ADLER Solar creates structured proposals with BCS and BIRT

Photovoltaic systems, battery storage systems, charging infrastructure, and heat pumps are energy solutions that require explanation. Customers expect more than just pricing information; they also want a clear presentation of the planned system, the technical specifications, and the economic viability.

This is exactly where ADLER Solar uses BCS and BIRT. Proposals are not created separately from the project data, but directly from the maintained data set in BCS. Customer data, technical system information, consumption values, and other parameters flow into the proposal documents.

The result is customized, technically sound, and visually high-quality proposals that provide a reliable basis for customer consulting.

Johannes Korte shows how BCS supports sales at ADLER Solar

In the case study, Johannes Korte, Head of Central Services and Authorized Signatory at ADLER Solar, describes how BCS is used within the company. One thing quickly becomes clear: At ADLER Solar, BCS is much more than a traditional project management tool.

Instead of managing individual projects in isolation, ADLER Solar uses BCS as a central platform for sales-related and operational processes. From the first customer contact to the proposal, project creation, documentation, and later invoicing, a great deal of information comes together in the system.

ADLER Solar GmbH, headquartered in Bremen, is a specialist company for sustainable energy solutions. The company plans and installs photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, battery storage systems, and charging infrastructure, positioning itself as a single-source provider.

ADLER Solar has been active in the market since 2008. With around 65 employees at its Bremen location, the company is one of the leading specialist providers of sustainable energy solutions in northwestern Germany.

In the early years, the focus was strongly on services related to photovoltaic systems, including dismantling and reinstallation, inspections, expert assessments, repairs, and quality control. Starting in 2018, and increasingly from 2020 onward, the focus shifted more and more toward planning and building new systems. At the same time, the offering was increasingly geared toward the B2C business, regional markets, and holistic energy solutions.

Why BCS became the central platform

The trigger for introducing BCS was the replacement of Sugar CRM, which had previously been in use. ADLER Solar was looking for a solution that would allow order management, project execution, and related processes to be mapped in a more flexible, structured, and transparent way.

An important factor was the acquisition of BEC Solar in 2015. BEC Solar had already been using BCS for several years. As a result, expertise, experience, and licenses were already available, enabling ADLER Solar to get started with the implementation more quickly.

The goal was to create end-to-end processes: from sales, proposal, and order through to execution, documentation, service, and invoicing. Today, ADLER Solar primarily uses BCS for order processing. The focus is on mapping the entire process from proposal creation through to invoicing.

Proposal creation with BIRT as a central use case

A particularly important use case is proposal creation with BIRT. Especially in the B2C business, an appealing, informative, and technically sound proposal is crucial.

ADLER Solar uses BIRT as a report designer with direct integration into BCS. This makes it possible to create customized reports and layouts based on the data maintained in BCS. Customer data, technical information, consumption data, and other parameters are used to generate proposal pages with a cover page, introduction, customer data, technical details, and economic efficiency calculations.

For the economic viability of a photovoltaic system, ADLER Solar performs its own calculations. These are based on customer data from BCS, technical assumptions, scientifically grounded calculations, and simulation data.

As a result, customers receive a proposal that is not only professionally designed, but also gives them the clearest possible insight into the planned energy solution.

Structured data instead of manual compilation

The benefit is particularly evident in the sales process. Instead of manually gathering information from various sources, customer-oriented, project-specific, and technically complex proposals can be generated directly from BCS.

This reduces effort, creates greater consistency, and increases the value of data maintenance in the system. Information that has been entered accurately once can be reused in later process steps: in proposals, documentation, project execution, and invoicing.

Other documents in the process are also supported by BCS data. Mandatory applications to grid operators are automatically populated with data from BCS. This helps ADLER Solar reduce manual transfers and ensures that information is used more consistently.

Single point of truth for photovoltaic systems

In addition to proposal creation, BCS also plays a central role in documenting photovoltaic systems. ADLER Solar uses BCS as the central data repository for master data, technical component data, system parameters, and other information.

Transactional data is also added, such as consumption values, roof layout, or special considerations in the process flow. Every process step is documented and can later become part of the system documentation.

The file repository is also used, for example, for images, technical datasheets, project data, system information, and process documentation. This turns operational data into structured documentation that is maintained close to the project.

Interfaces, dashboards, and operational transparency

At ADLER Solar, BCS is embedded in an evolved system landscape. The company uses, among other things, Microsoft Active Directory for authentication, Microsoft 365 for calendars, contact data, and email import, as well as CSV imports and exports.

A central element is the self-developed Service Center. Through this web application, sales employees enter new customer orders for photovoltaic systems. The entered data is transferred to BCS via an interface. There, customers, external organizations or individuals, and projects are created based on defined templates.

In addition, ADLER Solar uses BCS data for various dashboards and analyses. These include overviews of systems built, invoice reports, and sales performance dashboards with information on appointments, orders, and cancellations.

What other companies can learn from the case study

The case study is particularly relevant for companies that want to connect proposals, order processing, and documentation more closely.

It is especially interesting for sales managers, project managers, process owners, executive teams, energy companies, skilled trades businesses, and organizations that offer complex products or services and need structured, data-based proposal processes.

The practical report shows how BCS can be used as a central platform to connect project data, operational process steps, documentation, and proposal creation.

More structure, better proposals, end-to-end processes

With BCS, ADLER Solar has brought more structure to its order processing. Processes are guided more clearly, data is stored centrally, and information can be reused.

For ADLER Solar, the greatest benefit lies in connecting structured project data with operational process steps. Proposal creation with BIRT in particular demonstrates how customer-focused BCS can be: meaningful, project-specific proposals are created from maintained master data, transactional data, and technical information.

The case study shows in practical terms how ADLER Solar uses BCS to present complex energy solutions in an understandable way, document processes cleanly, and make information usable throughout the entire order lifecycle.

Read the full case study now and find out how ADLER Solar uses BCS and BIRT to create structured proposals and map order processing end to end.

Read the ADLER Solar case study now