Dvinci and their partners. 

Initially, every data point between the customer and partner was handled through different processes that required a human to pull data from one source and keep it up to date with another. Dvinci wanted to automate this workflow to give its customers more accurate system quotes in less time.

The Process

There were three main roles within the system that we needed to document and fully understanding before designing the new system. The customer, the Dvinci rep, and the fulfillment partners. We wanted to design the system in a manner that reflected their current processes so onboarding would be easier. 

The first step was understanding how the customers were interacting with Dvinci. 

Questions we asked: 

• How are we attracting customers to Dvinci in the first place?
• What's their incentive to use us over competitors? 
• What are the biggest pain points with the current approach?
• Where are the inefficiencies in the system?

Upfront, we found that the customer flow was fairly straightforward and intuitive, however, the biggest challenge was providing more real-time connections between services. For example, the design process for laying out solar panels on a roof was completely manual. We had to overcome the challenge of improving the speed of this from 15 - 20 minutes down to 1-2 minutes. 

We were able to develop a component that allowed the Dvinci representatives to sit down with a client and design their panels on the spot. This completely removed the design step where a customer had to wait 15 minutes and Dvinci held the risk of losing them within that period. In sales, we know every minute wasted is a minute the deal has to expire. 

The second step was focused on learning how Dvinci representatives connected a lead and fulfillment partner. 

Pain point discovery list:

• Reps had to log in to multiple systems to view data on individual customers
• Tracking of customers was handled in Excel and had a high chance for human error
• Nearly impossible for Dvinci to run analysis on rep performance
• Security concerns around onboarding and discharging new/existing representatives 

The Dvinci reps were going to be the primary users of the system so we wanted to make sure we understood their needs. The biggest red flag was the fact that none of the systems were tied together automatically. We utilized several third-party APIs to push and pull data so reps no longer have to keep track of multiple logins, multiple customer records, and potentially be viewing inaccurate data. 

Some of the other additions included a dashboard to view rep performance in real-time, AWS Cognito authentication and AppSync to handle permissioning between partner records, and an improved account management flow.

The final step was making sure our partners could integrate with our system more closely. 

We enabled outside partners to be able to access our system through their own login. From there, they were able to input new customer opportunities for system administrators to delegate out to Dvinci representatives. 

The Gain

• 150+ partners and users onboarded
• Design time reduced down to a two-minute average (15-minute decrease)
• Representatives and managers are able to track performance seamlessly
• Lead providers are able to input new opportunities directly into the system 
• What used to be 10+ systems is now centralized into one internal