User assistance brings bonus benefits

‘Assist’ service provides safety net for growing business

Donna O’Brien, Finance Project Lead at BBI Solutions, explains how the ‘Assist’ support service from Datel has empowered all Sage users across the business.  

BBI Solutions has been serving the global diagnostics market for over 50 years and is the world’s largest independent producer of immuno-diagnostics reagents. The company is headquartered in South Wales and employs over 400 people across sites in seven countries and four continents. 

Assisting 250 Sage X3 users 

With a lot riding on their global business model, BBI Group knew they needed to update their ERP system to keep on top of their increasingly complex requirements. So in 2019, BBI Group implemented a brand new ERP system with Datel that’s perfect for global businesses – Sage X3. This new system represented a significant culture and business process change for the company – which was equally as exciting as it was daunting.  
 
Fortunately, Donna was experienced in change management and was keen to eliminate anything that may cause unnecessary strain on the business during these crucial months. Donna knew that her in-house IT team was likely to be most impacted by the change to Sage X3 and needed to ensure they were enabled to spend their time and skills as effectively as possible. Donna saw the potential for the team to become overwhelmed with requests from across the business when they rolled out the system across their 250 users.  
 
When Donna learned about Datel’s additional Sage X3 support service, ‘Assist,’ she instantly saw the opportunity to direct all user queries to Datel and ease the pressure on her IT team. 
 
“We were so thankful for taking up the Assist service when we did. It meant that we always had someone from Datel’s support team on hand to deal with questions from our users directly; this freed up the team to progress the project without constant interruption”, Donna said. “When we saw just how many tickets our users were logging with Datel – we were so glad we’d made this decision. There wouldn’t have been enough hours in the week for our IT team to respond to the plethora of queries, let alone be able to carry out their day-to-day tasks.”

Bonus benefits 

But gifting time back to BBI’s IT team isn’t the only benefit Donna has noticed since adopting the user support service for their new Sage X3 system. Donna told us, “We’re a couple of years into our adoption of X3, and speaking regularly to Datel’s Sage experts is helping us all keep our knowledge of the system up to date and on track.  Additionally, it has freed up time to begin a training programme for the wider team, knowing that key users’ requests are being attended to. It provides peace of mind, overall.” Donna elaborated,

“The added bonus that we weren’t expecting from the service is one-to-one training. When a team member calls we don’t only get a quick resolution to the issue, which would be more than enough to keep most users happy - we learn something as well.  Every issue is fully understood and explained, giving reassurance that someone’s actively looked at the issue and provided a comprehensive fix."

Not your typical hot desk 

On a personal level, Donna values the dedication of Datel’s Sage partner team. “The guys on the desk are great, they really know their stuff – it’s clear they’ve had excellent training. What’s great is we tend to deal with the same people who have gotten to know BBI well, meaning they already know the specific requirements of our setup. I honestly think paying for this service is the best money we spend as a business.” 

As BBI Solutions continue to go from strength to strength, they do so with the knowledge our dependable support team are there to hold their hand and assist them along the way.