Frazer Hardy, Customer Success Manager at Percipient, discusses the importance of proper support accompanying Sage Intacct and highlights five key steps to getting it right.
The dynamic, digital, and often complex markets in which we operate have redefined working hours, cultures, technology, and expectations. Against this backdrop, and in the realms of software support, you could be forgiven for thinking that real-world, real-person support functions are a thing of the past.
In our experience, however, the precise opposite is true. People make a project and ensure best practice, a value intrinsic to our ethos, and this extends way beyond the point of going live. As we continue to embrace a new transformational era for business, what does world-class support look like?
Expertise on Tap
Relationships are crucial, and at Percipient, our team of consultants establishes relationships with customers from day one, spending the majority of time listening and learning about their business, challenges, and goals. They then map these learnings against our dedicated framework from which to formally check-in, monitor progress against the goals discussed in the early stages of the project, and ensure niggles don’t fester and turn into problems.
While this forms part of a project’s fabric, we are committed to ensuring this ethos continues way beyond go-live and forms part of a long-term partnership with our customers. Given the pace of change and shifting goalposts we’re all too familiar with, ensuring that our customers feel they have advice and expertise at their disposal, whether it’s someone to reassure, steer, or troubleshoot a particular problem, is fundamental.
Without this resource and easy access to the right skills and advice, optimised performance is almost impossible to achieve, particularly for customers with limited in-house teams.
Industry Experience as Standard
While many suppliers see the support function as a training ground, with personnel sometimes needing more skills or experience to resolve an issue quickly, our model is built around expertise and agility. We have the means of rapidly fielding the right people, knowledge, and skills to a customer to not only resolve an issue but also reassure, advise on ancillary issues or dynamics, and most importantly, make the customer feel they have access to something genuinely premium. Our consultants all have industry experience, which ensures they have the empathy to get to the bottom of a problem quickly and a head start on resolving it.
This is also important when checking in at pre-set milestones. It’s unusual for a customer to utilise all functionality within a particular system following go-live, so it stands to reason that support will be called upon to raise queries about how to unlock new features, improve or enhance the user experience and get the most from the system.
Supporting a Future Based on Transparency, Enjoyment and Success
In the interests of transparency, a value we hold dear (whisper it…), we’re human and can make mistakes. However, we ALWAYS listen and take time to understand, ALWAYS learn about the broader context of an issue, and ALWAYS do our very best to ensure our customers get the absolute most from their deployment way beyond the point of go-live. And crucially, we ALWAYS resolve queries by whatever means, even if it takes time exploring and engaging with Sage or third parties.
Despite the growing prevalence of AI, software consultancy remains very much a people business. By having a strong and supportive working culture and extending this to foster excellent customer relationships, we can celebrate everyone’s successes and play a pivotal role in every one of our customers’ digital journeys.
A 5-Step Guide to Ensuring the Right Support
- Support is a fundamental aspect of a Sage Intacct deployment, as bottlenecks and queries can impede the benefits and ROI of new capabilities if left unresolved. It’s important to consider the overall value delivered, and while a lower-cost system might be appealing, if support is limited, what might the real cost to your business look like?
- Personalised support can make all the difference when considering a provider. Sage Intacct support isn’t just about fixing problems but also about exploring the full functionality of your system.
- How much industry experience do the consultants within the support function have? This is a crucial yet somewhat overlooked area.
- Does the level of support match demand? Flexibility is key here, as there’s no point signing up for more than you’re likely to need. The best consultancies will provide packages and services which can be scaled up and down according to your requirements.
- Is the scope of support and SLA framework clearly stated and reasonable? Agreeing terms early on can avoid surprises or miscommunication later.
Sage Intacct Support Partner UK
If you’re thinking about switching to Sage Intacct or would like more information on how we can support your existing Sage Intacct solution, get in touch or call us directly on 01606 871332 and discover how we can help.
