Ongoing Support
Over the years DATASCOPE has put much focus into the support of our existing client base and as a result the company hold a very impressive client reference base with many active sites willing to share their experiences with new potential DATASCOPE clients. The support systems are well developed and standard support methodologies are in place to ensure that our DSPs (DATASCOPE Solutions Providers) offer the same level of support to their clients.
Support of a site includes many aspects but some of the key ones are as follows:
CONTRACT OPTIONS:
We encourage our DSP’s to offer a range of standard support contracts that include a set number of hours per month which are allocated to remote support or on-site visits. These contacts are offered at a discounted consulting rate and typically are signed off for a 12 or 24 month period. They generally include a maximum cap of 75 hours either way. In other words if the client does not use their allotted hours they will build up to the cut off, at which point the monthly billing would stop. However, in the case where the client uses more than the allotted hours, the contact will consume available hours into a negative situation until the cut off (-75 hours), at which time all additional hours are billed on time and materials at the ruling consulting rate.
These support contracts allow the client to budget for a fixed monthly support fee but at the same time allow for some flexibility in the actual usage of hours. On the DSP’s side the contacts allow for better planning of resources for support to their client base.
SITE VISITS:
In most case the above support contacts include an agreed standard site visit, so if the contact has been signed for 24 hours a month then we may include a set 8 hour day where a support resource is on site. In these cases the DATASCOPE Support Portal system allows the client to log “Site Visit Tasks” which are worked on when the support consultant comes to site.
In these cases the consultant always meets with the site superuser at the start of the day to review all logged site tasks and then works on selected items for the day. This works well for more proactive support where the client may want to plan for extra training or the implementation of a new report or setting etc.
HEALTH AUDITS:
We at DATASCOPE have developed a new neat warehouse Health Audit which we offer to all our existing clients. These audits can be completed by your DATASCOPE DSP or you can appoint an internal staff member to run these audits. The process is quite simple yet very effective.
Basically we have compiled the audit in include questions and ratings on all aspects of your warehousing operation. This includes many questions around the physical aspects of the warehouse as well as data checks and KPI measurement checks. At well run warehouse should achieve above 85% in the audit. A warehouse with a score of under 35% is considered an audit failure.
The output gives a very clear picture of what needs to be focused on to get your operation to a class A run warehouse.
UPGRADES AND NEW FUNCTIONALITY
The DATASCOPE WMS Research and Development team are hard at work developing new features and functions into your software. These new features are released in 2 weekly development cycles and new software Ports are regularly uploaded to our secure website for your to apply to your site.
In most cases we suggest that the upgrades are planned with your DATASCOPE DSP so that you can not only upgrade your software but that you can implement the new applicable functionality. Recently we have started adding very nice video clips to our version release notes where you can view what has changed in the software and how to use then new features.