Support & Services are essential elements for success
Alongside AlsoEnergy’s PowerTrack Platform there are many competing monitoring solutions, each promising to deliver good results, which may extend as far as advanced algorithms and machine learning. In practice, however, monitoring providers often fail to deliver a critical part of the solution to achieve those results on the ground: support, services, and training. These are the most important factors for monitoring success, but they are often treated as an afterthought; it can be hard to find these words even once on some monitoring providers’ websites. Without strong support, services, and training, monitoring software can fail to deliver even basic results for users.
Support and services are essential elements for success:
- Get accurate, validated data into the system
- Customize the software for varying client needs from one site to the next
- Train clients to use the software
- Provide timely expert support when issues arise
The pain points associated with slow or unskilled support & service solutions can have a significant impact on profitability.
The pain points associated with slow or unskilled support and service solutions can have a significant impact on profitability:
- Experiencing avoidable downtime
- Failing to identify or resolve performance issues in a timely fashion
- Paying for software functionality that has never been enabled
Here are some key questions to ask when you are comparing monitoring solutions:
How Deep is the Support & Services Bench?
The first part of this question can focus exclusively on body count. Larger companies have a higher volume of support and service needs, making it even more important to select a monitoring partner with a deep bench. There is also the question of quality: does the provider offer dedicated resources for the long jobs of site deployments and portfolio migrations? Does the provider have specialized software training resources? Does the provider have engineers and hardware experts on staff, or will they become bystanders to issues involving on-site systems?
Is This an End-to-End Support & Services Solution, or Just One Piece of the Puzzle?
To provide complete support and services for a monitoring solution, providers must have expertise in both software and hardware systems. Benefits of a true end-to-end support and services solution include guidance and accountability for all aspects of project deployment, more accurate validations for data from third party systems, streamlined response to hardware support cases such as RMAs, and faster response times for all cases requiring communication with the hardware company.
Are Support & Services Available in Other Languages & Regions?
Today more and more companies are participating in projects outside of their home country. The pain points associated with support and services can be particularly difficult when monitoring company resources are not available in the time zone or the language for the place where the project is being deployed. What is needed is a support and services platform across all regional portfolios to ensure all stakeholders are working with a single system of record.