Are you getting good value from your existing Vendor Support Agreement?

The chosen strategy for many companies with Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems in production is to remain as close to the ‘off-the-shelf’ version as possible, avoiding customization wherever possible. Similarly, most EAM customers choose to remain as close to the current release as possible, periodically upgrading their systems to the latest version. Experience has shown that these two strategies tend to minimize the total cost of ownership of the enterprise software applications. Pursuit of this strategy however, entails the payment of annual maintenance fees equal to 18 – 20% of the original license fee. Those fees represent a major line item in the typical operating budget, often times involving payments of $500,000 or more. What the customer receives in exchange for their maintenance fees are access to maintenance and major releases, hot fixes, Software Vendor Help Desk support, and product documentation. Most Software Vendor Help Desks however are not set up to provide end user support, but rather are primarily geared toward product defect reporting. The customer’s frustration is further compounded in that the personnel staffing Software Vendor Help Desks are generally newer employees lacking a good understanding of the products they support.

Most users don’t know initially if they have a product defect issue, but they know that they have a problem. The typical experience is that the end user is expected to do leg work associated with the identification of the product defect, documenting keystrokes to replicate problems. Often times the end user is told that their problem is not a product defect and the ‘Help’ ends at that point. In truth, most of the problems you will encounter are not product issues, but rather configuration, data, or business process related. What the end user really needs is someone knowledgeable to talk to about the problems they’re having with the applications, a systems analyst who can help them resolve their configuration or data issues, or a business analyst who can help them with a business problem.

iStrat Support now offers a means of resolving such customer support issues. iStrat has established a new Customer Support Program offering for end users of Indus’ PassPort™ and EMPAC™ products that will drive down customer’s production support costs, improve response times, and eliminate end user frustrations.

Under iStrat’s CSP, customers pay a nominal set-up fee, and get the first 200 hours of support without further cost. iStrat has scores of analysts, programmers and engineers available to help you. With the iStrat CSP, pre-authorized representatives at the customer site are given a number to call, and iStrat puts the customer contact in one on one contact with an analyst, programmer, or other resource within one business day. In most cases, we can put customers in contact with the appropriate resource within 3-4 hours. Where appropriate, we can have senior resources travel to your site, and the only incremental costs involved are travel related. Hours are posted as debit entries against the 200 hour balance, and monthly statements reflect usage and results.

If your organization is having a difficult time justifying the payment of on-going maintenance costs, or if you need occasional but immediate support, please contact us for additional information.