Tapped to develop fairly new offerings for ARCOS LLC: TRAINING! ARCOS' training options used to be limited to new implementation Train-the-Trainer, online documentation, and a general ARCOS Callout training overview offered at our annual Conference. Now, training options at ARCOS LLC are virtually unlimited! The new Training Group is chartered to provide training options ranging from on-demand, on-site, custom live training engagements to self-help video job aids. Check out the first edition of the Training Group newsletter, Training Wheels, attached, for a recap of our early activities!

As a PS Consultant, I work with existing ARCOS customers to analyze requirements and design enhancements to their existing System; to price and schedule development projects; and to manage and deliver final product on schedule and on budget. Several recent projects I have been working on involve integrating ARCOS with work management systems. ARCOS is frequently the schedule of record, because it is imperative that callouts are run based on correct employee availability. Establishing an interface between ARCOS and work management for the purpose of sharing employee availability eliminates dual data entry and streamlines workforce optimization. Whether ARCOS is communicating directly with the work management system or with a middleware layer, real-time efficiencies can be realized. I regularly communicate with my customers regarding their technology development plans, and host webinars to keep them abreast of ARCOS product development and available add-on modules. I am a major player in the Annual ARCOS Conference, helping to recruit speakers, develop presentations, host discussion groups, provide training and ensure followup on requests and ideas.

I joined ARCOS to develop the Customer Liaison role. Prior to my hiring, customer requests for system modifications were handled in a haphazard manner which resulted in major confusion: what work was needed? what work was completed? had the customer been invoiced? My task was to wrangle the chaos into order. In the first 3 months with ARCOS, I answered all outstanding questions gleaned from boxes of post-it notes: I contacted countless customers to determine whether their needs still existed, I documented their requirements, provided them with pricing and delivery information, and ensured their customizations were delivered. I invoiced all outstanding projects. Next challenge: I developed a process for managing customer contact, using Salesforce.com. I implemented controls that allowed management to view the progress of any project at any point in time. This process improvement provided detailed tracking of customer requests and a clear audit trail for billing. In tandem with my Salesforce.com object creation, I defined ARCOS' template for work orders, and the process surrounding writing the work order, procuring customer approval of same, and invoicing for project work. This process is completely documented and still in use in 2015.I firmly established myself as the customer contact at ARCOS for system enhancements, and developed strong relationships with all customer leads. In my first year with ARCOS, my impact on revenue was such that I was recognized as a Key Contributor. Expanding on my role as Customer Liaison, I attended the annual ARCOS Conference in 2006, acting as consultant, emcee, hostess, networking agent, and became known as 'the face of ARCOS' company- and customer-wide.

In my customer support role at Goal Systems, I was the primary point of contact for customers with questions about or problems with their Goal Systems software. It was my responsibility to gather all the details the customer could provide, and to interface with the development staff to get answers to questions, solve problems, and provide suggestions for future enhancements to products.