by Rand Curry

TDS’s approach to customer success addresses the challenges most companies face at the start of new IT projects and maps a plan of engagement to meet customer goals.

TransitionManager onboarding is then tailored to customer scope, timeline, training needs and intended outcomes, providing:

• Awareness of what to expect regarding resource commitment, support, communications;
• A training plan tailored to team needs for specific use case(s) and intended outcomes;
• Proactive and responsive professionals to plan and enable customer success, adapting as new obstacles come into view or priorities shift.

Customers and partners purchase TransitionManager software for a variety of uses. Whether your organization seeks deeper insight into the IT data and interdependencies across your environment or wants to accelerate the orchestration and execution of IT transformation, your Customer Success Manager (CSM) and TransitionManager onboarding team will help ensure your success.

Once the procurement group buys new software for a project, responsibility is turned over to IT for implementation and/or use.

This frequently presents a few challenges:

• Project completion dates remain fixed, however any delays in the procurement process or accessing new software delay your start date, compressing the project schedule.
• Navigating security policy and other compliance requirements can add time and unplanned resources before the project is able to start, further compressing the schedule.
• Unless a structured hand-off between procurement and implementation teams is conducted, the implementation team may not be aware of the purpose, resource impact, support plan or other key information about their new vendor and product.
• Whether or not a structured hand-off was conducted, what will it take to develop competency with the software so the team can meet project commitments?

Accelerate customer access

TDS addresses these and other common challenges proactively. During the Sales process it’s important to understand a customer’s policy requirements and overall workflow for implementing new software. TransitionManager is most often deployed in a SaaS model, which streamlines the path to user access. On-premise deployment is another option, which may incur a more extensive review and implementation path.

TDS strives to map out software deployment requirements before a contract is finalized. This enables appropriate subject matter experts to engage and prepare in advance, accelerating customer access to the software.

Common deployment topics include:

• What are the process and policy requirements for implementing a SaaS solution?
• Who needs to review and/or sign-off process checkpoints?
• What are the restrictions on users, and on networks from which access is needed, e.g. firewall impact, IP addresses, VPN’s, client sites or alternate networks?

The CSM engages to understand customer requirements and streamline deployment of TransitionManager. Addressing IT policies and restrictions in advance accelerates users’ ability to leverage the power of TransitionManager to conduct their project.

Define Intended Outcomes

The CSM has likely been involved in the pre-contract phase: the first post-sale activity is ensuring a mutual understanding of project scope and intended outcomes. Soon after contract signature, the CSM initiates a discussion with the project team leader(s) to confirm a common understanding of the engagement, identify customer priorities, and address any remaining hurdles to enabling TransitionManager access.

This initial discussion is helpful to set expectations for customer onboarding and identify topics that need to be addressed during the formal project kick-off meeting between TDS and customer teams.