Situation

Financial services products are among the benefits provided to members, explains NZPA Information Technology Service Delivery Manager Dan Wood. “With the introduction of a health insurance product, we chose a Software as a Service solution provided by a Norwegian vendor called Cloud Insurance. The product simplifies administration and integrates with a couple of our other systems including the membership portal and CRM.”

However, with Norway on the GMT+2 time zone, and a membership base exclusively in New Zealand, support was a challenge. Lancom Product Manager, Aaron Corney, highlighted NZPA’s situation, stating, "NZPA’s concern was that Cloud Insurance’s development and support is out of Norway. There’s only an hour crossover, so Lancom was engaged to provide local support as an in-timezone partner. That would mean resolving any user issues without an overnight wait." Dan Wood emphasised the critical need for a local support partner, saying, “We don’t want to wait 12 hours for help. And that was a primary driver for onboarding a local support partner.”

Solution

Software product support isn’t, Wood readily agrees, a commonly available service. “We tested the market, and most of the Managed Services Providers didn’t have a clearly defined solution to support the needs of our business,” he comments. “There were various reasons for that, but it boiled down to being too complex and too hard.”

With Lancom Technology's history of developing Software, and providing product support to a large portfolio of customers across ANZ, there was a considerably different result when Wood asked for assistance. “They took a pragmatic ‘we’re here to help’ approach, showcasing experience in the field.

The delivery of the solution involved the Lancom team getting deeper into Cloud Insurance as a product to understand how NZPA users would be leveraging the Software, therefore becoming an expert support arm of SME's in country.

In addition, Lancom had engaged very successfully with a related disaster recovery/business continuity project that ensures continuity of data access for NZPA's Cloud Insurance environment, and were highly receptive to the discussion of our needs and getting the outcome we wanted.”

Essentially, the outcome is the establishment of initial level one support, with a deepening of the relationship over time towards full in-country support. “We want a partnership that lasts, with Lancom Technolog's knowledge to improve to the extent that they have a complete understanding of the software,” says Wood

The early stages of the engagement including discovery, collecting information, and engaging with Cloud Insurance itself. “Notably, Cloud Insurance – whose COO came out here – has provided access to their system. They’re quite guarded, as you can imagine, so Lancom Technology has proven themselves worthy of that.”

Results

While Lancom Technology offers SaaS Product Support as a component of its service catalogue, Wood says the arrangement between the NZPA, Cloud Insurance and Lancom is somewhat unique. “It involves a very, very niche foreign vendor, with geographic and cultural differences. For this to work, it requires effective relationships between all three parties, particularly if our ambition to have Lancom take on more support functions to everyone’s benefit.”

He credits Lancom Technology’s ‘can do’ attitude and responsiveness for rapidly demonstrating the long-term viability of the arrangement. “While we haven’t yet run detailed analysis, anecdotally the support we’re receiving is exactly what we’ve expected.” With Lancom’s proven support, he says the overall value proposition offered by Cloud Insurance improves. “Their product is great, solving the problem of organisations like ours building systems that end up as endless money pits paid for by the member base.”

Describing the experience as positive, he says Lancom is steadily building trust with Cloud Insurance and the NZPA. “This is elevating their ability to provide a fuller support service, and we’re seeing the number of requests being successfully handled increasing on a monthly basis.” Building on the success of the product support solution, Lancom is eager to continue improving its service alongside Cloud Insurance. 

More than that, Wood says that Lancom Technology has become a ‘standout supplier’ thanks to its positive approach, flexible delivery, and adaptability. “It’s clear these attributes are baked into the way they operate. They are here to partner – and they actively look to add value to our organisation,” he concludes.