Mike Dobberpuhl is vice-president of ESC Software, an SWK Business Partner and one of the Southwest's leading providers of business management software for growing companies of all sizes and industries. Founded in 1989, ESC Software provides a full range of services, including pre-sales consulting, needs analysis, system review and design, implementation, training, support, and strategic planning.
SWK Insider: What kinds of business trends are you seeing in the marketplace?
Mike Dobberpuhl: Businesses are becoming even more hesitant to switch ERP software applications. We have been spending a great deal of time with our client base exploring any and all options to gain efficiencies in their current ERP system. We try to schedule at least one executive meeting per year with each of our clients to determine any additional products or services that will provide immediate and identifiable ROI. In many cases, we can help our clients gain efficiencies through additional training, or just reconfiguring software they own but have not been using to its full extent.
SWK Insider: We recently honored ESC Software as this year’s top provider of new MAPADOC licenses. Why do you think MAPADOC remains popular with your clients?
Mike Dobberpuhl: MAPADOC is a great product for ESC Software and our clients for many reasons. First, SWK has been a great partner, and MAPADOC is a well-written, integrated product. The SWK sales team has been able to accurately assess our clients’ needs and educate them during the sales process. Just as importantly, the services staff at SWK has been able to meet and exceed the expectations set during the sales cycle. As our clients are trying to get more out of the strong Sage MAS solutions they already own, MAPADOC can provide rapid ROI to our clients who have an EDI need.
SWK Insider: How are you using social media?
Mike Dobberpuhl: We have an initial presence on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, but we’re still determining the benefit to our customer base. If they aren’t using those tools, then we aren’t able to communicate with them through those outlets. The value is only there if everyone is part of those communities.
SWK Insider: We find that most customers think they want one solution, when another one will be much better for them for the long haul. How do you work with clients to make them understand the long-term benefits of the best solution, as well as what ESC Software offers?
Mike Dobberpuhl: In that case, one of us does not have complete information on the actual needs of the client. We would work with the customer to determine which facts are driving their decision and help them through a cost benefit analysis of the different products. Often, the “best solution” is just not economically feasible for the customer at that point in time. In that case, the best solution is the one that is affordable and meets most of their needs. When this happens, we are able to leverage the strength of the Sage products we represent to offer our clients a choice of Sage BusinessWorks, Sage MAS 90, Sage MAS 200 and Sage MAS 500.
SWK Insider: The Resources and Training pages of your Website are full of many training opportunities. What makes your training unique?
Mike Dobberpuhl: Our training is unique in its versatility. We have seen an increasing trend toward onsite training. Our clients have been reluctant to send staff to off-site training sessions that last all day or multiple days. So, we have adapted by providing onsite training for users with their data rather than test companies.
For example, we noticed that the customers who attended traditional Crystal Reports classes would work through the demo cases in class and understand the topics, but still call us when they needed a simple report. When we looked into this, we found out that the clients would spend two days in class, then go back to their job and need to get caught up from their absence. Therefore, they would not be able to try to apply their new Crystal Reports skills until weeks after they were trained. Now, we send a consultant to the client to write the actual reports that are needed. This provides the client with real-life training, as well as the report that they need.
In addition, many of our clients have employees that need to keep up their continuing education credits. As a result, we partnered with a CPE provider to offer online courses to our clients from our website. Besides benefiting from our referral arrangement from our partner, we have also given customers another reason to visit our website.
