Why is supportability important

Security of information Businesses possess sensitive and crucial information, such as salary, financial, and HR details. Final Verdict Apparently, IT support is essential for every business, no matter how big or small it is. Tags Business Data center Information Technology. Related posts. Shawn , May 25, 6 min read. Business Technology. How to Handle Business Data Storage? Shawn , April 22, 3 min read. How To Start A Business? Social Media. MangaStream — Is It Down?

Companies at Stage 4 set quantitative goals during the design phase for all aspects of support. Cost models are used to guide the decisions about trade-offs between features, manufacturability and supportability. Stage 4 with two important additions. Firstly, financial reporting mechanisms are used to ensure that return on DFS investment is clearly visible to management. Achieving this change in attitude is something many companies find hard and few companies have reached Stage 5.

However, the competitive advantage resulting from DFS can be stark. An example of the advantage of evaluating repair issues at the design stage comes from the car industry. During product design Volkswagen evaluates the probability of each part of a car being damaged in an accident and the associated repair costs.

This is important because car insurance companies closely monitor the costs of repairing accident damage and use this information in the calculation of which insurance category applies to a particular model of car. Hence, repair costs have a direct influence on the cost of insurance, which itself has a major impact on product sales especially to young purchasers.

The cost of insuring the latest model of the Golf has been reduced by full two insurance classes-through bolt-on panels instead of welded ones, and bumpers molded in three separate parts to allow partial replacement. The lower insurance costs have given VW a competitive edge and forced competitors to make expensive changes in the design of their products and production lines.

Moving from Stage 1 to Stage 5 is a change that cannot happen overnight. It is a considerable journey for a support organization to increase its influence over the product design stage. Here are some of the keys to a successful transition:.

You will be challenging engrained business processes. And remember, if you get products developed right through Design for Supportability, the return on investment is clear-more profitable support revenues and a competitive advantage. Have you experienced problems in trying to achieve DFS, or do you have a success story? In either case the authors would like to hear from you. Get more information about a major research report on best practices in Design for Supportability.

Knecht, T. The McKinsey Quarterly , No. Goffin, K. European Services Industry , 1 4 , December , pp. Fites, D. Harvard Business Review , March-April , pp. Rao, J. Journal of Product Innovation Management , 15 1 , January , pp. Page, A. Journal of Product Innovation Management , 10 4 , September , pp. Van Bennekom, F.

Proceedings, Hull, D. International Journal of Production Economics , 37 1 , November , pp. Written with Dr. Keith Goffin, PhD. For fourteen years he worked for the Hewlett-Packard Medical Products Group: on new product development, managing customer support groups, and as a marketing manager. In , Keith joined the teaching faculty of Cranfield and his research interests are all in the field of innovation. Develop Products Right!

Design for Supportability. Understanding the Role of Support Recognition of the importance of support has grown over the years. However, attitudes are now changing for three reasons: In many markets, support plays a key role in achieving customer satisfaction, and strongly influences repeat purchasing behavior.

DFS Chapter 1 Request. Request our white paper that presents a framework for a Design for Supportability program. Fill out my online form. Leveraging Support for Competitive Advantage Many leading companies gain a competitive advantage from support [2]. How Product Design Influences Support Requirements Product design influences both the degree of support necessary and the way it can be delivered.

Here are several benefits of having a support system and choosing the right people to spend time with. Oftentimes, isolation can worsen episodes of mental illness. It is frightening how the brain can work against you in your most vulnerable moments. It often offers confirmation bias of your worst insecurities, causing you to suffer from anxiety , depression and other conditions.

Social support helps to reconnect you to the external world while giving you the opportunity to focus on other people and interactions. Sometimes this comes in the form of a heart to heart with a friend and seeking out useful advice. Other times, you may find yourself on the giving end of the advice.

Everyone is an expert at something. When you experience a particularly bad mental health episode, you may feel unwilling to reach out to others for help.

You may find yourself increasingly turning down dates and get-togethers. People who are respectful of your time and space will back off and allow you to come around on your own.

This is a healthy approach, but there is a line that the people closest to you need to draw. These unprompted check-ins often lead to encouragement for you to pursue healthier behaviors. Your spouse may come home from work and encourage you to eat something wholesome.

A friend may recommend that you join him at the gym. Your mother may come by and start to clean up the house and open the blinds. There will be days when all of these activities feel bothersome. You may even feel frustrated, pressured and angry. However, these are also often lifesavers as they provide buoyancy at times when depression may otherwise weigh you down to rock bottom. The further along you are in your recovery process, the more you will feel grateful for these moments.

For some people, maintaining your privacy is key. You may want the benefits of a social support system but worry about needing to disclose what ails you to achieve this. In fact, you may not know the answer to this yourself. Big websites like Apple and Amazon are the best example of this. You can easily find the Support link on their website. Everything is available on their front page.

All the information shared by your customers is gold for your business. They can give you great insights into your product. You should listen to the queries that your customers are sending.

This will help you in improving your product. You can use this information for providing better IT support to your users. If you are receiving a lot of issues related to login, then you can add a note related to the issue on your login screen.

This will ensure that other customers can solve the issue without contacting your IT support. An email is a great tool for your business. You should use the right tools for providing tech support to your customers. There are various customer service tools available in the market that you can use. The best tools will help you in handling your incoming support chats, knowledge bases, escalation, live chat, and queries. These tools will help your team in keeping up with the IT issues.

You should ensure that you are managing a good relationship with your customers. There are various tools available in the market that can help you in managing your relationship with customers. These tools will easily integrate with the CRM and sales operations. This will ensure that all your team members are keeping up. IT support is a very important element for your business.

You can improve the overall user experience by improving your IT support. However, you need a lot of resources for delivering good IT support to customers.

Thus, you should consider working with a good MSP like Bleuwire. They have access to the best tools and IT staff. Bleuwire will help you in handling your customer queries. This will help you in maintaining a good relationship with your customers. If you need more information regarding IT support, then you can contact Bleuwire. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Hit enter to search or ESC to close.

Close Search. What is IT Support? Difference between Customer Support and IT support Most people imagine old call centers when they hear tech support. Different levels of IT support IT support is more complicated when compared with customer support. Pre-support level People used to ask their family and friends in the pre-internet era. Self-service level Self-service can help you in reducing your IT support costs. Help desk 1st line of support Knowledge bases and FAQs can help your users in solving simple problems.

However, very few customer queries will reach this level. How to improve IT support? Give importance to your IT support You should understand the impact of your IT support on different parts of your organization.