Find Support for Sage BusinessVision (BV) from a Certified Sage Partner
Whether you are dealing with a large complex enterprise-sized ERP solution or a straightforward accounting software system like Sage BusinessVision, the important thing for your business is that it works. Any kind of downtime of a company’s management systems can bring not only headaches and frustration, but also costs that businesses can certainly do without.
For software solutions to yield the best result, it is important for businesses to find a Sage Partner capable of being present throughout all the moments that come with investing in software systems. This includes the purchasing process, needs analysis and configuration of systems, training, and of course support.
Sage Partners do not all look the same. Some, like The Answer Company, may offer the entire suite of Sage ERP and accounting products while others specialize in just a few. Whichever the case, it is important to find a partner that treats a solution like Sage BusinessVision with the same thoroughness and proven processes used to support complex flexible enterprise-wide solutions.
Finding the right sage parter
If you are working with a partner that deals with few Sage solutions, if not only with Sage BusinessVision, your considerations will differ than when looking at a large partner. The first thing to consider is the capacity of this type of Sage Partner to support solutions. Understand what (and how much) resources have been made available for ongoing client support and what processes are in place for when your system encounters issues.
Is there a help desk? Will you be contacting the owner of the partner organization, or is there a support team? Is someone available to address issues that arise or will you be redirected to Sage’s support team? These are all questions you will want to ask your prospective partner.
Sage partners will have great depth in understanding the ins and outs of solutions and the needs of their clients. With smaller partners, you will want to make sure there are resources and established processes in place that will improve the likelihood that you’ll be able to access that expertise when you need it.
Larger Sage Partners will generally consist of teams of experts that implement and support the solutions the partner offers. In this case, it is important to consider the size of the customer base the partner has for your solution, in this case Sage BusinessVision.
Partners with a large customer base will have the processes in place and the experience dealing with all types of issues that might arise, and will have experts available with in depth knowledge of each solution. These experts have names, so feel free to ask a partner to meet the actual person that will be working on your system(s).
It is also important to consider the organizational culture of the Sage Partner that you choose. Try to identify within the culture of the partner’s organization what the driving force is behind its operations. Consider whether the partner primarily is a sales company, a software development company, a support company, or is it a full-blown organization that can guide you through all the stages you’ll go through in the many years your relationship will last.
It’s never a bad idea to start with small support tickets or projects before embarking on big ventures with a partner, and when in doubt, ask for recent references.
How We Support Sage BV at The Answer Company
As an example of how a large partner works to support new and existing clients, the following are some of the things we do to make sure the expertise and help you need is available.
Experts Present at Needs Analysis and Configuration
Sage BusinessVision helps improve business performance, as it is equipped with best-standard processes that can be configured to meet a company’s needs. When a company comes to us and decides to invest in BV, we will sit with the client and perform a needs analysis of what will be configured within the solution.
Our experience has shown us that accounting solutions operate better when the technician responsible for supporting it is not only familiar with the solution, but also with the company using it. As such, we always have members of our BV support team be a part of the process of identifying and configuring the solution for the customer. These will be the same experts that will eventually support it.
The Importance of A Local Support Desk
While Sage offers a range of Support Plans, all Sage support requests are actually assigned first to the local Partner. By devoting our own resources to a local support desk, we’ve made sure that we’re available to receive support requests as they happen, so we can begin to mobilize the resources needed to troubleshoot issues right away.
The beauty of Sage BV is in its simplicity, and problems tend to be rare. We have in the past, however, seen this lead to problems itself, where a company using BV goes years without experiencing issues (or updates, for that matter) and when they do they are left stranded for support – not sure who their original partner was. This is where reaching out to a long st
anding BV partner, with experience in all previous versions and a help desk dedicated to support, would be recommended.
Access to Expert Technicians
When the time does come to make a call for support, the bonus to choosing a good partner in the beginning is that your partner’s staff doing support on the system will be same technicians that helped configure your solution at the start.
This is one of the significant advantages of going with a larger Sage partner, and the bonus is that they have also developed the experience to offer expert support to companies they didn’t set up initially, as they have years of experience with Sage BusinessVision in several industries. The consultants and technicians you work with can play a big part in identifying areas where your business’ performance can improve by improving your current system, becoming true business partners.