Provide Comprehensive Service And Support Without Leaving Your Office

You've developed your own software? Great. You're ready to integrate your software on a nationwide basis? Even better. But, have you thought about how you're going to support it? Inevitably, a customer 500 miles away will inform you, in no uncertain terms, that "My system is down. How long before you fix it and I am up-and-running?"

When Sandeep Goel developed his forms-processing software, Transform, he addressed customer service concerns in every line of code. "To diagnose a software problem, you typically have to be on-site. This means having a local service person for every installation or sending a technician from our headquarters every time a user has a problem. A small company can't afford to do either," says Goel, president of dakota imaging. Instead, Goel programmed remote-support capability into the software. Remote support allows his service personnel to diagnose and solve almost every customer problem without leaving dakota imaging's headquarters in Columbia, MD.

Remote support is only one of the pieces that has allowed dakota imaging to entirely support every installation it has done - regardless of location. The company also partners with value added distributors which support some of the third-party products dakota imaging integrates. Additionally, the 60-employee company also has three defined teams which have highly specialized skills and responsibilities. Through integration, service and software sales, dakota imaging is projecting $13 million in gross sales in 1998 after posting $6.5 million in 1997. In addition to its headquarters, the company also has sales offices in Chicago, San Diego, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.

Avoid Giving Customers The Runaround
If you are integrating your own software in a system, you have a couple of support options. You could support only your software and allow the customer to support the remainder of the system. Or, you could support the entire system, including all the products you integrated. According to Goel, the first option is common, but not adequate. "Customers do not have the skill set to know every aspect of the entire solution. They did not install the system and they aren't knowledgeable about each component," says Goel. "Some of our systems have $1 million worth of hardware and software and the solutions are very complex."

End users who support their own systems and encounter a problem will often get the runaround from vendors, according to Goel. When there is a problem with a scanner, the end user will likely call the scanner vendor for help. After getting through, the scanner vendor may blame the problem on a different vendor's product. The customer has no recourse but to chase down vendors until finally solving the problem. "This is a common problem for customers who try to support their own system," states Goel. "It takes customers much longer to get their system up-and-running if they are supporting it as opposed to the integrator who installed it."

Solving Problems From Your Office
How important is remote support capability to dakota imaging? Well, Goel admits that without it, his company could not support every system it installs. Remote support is built into every system dakota imaging installs and allows the company to "diagnose and solve about 99% of customer service calls" from company headquarters. "Customers only see a symptom, they don't know what the problem is," says Goel. "When they call for service, we're able to log into their system and run a diagnostics program. We can diagnose problems almost immediately."

A recent service call to dakota imaging is typical of how remote support pays off. A customer wanted to scan and process a new form, which meant he had to adjust some of the settings in his system. After making the adjustments, he began scanning the new forms. The system balked. "He called us up and said, ‘The system doesn't work,'" recalls Goel. "The entire system not working is almost never the case. There is usually a specific cause for the problem." After getting the customer to calm down, Goel logged into the customer's system and ran a diagnostics test. Goel viewed the results of the test from his office, which was "error code 6201." Goel immediately recognized the error code. The user had missed one of the settings that lets the system know that new forms are being scanned. Goel pointed him back to the GUI (graphical user interface) and one mouse click solved the problem. "I solved the problem in five minutes," says Goel. "The customer walked away without even considering that his system had been down."

The Value Of Value Added Distributors
There is no question that remote support capability almost eliminates on-site service calls for dakota imaging. However, there are times when traveling to an installation is necessary to solve a problem. For many of these instances, dakota imaging calls upon its relationships with value added distributors. NewWave Technologies, for example, is a master distributor of the Kodak products which are integrated into dakota imaging's systems.

About four months after dakota imaging installed a forms processing system, a customer called the company's service department regarding a malfunctioning scanner. After diagnosing the problem, the service representative realized that a technician would have to go on-site. Because the scanner was a Kodak product, NewWave Technologies was contacted. "NewWave is subcontracted by Kodak to handle any related service calls," says Goel. "NewWave and Kodak technicians are under subcontract to my technical support dispatch people." A NewWave technician was dispatched immediately and went on-site to solve the problem. As far as the customer was concerned, the technician worked for dakota imaging.

dakota imaging has a similar arrangement with IBM. dakota imaging integrates IBM products and IBM is also a reseller of Transform software. Because of this relationship, IBM provides on-site technical support for dakota imaging's systems. "Our company is a single point of service for an entire system," says Goel. "The customer doesn't see that it takes three companies to provide complete service."

Organized For Success
dakota imaging's four sales offices are responsible for prospecting clients and closing deals. All the integration and software development is handled from company headquarters in Columbia, MD. To accomplish this, 45 of the company's 60 employees are placed on one of three teams. Each team has about 15 members.

• Research And Development Team - Members on this team are responsible for developing the off-the-shelf version of the company's Transform software. The team is responsible for writing new code and creating new versions of the product.
• Technical Support Team - This team handles all systems integration, installation, and technical support. Members of the team will often rotate between an on-site installation and working at headquarters. However, the project manager of an installation will likely remain on-site for an entire installation.
• Professional Services Team - Because most installations can't use the Transform right out-of-the-box, this team customizes the software for each installation. They use the software that is built by the Research And Development Team, and customize it to a user's needs.
  
  Uptime Equals Good Customer Service
  From the design of its software to the design of its company, dakota imaging has developed a way to support every one of its installations. In the end, customers' perceptions of service and support will really be reflective of how well their system works. "Quality service and support means your customers' systems are up-and-running. And, when there is a problem, you solve it very quickly," says Goel. "Customers will forget any trouble you might have had deploying a system, if the system stays up. If the system requires constant service calls, it doesn't matter how smoothly the initial deployment went."