Articles

Delivering Optimal Value to Customers

Pradeep Nair, Director of Delivery Services, joined Tensoft in June 2007. He has an engineering degree from TamilNadu College of Engineering, in India, and a market research degree from the Mudra Institute of Communication. For more than ten years now, Pradeep has been involved in many forms of consulting and project management. Having worked with Deloitte and Touche, Hyperion, and other firms, Pradeep also has significant experience with enterprise ERP and CRM solutions such as well as other strategic projects.

Strongly focused on customer needs and satisfaction, Pradeep is a model for friendly and practical customer support. He perpetuates Tensoft’s philosophy of “on-time and on-budget,” and is leveraging and extending a superb team to continually improve Tensoft’s already superior customer support.

In a recent Q & A session, Tensoft Marketing Associate, Alejandro Barajas interviewed Pradeep about his new role with Tensoft.

BARAJAS: Can you tell me about the professional services Tensoft offers to its customers?
NAIR: Tensoft offers professional services for each of its products: FSM, RDM, MNC, and, of course, Microsoft Dynamics GP. Some of the services we offer range from customized training and custom development to hosting, consulting and implementation services.

We also offer ongoing support after a customer’s “go-live” date in order to ensure continued satisfaction with our products and/or services. Our 24/5 support services are available to meet our customer’s individual needs. One of my goals has been to understand and coordinate with the support team to integrate our delivery services with our support processes and strategies.

BARAJAS: How is Tensoft’s professional services team organized?
NAIR: The team is organized according to product/service areas. So, we currently have the following teams: a semiconductor operations team, a revenue management team, a financial systems team, a systems team, a business intelligence and dashboards team, and a custom development team. Each team has a lead responsible for defining goals for all team members, such as team training requirements and standardized templates, quality initiatives, deliverables and so forth.

We make sure that goals are properly aligned across teams — including cross-interaction between the them, and individual goals for each team – and are also aligned overall with Tensoft goals and strategies.

When it is time to staff individual projects we build the project team based on the requirements.

BARAJAS: Can you discuss customer benefits both before and after an implementation?
NAIR: In the beginning, we engage the customer as early as possible – as soon as the customer’s project lead gives the go-ahead for the implementation. For instance, this could be implementing additional FSM functionality, doing a GP upgrade, or installing GP. The implementation team comes into the picture as soon as the sale is made. We go to the client, post-sale, and do a thorough presentation to teach staff the product or introduce the new functionality. We check and follow through on any agreements made between sales and the customer.

Once implementation gets started, we want to make sure that the customer understands exactly what they are going to get, so that at the product kick-off we can discuss the entire scope of the project. For instance, we discuss resources. “How many people will be involved from our team?” and “Who needs to be engaged from the customer’s team?” We’ve found that putting a schedule around a project is challenging yet necessary, because our clients are so busy. Our clients learn to appreciate the implementation template that we build for them. We tell them: “This is the way we deliver it,” and, “This is how long each of the units will take.” Working together, we can take much of the guesswork and unknowns out of the equation.

BARAJAS: How is Tensoft’s service approach unique?
NAIR: Our products, like RDM and FSM, have been intensively tested in the field. The implementation time, is very short compared to most other products and companies, because we’ve already customized it to such a high level. It’s usually a very straightforward implementation. I think the client really values this because most of them don’t have time for a big-scale implementation. They require all the new functionality but they need it ASAP! By having a product that is already tailored to most of their needs, we’re already way ahead of everyone else out there.

BARAJAS: Could you describe Tensoft’s implementation methodology?
NAIR: We have a straightforward methodology that starts with several cycles of requirements gathering. Another benefit that Tensoft provides, as opposed to some of the other companies out there, is that we really make an effort to help the client get key deliverables taken care of quickly. Tensoft devotes the resources needed to make this happen, which makes it easier for the client. Sometimes, even though the client may be responsible, they may either be too busy or completely overwhelmed because this is all new to them. That’s where our experience comes in. We work very closely with the client to make sure everything is done effectively and within a very short period of time. I think our clients really appreciate this. Our knowledge and experience helps them decide what they really need.

So, coming back to your question, we do have an excellent methodology. By having a methodology and sharing it with the client up front, they feel more comfortable and in control – because they know exactly what to expect in each different phase of the project.

