Autargy Solar is a 40-person European solar energy firm specializing in residential and commercial photovoltaic installations. Facing rapid growth, the team realized its legacy tools, mainly a basic Monday.com setup and manual spreadsheets, couldn’t scale. Lead assignment was slow and arbitrary, sales commissions were a mess, inventory counts were opaque, and executives lacked actionable reports.
They sought a single, unified system to break down silos and automate workflows. Zoho One emerged as the solution: an all-in-one cloud suite that promised to run their entire business from one platform. Autargy’s leaders engaged certified Zoho One consultants to architect a full migration and custom development plan, focusing on integrations and automation across their operations.
Key Challenges
- Outgrown Existing Tools: The team’s Monday.com setup offered only limited customization and no automated workflows. Every status change or lead had to be handled manually, delaying response times.
- Unautomated Lead Routing: Leads could not be automatically assigned by region (ZIP code), sales rep performance, or workload. This led to uneven workloads and lost opportunities.
- Fragmented CRM and Inventory: Customer relationships weren’t tracked across services and warranty records, and the warehouse had no real-time inventory tracking. Sales commissions were calculated outside any system, causing errors.
- Poor Reporting: Management lacked visibility. Important metrics like pipeline health, installation progress, and financial forecasts were scattered in spreadsheets or mind.
These pain points are common in growing solar businesses. As one industry consultant notes, integrating CRM, project management, and financial systems is critical for renewable energy firms to “streamline their business processes” and reduce error-prone manual work. Autargy Solar needed an operating system for business that tied all departments together.
Why Zoho One? A Unified CRM and App Suite
Autargy evaluated Zoho One and found it uniquely suited to their needs. Zoho One offers 45+ integrated business apps under one license, meaning sales, marketing, inventory, support, and finance modules all talk to each other. Unlike point solutions, this avoids data duplication and multiple invoices.
Zoho’s pricing and licensing are transparent: one simple per-user fee for the whole suite. (Expert reviews note Zoho One is among “the more affordable CRM software options” with an annual rate of $37–$90 per user.) Autargy took advantage of Zoho’s 30-day free trial and promotion (essentially a Zoho One coupon) to test-drive the system. With no long-term contracts required, the team could evaluate features like Zoho CRM, Inventory, Analytics, Creator, Books, and Flow in real use.
Having decided on Zoho One, Autargy brought in experienced Zoho One consultants to plan the implementation. The project would migrate data from spreadsheets, link up sales and project data, and build custom logic on AWS. The consultants focused on leveraging Zoho’s strengths: a unified cloud platform that “breaks down silos between departments and increases organizational efficiency”. This was important for a solar installer, where sales reps, warehouse staff, and field technicians must collaborate seamlessly on each project.
Custom Solution and Architecture
The solution combined Zoho’s low-code apps with targeted custom development:
Zoho CRM & Creator (Customer Portal)
The core is Zoho CRM, customized with additional fields for solar projects. A Zoho Creator portal was built so customers can log in to see their project status and invoices. CRM relationships were reconfigured so each lead links to one or more projects, installations, and follow-up tasks (a relationship model that Monday.com could not support out-of-the-box).
Intelligent Lead Routing (Custom AWS App)
A custom PHP/Laravel application was deployed on AWS EC2 with a MySQL database. This “lead engine” applies business rules (ZIP code, sales rep quotas, success rates) to automatically assign incoming leads to the right rep. The system was integrated with Zoho CRM via API: whenever a new lead form is submitted in Zoho, Zoho Flow triggers the Laravel app, which returns the assigned rep. This eliminated manual handovers.
Commission & Hierarchy Logic
The CRM was extended with multi-tier commission logic. Sales managers can now define commission rules (e.g., tiered bonuses for meeting targets), and the system computes payouts automatically. Custom Deluge scripts (Zoho’s scripting language) enforce approval workflows and calculations within Zoho CRM. Deluge is used extensively here to “write logic and automate actions across multiple Zoho applications”, for example, updating commission fields when an invoice is closed.
Warehouse Management (Zoho Inventory)
Zoho Inventory was implemented to track stock across Autargy’s warehouse and installation trucks. This replaces manual stock counts and spreadsheet logs. Inventory items (panels, inverters, mounts) have batch numbers and warranty dates recorded. Using Zoho Inventory, staff now generate picklists, process transfer orders, and get low-stock alerts automatically. As Zoho explains, such a system helps “keep tabs on your stock” and “streamline your warehouse operations”.
Zoho Books (Accounting)
Sales orders from Zoho Inventory automatically flow into Zoho Books to invoice customers and record payments. This integration prevents double-entry between sales and finance.
Data Dashboards (Zoho Analytics)
A central requirement was better reporting. We set up Zoho Analytics to pull data from CRM, Inventory, and Books. Pre-built dashboards display KPIs like monthly lead conversion, project status, and financial summaries. These dashboards use Zoho’s drag-and-drop interface to visualize data in real time. (For example, one sales dashboard shows pipeline stages and conversion rates by region.)
