Table of Contents
Episode Summary
Join our Host Zach Malloch, Director of VSI Assist, Travis Barber, and VSI Assist Manager, Landel Cochran as they discuss the VSI Assist Data Management program. The group outlines what services VSI Assist can perform for your department and how they can enable you to focus more on your patrons and less on RecTrac data management.
Recording
Transcript
Zach Malloch 0:06
And we're live. Welcome to wreck chat, everybody. Welcome to all of our RecChatters. I am joined today by Landel Cochran manager of VSI assist, and Travis Barber director of VSI assist. And this is actually a different employee. Cullen and Travis are twins. So you saw Cullen two weeks ago. You see Travis right now. If they are doing a an actual like, fully, nevermind, I won't worry about that right now. It's going for a joke messed it up. But we'll just get going with VSI assist right now. So welcome, RecChat. Landal. And Travis,
Travis Barber 0:45
thanks for having us.
Zach Malloch 0:46
Thanks. Your very welcome. Thanks for joining. So Landal, we'll start with you. So what is VSI assist?
Landel Cochran 0:53
VSI Assist is it's a new service offering basically focused around trying to help you get more done, spending less time doing it. So we offer two avenues. At this point here we have a comprehensive full management service, basically where we are your lead user. And we also offer project based services.
Zach Malloch 1:16
Okay, so Travis, I would bet that we're not just saying let's make new services, because we want to just have something new on the list. So what was kind of the inception was the reason for VSI assist.
Travis Barber 1:28
sure. We saw an opportunity here RecTrac being this full enterprise application. So there's a lot of our customers that would like to concentrate more on their customers and the recreation business, and turn the system admin side of it over to experts here at Vermont systems. So we can help free up your staff to work with customers, and we can work on your more complicated file management Type tasks.
Zach Malloch 1:55
Okay. So I mean, that sounds pretty comprehensive. So you mentioned project and you mentioned management. So what's the distinction between those
Landel Cochran 2:05
are full management services, basically, it's a comprehensive service where we are your lead user. So we take on system admin tasks, file, administration, data entry, permissions, Screen menu, design, anything that has to do with your setup of the system, we take on that for you, you then basically are in charge of your transactions, fixing your transactions, reporting, and anything that you need us to change for you. You send us a request, and we do it for you.
Zach Malloch 2:40
Okay, so actually, I noticed when you mentioned that, that we do a lot of the whatever they need up to transactions and reporting. So it's kind of still up to them to do those pieces. But I think that you mentioned that we could do reports. So there's a little distinction there, right?
Landel Cochran 2:57
Sure. So when you are a RecTrac user, if you are in full management, we would still expect you to run your own reports at the end of the day for cashing out your drawer, for example. But we can help you on our side here, creating custom reports and scheduling reports to run. So that's something we can do both as of if you're a full management customer, or in a project based setting as well. So if you're interested in having us create a number of reports, and scheduling them to run, then certainly something can help you with,
Zach Malloch 3:30
okay, and so full customization is just not doing it every time you need to run a report. That's not necessarily what VSI Assist is for. But if you needed to create one, or set it up to run automatically, it's definitely
Landel Cochran 3:43
much, much more efficient for people who need a report on demand to run it themselves. But for things that need to happen on a periodic basis, anything that needs to be brought into reporting that's currently not in reporting, something that we can do, we will certainly set that up foryou.
Zach Malloch 3:58
Okay. And Travis, we talked a little bit earlier about some of the success stories that we've had, or some of the some of the examples, I guess, my even more useful for people who maybe don't want to do fully manage, but what are some of those projects based?
Travis Barber 4:14
Sure, yeah, you may have a new site coming on board to your Parks and Rec Department, and just don't have the time to Build the data and go live with that new site. So we can do some discovery with you and scope out the project and get the data entered and have everything set up and running with your new programs, fees, passes that Type of thing and have it up and running and ready for sale and transactions reporting and do all that work for you.
Zach Malloch 4:42
Okay, so when you're talking about a new site, it's not just the new facility with that setup, but it could be a facility it could be the pricing structure for that the restrictions and the rules the the reports that you'd want to run for that location. What else would we expect to see in that chart?
Landel Cochran 5:00
So if we're talking about a new rec center, for example, you may have facility rooms that you rent out, you may have Rental items, you may have memberships and daily passes, perhaps you print cards for those memberships as well. So the setup of the new facility, in anything involved with what you sell at that facility we can handle. In addition to that, you're going to have most likely new staff working at that facility. Those staff need to be on boarded, have the proper permissions, the proper user settings, they see what they need to see, and not the things that they don't or shouldn't have access to.
