Key Outcomes
12-week CRM implementation from kickoff to go-live
Four business units consolidated onto one platform
A single source of truth for customer and operational data
Reduced dependency on developers for routine system changes
A scalable foundation established for future AI and automation expansion
Facing fragmented data, a legacy CRM, and siloed operations across acquired business units, Dalkia Energy Solutions partnered with Bits In Glass to implement Creatio, an AI-CRM with workflow automation, building a unified foundation for visibility, collaboration, and future growth.
The Challenge: A legacy CRM That No Longer Supported the Business
Years of growth by acquisition had polluted Dalkia Energy Solutions’ CRM. Dalkia Energy Solutions had merged data from several acquired companies into a single Salesforce environment, resulting in a dense, inconsistent, and hard-to-navigate environment. Key systems didn’t connect, either: Salesforce sat apart from accounting and project-management tools, so data ended up stranded across silos. Pulling a report on the fly took real effort, and the metrics leadership wanted either didn’t exist or couldn’t be trusted.
The platform had also grown rigid. Even simple changes meant hiring a developer or waiting weeks, and the more complex the system got, the less the sales team touched it. Costs climbed while the value shrank. Every tweak carried a price tag, and the support Dalkia Energy Solutions needed never showed up.
A deeper problem lay beneath the data and the cost: the business units operated like separate companies. A customer who bought from two units appeared in two disconnected places, with no way to see the whole relationship. Dalkia Energy Solutions had no single view of its customers or its business.
“Our old system had stopped being a source of truth. Years of acquired data were all lumped together, and the numbers leadership needed either weren’t there or couldn’t be trusted. We needed a clean foundation we could actually build on.”
Tracey Montoya,
Sr. CRM Owner & RevOps Coordinator, Dalkia Energy Solutions
“Our old system had stopped being a source of truth. Years of acquired data were all lumped together, and the numbers leadership needed either weren’t there or couldn’t be trusted. We needed a clean foundation we could actually build on.”
Tracey Montoya,
Sr. CRM Owner & RevOps Coordinator, Dalkia Energy Solutions
Why Dalkia Energy Solutions Chose Bits In Glass + Creatio
Dalkia Energy Solutions chose a partner and a platform simultaneously, and both decisions counted.
Faced with a way forward, Dalkia Energy Solutions had two easy options: bolt another tool onto Salesforce, or patch Salesforce one more time. Neither of these options was appealing. They wanted a platform that could run the whole business differently.
A simple system the team could configure without waiting on a developer. They wanted each business unit to run its own workflows on one shared data model. And they wanted room to grow. AI and automation weren’t on the immediate roadmap, but Dalkia Energy Solutions wanted a platform that could evolve as its data and processes matured.
Creatio fit. The team evaluated the market closely, and Creatio stood out as flexible, intuitive, and easy to customize without code. The people selling it stood out too. With visits to Dalkia Energy Solutions’ office near Boston, the team met with leadership face-to-face. Those conversations built trust fast and got the project rolling.
Dalkia Energy Solutions clicked with the team, who listened, ran tailored demos, and showed the team exactly where the platform could take them. And the partner mattered as much as the platform.
A consultative approach.
Bits In Glass didn’t prescribe solutions. The team listened, asked sharp questions, and recommended based on real domain expertise.
A genuine partnership mindset.
Dalkia Energy Solutions consistently describes Bits In Glass as an extension of its own team, not as a contracted vendor.
Transparent communication.
With regular status updates and visible sprint planning, Dalkia Energy Solutions always knew what the team was building, which sprint it sat in, how many hours it used, and where the project stood.
A responsive, capable team.
The core delivery team knew the platform inside out, stayed available across time zones, and flagged fixes to problems Dalkia Energy Solutions hadn’t even spotted yet.
“We weren’t looking for another vendor. We were looking for a partner, and that’s exactly what we found. The Bits In Glass team felt like an extension of our own company. When you trust the people you’re working with, everything else flows from there.”
Katie Boutcher,
Director of Marketing & Revenue Operations, Dalkia Energy Solutions
“We weren’t looking for another vendor. We were looking for a partner, and that’s exactly what we found. The Bits In Glass team felt like an extension of our own company. When you trust the people you’re working with, everything else flows from there.”
Katie Boutcher,
Director of Marketing & Revenue Operations, Dalkia Energy Solutions
The Solution
A unified CRM foundation built on Creatio
Bits In Glass built Creatio as a set of distinct workspaces, one per business unit. Each unit got the customization it needed, and all of them drew on a single, shared data model. The key moves:
- Migrated customer, account, contact, and opportunity records from Salesforce into Creatio
- Configured business-unit-specific workspaces with custom stages, fields, and views to match each unit’s sales motion
- Applied Dalkia Energy Solutions branding throughout, so the platform felt unmistakably like their own
- Standardized core processes and set role-based access controls
- Delivered the full implementation and went live in 12 weeks
A deliberate approach to legacy CRM modernization
Dalkia Energy Solutions’ strategy paid off well before go-live:
- An 8–10 month runway. Leadership started the transition eight to ten months before the Salesforce contract ended. That gave Dalkia Energy Solutions and Bits In Glass room to plan.
- Early partner selection. Dalkia Energy Solutions picked its platform and implementation partners up front, avoiding the scramble that usually drives bad decisions under deadline pressure.
- Stakeholder alignment. Dalkia Energy Solutions’ stakeholders stayed in the room throughout, joining standups and owning decisions, which kept the project moving and blockers short-lived.
