Understanding professional services – How can it be a benefit my business?

21.09.2020

Having a professional services team is vital to the success of any software company as working hands-on with customers allows you to have your finger on the pulse of many different industries and understand what it takes to build a great product that fits their needs. What are the other roles of professional services?

What are the roles & responsibilities of a professional services team? 

Implementing the product and driving its adoption throughout the clients business.

When implementing an ERP system or any new software within a business, it’s important that it’s adopted in the right way, and this starts with senior management. A professional services team is on hand to provide implementation services and work with customers to guide the project in the right direction. With any software solution or technology, the professional services team are on hand to ensure that things get up and running in a timely and efficient manner.

You can meet our Professional Services Team at this page – click here

Product training.

Who better to provide training than the experts who have their finger on the pulse of the business and know how to implement and utilise the product to its fullest potential? Ensuring a great user experience means allowing customers to use the product in a way that best serves their business. The professional services team can recommend best practices and ways of utilising the product to fit in and optimise your day to day operations. Whether you are part of the sales team or administrative staff, our professional services team have the responsibility of training each individual to use the product to effectively carry out their role and maximize its utilisation.

Professional services teams have hands-on experience implementing products within real-world environments, and are therefore critical to defining and maintaining best practices.

Training can be done on-site or at our Herbst office here in Dublin by our professional services team who are highly experienced across a variety of industries including Food, Manufacturing, Engineering, Distribution, Agri and Quarry & concrete. Learn how to take advantage of every area of the system from production, to stock control, to account management. Our in depth courses ensure that you are well equipped to take on your job responsibilities. Employees take part in group exercises in a fun workshop environment and are given a certification upon completion.

You can read more about our product by clicking here.

How can I request professional services?

On-site training and consultancy services are available at the request of the customer, it’s just a matter of making a phone call to our support team on (0) 404 67 164, by filling out our professional services request form via our website, or by emailing our dedicated support team at support@herbst.ie.

Have a look at our Professional Service Team:

Identifying opportunities.

Through hands on experience, professional services teams are well positioned to identify areas of the clients business where the product might have a substantial impact and be utilised efficiently. Product innovation is also an area where professional services can work with customers to identify strategic areas where the product can be improved upon and offer additional benefits. This is strategic to the success of both parties and businesses often choose software companies who offer a strong professional services team which can provide them with the confidence needed when taking on a new software system.

Customer success

Delivering an exceptional user experience and value proposition is a necessity.

It is vital for us here at Herbst to be a customer centric business, and this starts with the quality of the services we provide. With any project, the professional services team works with customers pre and post implementation to ensure that they are on the right track and to offer assistance by solving issues and developing solutions.

Not only do we provide training & consultancy but we build relationships with each customer. Full support services are provided as well as communication and updates on our latest features and new releases. Professional services are responsible for getting you up and running when taking on a new software system while also aligning the expectations of what you’re trying to accomplish, and how much of that fits within the scope of the solution.

Another important element of professional services is configuration. Once you’ve aligned expectations on what the tool is there for to accomplish you need to go about setting up the tool to support your business outcomes and use cases. That configuration can take a lot of different forms. Not just in the setup but more importantly in the methodology behind configuration. Other solutions, specifically more technical in nature, often take a “hands-on-keyboards” approach, where the professional services are actually doing the work for the customer. 

Perhaps the most important element of professional services is onboarding and making sure the product is used in the right way that aligns with the customers business. However, onboarding isn’t simply training. It has so much to do with the initial configuration and communications so that the onboarding process is one that is meaningful and sticks with the users. The ability to align the individual needs of each user of the product with the needs of the business is one of the many reasons why professional services are vital for the customer and the company providing the software.

Professional Services at Herbst

Our enthusiastic and experienced team of professionals have worked alongside companies of all shapes and sizes from pre to post implementation, ensuring that all objectives are met for our customers. From complex challenges to simple report designs, they are on hand to work alongside you to solve problems and ensure that you are making the most out of the Herbst system. We are just a phone call away!

Can professional services be provided online & if so, how much time is required?

Training & consultancy can be done on site, at our Herbst office in Dublin or remotely. Once an inquiry is made, our team can arrange dates and times that suit your schedule based on what needs to be done. Smaller issues can often be resolved immediately via remote access to your system, while longer processes such as consultancy will need to be organised by one of our dedicated team members. 

Herbst Courses

Our courses take place in our Ballymount office in Dublin, and these courses are focused around upskilling your team to make the most out of your system. Whether it is account management, stock control or purchasing, we have courses to cater for your whole team no matter what their area of expertise. Courses can be booked on an individual or team basis and you can do this by emailing courses@herbstsoftware.com or by calling our support team on (0) 404 67 164. 

How do I know when I might need professional services?

This can be as simple as wanting your sales team or accounts department to upskill and improve their day to day operations via our courses or via onsite training with one of our professional services team members. There also might be an issue with a current business process that is in place or a certain document design that you would like to overhaul. This is where professional services can offer consultancy and a resolution in terms of what to do next and how to solve the problem.

We wrote an article to help you to identify 10 ways to improve productivity. You can click here to read more.

What is the outcome?

Whether it is training, consultancy or one of our online courses, we aim to make sure your team is using your software system to its fullest potential, are even better qualified within their job role and that any issues/problems are resolved with a clear path going forward.