This is page 2 of:
The CIO Dilemma: When The Franchisee Wants To Use Cousin Gino For Local Tech Support
In some cases, the decision can be made at the time the technology is chosen. Some technology vendors only use national programs, and others only use local support programs. In other cases, support may have been bundled into the technology purchase as a way of reducing the overall cost of ownership. In these instances the decision has been made for you. As a result, this is an important consideration when evaluating technology solutions to meet business needs.
In situations where the technology is complex and requires a high level of consistency or security, a national provider is typically the best option. If the decision is made to go with a national provider, I would suggest negotiating at the lowest possible level of service, with options to upgrade service to higher levels. Vendors may entice you with options to “add this additional service and save on the whole package,” but I think that is a mistake.
No matter how good of a deal you can get, franchisees will resent being forced to purchase more than they need much more than they will be happy about a few dollars saved. Make sure that upgraded service offerings are easy to understand and easy to purchase. Examples of upgraded services may include on-site support, after-hours support or expedited service. If you do a good job communicating these parameters upfront, there will be less “I thought that was included in what I bought” later on.
Note, the other consideration of choosing a national provider can be found in an earlier column.
In situations where the technology is a commodity, requires high-touch from the vendor or cost is the only factor (sacrificing functionality or service levels), then a local service option typically will be optimal. If local support companies are chosen, I strongly recommend adding one or two national providers to the mix as well–effectively using both options. In a competitive situation between a local company and a national provider, the local company will typically win because of the lower costs and higher levels of service (or least more attention). However, in situations where there are no local options, where a local company has gone out of business or when larger projects need to be facilitated, a national provider can be a good backstop.
What do you think? Love it or hate it, I’d love to gain some additional perspectives. Leave a comment, or E-mail me Todd.Michaud@FranchiseIT.org.
-Marc
September 24th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Organize a franchise steering committe to help set direction on IT and IT support. Franchisees have a lot of passion for IT support costs so it’s best to leverage their energy. Up front it will take longer, but in the long run consensus will speed things up and help keep the noise down.
Gene
ex-CIO McDonald’s Canada
September 24th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I agree with Gene here, but just make sure there’s solid corporate guidance to manage and funnel the input from the franchisees so it doesn’t get out of control.
A small POS provider can surely provide a much more “human” level of support to a franchisee, however, they may have trouble conforming to a larger organizations internal structure and bureaucracy compared to a larger POS provider.