In tune with our ongoing motivation to assist our dealers with their SI use, comes this month’s entry where we will focus on how we can help you, help yourself. Whether it’s a dedicated screen-sharing call with a member of our Professional Services Group or following along with our online tutorials, we have assistance to fit all requirements.
Our motivation here is simple. The more we assist our dealers with their SI usage, the more they are able to achieve greater levels of success with SI. Further, since we have received feedback that many teams are still not aware that there is ample help available, it is more imperative than ever that we reiterate that help is an email, chat text, or phone call away for our users.
Now why should this interest you? As a new or experienced user, the SI platform is incredibly robust and layered with multiple features that can seem a bit overwhelming at times. As a result, we offer many ways to enhance your usage of and experience with SI in order to maximize your business processes while at the same time enabling your team to be more effective and thus more profitable.
If any of this has piqued your interest, then please keep reading (or listening) as we take a look at some these options for assistance from our team that can really help users overachieve in the coming year.
Number 1 and most definitely the top consideration above all for success with SI is securing time with our Professional Services Group.
Many (even longtime) SI users are still unaware that this division of our company exists. So to begin, let’s answer the question, what is the Professional Services Group?
The Professional Services Group (fondly referred to as the PSG team) is a collection of mostly industry veterans that have used System Integrator in the real world. This then gives them a unique perspective to share with our dealers.
In addition to their years of industry experience, most of them have years of experience using the SI platform with some approaching 20+ years in the software. This is an incredibly unique scenario for a software company in that new (or experienced) users can interact with veterans of the platform on a regular basis.
D-Tools is thus positioned uniquely, not only in the AV Integration world, but also in the software market sector to offer assistance to our users from a position that perhaps no other software company can provide.
The ability to, not only speak to an experienced and dedicated veteran of our software, but also spend the time necessary to craft and create unique and profitable usage scenarios is second to none when it comes to the domain of consulting.
This is exactly what our PSG team does best, consult with our users in their everyday engagement with the SI platform. Now the question begs, what is the best way for you to interact with this incredible team. Well, here are your options:
1- An onsite training: this is where we come to you and conduct specific SI instructional sessions with your team. Without a doubt, this is by far the most assured way for your team to have ultimate success with SI.
2- A regional training: held multiple times a year, these are 3-day engagements where you come to us and a full review of the SI platform is presented. An absolute must for beginners who need SI “101” and interestingly enough; where I received my first, professional exposure to the platform many, many moons ago.
3- A screen sharing call: this is where you can secure time with our team and we share screens in order to review and improve your SI usage scenarios. All of these calls are recorded and shard with the attendees. The length typically spans one hour but has on occasion even been booked as long as 4 hours.
Access to all of these great options begins by reaching out to your D-Tools account manager or by reviewing the information on our Professional Services webpage.
Secondly, we offer webinars for your team to attend.
Short of engaging with our PSG team, another outstanding option for your team could be to attend our Gold Support Webinars that are offered twice a week.
These Gold Support Webinars are available for our Software Assurance members and are effectively unlimited for those users.
These 30-minute sessions are now driven by the content that the attendees bring to the call. As a result, some of these sessions end up singularly focused on pivotal mechanism within SI or they may even end up as an open Q & A with the session’s host that is typically sourced from our PSG team.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of feedback we receive regarding these sessions is that of the attendees themselves who say, “The best part of the Gold Support Webinar is the discussion that takes place between actual SI users”. Could there be a better ringing endorsement for this? I think not.
And this leads me conveniently to the next area of assistance…
The SI Evening Addition
Our third listing in this blog enables our users to attend an instruction session conducted by a member of our PSG Team. The SI Evening Editions are step above the Gold Support Webinars, as they are comprised of a topic driven presentation for specific SI features followed by an open Q & A on all things SI.
Now offered monthly, registration for these sessions can be found at our website along with the prior session’s recordings.
While relatively new, the SI Evening Edition is an incredibly successful venture with many attendees that have provided outstanding feedback on the sessions and their focus on delivering exceptional SI usage scenarios beyond what can be gleaned from documentation alone.
Next up, Our Tech Support Team
Last, but not least, in our human-to-human options for SI assistance is our Tech Support Team. This group of technically proficient individuals can offer help and solutions to many daily (or even hourly) questions that arise with use of SI.
Not limited to helping users install SI and overcome machine-based hurdles within this process, our tech support team often also assist SI users with usage scenarios for the platform as well as coaching users to explore previously unknown aspects of the software that will increase productivity and profitability.
Nevertheless, it cannot be stressed enough that this group of individuals are the problem solvers when it comes to all things SI. They have access, not only to the PSG Team to further assist users, but also have a direct pipeline to our Product Development Team for those issues that can arise within the platform itself.
