The unique aspect about IT Vision support is that customers receive unlimited support, and new versions of software at a fixed annual price. The only exception to this is that we may ask customers to pay for major software changes or new modules.

IT Vision offers a complete service that includes ongoing customer support for all applications software provided by IT Vision, including any interfaces to third party products and the database software.

IT Vision’s support currently consists of ten staff in our Perth office, including a Technical Writer for documantation, and three in South Australia. These staff are highly experienced in IT Vision’s software, with an average of over seven years experience, and nearly all staff have worked in similar User environments to our customers.

Support numbers expand as our customer base grows, to ensure that we have an optimum level of support (the optimum of service v cost).

IT Vision’s support consists of:

• Telephone support for urgent issues
• Reporting of minor or less important issues via our Internet based Customer Request system, Email or Fax.

As stated above, ITV’s support is unlimited. We charge a fixed annual support and maintenance fee and our customers may utilise our support as frequently as they wish. ITV is unique in this respect.

Advice and guidance is freely provided to cover all manner of requests ranging from assistance with problems and issues to "how to" questions from end-users (many of which are often more accounting or procedure based, rather than applications related, because of the depth of knowledge of our support staff).

All customers provide a dial-in support line and issues are either resolved by telephone conversation, dial-in diagnosis and rectification, or if necessary a site visit.
 
Software patches normally become part of the next software release. Releases include the resolution of issues and upgrades to features and facilities offered by the software, and we normally plan one or two General Releases each year. All releases come with release notes and are accompanied by a workshop and/or training if this is deemed to be necessary.

We are continually reviewing our support procedures to ensure that our level of service is the very best available. The User Group has instigated annual Customer Satisfaction Surveys and these have resulted in a number of improvements to our service.

In 2001 we implemented the SynergySoft Customer Service module to assist us with control and tracking of requests. This has been highly successful because not only does it ensure that we have complete control over the requests, but it also means that our customers can log and track requests over the Internet, and can view the actions that have been taken on outstanding requests and look at a history of completed requests. In fact SynergySoft Customer Service now (just about) runs the service and development aspects of our business, including driving self generated internal tasks.

Another initiative, that came from a suggestion put forward during the customer satisfaction surveys, is that one of our support staff spends time on-site with users on a regular basis (often twice a year). We believe that this helps to build a rapport. Suggestions or changes made during on-site visits can also significantly help users with very little effort.