Support is crucial to ensuring the quality and success of any enterprise software implementation project. During the deployment of an IETM/IETP solution, support is a pivotal activity required to shape and mold the product towards its complete integration into a complex, mission-critical system, and be fully functional for the mass of users.
However, support is not solely there to help push your project to its successful conclusion. A well-supported software product and user base play a key role in driving perpetual values by progressively closing any technical gaps between users, the systems and the software. In other words, there can be a huge difference between a solution that works and software that works for you, and post-live support is one of the most important differentiators enabling this.
After the project has concluded following the end of user acceptance (UAT), in order to maximize the return on investment in the long run, your organization may want to consider an extended support package addressing your unique needs, and budget for further assistance down the road. (This does not include post-implementation critical issues that are within the scope of the project ) With continuous technical support after go-live, the three items below are the main benefits you may receive:
- Optimization: Even with the success of the implementation, within a complex system there will always exist many opportunities for improvement. Post-go-live optimization can be utilized for the continuous optimization of the features based on your user feedback, as well as identifying areas of performance that may need further development within your systems. This is especially beneficial when the product has a high capability for configuration and customization, allowing deeper integration into not just systems, but your organizational processes.
- Training: When later versions of the software inevitably roll-out, keeping up-to-date with new changes will become a continuous process for the mass of end-users. The primary trainers and the customer service department may need extra assistance, whether it is with understanding the changes or helping the end-user directly. Training is key to change management, and receiving timely and appropriate training is important to help your users and organization quickly adapt to change and start bringing back the early return on investment.
- Technical assistance: Technical personnel from the vendor possess a higher in-depth understanding of the product’s components. They can help resolve difficult cases of support requests, which can be escalated from the internal customer service department. Receiving technical assistance directly from the technical department also ensures the various frequently encountered issues get quickly documented for future references.
While engaging a Support Level Agreement (SLA), services can come flexibly with business hour response or even 24/7. Depending on your needs, the support package chosen is recommended to include at least optimization, training, and technical assistance, as these are the services that can help your organization bring back the most return on your investment. You should review your needs early before engaging in a custom SLA.
As a key stakeholder for the implementation, the vendor side and their implementation team should be open and ready to discuss post-live support early in the project, as you will likely be working with the same implementation team and tech department when receiving post-live services.
Before the solution is live, there should be a pre-existing well-defined structure and plan for post go-live support and assistance. By that time, all users have already been well informed of all available options to access help. This is important to ensure possible issues get quickly resolved and documented promptly. The vendor must also offer sufficient channels of support to accommodate the varying needs of the different groups of users.
Channels of post go-live support and their unique benefits.
Depending on the SLA you have chosen to implement, the vendor may enable support via various channels of communication, including:
- Resources center: Vendors must provide digital user guides of the software catering to each unique user group including Administrators, Users, and ( in some cases) Developers. User documentation and other important product knowledge should be easily accessible via a secure resources center. (e.g Single-Sign-On authentication) A well-updated Resources Center giving answers to the most frequently encountered issues is key to keeping down the number of help requests and escalations to the support system.
- E-mails: Email should be the non-negotiable option included with all support packages. The vendor’s support system should be reached via email with a reasonable response time. The possible downside of email is its relative lack of data security. It is important to secure both sides of the email information exchange by having the service hosted within a secure, stable server.
- Ticketing system / help desk: Certain vendors may adopt a ticketing system to manage customer queries more efficiently while being able to track all customer requests in the queue. When handling requests from a larger user base, a ticketing system can help facilitate support resolution and escalation for your users. Response duration can vary from live chat to business day. As the help desk is usually designed to provide answers to basic issues, unresolvable requests can be escalated to support personnel of higher technical expertise.
- Phone calls: Although non-emergency phone calls can be optional for most post-live services, if instantaneous responses are desirable from time to time, including a certain amount of live phone calls (per month/year) with your SLA can be a smart option.
- Face-to-face/on-premises: This option requires having experts come over to assess your system to address your immediate concerns. Face to face or on-premises is usually a necessary service option for mass local installation where you manage your own physical IT architecture.
At the end of the day, the quality of support and accompanying services is just as important as the quality of the actual product when contributing to your eventual return on investment. The flexibility to customize support options also is one of the key criteria when choosing a vendor to implement an IETM/IETP solution for your organization. In fact, it is smart to discuss post-go-live support with the implementation team early during the deployment. Open communication and forward-thinking are key to obtaining a long-term service package that successfully caters to your unique needs and change management strategy.
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