Customer Story
New York State Solar Farm Cuts Survey & Design Time by 5 Hours Per Project with Scanifly's End-to-End Platform
Results From Using Scanifly
Company Overview
New York State Solar Farm (NYSSF) started with a vision to bring community solar to New York State. When faced with regulatory hurdles in 2008-2010, founder Anthony Sicari pivoted to residential solar installations — maintaining the same mission of helping homeowners reduce costs and environmental impact, just one rooftop at a time.
“We realized we could have the same effect as a solar farm by helping homeowners one project at a time. Add all those homes up over a year, and it equals one big field of solar panels, without dealing with the bureaucracy and utility challenges of a single large project,” explains Sicari.
After apprenticing with a master electrician who prioritized quality installations over all else, Sicari launched NYSSF with a commitment to craftsmanship and transparency. The company grew methodically, adding vehicles and team members as they completed more installations. A breakthrough came when they introduced one of the first third-party-owned solar leasing options in New York state, making solar accessible to more homeowners.
Today, NYSSF has established itself as one of the premier residential solar installers in New York, known for transparency, attention to detail, and a growing portfolio of battery installations. With over 115 homeowners under management for battery storage and more than 215 batteries installed, they’re positioned at the forefront of the industry’s evolution.
The Challenge
In the competitive New York solar market, where everyone sells similar equipment, NYSSF needed a way to differentiate. They found their edge through a relentless focus on engineering excellence and customer education.
“At the end of the day, everyone can sell the same panel and the same microinverter. The only thing that separates us is our team’s dedication to quality and our engineering expertise,” says Sicari.
But this commitment to excellence created challenges. The traditional solar site assessment process was time-consuming, dangerous, and inefficient:
- Site technicians spent 3.5 hours per home climbing on roofs
- SunEye measurements and manual surveys required precise hand documentation
- Engineers spent hours translating field measurements into designs
- Design revisions were common when measurements were incomplete
- Multiple truck rolls were needed when customers requested changes
- Customers waited weeks or months for final designs
This detailed approach meant high-quality installations but created frustratingly long timelines. Projects could take up to two months from site visit to final design approval, leading to customer cancellations despite the premium service.
“That level of detail hurt us as a company, but we didn’t want to give up on quality,” Sicari explains.
The Solution
NYSSF had been watching Scanifly’s development for years. Each year, Sicari would ask his engineering team if the software was ready for their exacting standards, and each year they would say, “Not yet.”
Until one day, after another trial, NYSSF’s lead engineer Brett gave the green light: “We’re within two inches of where we need to be. We can make this work.”
That was all Sicari needed to hear. “Once I got his seal of approval, that was it. We were off to the races.”
NYSSF fully embraced Scanifly’s platform, transforming their workflow:
Safer, Faster Site Assessments with Drones
Instead of climbing on dangerous roofs with tape measures and SunEye devices, NYSSF technicians now use drones to capture comprehensive site data in minutes. This keeps their team safe while collecting more complete information than was previously possible.
“When customers see us flying a drone around their house, it builds rapport. They ask for that footage. It adds another level of customer interaction and instills confidence—you actually look like a tech company,” says Sicari.
“When customers see us flying a drone around their house, it builds rapport. They ask for that footage. It adds another level of customer interaction and instills confidence—you actually look like a tech company,” says Sicari.
Comprehensive Design Environment
The drone-captured 3D models provide the accuracy NYSSF’s engineering team demands while dramatically reducing design time. The platform’s solar access values satisfy NYSERDA grant requirements, eliminating the need for SunEye readings.
Enhanced Customer Experience
NYSSF now provides customers with detailed site plans showing the Scanifly 3D model, which allows them to visualize the technical and aesthetic implications of going solar—all before final contract signing.
“We give them a site plan with the Scanifly model of their home. They’re seeing their actual house with the conduit over the ridge cap and where the balance of systems is mounted. That’s a huge differentiator—they know exactly what to expect on install day,” explains Sicari.
End-to-End Design with PrelimDesign Tool
In their latest evolution, NYSSF adopted Scanifly’s PrelimDesign tool, replacing Aurora and creating a centralized design environment from sales through installation.
“We wanted our designers to see side by side what the sales team sold. And we wanted our experienced sales team to take the next step in their evolution—to have more control and separate themselves even further from the competition,” says Sicari.
This unified platform enables:
- Sales reps to make real-time design adjustments during customer meetings
- Direct collaboration between sales and engineering
- Faster customer approvals with accurate 3D visualizations
- Elimination of design silos between departments
“Before, our sales rep would say to the engineering team, ‘We need two panels added here.’ The engineering team would say, ‘I just added you to my queue. I’ll get to you in a couple of hours.’ Now, the sales team can add those panels themselves, see the setbacks the engineering team established, and deliver that updated design to the customer instantly,” Sicari explains.