Zach Malloch 5:33
Okay, so this, um, it sounds like a really comprehensive program. So is there? Would it be fair to say that this is basically anything you could ask VSI to train you on? Except we just do it for you.
Landel Cochran 5:48
Exactly.
Zach Malloch 5:49
Okay. Well, I mean, that simplifies things or clarifies things pretty well. And so this also sounds like it kind of where does Where's support different from what you get with VSI assists, you know, people call in all the time they ask for help with stuff. So what's the difference here?
Travis Barber 6:05
Yeah, good question Zach, you know, support has always been advising and troubleshooting, but not actually getting hands on and doing. So this is that difference here, we would actually log in into your database and actually perform the work with you and for you, basically, versus just advising and telling you how to do it. Same with the training, training is a one time thing, right, we train you how to do it, and good luck and, and move on. And this is actually us doing the upkeep and maintaining that those records, okay?
Zach Malloch 6:39
So anytime you have something that you need to get done, and we call support, and they would be working with you to identify what the root of that issue is, or kind of give suggestions as far as what direction you go. But then they leave it to you to actually finish that last connection, that extra piece to connect one thing to the next. But with VSI assist, you can just do that for somebody to take it from understanding what the need is all the way through execution. Okay. And then what are the requirements? Because it sounds like this is something that, you know, I kind of think about hosting and access to data and all that sort of stuff. So what does somebody need to do to take advantage of VSI assist?
Landel Cochran 7:20
Sure. So we certainly do prefer when people are hosted if they are interested in full management, because that allows us at VSI, to ensure all of the pieces that are needed for us to be able to fulfill the commitments that we make. So if our hosting team is managing your hosting of the database, then it's up to us to make sure that we can access it. However, if you're not fully hosted, and you can give us a robust connection to your database, then it's possible we would be able to work with people who are not on full hosting, we just need to make sure we have a reliable robust connection to your database server.
Zach Malloch 7:58
Okay, and then the next piece that kind of comes from this if with that connection to it. What about versions 10.3 3.1?
Travis Barber 8:08
Ya know, there again, the preference for full management would be 3.1. But we we've made some exceptions to that. And, again, as long as we can connect, and it's gone on feathered or untethered access, then we can we can do that. And certainly the project base pieces that usually have a start and end time, we have done that with a temporary version as well.
Zach Malloch 8:30
Okay. And it sounds also when we were talking before that maybe the ideal would be if we are going to do something for 10.3. But it might be kind of helping people move towards 3.1. Now there's a bit of a perception that 3.1 migration is a pretty involved process, and it's gotten miles and miles better and easier and faster than it used to be. But for anybody who's still concerned about it, that seems like a good possibility.
Landel Cochran 8:57
Absolutely. And we're helping a customer right now doing a 3.1 rebuild, as opposed to a migration. So that's certainly an option for you as well. But I think anyone on 10.3 interested in this service here, certainly set your sights on what you can do with 3.1. And the experience that you and your patrons are going to have with 3.1. The new user interface that we just released is fantastic. And if you haven't had a chance to look at it yet, I certainly encourage you to do so because I'm pretty excited about it myself.
Zach Malloch 9:28
Okay. And the question was going to come up, we knew it was going to happen. What about pricing? Is this included? Is it additional? Is it extra? What are we looking at?
Landel Cochran 9:38
Sure. So it is additional to the services that you're paying with support and maintenance or potentially hosting if you're hosting customer. But of course we want to get more done for you for that. So a customer interested in full management. Basically our process for that is to have some Discovery conference calls with the customer and it makes Sure we fully understand what is the scope of business, for what this this customer is doing? What are all the things that go into keeping up with this RecTrac database, and then we calculate a monthly cost for that and deliver that to sales department. So our process for full management, basically, we really need to understand everything before we can kind of understand what ballpark that's going to fit into projects, project based services is similar process, we want to understand what is the scope of the project, so might not take quite as much time. If we're not looking at the whole database, and simply looking at a couple of reports, for example, but it's similar process. So we would want the customer to ask us what they're interested to tell us what what you are interested in, we would then gather more information, come up with a calculation for what we think it's going to take us to do it and return a cost based on that.
Zach Malloch 10:53
Okay. And so it sounds like with that the there's a lot of customization options built in there. So there's you're talking to I'm presuming you or maybe nick or somebody in the VSI assists team, and trying to get the details about exactly what you want to cover. So if you were somebody that maybe had a really good handle on a lot of your database, but he did some extra help in one piece, it sounds like we could probably customize the way this works for for that situation.
