First, I apologize if this message is a repeat. I got a bounce message saying it was not posted. It is an important message so I wanted to send it again to make sure that it got posted.
Recently, there has been another thread on this list that has discussed issues/ challenges/concerns/praises (yes, there have been a couple of those as well if you go back and read ALL the messages) for the support team and support interaction with BMC. The support team wanted me to forward a note to you all with some comments. < see the attached word document > I also wanted to add a few thoughts of my own on the subject: There is a committed and dedicated team of support engineers here working to help you, our customers. When I interact with the support team -- from the front line engineers to the second line through to the escalation team -- they all have the focus of helping the customer to succeed. I have not seen this passion and focus on the customer diminish. And, there have been some recent posts from folks who have been the beneficiaries of these engineers going out of their way and out of bounds to help on critical situations. ON THE OTHER HAND, have there been issues/problems? Absolutely. Are there improvements that need to be made. Absolutely. Are there issues ranging from training to support infrastructure that can be improved? Absolutely. Are these areas being worked on? Absolutely. And, I hope you are seeing some of the impact of these changes already and you will see more as the change continues. The end goal of the customer support team is to provide an exemplary support experience. This is whether you are simply interacting with the web site to find some data or you have a question you need to speak to someone about or you (on those hopefully rare occasions) have a flaw or failure you really need some assistance with. There has been a significant restructuring and transition of the support team. Yes, that means that some long term knowledgeable staff have moved to new roles and that there is a larger than usual group of new support staff. Yes, that means that some of the support staff is in different locations than before. There remains work to do in this area with making sure that everyone on the team has all the knowledge they need and have the skills (including things like language skills in some cases) that they need. The team is committed to resolving these issues. Although the transition has caused some challenge in some areas, it has also provided some benefit in others in terms of having folks available at wider hours for key issues. We need to make sure that these benefits are retained while working through and eliminating any issues from the transition. I would hope you are seeing improvements for any area where you have had a problem and those improvements should continue. The team has had a major focus over the past 4 to 6 months on improving the interaction with customers -- especially via the web site. Delivered Automated temp licensing site for all Remedy licenses This has removed a major source of frustration from customers and partners about getting temp licenses and delays in this process Coming soon Mid-tier upgrade to 7.1 Resolves issues with browser compatibility with Firefox specifically, improves performance, more capability KM changes Shifting to using the RKM product for KM to provide better searching, access to more data sources -- including documents General web site improvements More efficient and better structure in many places on the web site. Simpler, more efficient product lists. Cleaner, clearer interaction. Internally Improvements on the customer support application and interactions to give the support engineers better access to data about you and about the system so they can help you more efficiently Training -- both hard and soft skills -- is a continuing focus These are just a sample of some of the types of things being done. I have been working with the team on a number of them and I know that they are commited to making it happen and improvements are getting out there. There are some more creative ideas behind this set of changes that will come after these roll out. At the end of the day, I see a support team who remains committed to you and to making you successful. There were a large number of changes very quickly in the support organization that have caused some disruption and some challenges -- that is clear and obvious internally and unfortunately, it is visible in too many cases externally as well. There is dedicated effort to do better. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the feedback path offered in the message from the support team. They want to hear about challenges or issues. It is an important set of input to understand what needs to be fixed. They are committed to listening to that feedback and working to correct the underlying issues that are causing challenges. By the way, it is OK to use that path (or other more traditional paths like the survey feedback) to tell them what is going well or when improvements show up that correct challenges. They can always use the good feedback too! Doug Mueller _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org ARSlist:"Where the Answers Are"
Response to ARList discussion 27Sept07.doc
Description: Response to ARList discussion 27Sept07.doc