Does Your CTMS Provide Effective Support? It Should.

This article first appeared on the BioOptronics Blog

There are a variety of CTMS applications on the marketplace today, and organizations sometimes have a hard time selecting the system that will work the best for them. If you are having a hard time differentiating based upon features alone, one key item to consider is customer support. Understanding the level of support your CTMS offers is vital. If the support is lacking, you could be missing out on essential aspects of your CTMS, costing you valuable time and money.

The Deployment Process

After you purchase a CTMS, the support team should be timely in working with you to establish a deployment timeline. With this, your organization should have an established point of contact who will be your guide to getting acclimated to your new CTMS. Your point of contact should help you configure the CTMS to your organization’s unique needs. In addition to this, they should work with you to train both you and your staff on how to effectively use every facet of the CTMS. This training should also be customized based on the size and needs of your organization. In addition, the training should be customized for each person’s role within your organization (i.e. coordinator, recruiter or administrator). This level of granularity allows your organization to hit the ground running when the time comes to begin using your CTMS and maximizes the return you can derive from using the application.

Ongoing Support

After deployment, you may have questions that arise with your CTMS. It is important to have a support system you can reach out to during these instances. Proper CTMS providers will have full-service support included with your CTMS at no additional cost, rather than a separate contract that takes up more of your budget. This support should also be available when you need it, so your trials aren’t inhibited by unanswered support questions. What’s more, as your organization grows, this support should be available to train new employees on how to use the CTMS. Another essential aspect to top-notch support is training for product updates. As the CTMS provider adds features and functionality, your organization should be invited to training sessions where you and your staff receive training on how to use these additional features. Without this training, new updates have far less value to you or your organization.

If you have a CTMS, or if you’re starting to look for one, make sure you ask detailed questions about the support that is available. If support falls short, your organization will not attain maximum value from the application, and you can quickly become dissatisfied with your CTMS. With so many applications available, the support is oftentimes a clear differentiator when finding the right CTMS for your organization.