Conrad Energy

Revolutionising Renewable Energy

Conrad Energy, an innovative player in the renewable energy sector, has been at the forefront of driving flexible energy generation solutions since its establishment in 2007. Expanding through solar, wind and other sustainable energy projects, Conrad Energy has built a reputation for innovation, technology, and a steadfast commitment to environmental sustainability.

As an operator of 85+ energy sites in the UK, Conrad Energy has been growing quickly working with a large network of generators and clients. Recently, Conrad Energy has been making the news with a £26m investment from Virgin to build a solar farm in Hertfordshire, and a £200m investment to build energy infrastructure in the East of England. Conrad Energy is also a licensed electricity supplier, that buys and sells electricity to a variety of business customers bringing innovative solutions in the PPA and Supply market.

The Friction of Contracts

Speaking with Daniel Kudla, Senior Pricing and Risk Analyst at Conrad Energy, it was clear what is the common problem in the sector: “I found it extremely frustrating that when you approach other suppliers to obtain a quote for your business, you have to wait up a week to receive one and that’s usually just the beginning of the contracting journey. Sadly, this is the standard lead time in this industry.”

For Conrad Energy one of the most time-consuming processes was their contract management. Their system relied on manual updates in their CRM, Salesforce, followed by laborious conversions of Word documents to PDFs, and finalisation through another e-sign solution. This cumbersome and fragmented process not only slowed down contract creation but also restricted contract initiation to only the commercial director, hindering agility and scalability.

“We had a very manual process where we had been using multiple systems. Rates that were generated through our pricing engine had to be manually transferred over to the document. This wasn’t very scalable and also contained an element of risk that some information could be transferred incorrectly.” – Daniel

What would a better process look like?

Conrad Energy sought a solution that would empower their entire sales team to handle contracts independently, streamline contract creation processes, and enhance responsiveness to customer inquiries. This included building a “bespoke quotation system, that is very easy to use for both our sales team and our customers.”

As a small team dealing with a large number of clients, it was important for the new process to be as efficient as possible, “We need to be effective when signing up customers, billing, admin… the more we can automate the better”. One of the most time-consuming parts of the contract process was the manual transfer of customer and contract data to and from their CRM, “We wanted a solution that would be directly integrated within our CRM system.”

They needed a contract solution which could instantly pull and push data to and from their CRM and finance systems, allowing them to automate long manual processes, and provide more up to date quotations. That solution was Oneflow.

Empowering Efficiency with Oneflow

The Oneflow contract management platform could be tailored to meet their specific needs including instant pricing updates, automation and cross-platform data management. With the implementation of Oneflow, Conrad Energy experienced a paradigm shift in their contract management processes. “With our new set up we can create contracts almost in real-time as we speak with the customer.” 

Oneflow’s integration with Conrad Energy’s Salesforce CRM proved to be a game-changer. This seamless integration facilitated swift and automated contract creation, eliminating the need for manual updates and tedious document conversions. Sales representatives were empowered to generate contracts almost instantaneously during customer interactions, enhancing agility and responsiveness. “The Oneflow integration allows us tons of automation, that leads to quick contract creation and safe signing process for our customers.”

As well as accelerating contract creation, the Salesforce integration allowed for data to pass seamlessly between systems, “If the customer has a wind farm, we can request some information (i.e. what is the height of a turbine, or the power capacity). the integration means once the customer enters that data in the contract, it is automatically pulled into our CRM and further used for our energy forecasting models.”

The automation capabilities offered by the Oneflow integration with Salesforce not only accelerated the contract creation process but also ensured accuracy and consistency in contract data. Critical information, such as pricing generated through Conrad Energy’s pricing engine, seamlessly integrated into contracts, mitigating the risk of errors and enhancing operational efficiency. 

Through its robust integration with Conrad Energy’s CRM system, Oneflow facilitated the automated transfer of essential contract data, enabling Conrad Energy to make informed decisions and streamline forecasting processes. “With the automation with Oneflow, as soon as the customer signs the contract, that data is then transferred into our forecasting, financial systems and billing engine. The whole customer setup is done automatically when the customer signs the contract.”

A competitive advantage

So, a contract process which was manual, fragmented and inefficient, had been hindering productivity, limiting growth and delaying revenue generating activities. However, since switching to Oneflow… “The sales team can now create an offer in a few minutes rather than few hours”.

In an industry where receiving a quote typically takes up to week, being able to provide almost instantaneous quotes has given Conrad Energy a competitive advantage, “We perform much better than the rest of the market with the automation, speed and flexibility from the integration.”