Workflow Automation (Zoho Flow)
Zoho Flow links activities across the ecosystem. For instance, creating a project in Zoho CRM automatically generates tasks in Zoho Projects and entries in Zoho Inventory when parts are ordered. Flow’s no-code builder simplifies this: “No matter your role or business, you can use Zoho Flow to build custom integrations to automate all your workflows”. We also used Flow’s integration with webhooks and email to notify teams of new events (e.g. a new customer signup triggers a welcome email via Zoho Mail).
Google Calendar & Email Sync
As part of Zoho One’s connectivity, Zoho Calendar was synced with Google Calendar to keep scheduling unified. Zoho Mail can fetch the company’s Gmail accounts, so technicians continue using familiar email while all correspondence is logged in Zoho CRM. This means the Zoho One system truly “connect[s] the apps you use every day”.
Implementation Timeline and Process
The project moved rapidly. In just 4 weeks, we had a working system setup – including data migration of 2,000+ contacts and historical projects. We then spent 8 more weeks fine-tuning custom features and training the team: Zoho CRM fields were tailored for solar proposals, Zoho Forms replaced paper quoting, and workflows were tested. Key milestones included:
Week 1–2: Setup & Planning
Configure Zoho One account, migrate master customer data, and define app permissions.
Week 3–4: Core Implementation
Launch Zoho CRM and Inventory with basic fields; deploy AWS app for lead routing; integrate Zoho Flow triggers.
Week 5–8: Custom Development
Build customer portal in Zoho Creator; script commission calculations; design Zoho Analytics dashboards.
Week 9–12: Training & Launch
Train sales, engineering, and operations staff. Roll out mobile Zoho apps for field teams. Go-live at the end of month 3 with all modules active.
Autargy’s CTO reported that despite the breadth of work, “we were fully live with Zoho One in under three months with almost no downtime.” This swift implementation was enabled by Zoho’s unified licensing: there was no waiting for separate software purchases or servers – everything is cloud-based with one invoice.
Outcomes & Benefits
The results have been transformative:
Streamlined Lead Management
Incoming leads are now automatically routed to the right sales rep based on zip code and performance. Autargy saw lead response times cut in half. As the Sales Director noted, “Customized lead routing in Zoho One has boosted our conversion rates and cut response times in half.” This automation means reps can focus on sales, not data entry.
Improved Data Visibility
All customer information – quotes, contracts, warranties, support tickets – lives in one CRM. Managers can click on any account and instantly see active projects, previous orders, and invoices. Zoho’s custom dashboards offer “a comprehensive view of [the] business’s health” in real time. Finance can pull reports on revenue by region or product with a few clicks. In short, reporting is no longer an afterthought.
Efficient Inventory Control
With Zoho Inventory, stock levels update instantly when panels are delivered to sites or sold. Warehouse staff use mobile scans at receiving and dispatch. This has prevented stockouts (the system alerts when items hit reorder points) and reduced carrying costs. As one warehouse manager put it, “Our stock management system has become much better after using Zoho Inventory”.
Fair & Accurate Commissions
The new multi-tier commission module calculates pay automatically. Salespeople appreciate the transparency: they can log into CRM to see their sales and earned incentives. This clarity has boosted morale and trust.
Team Satisfaction
Employees across the company are more confident now. “Our team finally has one system that does everything,” said Autargy’s Operations Manager. “Instead of wrestling with disjointed spreadsheets, we use Zoho daily.” Staff report that task handoffs (from sales to engineering to service) are much smoother.
Cost Savings
Switching to Zoho One reduced software expenses by roughly 30%. The company eliminated multiple licenses (for email, forms, and accounting) and now pays a single per-user fee. In fact, one external case study noted that clients “saved about 30%” by moving to Zoho One’s cheaper all-in-one license. Autargy’s CFO confirms the math: the system paid for itself within a year through productivity gains alone.
Overall, the Zoho One implementation delivered on every promise. Within months, Autargy Solar went from fragmented tools to a single operating system for the entire business. Executive leadership now has real-time insight into projects and finances. Sales reps and engineers spend more time with customers and less on paperwork. The company is better positioned to scale.
“Zoho One integrations have allowed us to route leads intelligently and track every detail of a project, improving efficiency across the board,” said Lars de Witt, Sales Director of Autargy Solar. “We can’t imagine going back to our old disjointed processes.”
“The migration was surprisingly smooth, and we saw immediate gains,” added Maria Van Utrecht, CFO of Autargy Solar. “Zoho One’s dashboards and reporting finally give us clear visibility into performance. It’s been a game-changer.”
Autargy Solar’s case illustrates the power of a unified CRM & ERP platform in the renewable energy sector. By leveraging Zoho One’s comprehensive suite and custom integrations, they solved long-standing operational headaches. The project serves as a strong Zoho One review: with strategic implementation, even complex businesses can achieve seamless automation and real-time analytics. As another energy customer put it, Zoho One helped “unite all the data into one platform”. Autargy is now poised for growth and ready to onboard any new team member, knowing their data and processes are already in the right place.
