CBAP Practice Exam #12
The quiz provides a real-world business problem to test the examinee's knowledge decisions.
Business Problem: The "Solar-Grid" Connection Bottleneck
The Context: "BrightPath Energy" installs residential solar systems. While their sales team is signing up record numbers of customers, the operations team is drowning. The time from a customer signing a contract to the system actually being turned on has ballooned from 45 days to 110 days. BrightPath only gets paid the final 70% of the contract value after the "Grid Connection" is approved by the local utility provider.
The Current Process:
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Contract Signed: Sales enters data into the CRM.
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Technical Survey: A technician visits the home to check the roof and electrical panel (7% of surveys fail due to outdated panels).
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Permit Application: Admin staff manually fill out PDF forms for the local council.
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Installation: Hardware is installed on the roof.
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Inspection: Local council inspectors visit to sign off on safety.
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Grid Application: BrightPath submits a request to the Utility Company to swap the meter.
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PTO (Permission to Operate): The Utility Company sends a digital certificate, and the system is activated.
The Statistics:
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The "Paperwork Gap": 30% of Grid Applications are rejected by the Utility Company because the customer's name on the utility bill doesn't exactly match the name on the solar contract (e.g., "Jon Doe" vs. "Jonathan Doe").
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Revenue at Risk: BrightPath has $14M in "Unbilled Work-in-Progress" (installations finished but waiting for Grid Connection).
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Cancellations: 12% of customers cancel their contracts after the installation is complete but before activation because they get frustrated by the 3-month wait.
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Manual Effort: Admin staff spend an average of 4 hours per customer just re-typing data from the CRM into various government and utility portals.
The Strategy Conflict: The Operations Manager wants to hire 10 more admin staff ($600k/year) to handle the paperwork. The CTO wants to build a "Middleware API" ($1.2M one-time cost) that automatically syncs the CRM data with the Utility and Council portals. The CEO is worried about the $14M cash flow gap and wants whichever solution starts clearing the backlog in less than 90 days.
