Small businesses and local governments are in a tough spot when they’re looking for software solutions. In many cases, they need the features of “enterprise” software, but struggle with the sales and support that come with big business software.

Small organizations usually don’t have dedicated staff to deal with projects, so they need more personal service than a big business might. They need a vendor who’s involved in the day-to-day. Unfortunately, that’s rarely what they get.

The same old story

The normal story for a small company implementing new software looks a lot like this:

  • The initial sales phase. You navigate the vendor’s sales process and they eventually deliver a quote and initial blueprint to you based on what they think a company the size of yours might need.
  • Countless hours are spent hammering out project details on conference calls with the vendor. Lots of paperwork is filled out.
  • Months later, an engineer flies in, still tired from his or her last project. It’s the first time you’ve actually talked to someone from the vendor in person and it also seems like the engineer’s first time hearing about you or the project. You spend the next week getting them up to speed.
  • Assuming the implementation goes well (and that’s a big assumption), the engineer flies to their next project, never to be heard from again. This is also the point when the sales team you worked with disappears.
  • Your interaction with the original vendor is finished. Any support issues you run across are handled by a third-party call center.

A better way

A lot of the frustration that crops up when working with big vendors has to do with the lack of a local presence. After-all, it’s easy to feel dismissed or unimportant when you only ever talk to someone on the phone. From the vendor’s perspective, if’s hard for them to provide a personal level of service when they have thousands of other customers to support.

That’s why one of the biggest benefits we can provide to our clients is that we work where they work. We’re based right here in Oklahoma, providing local service from pre-sales all the way through to support.

As Oklahoma’s only Oracle Partner focused on commercial and local government clients, we’re able to provide our clients with the best of both worlds – the big business software and resources of a company like Oracle paired with the hands-on service of a local firm.

When it comes time to build out a quote or design a solution, we’re able to meet, face-to-face, and build a deep understanding of the problems your business is facing. In turn, that helps us provide solutions that are the perfect fit for the problem at hand.

So if you’ve been frustrated dealing with big vendors who seem like they don’t have time for you or simply want to deal with someone you can talk to in-person, give us a call or e-mail us. We’d be happy to show you the difference that local service can make.

Tags: oklahoma, oracle