- Iterative discovery. The team asked questions relentlessly. Workshops, steady feedback loops, and honest conversations kept the platform matched to how the business actually runs.
A disciplined delivery model
Behind the 12-week timeline sat a structured delivery model:
- Requirements first. Dalkia Energy Solutions supplied complete requirements and documentation up front, so the team could investigate thoroughly and build the right solution from day one.
- A business-unit-at-a-time cadence. The core build ran roughly eight to ten weeks, tackling about one business unit every two weeks and reserving the final week for fine-tuning.
- The right roles. A single lead served as both the solution architect and technical lead, bringing deep Creatio experience, while a dedicated QA function maintained rigorous testing throughout.
- A delivery manager at the center. Serving as the project’s funnel point, centralizing communication, the delivery manager kept the team aligned and quarterbacked the day-to-day work. That kept the technical leads free to build, rather than carrying the coordination load.
- Agile sprints with a live RAID log. The team worked in structured sprints and kept the RAID log, hours, and sprint plans visible, so Dalkia Energy Solutions always knew the state of play.
- One point of contact when it counted. When a third-party marketplace connector for an ERP integration encountered issues mid-project, Dalkia Energy Solutions asked Bits In Glass to take the lead. Bits In Glass became the single point of contact and coordinated the integration.
Results
One trusted source of truth
Several systems became one. Leaders pull customer and operational data from a single platform instead of checking multiple places and reconciling the gaps.
Improved visibility and confidence
Leadership can now reach the metrics it needs and trust them. Decisions move faster because the data holds up, and because everyone gets the same answer to “where do we stand?”
Increased flexibility and agility
Business users handle routine changes themselves instead of waiting on developers. Configuration is within reach, so the team iterates faster and responds as needs shift.
Better user adoption
Simplicity drives usage. The sales team took to the platform quickly because the interface is intuitive and the system doesn’t force workarounds, which fixes the exact barrier that had eroded adoption of the old CRM.
Unified operations across business units
The business units now operate as a single organization with shared visibility. Tracking across the full customer relationship.
A scalable foundation for growth
The platform can absorb new business units as Dalkia Energy Solutions acquires and expands. A single data model removes integration tax and sync drift, so every new unit strengthens the whole instead of fragmenting it.
A Platform Built for the Future
Dalkia Energy Solutions is also looking towards future AI and automation. With a clean foundation in place, the platform’s potential reaches well beyond CRM. The team can extend into RevOps for forecasting, financial reporting, and analytics, or into mobile asset management, where a phone camera, barcodes, and image recognition can identify lighting fixtures and track warehouse inventory. That range is the point: Creatio is proving to be a multi-use-case platform, not just a CRM.
Building the foundation for AI
Dalkia Energy Solutions is deliberate about what comes next. Instead of rushing into AI-powered or agentic features, the team is finishing data governance and process standardization first, a deliberate “crawl, walk, run” approach. Understanding AI pays off when the data, the processes, and the organization are ready. The team is already mapping the workflows worth automating so that when Dalkia Energy Solutions turns on AI, it solves real problems rather than adding complexity.
“Not every implementation is perfect. What makes one succeed is a real partnership and a solid foundation. Dalkia Energy Solutions got their data and processes right before reaching for AI. With a platform like Creatio that’s built for what’s next, the agentic layer will be there waiting when they’re ready for it.”
Barney Holmes,
Sr. Vice President, Customer Relationship Management, Bits In Glass
“Not every implementation is perfect. What makes one succeed is a real partnership and a solid foundation. Dalkia Energy Solutions got their data and processes right before reaching for AI. With a platform like Creatio that’s built for what’s next, the agentic layer will be there waiting when they’re ready for it.”
Barney Holmes,
Sr. Vice President, Customer Relationship Management, Bits In Glass
Maximizing the Value: Six Key Takeaways
For organizations weighing a CRM transition of their own, Dalkia Energy Solutions and Bits In Glass distilled the experience into six lessons:
Choose a partner, not a vendor, and be a partner in return. The relationship runs both ways; two-way accountability is what makes it work.
Build in prep time: months, not weeks. A generous runway makes a fast implementation even faster, and turns panic decisions into thoughtful ones.
Make transparency the default: keep the plan, the priorities, and the progress always visible. Knowing exactly where the project stands removes friction and builds trust.
Don’t cut the delivery role: it’s the funnel point that keeps everything working.A dedicated delivery manager is where communication and alignment converge.
People make the project: show up, treat each other as humans, and the work flows from there. And assign someone internally who owns it; every organization needs a champion who drives the process forward.
Choose a platform built for what’s next: get the foundation right, and the agentic layer will come into focus. Clean the data and fix the processes first; then add the next layer.
Ready to unify your business on an AI CRM & workflow platform? Let’s Get Started
Dalkia Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of the EDF Group, delivers data-driven energy efficiency and sustainability solutions to commercial, industrial, and institutional clients across the United States. Its services span LED lighting, HVAC optimization, building automation, and chiller revitalization. By pairing advanced engineering with a single point of accountability, Dalkia Energy Solutions helps clients lower operational costs, eliminate wasted energy, and build resilient, low-carbon environments.
Dalkia Energy Solutions has grown through acquisition, absorbing multiple business units that each carry their own operational requirements. Its teams are lean and largely remote, spread across the country. That structure raised the stakes on consistency and visibility, and it set one non-negotiable for any new system: it had to be easy enough that a distributed sales team would actually use it.
Featured at Creatio No Code Days 2026: “Beyond Automation: Dalkia & Bits In Glass on Maximizing the Value of an Agentic CRM Investment.”
