EECA helps keep Kiwi homes warm and energy efficient on the cloud.

Founded in 2000, New Zealand's EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) is dedicated to moving the country towards a sustainable energy system that supports the wellbeing of current and future generations. "Our purpose is to mobilise New Zealanders to be world leaders in clean and clever energy use," said Simon Brash, Digital Lead at EECA.

EECA's focus is on renewable energy and energy efficiency. They work with industry and energy providers to regulate energy and fuel efficiency, drive public awareness, and support high-impact energy projects. This includes Warmer Kiwi Homes (WKH), a programme offering insulation and heater grants to qualifying homeowners to help them realise energy efficiency savings and the quality-of-life benefits associated with a healthy home.

"We know that living in a warm, dry home has a real impact on social, mental, physical health and general well-being. These are very tangible outcomes for people," said Henry Nepia, Manager, Warmer Kiwi Homes.

With efficiency and visibility at the core of their transformation, EECA turned to the cloud.

Moving at speed is something that many government organisations face, as well as a need to balance efficiency, scale, and agility alongside it. And grants funding comes with a heightened level of visibility, meaning teams have to be ready to answer data calls for government, press briefings, public inquiries, and more.

As the team turned to running WKH on the cloud, they were focused on the following objectives:

1. Centralise and streamline the grant distribution process. 
2. Leverage automation and self-service capabilities for activities like eligibility reviews, status updates, claim submissions, and more. 
3. Deliver real-time visibility and dashboards that can be used to track progress, provide and inform forecasting, and strengthen communications.

Small changes can have big impacts.

The independent Warmer Kiwi Homes Study by Motu found that 87% of people who had heat pumps installed under the programme reported an improvement in comfort, and 81% reported being more satisfied with their home. 47% also reported less damp in the home and over 65% reported no longer having to restrict their heating use due to the cost. Healthier homes translate into healthier communities, lowering state healthcare costs and increasing economic productivity by minimising missed work and school days.

The study found that every $1 dollar invested in WKH returned more than $4 worth of benefits.

"The WKH programme is focused particularly on helping people who require financial assistance to make these upgrades to their homes and move away from less efficient heating options. In the end, not only are people living in healthier homes, but they're also emitting less carbon. It's a win-win," explained Brash.

Nepia and team needed a way to manage the distribution of funds – everything from application intake to eligibility review, funds disbursement, and reporting – across government and industry alike. "We wanted a solution that was going to be as configurable as possible for the Warmer Kiwi Homes team, as well as an extended grants functionality for our wider business," said Nepia. "We wanted a centralised platform with automated workflows that could be configured to respond to changes over time. We wanted a system that enabled data to be shared between EECA and our partners seamlessly so that everyone could understand where grant funding was having the most impact at any point in time. We wanted a system that could give us the ability to learn and replicate best practices quickly.”

EECA builds a grants management platform that provides a connected end-to-end experience and visibility.

EECA deployed a grants and claims system on Salesforce Customer 360 for government. The new system gives them the tools to digitise the application process, streamline review and approvals of eligible applicants, maintain real-time visibility of applications underway, award funding, and automate post-project auditing - operationalising the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme end-to-end.

Here's how it works.

A customer checks their eligibility for a heating or insulation grant via an API linked eligibility checking webform on EECA's website. Taking less than five minutes to fill out, the logic-driven form guides customers through eligibility and housing information, capturing the information they submit in a personalised Contact record in Public Sector Solutions for Grants Management.

Eligible applicants are then prompted to choose up to three local heating and insulation service providers. The selected service providers are notified that they have a new lead via a partner portal built on Experience Cloud prompting them to log in, complete an onsite assessment, and quote the work.

When a client accepts their quote, the service provider can update the system and complete the heating and insulation install. This turns the Lead into a Claim record attached to the same Public Sector Solutions Contact record, helping the EECA team track installs, action next steps, and pay out the subsidy accordingly. "Having the service providers run everything via a portal allows us maximum visibility on the activity within the fund and lets us financially forecast effectively, while helping service providers track and update the status of their installs in real time, reducing their admin workload," said Brash.

Following the install, five percent of all installations completed are independently audited for quality as per government mandate. Field Service Lightning is used to schedule and conduct installation audits at the properties to make sure installations are completed to a high standard. Field Audit Trail is used to track activity across the system long-term and helps EECA comply with public record management and retention in accordance with government requirements.

An upcoming deployment will include Salesforce Surveys to measure homeowner satisfaction, helping the EECA team to manage quality service from providers and to track the initiative's success. Marketing Cloud will also be used to support the team's communications activities, helping them update the parties involved in Warmer Kiwi Homes in a timely fashion.

On the backend, CRM Analytics Plus provides automated insights for EECA, supporting data-driven decision making. It also helps EECA to manage relationships with service providers nationwide, track claims, and forecast what is likely to be coming in future. "The dashboards help us to measure installation time frames and track our funding commitments in real-time. The data captured also gives good visibility of service provider contract performance," Nepia explained.

Lightning Platform fuels all of this with enterprise-level services such as application developer tools, workflow tools, field audit capabilities, and more.

EECA is using technology to help New Zealanders drive energy efficiency at home.

The new system is helping the team to drive efficiencies and manage the performance of the WKH programme overall. The platform is providing the EECA team with a single source of truth, while flexible, real-time reporting gives the team the ability to report on thousands of data points.

It also is helping the team:

1. Deliver impact through a single-access, digital environment for all users, helping EECA to connect Kiwis more quickly to heating and insulation installers and giving the team end-to-end visibility in real time. “Technology is the easiest way to solve the challenge of connecting people all around New Zealand in one central digital location," shared Brash. It also enabled the team to make the Quality Assurance process paperless, and it allows immediate feedback from auditors directly in the platform.
2. Support data-driven decision-making with a single source of truth for the entire EECA ecosystem, enabling more efficient contract and fund management for an agile approach to program administration, planning and decision making. "We have greater visibility now of trends months in advance. We can manage provider performance a lot better; something that is really important to us," said Nepia.
3. Provide optimisation opportunities, including automation and API integration with other systems. "Most claims go through without needing to be touched by human hand. This makes the process smoother and faster for service providers and frees up our team's time," Nepia added.

EECA hopes that this project will help them to affect change beyond their mission as well, by leading the way for other public sector agencies. "It has revolutionised the way that we manage the programme, and it can evolve with us as we expand. It's quite exciting," Nepia shared.

Enabling EECA from a technology perspective is also key for them to achieve their mission. "How can we look after our homes so that our homes can look after us, and future generations to come? With this project we have an opportunity to make a real difference here for future generations. That makes it worth it for me," said Brash.

EECA's platform by the numbers.

Between 1 March and 31 December 2023:

• 5 minutes to complete an application, with key eligibility criteria checked without human intervention 
• 50,000 applications processed 
• 25,000 applications approved 
• 6-week average reduction in payment processing time 
• $400M in grant funding to be managed to 2027 
• 620 installations tracked in real-time each week 
• 170 service providers/installers managed on platform 
• $66M of funding approved 
• 7 comprehensive dashboards