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1) What is the difference between Optimus and Helioquote? Why were they created and are they both Enerflo products?
Optimize proposal and optimize design
Optimus is %100 an Enerflo tool! The catalyst behind Optimus was to move away from the custom proposal structure since converting each partner’s proposal process was time and effort consuming. We wanted to create a presentation flow that is the best presentation method for all our partners. Instead of a pdf or a slide show, this tool creates an interactive, informative, comprehensive and convenient customer experience.
HelioQuote was meant to fill in the need for a robust design tool. It was developed in collaboration with one of our partners. We integrated our Optimus with HelioQuote to have the most powerful design and proposal step together. Although we are not planning to create and run our own design tool, we integrate Optimus with other design tools as well, such as Aurora and Solo.
2) How does HelioQuote integrate with Optimus differently from other design tools?
Our proposal tool is there to present your proposal with a design regardless of which design tool you used. We will populate the design from other design tools; however you will not have the same amount of flexibility and will not be able to modify the design easily and effectively on the spot like you do when you use HelioQuote.
3) Where does Optimus and HeliQuote pull the presentation data from?
The presentation data is pulled from the survey section “Solar Design Request”. It is important to fill out these fields as thoroughly as possible, such as the turnaround time, rooftop, module and inverter, price per watt target before fees and adders, and financing product fields.
There are also design request fields like preferred roof that are essential for the designer to decide where to place the panels or not. The designer never has to manually enter anything.
4) Why do I see two utility dropdowns?
It’s important to select the utility for the Heliquote system to create calculations. If you see a second drop down for utility, that’s not for HelioQuote; it is installer specific, e.g. for the NEM contracts. There is no connection at the moment between the HelioQuote utilities and all other installer utilities.
5) Why does the bill look wrong on the proposal? Why is the consumption way off?
Unless exact usage is entered at the time the Design Request Survey is submitted, Optimus will use a default consumption estimate based on the size of the house. Even if you supply a bill, Optimus does not pull data from the image file, so you'll need to fill out those fields in order to present exact consumption. The perfect scenario is when you can fill in the ACTUAL usage for each month in the 12 month breakdown section.
6) What if there’s no monthly utility usage data?
You should then enter the annual usage data or the estimated annual kWh usage. We directly integrate with a program called Genability which is a utility calculation database that creates a model for each month based off of the annual usage. The only way to get specific is if the rep puts in specific data for that utility.
7) Will the designer help with changing the usage?
No. Only the rep has control over consumption. Designers don’t have the ability to change usage; it’s all rep controlled through the survey. The more utility data that the rep enters in the survey, the more helpful it is for the designer. This information will all be pushed to the designer automatically.
8) Where does the communication between the rep and the designer take place?
For the Designer: On the Design page (solar designs), the designer can ask questions to the sales rep using the chat functionality on this page. Every rep using HelioQuote can speak to the designer.
For the Sales Rep: On the Design Portal page, they can click Designer Chat and all the communication should take place here regarding the design questions/requests/escalations.
9) How do I access the Optimus proposal?
Once the design comes back, the rep gets notified. You can then click the Create Proposal button on the Survey page to launch Optimus.
10) Why can’t I use Optimus?
Aside from some backend work, there are several steps that need to be taken on the user side in order to activate the Optimus deal option.
EPC Menu -> Sales Team List -> Settings
General Settings -> Select survey type(s) sales team can access -> Check Optimus Deal
Admin Only Settings -> Select which sections trigger a design request -> Check Optimus Deal option
Sales Company Menu -> Company Users -> Click View -> Admin Settings -> Check Allow Optimus Design Requests
When you create a new deal: Start a new Sales Deal or Survey -> Open Select Deal Type dropdown -> Optimus
11) Where do Optimus presentation slides get their data from? Which slides are Optimus and which are HelioQuote slides?
Optimus Slides
Savings and Stability: This is an Optimus slide, not HelioQuote, that can be used regardless of which design tool was used.
Traditional Power and Solar Power slides present sample data for informational purposes only on how solar works and how a sample cost breakdown looks.
Your Bill: If a bill was provided, it would show up here and you can draw on it for demonstration purposes.
If there was no real bill, the system creates a similar monthly usage visual showing the consumption numbers that were either provided by the rep or created using a model (if only the annual number was provided). The annual increase and the cost of doing nothing fields are calculated by Optimus. The total due, however, comes from HelioQuote or another software that was used.
Utility Bill Breakdown: The bill increase data is informational to show how much your bill will increase without going solar. It is generated using bill amounts and usage data that HelioQuote sends back to us or hand entered by someone using a non-HelioQuote tool. This data changes based on the size of the design.
Home Design: This slide shows the chosen panels and inverters that the rep put in and the system size that is calculated based on the number of panels and how much wattage each panel is.
Production vs. Consumption: The month data points are based on what the rep put in or created from a model.
