Selecting Systems 11: Ongoing Support

Selecting the right system for any organisation, whether it’s for a fast-growing or an established organisation is very much built around the current and future needs of the system itself. However, consideration should also be given to the new BAU and what ongoing support and maintenance can offer.

Whether that is at a simple, functional level only or something more involved such as continuous improvement and a continuation of change, there are a series of questions the customer should ask before undertaking a selection process. In simple terms, these questions should be asked to the company undertaking business or finance transformation and to the potential supplier:

Post-go-live support coverage:

• What do you require for coverage? 24/ 7 support or just working day?
• What about response times and commitment to an agreed service level?
• For complex implementations do you want a single-support function or support direct from suppliers and implementation partners?

In-house solution maintenance:

• Has the system administrator been sufficiently upskilled?
• Is there even a system administrator?
• Is the supplier looking to offshore this to the post-go-live support team?
• This can be a cheaper option, but are these discounts passed on?

The complexity of the solution:

• Is it a small solution with an annual submission? Or is it multiple different applications?
• What level of different subject-matter-expert knowledge is required?
• What is the depth of their support function?
• How will they cover annual leave and sickness for example?

The duration of post-go-live support:

• Is it more an element of hyper care while they familiarise themselves?
• Does the supplier want a longer-term relationship whereby we can recommend the latest product enhancements and quality of life improvements?

Improvements, upgrades and further build of the solution:

• Is this something that they can confidently tackle in-house, or do they rely on a third party?
• Do they provide an advisory function or is it purely functional improvements?

Regular health checks:

• How are they addressing the end user/system admin pain points?
• How are they certain that the solution is as optimised as can be?

Training:

• How do they plan to upskill any future new joiners in their team?
• Will they offer training, and training support to you as part of the support agreement?
• As the solution evolves are they committed to upskilling their own team?

Documentation maintenance:

• Are they taking ownership of ensuring that the documentation is up-to-date, or is this something they can hand over to support?

Metrics:

• How are they monitoring and tracking the issues encountered with the solution?
• Are they purely dealing with issues, or do they monitor trends and work in partnership to identify ways to make improvements?

Conclusion

Support and maintenance are very much an afterthought for some system selection projects. Often, where it does form part of a requirements definition, support can be featured as a functional-only type request rather than anything value-add for the in-life use of the system.

Companies can make huge investments in new systems and in projects to implement them, which is why, from the very start, VantagePoint provides a full managed services offering for every customer enquiry. To not consider how best to support the new BAU, including the system, the people and the process, is to resign the investment to chance in the future.

Selecting Systems for Growth 11/14

• overview - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-finance-systems-support-your-companys-growth-john-fuggles-0x5oe/
• part 1 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-1-stakeholder-buy-in-john-fuggles-63w1e/
• part 2 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-2-considering-people-john-fuggles-ign6e/
• part 3 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-3-training-enablement-john-fuggles-w6rbc/
• part 4 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-4-impact-business-usual-john-fuggles-b5yoe/
• part 5 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-5-process-alignment-john-fuggles-zm8he
• part 6 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/article/edit/7249463530045812736/
• part7 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-7-need-integration-john-fuggles-748vc/
• part 8 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-8-future-fit-john-fuggles-ph5pe
• part 9 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-9-developing-implementing-plan-john-fuggles-ovkoe/
• part 10 - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/selecting-systems-10-finding-right-implementation-partner-fuggles-h9vue/