BARAJAS: To what degree do you expect a customer to be involved during the implementation process?
NAIR: In order for any project to be successful, both the client and Tensoft staff have to be involved throughout. Ideally, closely involved. This is important to ensure that the client gets exactly what he or she needs. We might still be doing all the work but we’re checking in often to say: “This is what we’re doing. This is what you’re going to get. We want to make sure you know you are getting this. Is this still what you want?” … as opposed to taking it away and then coming back after one month to showcase the results.

BARAJAS: How do you make sure clients stay abreast of an implementation’s progress?
NAIR: Again, using Tensoft’s proven methodology, we have touch points in each of the phases to make sure that customers sign-off, and that they totally understand what’s going on. During this time, we also discuss what we have done, define the next phase and check with them if there are any changes.

BARAJAS: After an implementation, does Tensoft provide ongoing support? If so, what kind of support?
NAIR: Yes. After the goal line is reached, when all functionality has been implemented for the client and they’ve actually “gone live,” we provide four kinds of support. One is, when they actually “go-live,” we visit on-site to make sure everything is going smoothly. We also go back a few weeks later to fine tune things and provide support, especially for the first-month close, which is really important. We go back because we know that no matter how well one plans, the actual implementation is still new to users. So, as needed, we often go back and change something post-“go-live.” This is something that we gladly offer.

The second kind of support that we offer is the continuous support we provide for any kind of questions or issues. We have a dedicated support group that takes care of this type of support, which is mostly done through email or phone calls with the client.

We do follow on projects for customers for a variety of reasons – adding new functionality, upgrading systems, supporting additional needs due to growth. These follow on projects are the third type of additional effort provided. Often these projects are a significant value add for companies – leveraging their increased knowledge of the implemented systems into ways that improve operational performance or productivity.

Additionally, a fourth follow on effort we provide, is supplemental staffing. Most often this relates to outsourced report development or system administration support. These efforts are usually IT related – and are geared to help companies scale and meet staffing needs without always having to hire internal resources early in the process. Our hosting services and IT strategy review efforts can be part of meeting these needs too.

BARAJAS: How does Tensoft stay in touch with their customers to make sure that everything is satisfactory? Is it on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly follow-up?
NAIR: One of my roles here, in addition to project management and scheduling the consulting teams, is to constantly keep in touch with clients for the months before implementation starts, during implementation and, after it’s done. During implementation, we have weekly calls or emails to make sure they know what’s going on, and what the plan is after implementation. I also send them a product summary report of what happened. Then, depending on what stage they are in, or how busy the customer is, we have, at least, a monthly follow-up with them to make sure that things are still going fine.

BARAJAS: Looking at training, how effective would you say Tensoft’s services are when meeting customer needs? Can training be customized?
NAIR: Oh yes, Tensoft training is very customizable. We’ve never had any customer say that the training is too technical. In fact, response has been overwhelmingly positive, with customers wanting more classes, and planning to bring more staffers for subsequent sessions.

BARAJAS: What would you say are the biggest challenges for technology companies? What Tensoft services help customers with these challenges?
NAIR: One of the biggest challenges that technology companies have is that they tend to be really busy, due to ramps, resource constraints and market fluctuations. So, at the beginning of the projects, they often can’t say: “Here are the people from our team who are going to help work with you on this.” Time is a big concern. They want everything done as quickly as possible, but they often don’t have the resources to assist with the project.

Secondly, they operate in a very competitive marketplace – more than any industry sector out there because of how rapidly the technology changes. Technology companies have constant pressure to keep up. You have to keep up or go out of business. So, they’re constantly trying to improve their processes, and products. The atmosphere of the technology company is really competitive, both internally and externally. All these factors combine to make up an industry sector unlike any other.

With Tensoft solutions, we try to understand the industry and address these issues. We want to help our customers be competitive in the marketplace, up-to-date in the latest technology, and able to deliver successful products on-time and on budget. We also want to make sure that, by implementing Tensoft solutions, we’re saving them time, right away. Even during implementation, we try to make sure that we are very conscious of our clients’ time, budget, and resources.

BARAJAS: Thanks, Pradeep, for a very informative session!

For further information, please contact Caprice Murray, Tensoft Director of Business Development, at 888-450-4030 x406 or at caprice@tensoft.com