HelioQuote slides
System Design: All the visuals, the setbacks, and anything inside here is all HelioQuote and Enerflo has no control over it.
12) What are the blue lines on the roof?
HelioQuote designers have an interface where they can click different corners and create the outline of the roof. This is to break up the roof into as many sections as they think is needed in order to break panels into how much sun they are going to get.
13) What are setbacks?
Setbacks are indicated by purple lines. These are typically fire codes and they vary by region. A three feet setback is typical where the fire code will mandate that you cannot have solar panels within three feet of a ridge line, while other municipalities will allow you to go all the way to the ridge line and others will allow you to go down on one side but not the other side.
14) What happens when HelioQuote starts designing for an installer that is about to go live in a new market?
HelioQuote doesn’t have the setback knowledge for every market yet. So, until local knowledge is there, they will rely on National Setback Guidance.
15) What happens if the setbacks don’t look right?
Setbacks cannot be modified by the sales reps. They can only be modified by the designer. The sales rep needs to either chat with the designer or enter it in the notes section. So, the partner needs to establish this with the designers in the beginning while testing out HelioQuote since the designer will default to the NSG if they are not given the specific local information.
Eventually, we will have a setback rules library by collecting this information from the partners during onboarding and get this library built into Enerflo. Enerflo will automate all this information in the future.
16) What are obstructions? Why can’t I place panels anywhere on the roof?
Obstructions are not partner specific; they are based on satellite imaging. These are indicated by the orange boxes on the design. By default, it is assumed that no roof work is going to be done during the install. So typically obstructions like a chimney or vents are marked off, which then dictates where the panels can go. If a rep cannot place a panel somewhere, there’s an obstruction.
17) Can the rep edit panels on the spot?
Yes, the rep doesn’t need to chat with the designer. If a customer doesn’t want any panels on one side, the rep can do that in the Edit Surfaces box. They can turn off an entire surface, not just the panels one by one.
18) What information is editable on the System Design slide?
Any black bold number here can be changed, e.g. panels, system size, consumption, and loan product. Just make sure to unlock the padlock before editing these fields.
However, you cannot change Utility Payment (not bolded) because it is based on consumption and rate schedule. So, in order to change that, you need to change the consumption, which is what drives the payment.
19) Who can change the consumption?
Consumption should be changed by the rep, not the designer, who doesn’t have that ability.
20) What happens when you change the panel?
You can also change a panel but this will change the design and the payment.
21) Why doesn’t “system offset” give the desired percentage after changing it?
It is not mathematically possible to make a system with a specific offset. Offset is the function of how much production divided by your consumption. If you wanted a certain offset and the system rounded it up, it’s because we can’t have the system create any offset which could result in adding half or quarter of a panel; so the system tries to get as close to it as possible. Sales reps have control over getting as close to the offset as they want but they cannot get to the same exact offset every time. The tool always tries to get as close to the desired number as possible. If it can’t, it will go to the nearest whole number. If at your first try, you don’t get it, go a little lower and try again.
22) Can I change the base system cost?
Yes. Click the pencil next to Calculated System Cost on the System Design slide. You will be able to change the cost of the system without changing the design. Pricing changes do not affect the design but the design change will affect the pricing. You can also make the same pricing changes on the Finance Terms slide.
23) What are some reasons for changing the gross price?
Sometimes you try to beat another quote. It is not easy to build it up from price per watt for base cost and then try to get to the exact price you want to match. So, with Gross System Cost you can get the exact number that you want.
23) What happened to the tax slider?
The tax credit moved to the Your Monthly Payment section on the Finance Terms slide. If you want to adjust and model out the tax credit, you can click the blue voluntary payment number and adjust using the slider.
24) Why aren’t local rebates shown?
The tool automatically includes the local rebates. They can also be modeled out by clicking the blue voluntary payment and adjusting the slider.
25) What is a good distinction between Optimus and HelioQuote or other design tools?
Modifying pricing, adders, discounts, down payments is all Optimus and it has nothing to do with the design tool. The sales rep has control over all these, not the designer.
26) What happens when a designer tries to build in HelioQuote and they can’t?
You will always get a design back even if designing is not possible through HelioQuote. If there is no satellite imagery, or a shading is very bad, then they make use of the disqualification flow by clicking the green que transfer button on the Solar Design page. A message is then sent to the sales rep saying that extra time is needed and that the design has been transferred over to SPS.
Two things change: 1) The survey form reverts to the traditional, manual entry form so that something else can be added, and 2) The System Design button on Optimus will not be visible anymore. You can still use Optimus but will not be able to modify it.
27) How can I save the presentation?
The entire presentation can be exported as a PDF. Now the presentation and the finance page are combined into one report.
28) What are the hours of operation for HelioQuote designs?
6:00 am PT to 9:00 pm PT Monday through Sunday
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