CenterStone Software (www.centerstonesoft.com) is a rapidly growing provider of Integrated Workplace Management Solutions (IWMS) which enable organizations to better manage and reduce the costs of their corporate real estate, facilities and assets via a single, Web-based platform.
Specifically, CenterStone provides online software applications, or “on demand” solutions, that include Space Management, Move Management, Asset Management, Lease Administration, Operations Management and Project Management. The goal of this integrated solution is to help organizations of all sizes to track the costs of their real estate, facilities and workplace operations, strengthen executive planning and decision making, optimize portfolio utilization and reduce occupancy and operating expenses.
Inforonics helps its clients succeed with solutions to their business and technology challenges. Inforonics’ team of professionals deliver premium managed services and branded technical support to small to mid-sized businesses. Clients benefit from the company’s unique ability to create, deploy and support highly customizable, scalable and flexible services to meet changing business needs.
Over the past three years, CenterStone has experienced significant growth in the number of corporate clients with global operations using its on-demand solutions. In response, CenterStone found a need to expand its technical support resources to accommodate the around-the-clock support requirements of its clients, especially those in the Pacific Rim region.
The company relied on an internal tech support staff based at its Hopkinton, MA headquarters to re
spond to client calls. Overnight calls were redirected to a designated support person via cell phone. At the same time, competition in the IVMS market was intensifying. This meant that the company had to make additional investments in its on-demand solutions and services to maintain its market leadership and satisfy its clients’ rapidly evolving workplace management needs.
CenterStone turned to Inforonics because of its structured approach for working with on-demand providers to cost-effectively support their customers. It also liked Inforonics’ flexible fee structure. Inforonics began the engagement by assigning a Client Service Manager to evaluate CenterStone’s technical support policies, procedures, management systems and documentation to fully understand CenterStone’s current operations.
The evaluation not only resulted in a joint Product Support Plan (PSP) that outlined how Inforonics would execute CenterStone’s overnight support function, it also identified opportunities to help CenterStone satisfy its customers’ technical support needs in the most effective manner.
CenterStone worked with Inforonics to establish a multi-tier technical support structure in concert with industry best practices. The joint plan identified the roles and responsibilities of both the Inforonics and CenterStone staffs and integrated the efforts of both teams to achieve a common objective for client support.
As a result of the success of the initial phase of the engagement, CenterStone has expanded its engagement with Inforonics, including some responsibilities for assisting clients on ‘tier 1’ calls during normal business hours.
Inforonics has also been able to reduce CenterStone’s cost per call based on the actual number of calls received and Inforonics’ ability to respond to the calls in a systematic and efficient fashion.
The ancillary benefits of Inforonics’ demonstrated reliability are that CenterStone can provide quality support across all if its solutions and utilize Inforonics during times of increased call volumes, such as when a new version of CenterStone’s product is released. CenterStone has also decided to deploy additional back-up and disaster recovery resources at Inforonics’ hosting facilities in case there is an outage or disruption in CenterStone’s operations.