In the last 10 years, companies have made significant investments in implementing advanced planning solutions from best of breed vendors to improve their supply chain processes. Today, large parts of such implementations are finished and these solutions are in maintenance mode. This mode is allegedly more stable and less demanding in terms of resources. However, our experience shows that precisely in this mode a big share of implementations throughout the years suffer from instabilityperformance deterioration and questionable solution quality. The main reasons are summarized below:

  • In maintenance mode, support is typically provided by a dedicated team of customer’s employees. This team should be responsible for the operational stability of the solution and for analyzing all issues that users have with the plan. Also, it should test and implement functionality adjustments within the solution scope and install software upgrades. Finally, it should provide first line issue identification and investigation and coordinate with the vendor’s support services in order to find resolutions or workarounds. Unfortunately, operating and maintaining such a team is a problematic and costly exercise. This is because the inherent complexity of advanced planning solutions necessitates people with dedicated skills, training and experience. Even if a company took the challenge of creating such a task force, it would be wiser to liberate its people from their operational responsibilities in order to utilize their skills in more challenging initiatives.
  • On the other hand, the software vendor’s support services are rather reactive and focus on resolving technical issues that the customer has already identified in the software tools. However, a large number of potential issues lie outside of the actual software tools and can be resolved quickly and efficiently if proactive actions are taken regularly. Further issues, inherent to the nature of the vendor’s support services, reduce the value that the customer actually receives. These include the remote location (typically India), the different time zones, the cultural gap, the visa issues and the low employee retention rates.

In today’s challenging financial times the value received by a customer is scrutinized more than ever before and is associated directly with the cost of the services provided. Therefore, there is an enormous pressure to gain the most from any implementation while at the same time keep the maintenance cost at a minimum level. Therefore, customers need to re-evaluate the existing maintenance structure and look for more efficient and less costly alternatives.

 

Optimal Support Services

OptimalCore has organized a support center in its facilities in Thessaloniki, Greece, in order to provide first class support services at a low cost. Our key differentiators are our experienceour low cost & close proximity location and our passion for excellence. The main points of our support offering are listed below:

 

Continuous solution architecture overviewsupport proposition

A dedicated OptimalCore partner overviews the customer’s supply chain planning solution in order to ensure that the optimal value is delivered. Our partner monitors critical architectural aspects including input data quality, planning quality, solution reliability and adaptability and technical stability. Our partner also provides advice on functional adjustments within the agreed scope and is readily available to offer his consulting services on request regarding new functionality requirements.

 

Operational monitoring

The OptimalCore support team monitors all steps of the customer’s planning process in order to ensure that all potential issues are identified before they become critical. The monitoring includes all relevant planning engines and all standard or customer specific integration workflows and scripts. It takes place on an agreed frequency depending on the customer’s workbooks. If necessary, a 24/7 schedule can be arranged.

 

First line issue investigation

The OptimalCore support team investigates immediately all issues raised by the customer, including plan quality issues, data issues and technical issues. Our experience shows that 90% of the most common issues raised in a typical implementation can be resolved within 24 hours. If necessary, possible workarounds are investigated, tested and proposed to the customer. In case a software bug is suspected all necessary actions are taken in order to communicate the issue to the vendor’s support team and ensure fast communication and quick issue resolution.