After the trial of selecting a service management system which suited our requirements and then convincing the board that it was the right package, the day arrived when the system was to be installed.

We opted for a customer-managed implementation - meaning that we're discovering the features and intricacies of the software for ourselves, which will hopefully stand us in good stead in the future and making us less reliant on support. However, we factored in a number of consultancy days and made use of a couple of hours of one for the installation of the application server - which went surprisingly well.

And so, after months of searching, we finally have our new service management system!

And now the real fun begins, having suffered the (now obvious) failings of our existing system, the features and possibilities offered by the new system have been a real eye opener

However, to get it right will take a lot of thought and planning.

You know all those little things you do to make life easier for yourself;  the business processes that mean that new stock resides in a warehouse bin here, spares there, work in progress somewhere else?

Well, the new system means that if I want things to run smoothly, I have to tell the software all about these little processes and (currently) unwritten rules.

Then, if I want real cost analysis, I have to tell the software all about my engineers: their strengths and weaknesses; which vehicles they drive; the costs of running those vehicles; the cost of an hour of a particular engineer's time; third party contractor costs - the list goes on.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is all necessary, and that accurate base data is a foundation stone of any service management system, but when your existing business processes are (by necessity) slightly hazy around the edges, it is very difficult to redefine them without making them unworkable.

So we will have to adapt...

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The priority once the software had been installed was to organise the training.
This was duly booked for two weeks following the installation, allowing me time to play with the software and perhaps get more out of the training, having already experienced its functionality.

I opted for the four-day course at the vendor's offices.

Day 1 = Database Admin
Day 2 & 3 = Service and Inventory Modules
Day 4 = Financials Module

The sessions were relaxed, informative and not in the least mind numbing. However, with hindsight, I would have liked to have spread it out a bit more to give me time to fully digest the information and tinker more with the concepts covered in the training sessions.

I must say that I felt that the training was enhanced because I had had the opportunity to look at the software in detail in the two weeks leading up to it. I had questions to ask about the setup and features which I feel would not have come out had I gone into the training "blind"

And so, it was back to the office to begin the task of data entry.

We could, of course, have paid to have our existing data converted, but its format would have meant that each line of data would need to be checked manually, negating any cost or time saving. It is also felt that re-keying by hand will enable us to look more closely at the content of the existing database and weed out all of the inaccuracies which have found their way in over the years.

And that's where we are with it at the moment.

The core database tables have been populated; personnel lists, vehicles, service schemes, suppliers, manufacturers, equipment models, charging scales etc.

And this has mostly gone on without a problem, there has been the odd hitch, but these have been centred around administrator rights and SQL configuration rather than with any failings or bugs with the product.

Where I have had setup queries, the support has been excellent with prompt replies to my emails and my telephone calls have always been returned.

Maybe this is just really good service, maybe it is good because they know their customers have high expectations of service and support departments.

We shall see.