With Gregg Bury and Jill Martin

JM:  Before we get started with the questions, why don’t you give us a quick introduction?

GB:  Well, my name is Gregg Bury. I’m a technical support consultant at PowerTech and I work with the System i and our software in security.  I live in the Pacific Northwest, in Seattle.

JM:  How long have you been with PowerTech?

GB:  It’s 10 years this year; joined in 2000.

JM:  Have you always been in customer support?

GB:  I have.  In the early days, it wasn’t just customer service. We did QA, and wrote our own documentation and guides and best practices, so it’s kind of narrowed now.  In the original days, there was a lot broader job description.

JM:  What makes our support unique?

GB:  Those of us in support have been here a long time, so we’re very aware of not just our software, but security needs and the System i.  Myself and my co-worker, Pablo Tellez—he’s been here 11 years—just by virtue of our length of time in service at this one company, I think gives us a lot of credibility and skill here.  And, we both like what we do and we care about the customers.

JM:  What is the knowledge level of our support?  (Level 1, 2, 3 etc)

GB:  Three being the highest?  At least 2 and edging into 3; generally when I consider 3, you’re getting into the development and the code and the software functions at a program level.

JM:  You take it further than level 2 often times, I bet you do a lot of research.

GB:  Yes, we research.  We dig into the deepest parts sometimes.  Sometimes with help.

JM:  What type of closure rate do we have for incoming calls? How often do you close calls after the initial contact?

GB:  Well, I’d say between 80%-90% easy.  While we’re on the call, we open it.  We may be creating the ticket at the moment they call, and most of the time by the time the call is done, it’s finished.  We’ve closed the call.

JM:  You’ve solved the problem for the customer?

GB:  Correct.

JM:  In addition to phone calls, what are some other ways to contact support?

GB:  Email; we have a support email address.  It’s mailbox that we monitor: support@powertech.com.  The phone and email are primary ways.  Often some will be referenced by either an account rep or someone else who transfers the call to us, but generally it’s the phone.

JM:  What do you like best about working with our customers?

GB:  I like problem solving.  People will call, they have a problem – often they’re stressed, and people often vent which is normal, but we don’t take it personally in that respect; but when we’re done, they’re often happy or satisfied that they’ve got your answer or at least we’re working on the problem.  So, I just like to solve problems.

JM:  Would you say that most of the calls or questions you guys get are related to defects or how-to questions?

GB:  At least 75%-80% are how-to questions.  Some of them might be dealing with the iSeries and how it works with security, or how to use our software.  Often they’re dealing with forensics: they had an event that happened that shouldn’t have or something, and they’ll call us about how to get some history and documentation of what happened.  Often it’s just on the iSeries or using our software.

JM:  So most of the calls you take are how-to questions on the software or on the operating system.  For instance, it’s not always just when there’s an actual problem.

GB:  Yeah, I think people have learned to trust us; not all of the calls we get have to do with our software, and maybe don’t even have to do with security, they just know that somehow we know what to do in this situation, and we’ll get calls on that just because they trust us.

JM:  What are some of the other things you get involved in as part of support?

GB:  QA (testing) often from the customer standpoint.  I know we have QA people who make sure the code is working, but we, in support, will do QA from a customer perspective; we know customers like to do a particular process in a particular way just by virtue of our calls.  Whether it’s running a report, adding access control rules, installing or uninstalling – various things like that.  We also find customers do things in unexpected ways that when development built the product, they didn’t foresee; Pablo and I know that and we will run our QA from that perspective.  Also, we have ideas and enhancements that we will supply back to development by virtue of repeated calls that we get from customers.  We are often involved in usability meetings with the products.

JM:  So, by being on the front lines and getting involved with new version product testing and enhancements, you’re able to add a lot of value to the direction of the product.

GB:  I think so and I hope so.

JM:  Any other thoughts you would like to share?

GB:  Well there’s a loaded one!  You know, our software targets security, but often people view our software as an end-all solution, but it should probably be viewed more as a tool to dealing with security.  Also, security is a verb, it’s not that you just put the software on and then forget about it, it’s ongoing.  The environments are changing, the laws change, the users – as everybody knows – come and go from the business, so they have to be added and removed, the way users do things – as users get smarter they’ll try new things, software applications are added – you know, the old thing with ODBC, and through Microsoft Excel, that was more or less a catalyst for Network Security – but they’re just tools and they can’t be forgotten, they have to be worked and used.  I think at PowerTech we do offer more than just the tools, we are offering our security expertise and experience.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Other, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.