Seamless Transition: Tierra Grata’s Journey to PaygOps for Improved Operational Efficiency

For last-mile distributors (LMDs) of essential services, choosing the right IT tools can be the difference between stagnation and growth. Migrating to more flexible, interoperable IT platforms can streamline processes and open up new opportunities for scaling. In this article, we share the story of Tierra Grata and their experience migrating from Angaza to PaygOps, highlighting the reasons behind their decision, the challenges they faced, and the overall benefits they seek to gain from this transformation.

Tierra Grata, a social enterprise founded in Colombia in 2016, aims to provide essential services like water, energy, and sanitation to underserved communities in a sustainable, accessible, and affordable way. A key part of their approach is the "Pay-as-you-go" (Paygo) model to distribute (SunKing) solar devices. Although this model is more common in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa with lower electricity access rates, Tierra Grata successfully uses it to reach overlooked communities in the South American country, such as indigenous groups, farmers, and those affected by armed conflict, who still lack basic infrastructure despite the country’s relatively high electricity coverage.

They have scaled rapidly, employing tens of local agents known as “Light Guardians” who go door-to-door to facilitate sales, product distribution, client onboarding, product activation and customer support. To date, Tierra Grata has sold more than 1000 solar products, impacting 5000 people directly and indirectly in remote areas of Colombia; aiming at distributing at least 5000 devices over the next five years.

To manage the distribution of the solar products, Tierra Grata initially used Angaza, a well-known management software in the sector. While the software offered a reasonable foundation, it presented several limitations for the distributor as their operations grew. Notably, Tierra Grata was looking for more flexibility and interoperability needed to integrate with other systems. Other software in their ecosystem created integration challenges, leading to inefficiencies in managing operations and customer data.

The distributor sought a new software platform for 3 key reasons:

• To enable more personalised customer follow-ups and document every interaction through a ticketing system. This would allow for more comprehensive and in-depth customer support.

• To customise and store data related to customers' financial information and energy usage, providing valuable insights to begin developing impact indicators.

• To accommodate future growth, including the potential to offer non-Paygo services, such as water and sanitation solutions, aligning with the company’s broader service portfolio.

How they Discovered PaygOps and their Reasons for Migrating

After recognising the limitations of their former setup, Tierra Grata began searching for an alternative that could better support their growing needs. This led them to PaygOps, a more flexible and feature-rich platform that could better meet their needs at the last mile.

Several key factors drove their decision to migrate to PaygOps:

Flexibility & Customisation: PaygOps offered the desired adaptability Tierra Grata needed to customise their processes and manage customers efficiently - even across verticals. Key features such as custom forms can support them in their goal to get insights to develop impact indicators; PaygOps Add-Ons will allow them to easily add non-Paygo products and services to existing contracts; and PaygOps’ powerful ticketing system will enable more efficient customer interactions and follow-ups.

Interoperability: PaygOps' ability to be interoperable with other CRMs in the sector, as announced some time ago, represents a game-changing advantage for companies looking to streamline their operations. This interoperability allows for seamless integration with most Paygo product brands and virtually any third-party app, making it easier than ever to migrate from other platforms, allowing them to quickly consolidate their operations into a unified ecosystem. 

Pricing: The comprehensive pricing structure of PaygOps was more suited to Tierra Grata’s financial model, offering scalable options as their operations grew (for more info on pricing click here).

Spanish Language Interface and Support: One of the standout features of PaygOps for Tierra Grata was the availability of a Spanish-language interface. This allows Tierra Grata’s staff to easily navigate the platform. Moreover, the communication between the PaygOps team and the client has been smooth and conducted mostly in Spanish, making technical discussions easier and more efficient.

“We were making adjustments to improve our field operations. One of these improvements was to have a platform that would tailor very well to our operational and social model, allowing us to continue reaching more customers. That is why PaygOps seemed to us a good opportunity and alternative to achieve this,” Luis Castellanos, Project & Operations Coordinator

Overall, Tierra Grata was aiming to automate the sales, after-sales and inventory management of Paygo products under a centralised platform, with the possibility to manage non-Paygo products and seamlessly integrate them with third-party apps as their business scale might require. 

