Solar Companies Power Growth with Cloud Technology

Demand for solar panels and renewable energy has never been higher. As new government policies like the Inflation Reduction Act provide incentives for renewable energy, and consumers look to drive down monthly energy costs, the solar industry is positioned for substantial growth, and many companies are already capitalizing.

Arevon—a developer and owner of 4 GW of solar and storage projects while providing asset management services to others—has increased headcount by 25% in 2023 to keep up with its growing portfolio.

There are clearly huge opportunities in this market, but aggressive business growth during a short period of time can create significant challenges. Organizations like Arevon and Titan Solar Power often outgrow their initial systems and processes, and to efficiently scale they need to consolidate and automate processes.

Bob Krakauer, chief financial officer at Arevon, describes a similar technology conundrum during Arevon’s rapid growth.

“Our accounting team quickly outgrew QuickBooks due to the volume of legal entities Arevon manages. Every legal entity had a separate QuickBooks file, and each person could only have two files open at one time. Logging in and out of QuickBooks files added a significant amount of time to the closing process and limited visibility into data across the organization,” recalls Krakauer.

Both Arevon and Titan Solar Power decided to move operations to NetSuite to automate manual processes, standardize reporting, increase business visibility, and improve internal controls.

This one move was a game changer for both organizations. For example, eliminating the need to log in and out of separate QuickBooks instances collectively saved Arevon’s accounting team the equivalent of three months of time each year. Additionally, the Arevon accounting team has been able to reduce the time it takes to close the books from ten to seven days.

“Arevon’s growth over the last six years would not have been possible without the transition to NetSuite. Our portfolio and the number of legal entities we manage continues to grow, and scaling operations would not have been possible without the ability to automate and standardize processes using NetSuite,” says Krakauer.

To read the full story, visit Fast Company.

Source: Fast Company.