News
2/6/2012
Twin Lights Group Honored as 2012 AT&T Channel Champion
Twin Lights Group is proud to be recognized as a 2012 AT&T Alliance Channel Solution Provider Champion.
This is the third time Twin Lights Group has achieved Channel Champion standing!
Click here for the full announcement.
7/29/2011
Twin Lights Group Press Release: TRUE program is put into action!
Affordable Housing Alliance’s TRUE Program is Put into Action by Twin Lights Professional Services.
The Affordable Housing Alliance (AHA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1991 to provide affordable housing and other services to low-to-moderate income individuals and families. They have successfully developed 400 homes in Monmouth, Ocean, and Middlesex counties. With their help, over 1,000 qualified families and individuals have been able to purchase their first home. Over the years, the organization has extended its services to other housing-related areas such as foreclosure counseling and energy assistance.
Read the full case study here.
The Challenge
In early 2011, the NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU) selected AHA to be the administrator of the Temporary Relief for Utility Expenses (TRUE) program. The TRUE program is a one-time assistance program and is designed to help low to moderate income households, across the state of New Jersey, who are experiencing economic hardship and struggling to pay their electric and natural gas bills.
Due to the recent and lengthy economic downturn, there was a huge pent-up demand for this assistance among NJ residents, so the program had to be up and running within a very short time frame to ensure that families did not experience service disconnection.
Furthermore, with the available funds, the program was projected to last two years so upfront investments needed to be minimized. At the same time, the ability to grow beyond current projections was required.
Program ubiquity was important. The program was statewide and needed to be designed in a manner such that a potential client could apply from anywhere, at any time.
Finally, the application process was data-intensive and involved transfer of funds to various parties so accuracy and ability to closely track all transactions was critical.
The Solution
Twin Lights Group implemented an all-cloud solution that addressed the unique challenges of the True program.
A NetSuite-based system was built that supported the application process, from beginning to end.
*Through the website (www.ahanjtrue.org), clients have the ability to self-screen and if they qualify, apply on-line and track their application status.
*Through NetSuite’s CRM module and workflow automation, the system ensures that caseworkers quickly and accurately process all applications while keeping the client informed through all stages via automatic email notifications.
*NetSuite’s ERP module is utilized to ensure accurate transfer of funds to the utility companies in order to avoid service disconnection of all qualified applicants.
*And the ubiquitous nature of a cloud-based solution such as NetSuite makes it easy for Affiliate agencies, dispersed throughout the state, to have easy access to the same True system.
M5, a cloud based Voice over IP service, was provisioned at the True office. The M5 solution required minimal capital investment (only phones had to be purchased), supported the high call volume easily and provided real-time call detail and routing flexibility.
Finally, Box.net, a cloud-based document storage service, was introduced. Box.net ensured security, privacy, and easy accessibility for the files and reports exchanged between AHA and the participating utility companies
The Results
Within 3 months, Twin Lights completed the implementation of all systems. This success was largely due to the ease of implementing cloud-based systems (and a few all nighters). Minimal training was required to get caseworkers fluent in using the system.
Call volumes are heavy but are being handled well by the M5 system. For improved customer experience, more sophisticated call routing to local affiliate offices is being considered.
Online applications are coming in at a steady pace and are being processed efficiently by the caseworkers.
Funds are getting accurately and quickly transferred to utility companies to minimize service disconnection.
Lastly, easy access to data and program metrics has allowed AHA to report, with detail, on the program performance to all key stakeholders.
4/26/2011
Twin Lights April Newsletter Released
Check out our April newsletter spotlighting Prontoforms!
Check out the April newsletter located Here.
This month Twin Lights is spotlighting Prontoforms, the modern alternative to your data collection requirements.
For companies taking in data from field staff, getting accurate reports and forms has always been a challenge. Sometimes the issues are technical, such as ensuring all employess use the current form revision, or have the proper training and discipline to gather all the necessary information. Sometimes the problems are logistical and deal with the backend assimilation of field collected data, and the conversion from paper to digital records back at home base.
1/4/2011
Twin Lights Group Press Release: Move For Hunger
Twin Lights Group helps non-profit Move For Hunger radically improve their business process.
Move For Hunger Gains Comprehensive Donor, Donation and Delivery Tracking with Twin Lights Professional Services and Zoho CRM
Jan 6, 2011
Move For Hunger (MFH) is a non-profit organization created to help strengthen the efforts of our nation’s community food banks through the collection of food that would otherwise be left behind or thrown away when families are moving to a new home. By teaming up with moving companies across the United States, Move For Hunger’s goal has been to bring relief to struggling families and bolster the shelves of American food banks. Founded by the Lowy family of Lowy’s Moving Service, Move For Hunger has been leveraging their existing national network of transportation companies to create one of the nation’s largest, year-round service programs.
The Challenge
Adam Lowy, Executive Director at MFH, needed a comprehensive way to track all members of the MFH transportation network, the donations they were collecting, delivering, and the metrics surrounding total contributions to specific food banks. Just as importantly, the MFH team needed a quick and simple way to report on all of this data broken out by regions, transportation carrier, and per individual food bank. Adding another layer of complexity, through the generous donation of wholesale shipping cartons to Move For Hunger for the purpose of resale, this non-profit suddenly needed a way to monitor costs, inventory, order sizes and clients of their carton sales.
The Solution
Twin Lights Group advocated the implementation of an analyst designed Zoho CRM solution. Thanks to Zoho’s flexible interface and ability to track multiple customized data points it was a natural fit for MFH’s needs, allowing them to accurately monitor all incoming donations, partnered food banks, constituents and the individual efforts of each member of their transportation network. Zoho has also allowed Move For Hunger to keep accurate and clearly differentiated records related to sales all within one comprehensive system.
The Results
“The data just keeps pouring in” says Lowy, “It has just been such an efficiency gain to move away from spreadsheets and notepads”. With a little over a month of use, MFH has successfully migrated all of their pre-existing records into the Zoho CRM system and are actively tracking all of their contributors, pickups, box sales and donation deliveries through their new tool. MFH is optimistic that with the inclusion of these features and the ability to report on their operations, they will be able to generate a far greater awareness of their program and gain the support of even more moving companies to assist them in their mission.
9/15/2010
Twin Lights September Newsletter Released
9/1/2010
Twin Lights Group Attending 2010 LNP in New Brunswick
5/5/2010
Twin Lights is Attending Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce Expo
4/8/2010
Twin Lights Partners with Box.Net
4/7/2010
Twin Lights is Attending Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce Expo
3/3/2010
Twin Lights March Newsletter Released
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