SAAS – SERVICE MATTERS

ProActive Software recognised from day one that product capability matters but we also recognised that without great service a great product would not be enough to stand out in a crowded marketplace.  Software as a service (SaaS) says it all, both software and service need equal attention so that customers can get a productivity return to justify the cost and effort implementing a project management solution in their business.

Having a commitment to service and being global from New Zealand comes with its challenges.  Simple time differences forces out of normal working hours patterns of work here in New Zealand that can be disruptive of personal lives.  As the team grows this load can be spread across more people but it always remains a challenge to family and personal life.  Minimising this impact, without compromising service to customers has been a concern for management for some time.

From New Zealand, Asia Pacific can be covered reasonably well, the further east and west we go the more difficult the timing becomes.  So the obvious solution would be an office in the Greenwich Time Zone but how to transfer the corporate culture, product and company knowledge to that remote team.  It is a challenge for any business to project its value to another location.  We were always looking but struggling to find a workable solution.

In late 2013 Lara, our sales manager that had been with ProActive Software from our early days, indicate that for personal reasons she wanted to step down from the role.  We were disappointed we could understand the situation.  So Richard joined the company on early 2014 as sales manager and quickly settled into the role.  We were pleased, the transition had gone smoothly and things were operating well, Richard suited the culture and was developing strong product and application knowledge.
Then the bombshell Richard, for family reasons, needed to return to England.  Another dislocation was on the cards.  That said it quickly dawned on us all that maybe Richard’s return home would solve out time zone service problem.  So rather than resign Richard would transfer to England and become the nucleus of our time zone solution.

With a functioning office in England and head office in New Zealand time zone miss match should be a thing of the past.  UK, Europe, South Africa and the east coast of the USA now have much larger overlaps.  Our team in New Zealand is unloaded and customer support and service is improved everywhere, a great outcome.

“Since we founded the business we have been fanatical about service and support opening office in England takes us onto the next development step for ProActive Software”, says CEO Julian Stone.
“Often opening a remote office in another town or further afield the real worry is the maintenance of the core culture, in this case all the planets aligned and delivered an idea solution”, says Chairman John Walley.

For further comment contact Julian Stone (+6421 864 639) or John Walley (+6421 809 631)
ProActive Software is based in New Zealand, develops and sells ProWorkflow web based project management software.  For more information please see http://www.proworkflow.com .