Boosting Solar Installation & Service Profits – Leveraging Advanced Mobile Work Process Management & Automation (mPMA) Technology
As hardware prices have continued to fall, the non-hardware portion of solar PV system costs - often referred to as Soft Costs - now account for over 50-64% of the total expenses of deploying a typical solar system. This means that in relative dollars, Soft Costs are nearly 3 times as large as the average profit a typical solar installer garners on a per project basis! As such, even a small reduction in Soft Costs can translate to a significant increase in profits for solar installers. It is therefore evident that Soft Costs Reduction represents the next major opportunity for solar business performance improvement.
Mobile work Process Management & Automation (mPMA) is an emerging category of advanced mobile, cloud and AI-based technology that focuses on addressing inefficiencies and manual processes contributing to Soft Costs. Unlike CRMs or traditional Project Management tools that are designed and built for back office staff, PMA helps significantly reduce Soft Costs by engaging all stakeholders. mPMA standardizes and mobilizes work processes as easy-to-use Apps customized to the needs of each project stakeholder wherever they may be: across field or office, within the internal team or partner & subcontractor organizations. mPMA not only centralizes key project documents, drawings and communication it makes these assets available to each stakeholder within their purpose-configured app. Lastly mPMA uses intelligence to automate critical workflows and project or service work hand-offs to significantly cut down manual steps.
In this poster we summarize the results of 5 case studies we conducted with a range of solar providers. We describe how these firms leveraged mPMA to bring process digitization and work automation to their operations. We show how savings in 3 key categories resulted in an average of $715 in quantifiable labor savings per completed project or a 37% increase in profits. We further enumerate how in addition to these significant savings these companies gained a number of - arguably more important - benefits as key ingredients for growth.
The poster will cover: - A breakdown of the major categories of soft costs - How Process Management & Automation technology eliminates soft costs - An enumeration of where waste is being incurred and how mPMA remedies these - Measurable savings, increase in profits and return on investment (ROI) - Strategic / growth benefits solar operators may expect from deploying mPMA
Our target audience of managers overseeing solar projects EPC and O&M operations will benefit from an increased understanding of where their own businesses are likely incurring soft costs, and the potential for savings through increased automation and efficiency with mPMA technology.
