> Large Fees are Painful

Check signers are sensitive to large recurring annual support and maintenance fees and upgrade fees that nobody thinks about when buying a product. They also know that after four or five years upgrade fees are required to migrate the company to a new major release. Moreover, an entirely new implementation is usually necessary to accompany an upgrade to a major new release.

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Four Sources of Check Signer Pain -  SaaS Hosted IT Help Desk & Customer Service Cloud Computing

> Labor Intensiveness is Painful

Check signers do not want to spend money on people to manage and maintain software applications. Instead, they prefer automation, simplicity and easy to use administration for configuration and customization. They are interested in getting their KPIs/metrics without having to train people to use report writers and sending staff away on expensive business trips to "Report Guru" school.

Check signers also know that often project teams overlook the true total cost of ownership of owning software. They know this by just looking at all the money the company spends for consultants to configure, customize and otherwise maintain software applications. Software is often built to be almost infinitely flexible, but it comes with a significant price tag of complexity, requiring custom coding or specialized consulting skills.

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Four Sources of Check Signer Pain  SaaS IT Help Desk & Customer Service Cloud Computing

> "Who Should I Reward, Warn or Terminate?"

What do check signers secretly think about every night before going to sleep? They want to know who should they reward, warn or terminate. The best and brightest leaders are fair and decent people; and they want to reward, warn and terminate using objective data (i.e. KPIs/metrics). However, they often cannot obtain this information at all; or they cannot obtain it very easily from most call tracking systems.

Check signers want their companies to be well oiled machines with the most exceptional talent. Check signers need to know how to objectively measure performance so that they can understand which employees are the most valuable and the least valuable. Check signers want to know:

> Who is providing the highest levels of customer satisfaction?

> Who is the most responsive to customers?

> Who is consistently meeting or exceeding service level agreements (SLAs)?

> Who is contributing the most highly rated knowledge articles over time?

> Who is resolving the most difficult customer problems?

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Four Sources of Check Signer Pain  SaaS IT Help Desk & Customer Service Cloud Computing

Check signers want the following basic KPIs/metrics and trends from any call tracking system:

> Can you measure First Call Resolution (FCR)? If so, what was it for last

month? What does the trend line look like?

> Can you measure customer satisfaction? If so what was your overall rating last month? What does the trend line look like?

> Are you using Service Level Agreements (SLAs)? If so, can you measure SLA compliance? What was your SLA compliance on Severity Level 1 and 2s for last month? What do the trend lines look like?

> Can you perform Root Cause Analysis? If so, what systemic changes have you made in the last 30 days to lower call volume?

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Four Sources of Check Signer Pain  SaaS IT Help Desk & Customer Service Cloud Computing

There are generally four main sources of pain points for check signers:

> Lack of Granular KPIs/Metrics/Reporting

This impacts the ability to increase customer satisfaction and revenue and lower company costs. Check signers are very sensitive to the needs of customers. If your company is a law firm, the check signers are probably very sensitive to the productivity of revenue-producing attorneys who bill their time. If your company sells widgets, then check writers are probably very concerned about whether customers are happy with your company's widgets. If customers are not happy, then they will not buy more widgets. Examples of some basic KPIs/metrics are first contact resolution, customer satisfaction trends, SLA compliance trends and root cause analysis. Most of these KPIs/metrics will help increase customer satisfaction and increase revenue. Root cause analysis will help decrease call volume and lower costs. The lack of these KPIs/metrics is a significant pain point for many check signers.

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Indicate a very strong and genuine interest in learning about check signer pain points. Stop talking about your pain and instead seek to understand and their pain. Check signers will be impressed with this approach. It shows that you have transcended your own department needs, and that you can see the company problems more globally and holistically. Don't be surprised to hear, "Wow, that's a great analytical approach. You mean you're interested in my pain? Schedule a time to meet with me!" Your approach will speak volumes about your strong business sense.

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IT Help Desk & Customer Service Cloud Computing

The project leader or champion is responsible for identifying all the pain of check signers. Yes, you may know your own pain; but you must identify the pain of check signers, if any actually exists. Often, this pain can be latent. Perhaps it has existed for so long that senior leaders no longer realize that they really have this pain. For example, a senior level leader may not be receiving the kinds of reports they desire. As a result, they may not be monitoring important KPIs/metrics and are thus making decisions without the benefit of very important information.

If you find that the project approval keeps on getting delayed, this is a good indicator that there is not enough pain in your organization, or the pain points have not been properly highlighted. The check signer may not be feeling significant pain. The project leader has not identified/highlighted significant check signer pain. Also, no compelling enough economic analysis has been made to justify the purchase. Any new purchase must be at a lower TCO and have more functionality than what the company is currently paying today.

Further, engage with the other key approvers/supporters above you and below the check signer and document their pain as well. You must build a business case and economic argument that supports going to a new solution that will save the company money, eliminate pain points, and at the same time improve functionality.

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Cloud Computing for IT Help Desk & Customer Service/Support

Important License Agreement Terms

The #8 Key Point we discuss in the "Winning Strategies for Purchasing IT Help Desk and Customer Service Software or Cloud Computing" webinar is important license agreement terms.

The following are important questions to ask and some key contract terms to negotiate into your software license agreement:

• What happens if we have a disagreement? Will we have to litigate?
• Uptime service level agreements
• Support service level agreements to manage the relationship
• Post implementation customization/configuration
• Routine support vs. professional service fees
• Most overlooked critical details about software maintenance
• Termination clauses, contract lengths, discounts, hidden fees

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Cloud Computing for IT Help Desk & Customer Service/Support

Compare Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of All Vendors

The #7 Key Point we discuss in the "Winning Strategies for Purchasing IT Help Desk and Customer Service Software or Cloud Computing" webinar is to compare the total cost of ownership of all vendors.

It is generally very easy to determine the acquisition costs of purchasing a call tracking system. However, it is more difficult to determine the ongoing lifetime costs. For example, there are enormous amounts of labor required to generate reports with many tools. Also, your company may need one or two people for routine maintenance, report generation and ongoing configuration/customization.

Ask each vendor on your short list to prepare an estimated Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over four years, so you can study their assumptions. Ask them to consider all the acquisition and lifetime costs of ownership. This will help you better compare vendors "apples to apples" and understand the true lifetime TCO of a new call tacking system.

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