The Migration 

Migrating to PaygOps typically involves several strategic steps, including planning and scoping, data mapping, data migration, system setup, staff training, and post-migration support. For a deep dive into these steps, we encourage you to read this article. Although the duration of a data migration varies based on factors like data size and complexity, platform compatibility, and the availability of resources and the expertise, our team works proactively alongside the client to streamline migration timelines.

“From our point of view, the migration process was somehow complex, due to the amount of client contracts that we had, while trying to put together the information and make it fit. However, the PaygOps team has been very attentive and has brought many differential factors to the table, such as being able to have the platform in Spanish, as well as making the effort to conduct the meetings in Spanish. The response times have been very fast by all means of contact, and they also adjust to the time zone difference. We think that is very rewarding, because it really feels like a relationship between equals,” adds Luis Castellanos.

In Tierra Grata’s case, the process involved transferring around 1,000 customer contracts, product records, and repayment histories, ensuring minimal disruption to the client’s services. To manage this efficiently, our team made use of PaygOps' powerful Bulk Upload feature, which allows large datasets, such as customer information, offers and payment records, to be uploaded all at once. This tool is especially valuable during migrations, reducing manual input and ensuring a smooth transition. Notably, the PaygOps team continues to refine this feature, aiming for clients to soon perform migrations independently with minimal supervision.

“We are proud to provide last-mile distributors like Tierra Grata with flexible, interoperable solutions that will help them automate key processes. This migration also served to demonstrate the power of our Bulk Upload feature, which allowed us to streamline the migration process and complete it faster than ever before.” - Simon Schaffner, Lead Software Solutions Specialist, PaygOps 

The migration was completed within 1 month, allowing the distributor to maintain service continuity. A dedicated PaygOps migration team worked closely with Tierra Grata throughout the process, guiding them through each step.

Challenges encountered and how they were addressed

One of the major challenges during the migration was ensuring that the historical data—particularly the payment and contract information—was accurately transferred without discrepancies. This was essential to avoid data confusion, deletion or duplication and ensure continuity of service.

To address this, PaygOps provided detailed support, performing regular data audits during the migration process to catch and resolve any possible discrepancies. Additionally, Tierra Grata’s team received comprehensive training to familiarise themselves with the new system, ensuring that post-migration operations ran smoothly.

“To other distributors, we recommend having all the data previously organised. After initiating the migration, we realised that we had some gaps in the information or had erroneous information, and this can generate obstacles. On the other hand, remember to explain very well your business model, financing and operations, so that the PaygOps team can adjust and provide solutions through the platform. Last but not least, have a lot of patience and availability of time for this work, which can be of much review and thoroughness”, suggests Tierra Grata’s representative.

Interested in Migrating to PaygOps?

The migration into PaygOps aims to enhance Tierra Grata’s operational efficiency, support their scale, and improve customer satisfaction through enhanced data management and system interoperability. For other LMDs looking to streamline their Paygo operations, Tierra Grata’s experience serves as a case study in successful platform migration. As their Project Coordinator concludes: 

“The migration experience was very positive: the communication was very assertive, and the spaces generated were very productive. Overall, this will allow us to continue reaching the last mile and continue growing exponentially so that more families have access to energy in a better way, because essential (services) must be available for everyone.” 

If you are an LMD considering a migration to PaygOps, feel free to contact our team for a personalised consultation on how we can support your business growth. Reach out to us to begin your migration journey today!

---

About PaygOps:

Solaris Offgrid’s flagship fintech software, PaygOps, enables credit to be provided to the bottom of the pyramid for essential products like solar home systems, agri-inputs, water pumps. The end customers pay incrementally via mobile money under a PAYGO model. PaygOps provides the software infrastructure to manage the contracts, payments and related communication for the local retailers of such products. Our affordable modular and interoperable solution connects energy and payment methods (Pay-as-you-go, mobile money) to a suite of enterprise applications that allows the smooth management of lease financing and field operations, while providing key financial data and metrics to investors.