Comprising value-added resellers, OEMs, and system integrators, the symposium played host more than 200 attendees from 15 countries. According to Sue Redmore, director of the company's global ecosytem, one of the principal aims of the symposium was to share best practices from the North American Invensys consulting team for system integrator partners. As one of the key delivery arms for Invensys products, system integrators have long been viewed as a primary partner for the company. The three-hour best practices session concentrated on optimizing the use of Invensys products as part of the system integrators’ deliverable.
“Updating our system integrator partners about how we support them, as well as the end customer, is important to the relationship,” says Mike Pring, vice president of global customer support at Invensys. “At Invensys, we have a similar relationship with partners as we do with customers. Our discussions at the symposium are all about how we’re going to support them going forward globally.”
“Collaborating on support with Invensys for our customers is hugely important because our customers are mutual,” says Mike Peters of Callisto, one of Invensys’ system integrator partners in attendance at the symposium (Callisto resulted from a merger between Aseco Integrated Systems and Progressive Software Systems, both of which had been part of the Invensys ecosystem since the early 1990s). “The customer expects a seamless answer when they have questions or want to know how to take what they’ve got to the next level. This is critical for our customers whose businesses often run 24 hours a day.”
At the partner symposium awards ceremony, Callisto Integration was the recipient of an award for the most certifications earned worldwide. Callisto earned 89 certifications in the past year, and 439 over the past three years. Receiving Invensys certifications is not just about passing tests, but about having employees highly trained and capable with the software, says Peters. “Our company has grown as part of the Invensys ecosystem into Europe and Asia as well as across North America."
Beyond the business building benefits, Peters says pursuing such a high level of certifications has been a “huge advantage” for Callisto because the company can now “move employees from job to job knowing they are highly trained and capable of taking on different tasks across the organization.”
The Tech Support Symposium for Invensys partners runs parallel to the Software Conference for customers. Pring says the Tech Support Symposium features 40 sessions focusing on topics such as best practices, lessons learned and troubleshooting.
Some of the up-and-coming releases from Invensys featured heavily in the Tech Support Symposium include a pilot of the Proactive Monitoring solution, scheduled for release in 2014, and the Software Asset Manager, which tracks software fixes and manages Wonderware licenses. “These are key new offering for customers and partners. This is especially true for the monitoring solution, because alerts can be configured to go anywhere so that it can be a true enabler of collaboration.”
Pring adds that, with the new extensions to the Customer FIRST Solutions program, Invensys is in an ideal position to support both the product and solution, including any customizations the customer may make. “The customer doesn't have to worry about any difference in support between what was installed as-is and what was customized for their use. If Invensys implemented it or worked directly with a partner on it, it’s supported.”
