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| Bernie Knight |
Bernie Knight is Technical Support Manager at Swan Solutions and well versed in the workings of the UK channel having previously worked for both a reseller and PBX vendor. Here he talks about the new role he undertook when he joined Swan at the end of 2005.
There’s a high responsibility on my team to ensure that any problems that are called in are dealt with as soon as possible. Day to day the team handles queries from end-user customers, resellers and distributors and we receive a wide variety of calls. One minute we are answering how to set up a user’s call filter in Callview Wizard and the next we are explaining how to configure our Gateway on a server for a reseller. The aim is to try and resolve queries as soon as possible. On occasions we have to get as much information as we can and escalate the problem to our in-house software development team or liaise with the technical department at the host PBX vendor.
Callview has been sold in the UK for the last ten years, with more that 7000 systems installed. When it comes to technical assistance we support all customers with versions 3.0 or newer and try where we can to encourage users of older systems to look at upgrading to the latest version. In many of these cases we can’t in reality replicate their older system configuration in house to see where the problem is. Swan Solutions has however always adopted a philosophy of making upgrades very attractive for our end-users.”
Bernie has worked in the reseller channel for many years having been with SDX Business systems and prior to joining Swan Solutions Bernie worked for reseller RGT for nine years.
“I started at RGT as a project manager for INDeX, their principal product at that time before becoming their Engineering Manager, ending up in charge of Operations. Seeing an advert in Comms Business Magazine for a position as Technical Support Manager in Crawley I was pleased to see it was at Swan Solutions, a company I had known for a number of years.
“Swan was seeking to make their service operation more visible and increase the range of services they could offer to both their resellers and end-user customers. My experience in the industry dovetailed their requirement and I started with them at the end of 2005.”
Challenges:
“Since joining Swan I have set out to meet with resellers and distributors as well as customers to determine where they needed support and how we could deliver services that met or exceeded those needs.
“Many Callview resellers have decided to focus their own technical resources on supporting their telephone system sales and prefer to manage their customer Callview installations and maintenance via third party companies, including of course, ourselves.
I am therefore building a portfolio of Swan Solutions services that we can offer to the reseller channel and end-user customers. These include, direct support of customers and a macro creation service. We also offer a bespoke service so no matter what a reseller wants us to do for their customer we can deliver. Moving ahead we are now formalising the process with prices for each of our service products. My objective is to maintain a hassle free service for all.”
Advice for Resellers
“Try and get one or two key personnel trained on Callview from both a sales and technical perspective and recognise we are here to help. Our pre-sales support via our Regional Business Managers is there to help customers realise their expectations. From a technical standpoint if a reseller wants to do the core installation themselves and have the higher end applications (Client macros, Navigator etc) carried out by Swan Solutions that too is possible. There is a perfect fit for everyone.”
Users:
“If I had one key tip for users it would be this: If changes are made to their telephone system configuration then also have these changes reflected in the Callview set up. We often receive calls from users saying their management reports are not producing the statistics they want but then discover changes to the phone system have affected the way in which the reports have been generated. We can soon rectify the problem but it is a really good practice to keep us in the loop when changes are made.”
 | www.callview.com |