MCR-e

It was a ray of sunshine after the rain, a rainbow of possibilities: after years of struggling to sell his products, Alexandre Blatter still has a hard time believing the boom in the solar energy sector in recent months. This long-lasting anticyclone directly benefits his company MCR-e, whose business is now flourishing.

Founded in 2014, the Vaud-based company is enjoying the favorable winds for the renewable energy sector. But there is also another factor behind their success: a decisive choice made 18 months ago to level up their IT systems. Since then, the square meters of solar panels have been piling up and the phone has been ringing off the hook with requests increasing tenfold (!) in the past six months.

"The Smartcamp concept was made for us."

Alexandre Blatter

"With growth, the digitalization of our processes has become a priority," explains Alexandre Blatter. Because a company whose target audience consists of many private individuals (more than 500 operational installations) requires a certain structure. "Our daily work is based on small tasks that follow one another and accumulate. That's when you need to be extremely well organized, with good tools, to make a difference," confirms the director of MCR-e, who found his happiness with Odoo and its modular structure. More precisely with the new Smartcamp solution from Camptocamp.

"After having relied only on Winbiz's accounting services and having been disappointed by the move from their software to their cloud, we were looking for an ERP that could manage every part of the company in an integral and interconnected way", remembers Alexandre Blatter. His priorities at the time: accounting, sales and inventory. "Odoo was the obvious choice, because we don't have an IT specialist in our company. We prefer to outsource this very technical part to people more competent than us in this field."

In mid-2021, MCR-e made the decision to partner with Camptocamp.

Alexandre Blatter is full of praise when it comes to supporting his choice. "The Smartcamp concept particularly interested us. It was totally made for us, because it is designed for very small structures with five or six employees like ours.”

Reactive followup

A specialist from Camptocamp accompanied the small team in the implementation of Odoo. Once a week, for half a day, the consultant trained the MCR-e employees. "What's great is that we can do the work ourselves", Alexandre Blatter enthuses. "For the case of a small company with limited means, this is something valuable."

“Once the system is set up, we receive help remotely when we have questions thanks to an efficient Helpdesk team. This support is excellent. Camptocamp is very responsive and has answers to everything.”

Starting with the essentials

And since there is not enough time to do everything at once, the modules are set up one after the other, according to an order of priority. "A very big argument in favor of Odoo is that you can start with the core of the business, the essentials like accounting and sales, and then add modules little by little, without having to do everything at the same time." With the foundation now well stabilized, the manager aspires to use other tools.

Thanks to the various integrated modules, MCR-e has "a very intuitive work flow," according to Blatter, which allows him to see the entire value chain of the company. He is looking forward to the arrival of the CRM for customer management or the "Customer Support" module, which centralizes requests and allows a common processing of requests for all employees.

Unlimited potential

Once a weakness for MCR-e, digitalization has become a strength and source of new ambition for solar panel installation specialists. "We depend on three pillars to grow: physical infrastructure, which is not a big problem, human resources, which are a challenge because the market lacks specialists, and finally digitalization."

While there are logistical and staffing challenges, the latter has been completely solved by the arrival of Odoo, which is revolutionizing the company's scope of possibilities. "If we find competent and motivated people, we will be able to grow indefinitely," concludes Alexandre Blatter. And it's also thanks to Odoo.

Based in Grandson, in the canton of Vaud, MCR-e is a company specialized in the installation of photovoltaic solar panels. It was founded in 2014 and has grown steadily to reach the milestone of 500 operational projects in less than 10 years. Today, MCR-e employs a dozen employees who offer turnkey projects for the comfort and financial benefit of its customers.

Smartcamp

The Smartcamp approach is designed for small businesses that are looking for a long-term collaboration with an integrator that ensures controlled costs and rapid implementation. Camptocamp provides them with a packaged solution, efficient and fast, with a host of possibilities. Once the objectives have been reached and if the company's budget allows it, it is possible to upgrade to a more complete version to exploit the full potential of Odoo.