They can easily be reached on the support ticket page on our website where there is even a chat option for those with limited time. Another quick note on this access, I continually encourage users to reach out to our tech support team day or night and yes, even on weekends, as we now have members of this team engaged around the world in various time zones.
However, for those of you that prefer to do it yourself and not interact directly with a human for your SI assistance, we have you covered there as well with online documentation, tutorials, and videos aplenty.
For more on these options, continue reading (or listening).
The SI online “Wiki”
Our online documentation (fondly referred to as our “Wiki”) is readily available and easily accessible from our website or from within the SI platform itself.
This quick access to a repository of step-by-step instructions, how to scenarios, explicit navigational direction, along with a search tool to find all things SI make this option quite useful.
The data that is available here is so thorough that the sharing of these links by members of our staff often solves our user’s problems and even offers assistance towards developing new usage scenarios on the SI platform. I myself often send these links out to the teams I work with as they contain great visuals along with the corresponding narrative to answer most questions that our users face.
Just like any other cyber search mechanism, the term you use to search with will directly influence the records return so, if you do not get the result you are seeking, try another term from the SI vernacular.
Tutorials
Another non-human option for D.I.Y.ers, our Tutorial offering links from directly inside the SI platform and is especially helpful for initial set-up use and beginners. However, there are links on the tutorial page to other more in-depth pages on this critical SI functionality.
These primarily video-based presentations offer step-by-step instructions and guidelines for specific SI usage scenarios.
While the need to learn more about SI is ever paramount, these tutorials can also serve as a great guide for our dealers as they expand and hire new employees who need to get up to speed on SI very quickly.
What about Online Videos?
Yes, I know this one is quite popular for DIY-ers. The D-Tools YouTube page is replete with hours of video content related directly to features of SI and usage scenarios there within the platform.'
Based on your specific need, here you can find content from Catalog and Project creation to design utilization featuring Visio and AutoCAD. Further there is even content related to Reporting as well as Purchasing, Project Management, and field deployment alongside our What’s New webinars that accompany each SI Product release.
In other words, there is something here for everyone.
The 24/7 Dealer Forum
Now comes another area of assistance that reintroduces the human element but is populated by the voices of your peers. Other SI users are your source to rely on here as members of the D-Tools System Integrator community routinely post their questions, comments, achievements, and concerns regarding their direct experiences in the SI Platform.
Again, this is yet another area where we receive a great deal of positive feedback regarding the perspectives and insights that are shared here on a regular basis. Perhaps nothing is more powerful than the actual experience of other SI users who report on their progress and success with the SI platform.
“Feedback”! That is why we are here.
That’s right. Getting your feedback is incredibly important to us as it also provides a learning opportunity for our users as they can directly contribute to the future of SI based on their actual usage.
This engagement is done so via the Feature Request mechanism:
This is where are users can actually submit their ideas for the future of SI:
The learning opportunity for SI users here is to see what other users are doing with their SI usage and what needs result from such engagment of the platform.
How to start lies within
Just so it is plainly stated here for the record, access to almost all of the above is embedded right within the SI software platform itself:
To see this, simply select the Start icon in the top left corner of your SI main page and then drop down to choose Help. This will then display menu with the assistance destination of your choice.
Do not overlook the ease of this access in order to get the answers you need.
For many more highlights and insights of what SI delivered for ours users last year be sure to check our tech bulletin and tip of the month posts at www.d-tools.com/resource-center.
For more information on all things SI, please visit our online wiki and website.
And there it is!
Be sure to tune back in here for future installments on SI’s v22 and beyond.
A Perspective
Our team is continually evaluating ways to improve and enhance your team’s usage of and experience with our SI platform. Therefore, it behooves you and your team to explore these (and other features) as well by securing time with our Professional Services Group of SI and integration industry veterans in order to maximize your team’s ability to succeed with the software.
In Summation…
-Update to v22 if you have not already done so.
-Review, utilize, and deploy these assets of assistance listed above here to ensure success with d-Tools SI.
-Sign-up for these aforementioned webinars, PSG training, or visit our online documentation “wiki” for tutorial assistance.
And, as always…
-Get focused, get serious, and make money.
Enjoy!
With all of that said, there’s still plenty more in store for you with SI and forthcoming product releases so keep an eye out for future updates.
We are always reviewing your Feature Requests to determine our best step forward and next course of action with future SI product releases so…“keep’em coming”!
In closing…
For more information on these and other features of SI, please see this link: D-Tools v22. You can also review our other videos and our usual support documentation.
You can also get more detailed information about v22 via our upcoming webinars and by enrolling in SI training with our PSG team. Further, please feel free to review our What’s new in v22 webinar that is now available.
And don’t forget, that’s why we are here…to ensure your success with our product! Be sure to check back here next time for more on v22!!!
