In small business accounting and ERP consulting there is tendency to do small scale projects including incidents and user training remotely via web session with phone conference.
If such packages as QuickBooks or Peachtree might be recommended for self-implementation Business One however is sold through partner channel and requires consulting hours to be placed into production. We classify it as ‘initial implementation’ with the following phases: installation, data conversion and user training. When system is stable and everything look smooth there is no need to have local consulting folks to come out onsite for new employee introduction into the procedures and client interface navigation. Plus you might realize that there are consulting firms who specialize in nationwide support from their call centers. These centers have large pool of technicians with diversified expertise, certification and experience to cover virtually ‘everything’. On the other hand specialists working for local organization might have limited exposure and had to come through ‘learning curve’ helping you with new tool or accident. Let’s review support mechanics and then answer popular questions:
1. Web session is sharing computer screen, mouse and keyboard with technician and talking to either by phone or headset. You cannot obviously ‘shake hands’ to each other but in order to bring some emotional touch it is possible to use web camera to see each other. There are numerous web session products on the market. We would like to mention Citrix Gotomeeting and WebEx
2. New client setup and training mechanics. What happens is the following. You IT people open new computer to remote consultant and he installs user application plus if required Crystal reports, customizations and integrations. Connection technology might be either web session or remote desktop. Then in web session one or several users are trained to use application. Obviously session is interactive process and it is much better then listening prerecorded demo. Usually each client has specific procedures associated with his or her duties in the company. But of course remote technology allows to conduct seminars with multiple participants
Let’s now answer popular questions associated with this technology:
Q. Besides what was mentioned above does it have additional advantages?A. We would like to mention few more. First of all there is no need for commute and associated travel expenses. Secondly the lack of travel means that theoretically support could be given immediately upon the call assuming that the pool of technicians is large and somebody is idle in time. Next think about customer service departments in banks or regional service vendors including utilities, hospitals or city administrations. In order to get your call picked up you are staying in line for couple of minutes. For the vendor it means that each service technician is on the call close to 100% of her or his time. Such ‘heavy workload’ gives some flexibility in price reduction
Q. Is it possible to cover issues with old version 2007 or 2005 for example? How about upgrade projects?A. When you are selecting supporting partner you may check if they carry specialists certified and familiar with older releases. Upgrade projects are normal in this supporting model
Q. Is it possible to do programming remotely?A. Customizations are very popular candidates as local consulting market might be limited and concentrated on initial software sale and generic initial implementations. Organizations with nationwide specialization and tech support call centers might afford to have several SAP B1 SDK programmers
Q. How about cost per incident?A. Normal practice is hourly rates. However if your provider has prepaid annual case packages then it might be cheaper especially when you are sure that you will consume all the incidents
Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904, help@efaru.com. We have local presence in Chicagoland, Atlanta Georgia, Southwest Michigan. We serve customers USA and Canada nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed)
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