Custom Azure SaaS Platform Accelerates Solar Provider’s Growth and Operational Efficiency

A solar provider was facing increasing operational strain as it outgrew its legacy enrollment and billing platform. The original system, built by a third party on .NET Framework 4.8 using ASP Web Forms with a SQL backend, was no longer supported. Development had effectively stalled, leaving the company with aging infrastructure that was difficult to maintain, difficult to scale, and increasingly risky to rely on as the business expanded.

At the same time, The organization was entering new state markets. Each state introduced unique regulatory requirements, enrollment rules, and billing structures that required frequent system updates. Some of these regulatory changes came with short compliance timelines, often requiring platform modifications within one to three weeks. For example, introducing low-to-moderate income composition thresholds for solar gardens, requiring new enrollment validation logic and tracking capabilities. The existing system was not designed for this level of agility.

Operational complexity was also increasing. Solar garden management, enrollment processing, billing workflows, and partner-driven enrollments were growing in volume and sophistication. The legacy platform lacked the stability and flexibility needed to support projected meter growth and statement generation demands. The provider needed a scalable, cloud-based solution capable of handling high transaction volumes while remaining adaptable to constant regulatory change.

As a long-standing client of Emergent Software, the organization turned to the team to design and build a fully modernized enrollment and billing platform. The goal was not simply to replace outdated technology, but to create a sustainable, extensible system that could serve as the operational backbone of the company’s multi-state expansion strategy.

Emergent Software architected and developed the platform using modern Microsoft technologies designed for scalability, maintainability, and performance. The user interface was built with Blazor, supported by a .NET-based API layer and Azure Functions to manage background processes and automation. The application is fully hosted in Microsoft Azure, providing cloud-native resilience and the ability to scale alongside enrollment growth.

The modernization effort went far beyond a technical rewrite. The new architecture was intentionally designed to support regulatory agility, structured release management, and collaborative development. Over time, the engagement evolved into a shared product model. The team’s internal developers now handle a significant portion of feature development, while Emergent’s architects focus on technically complex enhancements and architectural oversight. Emergent also provides a dedicated QA function, ensuring consistent validation before every release.

The teams operate on a biweekly release cadence, delivering approximately ten features per release cycle. This rhythm allows the organization to respond quickly to regulatory updates while continuing to improve operational workflows. The platform supports full enrollment management. It includes configurable logic for regulatory requirements such as low-to-moderate income thresholds, combined utility billing structures, and partner-based enrollments. It also introduced self-service payment management for subscribers, replacing previously manual administrative processes.

Significant improvements were made to customer statement generation and billing logic to support growing meter counts and increased transaction volume. The deployment pipeline was modernized to enable safer releases, expanded unit testing was implemented to support multiple concurrent developers, and the overall architecture was designed to reduce regression risk as the system continues to evolve.

Most importantly, the platform was built with change in mind. Regulatory updates can now be prioritized, developed, tested, and deployed within compressed timelines without destabilizing the broader system. The shared development model ensures accountability, transparency, and flexibility as the company scales.

The platform now serves as the operational core of the company’s enrollment and billing ecosystem, supporting both growth and measurable performance improvements. The platform currently supports over 8,600 individual meters subscribed, with more than 10,000 meters actively managed and over 5,000 enrollments in process. It has generated more than 150,000 customer statements and supported over $90 million in invoiced revenue.

Operational KPIs reflect significant gains in efficiency and reliability. Garden fill rates exceed 99.8%, one of the client's most important performance indicators. Collections consistently exceed 98%, with the most recent two full quarters surpassing 99%. Residential collections remain in the 97–98% range and continue to trend upward. Commercial collections reached 98%, even with longer commercial payment terms. Failed payments have dropped by approximately half compared to earlier performance levels. Commercial churn is now below 0.25%, meeting internal solar churn benchmarks and outperforming competitive providers in the community solar market.

Beyond metrics, the transformation has fundamentally changed how the organization operates. The unsupported legacy system has been replaced with a stable, extensible Azure-based architecture. Manual processes have been automated. Enrollment and billing workflows are streamlined. Payment management is now self-service. The QA discipline and modern deployment practices have significantly reduced hotfix frequency, with post-release issues now primarily tied to process changes rather than technical instability.

The partnership between the company and Emergent Software has also matured. What began as a modernization initiative has evolved into a long-term strategic collaboration. The client has expanded its engagement model, committing to extended timelines and additional QA support, recognizing the consistent value delivered through the shared development structure.

With the new platform in place, the client is positioned to continue expanding commercial accounts, deepen its presence in New Mexico, and pursue additional state growth opportunities. The platform provides the regulatory flexibility, scalability, and operational reliability required to support that trajectory.