When it comes to necessary software to operate your business Energy Brokers have two options:
- Develop your own software
- Purchase software from a Software as a Service (SaaS) company.
Many brokers would agree, the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) route has an appealing factor. For instance, when you develop software in-house, you can tailor it to your firm’s specific needs and workflow — in theory, anyway.
However, the truth is, energy brokers are not software developers, and those that undertake the challenge of the DIY route often run into unforeseen hurdles.
Another truth is many brokers that build their own software, ultimately realize their time and money would have been better spent investigating a SaaS company’s commercially available alternative. Sparkplug, which is the #1 retail energy sales platform in the world, is one of those alternatives. Sparkplug powers over 10% of the commercial and industrial (C&I) transactions with offerings for C&I Brokerage, Aggregators, Community Choice/Municipal Aggregations, Mass Markets (D2D, Call center, Kiosk), and online shopping sites.
A current Sparkplug user, Dave Martinez, offers one such cautionary tale:
A few years before his current role as the President at his current broker shop, Martinez was the President of a large energy procurement and efficiency company. That company decided to develop its own broker software internally which Martinez strongly advised against. Martinez’s unfavorable experience with building custom, in-house solutions led him and his new team to choose Sparkplug when his current broker business began to outgrow their rudimentary off-the-shelf CRM system and a bevy of spreadsheets.
We asked Martinez to walk us through his company’s decision on selecting Sparkplug.
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Is now the right time for your company to switch to the best broker software solution?
Sparkplug is the most advanced broker platform on the market and manages complex products with varying sizes and variable applied margins. Sparkplug supports all of the key elements necessary to support complex products including:
- Manage different margins for all product components
- Reconcile supplier commission payments
- Track index portions
- Track blocks (including layered blocks)
- Reconcile expected vs actual usage
- Report at risk hedge positions for each customer and overall book
Don't just take it from us, hear from Brokers like you:
"Selecting Sparkplug as my broker software was one of the best decisions I could've made for my business."
“[Enerex's] customer service team combines thoroughness and responsiveness with a wonderful friendliness to make for a top-notch client relations team. They are a pleasure to work with as anyone who has worked with them knows.”
"The Sparkplug implementation resulted in better data quality, improved business insights, and improved communications between sales, operations, and our internal pricing teams. The solution was customized & had our Aegean Energy branding. It met and exceeded our expectations."
"[Another Broker Software Company] attempted to migrate our data over 6 months and the Enerex Team accomplished it over one weekend! I truly consider them [Enerex] not just as a vendor for us, but a strategic partner that can help our business reach the technological capabilities that I only dreamed about before.”
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