The Results
Dramatic Time Savings
NYSSF has seen substantial time reductions across their workflow:
- Site visits reduced from 3.5 hours to 2 hours per home
- Back-office processing time cut by approximately 2 hours
- No more time spent uploading SunEye data to external websites
- Total savings of approximately 5 hours per project
Perhaps most importantly, NYSSF has reduced their average time from contract signing to installation by 15 days in just one quarter by adding PrelimDesign to their DroneDesign subscription — eliminating clunky Aurora workflows and centralizing all design work in one place. This consolidation helped them move closer to industry benchmarks for time to install while maintaining their superior quality standards.
Elimination of Go-Backs and Revisions
Before Scanifly, NYSSF regularly needed to send teams back to sites for additional measurements when customers requested changes or when certain roof planes weren’t accessible during the initial visit.
“Every time you do a job, you always wind up with customers saying, ‘Well, actually, we want more’ or ‘This roof isn’t good structurally, we need another roof.’ Being able to log into Scanifly, see all the roofs, see all the data—we don’t have to go back out to projects anymore,” says Sicari.
Enhanced Customer Confidence
The detailed site plans with 3D visualizations have dramatically improved customer confidence and reduced surprises on installation day.
“When we show up on install day, the customer already knows exactly where everything is going. The conduit’s going there, the panels are going here. There’s no ‘You didn’t tell me the conduit was going there, I don’t want it there,'” explains Sicari.
Sales Team Empowerment
By adopting the PrelimDesign tool, NYSSF has empowered their sales team to provide better and faster service to customers while respecting engineering constraints.
“Our sales consultants are getting way more educated on the design side of things. They now have another tool on the engineering side and don’t have to rely on the design team to tell them why things are or aren’t possible. They can cut down that time for the homeowner and give them answers directly,” says Sicari.
One sales consultant who is pursuing NABCEP certification while using Scanifly’s PrelimDesign tool is seeing particularly strong results. “This is now going to be the samurai of salespeople—NABCEP certification plus Scanifly. She’s going to absolutely crush it,” Sicari predicts.
Project Showcase
NYSSF takes pride in giving customers unprecedented visibility into their solar installation plans. For every project, they create a detailed site plan showing:
- Exact panel placement on the customer’s actual roof
- Precise conduit routing
- Balance of system locations
- Equipment specifications
This level of detail has become a key differentiator for NYSSF in the New York market. As Sicari explains: “Our plan sets are at a different level of engineering—we’re putting down exactly where each mount goes and showing where the conduit run is. When technicians join us from other companies, they’re amazed because they never even looked at plan sets at their previous employers.”
The results speak for themselves: fewer change orders, happier customers, and installations that match exactly what was promised. By leveraging Scanifly’s photorealistic 3D models throughout their process, NYSSF delivers a level of transparency and precision that builds lasting customer relationships.
The Impact
For NYSSF, adopting Scanifly’s platform has enabled them to maintain their commitment to quality while improving efficiency. The company continues to focus on a key metric: reducing days from contract signing to installation.
“Our goal as a company is to shave days off our average time from contract signing to installation. With Scanifly, we’re able to shave more days off while maintaining quality, if not increasing it,” says Sicari.
The comprehensive nature of Scanifly’s platform has also created new opportunities for team development. Sales consultants are becoming more knowledgeable about technical constraints, while engineers can focus on more complex aspects of system design rather than basic measurements and layout.
Most importantly, NYSSF can continue to differentiate through engineering excellence and transparency without sacrificing growth potential.
“This software is for companies that care about their customers, only want to do the right thing, and keep moving the industry in the right direction,” Sicari concludes.
Looking Ahead
As NYSSF continues to grow, they see their partnership with Scanifly evolving to further integrate their sales and engineering processes. Their vision is to create a seamless environment where every team member has the tools and knowledge to serve customers with speed and precision.
“Our next phase in working together is going to be having everyone from sales all the way to engineering on the same page with software design. This will allow us to have a very educated sales team with another tool in their box when it comes to the engineering side, cutting down time for the homeowner and giving them answers directly,” says Sicari.
For homeowners considering solar, NYSSF wants to be known as the company that uses every available tool to ensure quality, safety, and system performance. With Scanifly’s end-to-end platform, they’re well-positioned to maintain that reputation while continuing to streamline their operations.
“From a quality and technology standpoint, there’s no tool that we’re missing—we have every tool in the bag to make sure customers get the best possible system. And we’re taking every safety precaution possible while maintaining a higher level of design and accountability on system production.”
