Re: Off shore help desk? -- MAPICS-L

Paula, 

I read the article you listed, and I hope that doesn't happen.  I've 
experienced problems with overseas support for some of my systems (Cisco, 
for example, and also AT&T), where I speak to a tech and he (or she) 
speaks VERY poor English.  Effectively incomprehensible.  I greatly prefer 
using the web for support with them.  I've actually been to the point with 
an AT&T call where I had to have the person e-mail me what he was asking 
because I couldn't understand what he was saying.  My hillbilly, western 
PA mountain accent going up against his whatever-accent was NOT working! 
Both of us were extremely frustrated.  The e-mail, on the other hand, was 
properly written, and we completed the project using only e-mail for 
communication.

I use e-mail (and log my own incident tickets) a lot with MAPICS, too, but 
mostly because it's more efficient (I hate phone tag), and I can put a LOT 
more information into an e-mail (or help ticket) exactly the way I want, 
and make sure it's complete before I hit send.  But sometimes I have to 
discuss a situation and bounce ideas off people - that's inefficient via 
e-mail - way too time consuming.

I think the MAPICS Response Line is staffed with excellent resources - I 
always get my questions and problems resolved efficiently and 
satisfactorily (well, except when I want a function that isn't there - but 
that's not a response line issue!).  Quick response, courteous, and always 
helpful - even on Sundays.  Last Sunday, Greg Lamb (at the response line) 
talked me through a really odd A/R month-end close issue.  There was a LOT 
of talking back and forth on that one, reading job logs and so on.  If I 
would have had a tech like the AT&T person I mentioned above, it would 
have taken enormously longer, if I would have been able to even get it 
resolved.  In addition the longevity of the people at the Reponse Line, 
their experience and knowledge, will be REALLY hard (if not impossible) to 
duplicate in an off-shore "phone shack".

Programming is one thing, support is something completely different. 
Customer contact isn't very prevalent with programming (exceptions being 
project managers, in some cases).  Help Desk/Response Line is little but 
customer contact.  Communications skills should be paramount. 
Unfortunately, not all companies see that.  I sure hope MAPICS keeps their 
existing structure.  The response line is (to me) one of the main benefits 
I think I get from my ALFs.

Dale @ Fleetwood





Paola Groeber <pgroeber@bellsouth.net>
Sent by: mapics-l-bounces@midrange.com
01/30/2003 05:18 PM
Please respond to MAPICS ERP System Discussion

 
        To:     MAPICS ERP System Discussion <mapics-l@midrange.com>
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: Help!


Dale,

I'm not even sure it is about research, but possibly your future Support 
team trying to get educated about MAPICS.  You might find
this article in Business Week dated 2/3/2002 magazine very interesting. 
This very subject impacted 65 people in January, 2002 at
MAPICS last year.  Don't be too sure it won't be hitting close to your 
home soon as businesses try to find more ways to cut costs in
this economic downturn.

 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_05/b3818001.htm

Enjoy reading as this will continue to happen as business changes.

Paola Groeber
MAPICS Consultant


LeLeux@shur-lok.com wrote:

> It's not about sales, it's about research (fact & feature) so sales 
won't
> help.
>
> |---------+----------------------------->
> |         |           DaleGindlesperger@|
> |         |           fft-inc.com       |
> |         |           Sent by:          |
> |         |           mapics-l-bounces@m|
> |         |           idrange.com       |
> |         |                             |
> |         |                             |
> |         |           01/30/2003 02:31  |
> |         |           PM                |
> |         |           Please respond to |
> |         |           MAPICS ERP System |
> |         |           Discussion        |
> |         |                             |
> |---------+----------------------------->
> 
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>   |                                                         |
>   |       To:       MAPICS ERP System Discussion <mapics-l@midrange.com> 
                                                        |
>   |       cc:                                                         |
>   |       Subject:  Re: Help!               |
> 
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>
> Oh no.......  Didn't we just go through this?  Maybe we'll have to be
> serious on this one.  Or dodge it an pass it off to MAPICS Internal
> Sales....
>
> Dale @ Fleetwood
>
> alina t <alina.t@spray.se>
> Sent by: mapics-l-bounces@midrange.com
> 01/29/2003 11:48 AM
> Please respond to MAPICS ERP System Discussion
>
>         To:     mapics-l@midrange.com
>         cc:
>         Subject:        Help!
>
> Hi! We are a group of students who are working on a case study about
> Mapics and we don't really know much about it. Could anyone please tell 
us
> the difference between Mapics and other erp systems, like for example 
SAP,
> Oracle, People Soft, etc? In which areas is Mapics better/worse than
> others??? Thank you in advance!
>
> The students
>
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