Carol Simonson is Office Manager at Boyer & Associates-a Minneapolis-based Dynamics GP and Dynamics SL Value Added Reseller. Carol manages 225 active client enhancement plans and assists clients in a variety of ways. Carol is always eager to help people better able to help themselves through sharing information and serving clients.
One of the things that Carol likes to do for clients is teach them how and why to get better acquainted with the CustomerSource tool that is part of a Dynamics GP maintenance plan.
Jack Boyer: Carol, you made sure that our Boyer & Associates newsletter included a whole section on how to use CustomerSource. I’ve heard you tell people very eagerly that you can help them get access to CustomerSource. What is it that gets you so excited about sharing with clients how they can best use CustomerSource?
Carol Simonson: It has everything you need to know about your product, eLearning courses, knowledge base, downloads, documentation, discussion boards, knowing what software you have, and who in your organization has or does not have access to CustomerSource. “I like clients knowing that I am there to help them be more successful. Being dependent on someone else does not make me more successful and I find, especially among accountants, they want control of when and how they get their information.”
Information such as the content above showing modules licensed and user counts can be retrieved from CustomerSource.
Jack Boyer: How much of the value of the clients’ maintenance plan would you attribute to the use of CustomerSource and why?
Carol Simonson: Some years clients do not upgrade because they are too busy, but they pay their enhancement because they don’t want to get hit with the penalties of allowing this to lapse. In a year like that, I would say that for some clients this is a big part of their value. There is support incidents baked into many of the support offerings too so value comes from those also-the plans of 18% and above.
Jack Boyer: What about the Dynamics GP Community within CustomerSource-I know we’ve answered some question in that forum. How much value would you say Dynamics GP users get from that tool?
Carol Simonson: I believe once our client gets comfortable with CustomerSource and what is out there, they are more apt to use this area of CustomerSource. They are able to connect with other clients and discuss their how-to questions, issues and solutions.
Jack Boyer: When clients can become more self-sufficient like this, does it make them like the software more?
Carol Simonson: I think so. When people have a sense of being able to do things for themselves and not have to rely on someone else, generally I think they feel more capable and empowered. They also like not having to wait for me to get off of the phone to get back to them.
Jack Boyer: Are there any surprise benefits you’ve found from people going into PartnerSource?
Carol Simonson: On occasion clients will find that another user is having a similar problem that there is a detailed answer for how to fix it. I’ve also seen clients pay maintenance on modules that they don’t use anymore until they see the detail broken out by module, in CustomerSource, for what they are paying for each year. For example we have a client that does not need the Sales Order Processing module anymore. They grew so much that they needed something industry specific for their customer orders but wanted to keep the better financial modules with Dynamics GP. They were able to deactivate that module and save on their annual maintenance renewal the following year.
