Power by the Hour – an affordable and flexible support solution for Bachmann.

Project Background

Bachmann has been an IFS customer since 2009. They had previously upgraded from IFS Applications 7.5 to IFS Applications 9 and in 2021 they upgraded once again to IFS Applications 10. The second upgrade was triggered when IFS announced that IFS Applications 9 would no longer be supported as this meant that Bachmann were paying more for extended support. Furthermore, they wanted to move away from the standard Enterprise Explorer client and take advantage of the new IFS Aurena user experience, as it is more user-friendly for their employees and would allow the company to adopt an evergreen approach to their enterprise applications.

The upgrade project was straightforward, and Bachmann enjoyed a smooth go-live experience. In terms of post upgrade support, Bachmann’s standard approach would be to engage IFS’s own support desk. However, for this project, they wanted to look beyond IFS and form an alliance with a new support partner who could be relied upon to provide an expert level of IFS knowledge and quickly respond to and solve their support requirements to keep their businesscritical operations running smoothly.

The Solution

Bachmann signed up to Cooper Software’s Power by the Hour support service, our alternative option to a fully
managed support service that offers instant, flexible access to our expert IFS support consultants. Perfect for customers who perhaps only need ad-hoc assistance a few times a month, Power by the Hour means that
our IFS consultants can be called upon only when the customer requires. There’s no long-term commitment or strict service level agreements. Customers only pay for the time spent investigating and resolving issues, which is charged at a per-minute rate. ‘Power by the Hour’ can also operate tandem with any existing consulting engagements that are run as projects, with any time not used transferable to use as consulting time.

“Cooper Software’s Power by the Hour solution suited our needs perfectly. Our support requirements are not
consistent, one month we might have a lot of issues, another we might have much less. Power by the Hour meant we could call upon help as and when we needed it. The cost overview is also very transparent, we know exactly what is covered and we receive weekly updates as to how many hours from our allocation have been used. This allows us to plan, for example, if we are close to our allocation and have a non-urgent support issue, we can raise this during the following month when we have more hours available. We can be very strategic with how we use our time.”
-Manfred Vogt, Team Leader Application Management Corporate IT, Bachmann electronic

Impressed with the high-level of service and seeing the real value it was bringing to their business. Bachmann
extended their initial Power by the Hour contract from 2 days per month to 4 days per month.

Benefits:

• A flexible and affordable way to access instant expert IFS knowledge and Support
• Quick turnaround on raised issues, Bachmann estimated an average response time 3-4 hours, with issues usually
resolved within 1-2 days if not sooner.
• Access to highly knowledgeable IFS Academy Practitioner Certified consultants.
• Tailored weekly reports to easily keep track of time used and carried over.
• Bachmann only paid for the time spent on investigating and resolving issues.
• Ability to plan and budget for support issues based on how much time has been spent each month.
• Simple on-boarding process with no long-term commitment required.

“Cooper Software is a perfect partner for us. Our support requests are always actioned quickly, and the credentials and knowledge of the service desk consultants is of the highest level. Normally we receive a response within 3-4
hours which is much faster than we are used to. Even if the issue cannot be solved immediately, we are always contacted by the support desk team to gain more detail on the problem and they keep us up to date as they work to resolve the issue which is so important. We are also highly satisfied with the quality of the support received, especially around best practice examples that we can apply to our day-to-day operations .”
-Manfred Vogt, Team Leader Application Management Corporate IT, Bachmann electronic

Future Plans

Bachmann has also recently completed a short-term consultancy project with Cooper Software to enhance the
functionality of the IFS HR module, particularly around time clocking. Following this, they plan to embark on another consultancy project to move their on-boarding and off-boarding processes into IFS.

“The team at Cooper Software work to a very high standard and are skilled in developing solutions that fit our
specific requirements. We don’t have to go back and forward 6 or 7 times until they get it right. They work closely
with us and clearly see from the outset just what we are trying to achieve and then work to make it happen.”
-Manfred Vogt, Team Leader Application Management Corporate IT, Bachmann electronic

About the Customer

Bachmann electronic GmbH are global automation experts with headquarters in Feldkirch, Austria. The company has been optimising customer productivity and profit for 50 years. As a recognised industry leader, Bachmann provide the highest quality and reliability in automation hardware and software for wind and renewable energies, industrial machine building and the maritime markets. Open and flexible communication standards, integrated machine health monitoring and web-based visualisation are just part of the total solution Bachmann offers its customers.