Nationwide Solar needed a digital form solution to replace their pen-and-paper documentation, which caused delays in communication and data retrieval.
Leveraging automatic email notifications and digital data collection Nationwide Solar streamlined its communication flow, enhanced data integrity, and gained greater visibility into job site productivity.
Roofing Commissioning Form
Electrical Commissioning Form
Battery Certification Form
Design Form
Headquartered in Peterborough, England, Nationwide Solar is an MCS-registered contractor specializing in new build and commercial construction. They offer a comprehensive service where they install solar panels and roof tiling simultaneously, followed by waterproofing.
Before GoFormz, all of Nationwide Solar’s field paperwork was completed on paper. “As an MCS-registered contractor, there is an awful amount of paperwork our technicians need to complete,” explained Managing Director, Clive Houlston. “Especially with the inclement British weather, getting information back in a timely fashion was non-existent.” Paperwork was being damaged by the rain or lost in vehicles on-site before the information could ever make it back to the office.
Recognizing the need for a more efficient and weather-proof process, Houlston wanted to go digital. “I wanted to transform our operation into an app-based system,” explained Houlston. Having previously worked in a fully digital environment, he called his former colleague to get the name of the form solution they used. “He told me about GoFormz and that’s when I got us signed up for a free trial,” explained Houlston. “The fact that we could simply upload the PDF and then do whatever we wanted to the form made the whole process so easy and simple.”
“The fact that we could simply upload the PDF and then do whatever we wanted to the form made the whole process so easy and simple.”
– Clive Houlston, Managing Director, Nationwide Solar
Nationwide Solar has two main digital form processes in place. “One is our roofing commissioning form and the second is the electrical commissioning form,” noted Houlston. Additionally, Houlston has added two battery certification forms to their digital form collection, in order to comply with new code, as well as a digital design form.
“When a roofing engineer gets on site, they can select a customer name in the drop-down menu, which will populate the customer’s information within the first few fields of the form,” explained Houlston. This functionality, made possible using DataSources, streamlines the form-filling process for field crews and reduces opportunities for error in data entry.
Barcode Scanning is used to track solar panels. “The first part of the process is to scan in the barcodes from the solar panels and then we use optimizers with the solar panels so that we can match the location of the panel on site,” explained Houlston. “Then we get what’s called flash data from the manufacturer, which we use to track a scanned panel off a roof, to compare against the flash data in the delivery note. This allows us to track this back to the batch that it came from so it gives us complete visibility throughout the entire process.”
Additionally, Nationwide Solar leverages the Image field to improve visibility into remote job sites. “We then have to complete a series of tests, and take photographs of the test meter results along with photos of things like the cable entry going into the roof, because once the panels are on, you can’t see them anymore,” explained Houlston. “So it gives us evidence that can be shown to the client or to myself to confirm and check that they’ve done their work properly.” Finally, the last piece of information captured is a date and signature field to sign off on the work and an automatic email workflow is set up to route the completed form to office personnel.
“So it gives us evidence that can be shown to the client or to myself to confirm and check that they’ve done their work properly.”
– Clive Houlston, Managing Director, Nationwide Solar
Nationwide Solar uses GoFormz as their selling point when pitching their services to customers. “From a marketing perspective, we just did a pitch with one of the largest builders in the UK and a key part of that pitch is that we have GoFormz which allows both us and the customer to view photographs of the installation process,” explained Houlston. “This allows the customer to monitor quality control, and it allows us to conduct quality checks without needing to visit the site.” Additionally, Nationwide Solar has plans to tout GoFormz on their website. “We’re building a new website and we’re going to put on there that we offer this mobile app as a part of our services,” explained Houlston. “It’ll say ‘Welcome to Nationwide Solar, powered by GoFormz.’”
“We’re building a new website and we’re going to put on there that we offer this mobile app as a part of our services. It’ll say ‘Welcome to Nationwide Solar, powered by GoFormz.’”
– Clive Houlston, Managing Director, Nationwide Solar
Nationwide Solar achieves time and resource savings, with GoFormz. “Comparing GoFormz to paper-based forms, the difference is I am going to get my information right away,” said Houlston. “If we send someone to the site, he’s going to only report to the office once a week, which means, it’s taking a week to get the information from the site.” Instead, GoFormz saves the Nationwide Solar team the hassle of sending someone to on-site projects. “It’s saving me a whole person that I don’t need to send to a job site to inspect things that we can simply inspect through photos.”
Filing customer data is also streamlined. “In terms of the digital forms themselves, I can just click and save them to a customer file. It’s that easy,” explained Houlston. “The whole process is easy and constructing the forms once you’ve gotten the hang of it doesn’t take long either.”
Finally, Houlston noted that his experience with the GoFormz team has been nothing short of excellent and has saved his operation time due to their responsiveness. “There is no doubt that the service I have received for support of this product is excellent.”
“There is no doubt that the service I have received for support of this product is excellent.”
– Clive Houlston, Managing Director, Nationwide Solar
Nationwide Solar has their sights set on integrating GoFormz with SharePoint. “When we first discussed implementing GoFormz in the early stages, we talked about getting it connected with SharePoint,” explained Houlston. “That’s where we want to go long term, but we want to make sure that all of our forms are perfected from our end before we take it to the next level.”