Synergy releases Changepoint
www.synergy.co.nz www.changepoint.com
Synergy International Limited has secured exclusive distribution rights in New Zealand for Changepoint, one of the most integrated IT packages available for IT related professional services organisations and IT departments.
“Forward thinking IT Departments and professional services organisations are increasingly using professional services automation (PSA) solutions like Changepoint to drive process change and replace obsolete and costly home grown systems,” Synergy Wellington General Manager, Garth Hamilton, said.
“This system responds to growing concerns among services organisations of all sizes about the flexibility, productivity and cost efficiency of their internal systems.”
Changepoint increases the productivity of professional services employees, according to IT consulting and market research company AberdeenGroup.
Dubbed the
‘front office for IT’, Changepoint consists of four key
modules that support IT services providers in the life cycle
of a project:
Service Delivery Management: The
core of Changepoint, this module includes capabilities for
project management, time and expense capture and invoicing,
resource management, change control, and the ability to
capture best practice methodologies. It can also be used to
capture and compare individual skill sets to project
requirements.
Customer Relationship Management
(CRM): This module is used by systems integrators to
maximise revenues and by IT departments to manage pipelines
and maintain relationships across the enterprise. It offers
promotion, prospecting and sales capabilities.
Support Management: This element is most useful to internal
IT organisations. It includes release planning, help desk,
bug tracking, feature request, and asset management
functionality. By integrating support management into PSA,
new software releases can be developed according to the real
needs and demands of customers, and support can be attuned
to the actual systems used in the field.
Management: Used by senior executives to get an holistic
view of their operations. It includes real-time reports such
as project profitability, resource performance, time sheet
compliance, project slippage, project win ratio, and custom
reports.
It provides three distinct PSA solutions for
four categories of IT services providers:
IT
departments: emphasising project management, development,
systems maintenance, and support.
IT consulting
firms: emphasising marketing and business development,
opportunity management, delivery management, and
finance.
software vendors: emphasising
marketing, sales, services, development, finance and
administration, and support.
IT consulting
divisions: emphasising marketing, sales, service, delivery
management, and financial management.
“While similar in structure, these solutions emphasise services where they fit best,” Mr Hamilton said. “For instance, an internal IT services department does not generally spend time on sales and marketing. It focuses on project management, development, and support activities.”
He said professional services automation software is viewed as mandatory for managing the business by an increasing number of systems integrators and IT organisations.
“PSA solutions offer service organisations the same potential as materials requirement planning and enterprise resource planning applications provided the manufacturing and distribution sectors -- significant efficiency improvements.”
“Synergy understands this imperative and has obtained exclusive distribution rights for Changepoint in New Zealand.”
A Canadian based software company, Changepoint Corporation was founded in 1992 to deliver resource and project management solutions. When asked by clients for engagement life cycle management capabilities, they designed Changepoint. The company has since racked up an impressive list of customers, including IBM, FedEx, Hewlett Packard, Dell and Guardian Life.
Synergy is an information technology consulting company specialising in the end to end delivery of management and information technology solutions.
Founded
in 1992 and now employing some 150 staff, Synergy has
recently implemented Changepoint internally. It has found
significant benefits in time, expenses and resource
management, Mr Hamilton
said.
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