Navigating the journey from vendor support to third-party support

A woman running on a curving road

Moving away from vendor support can be nerve-wracking, and raise many questions.

The main concern for many of our customers has always been the transition process from their vendor to us. Understandably, there are worries that the process will be long, complicated, and time-consuming, offsetting the benefits provided by third-party support.

So, let’s break it down.

Six steps in the right direction

Support Revolution treats each transition from Oracle, or SAP, as a unique journey (because it is!), making sure each customer’s project is mapped out and overseen by a professional and experienced member of our team.

Our detailed migration approach for moving organisations to our support model includes identifying tasks to be carried out, the dedicated team members to carry out the required duties, and the timescales for each of these.

But, because we recognise that each and every organisation will have a unique IT roadmap, as well as their own requirements, this tried and tested methodology is adjusted to accommodate the needs of each customer. We don’t do ‘one-size-fits-all’, here.

So, what exactly does the journey to third-party support (and all its benefits!) look like?

Well, we’ve stripped the process right back and broken it down into six straightforward steps for you:

  1. First, we create a transition plan, with clear routes and a defined timeline.
  2. Identify patches, your latest version, and create a patch archive.
  3. Review open incidents and agree which incidents we will address.
  4. Establish access to your systems (we can work around this).
  5. Load all incidents onto Remedyforce, provide logins and training.
  6. Agree formal go-live date and roll out the full support service.

Pause: What is a patch archive?

It’s not uncommon for our customers to ask us if, and how, they’ll access vendor-provided patches if they choose to move to third-party support.

We recognise that this is an area of concern for many organisations and that’s why we thought we’d circle back to step 7 in our onboarding journey and elaborate.

The short answer is: we will download and create a ‘patch archive’ for our customers. This is the customer’s own copy of the patches they are entitled to, but have not yet applied to their systems. 

The long answer involves our customer completing a questionnaire to gather information about their systems, including software and product versions.

Once we have this information, our expert team will help our customers select the best option for storing the patch archive, which can either be on your own network or in a Cloud environment, such as Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure.

The patch archive takes place throughout the entire onboarding process and we will have regular workshops with your team to support your organisation, ensuring a straightforward, seamless process.

It all begins with one step…

We take pride in our customers’ experiences and want to make sure we set off on the right foot.

But what happens once your organisation flips the switch, allowing us to take over from vendor support?

Well, Support Revolution upholds exceptional standards for the services we deliver to customers which are reflected in our ISO9001 (Quality) and ISO27001 (Information Security) accredited processes, and underpinned by our response and resolution SLAs.

Our expertise covers customisations, previous support incidents, and your patch archive, as well as your own processes & systems, so your organisation can rely on us to deliver efficient, effective, and personalised services, with 24/7 support globally.

In addition, by helping our customers to escape the vendor upgrade cycle and alleviating the pressure of desupport dates, Support Revolution helps organisations to reclaim their IT roadmaps, improve the ROI of their existing systems, and save at least 50% on their annual support bills.

Sounds good, right?

Why not find out for yourself how we’ve supported our customers’ individual journeys to third-party support, and head over to our Customers page?

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