Zach Malloch 11:21
So okay. We did have a question that came up. And I think this is a really good option. Peggy is asking, so they've had a few administrators in their database, and they've lost some of that consistency. So when you set up your activities, your numbering convention and everything you want to be as consistent as possible. Is that something that you'd be able to help like, kind of take a database audit and go through and kind of work with somebody starting out numbering scheme?
Landel Cochran 11:46
We can certainly do that! Yes, absolutely.
Zach Malloch 11:48
Okay. Well, thank you. Then the answer is yes. So hopefully that helps. And then we had a question come up. How is the upgrade communicated and scheduled under full management? So not necessarily. I have that fully. Becky, if you wanted to add a little bit more clarification to that. But I would guess that this has more to do with figuring out taking somebody from 10.3 over to 3.1. And kind of how that process goes? Do we just get their database in converted? Give it to them? And then it's ready to go? Or what would that look like if somebody wanted to have us help with their version?
Landel Cochran 12:31
I think that's certainly an option is for us to get started after the migration. So you know, perhaps if you're at that point, you know, did the migration last week or something like that, we can certainly work from there. But there are things you can do in 10.3 pre migration, that will affect the outcome of your migration that might make things a little bit easier not have to deal with after the fact household cleanup, for example, is something you can do to make things cleaner. So it really depends on at what point you'd like to engage our services here, whether you would like us to start digging into your 10.3 database or perhaps engaging after the migration and kind of cleanup mission instead.
Zach Malloch 13:11
Right. And then we're being asked if this is a separate team within VSI? And what are the timelines? And what's your capacity for the project based service? So I guess I'm going to interpret this, if somebody said, You know what, we want to use VSI assists for this thing? What would be the turnaround roughly for, let's just say a report?
Landel Cochran 13:31
Sure. So most of the projects we've done, we have been able to turn around in a matter of weeks. Something like a single report that might be as short as one to two weeks, I think what's really important is if folks are interested in having us perform a certain task and have a timeframe that needs to be met for that, that you communicate that to us, and we will do the best we can to make it. So generally weeks has been our turnaround.
Zach Malloch 13:59
And how, how does somebody get in touch with you? If somebody wants to take advantage of this? And they're chomping at the bit and they say I want Landal to help me run everything?
Landel Cochran 14:08
Sure. So our Department email address right now is data management at Vermont systems.com. Certainly send an email to us, it comes to the whole team so we can all make sure it gets taken care of any questions you have anything that you might want me to look into for you certainly shoot it over our way here. One other thing I wanted to mention here, when we were talking about response times, are project based services from start to end. Great. Now our average in weeks. However, our full management customers, we don't ask them to wait weeks for things here. So our full management service, our aim is to get things done as quickly as possible. So we you know, we're not trying to wait till the end of our windows but we have some service Windows defined for our service based on what Type of change or data entry you're asking us to do. So Generally as low as two days is what we this is our maximum of what we'd want to let a minor change go for. So like I said, our goal is to do things as quickly as possible. And we handle the requests as they come in. So if we can get something done within half an hour, after you send in a request, we will. But we have some kind of hard stops back built into our service levels to define what expectations
Travis Barber 15:26
yeah, thanks for adding that Landel. And we do have a service level document that we can share with those that are interested in that full management option to kind of let you know what Type of projects or tasks we expect to get done in what timeframe?
Landel Cochran 15:40
Absolutely. If you're interested in a copy of that full management service document, to send an email to datamanagement@vermontsystems.com, I'd be happy to send it to you.
Zach Malloch 15:49
Great, great. So we do have a couple of questions. So we'll kind of start to move towards those. And as we have things, if you want to add anything, certainly feel free to do that. So would somebody commit to a monthly service, or if they have a particular project, can they sign up just for that, finish that give a couple of months leeway, and then come back when they need the next thing is there
Landel Cochran 16:12
Sure. Basically, as long as we can define what the project is, we understand the start and the end of the project, what's involved and what's not involved with the project. And we're happy to take it on. And it's something where that might evolve that as time goes on where either we add time to the project, we add some deliverables to change the timeframe, we're flexible with it, we just need to make sure that we can set expectations that we know what we're going to accomplish, we have a target of when it's going to be done and how it's going to be done. And we're all on the same page before we start doing it. And that can change as time goes on. And we have no problem.
Zach Malloch 16:45
Okay. So when, when you're pricing the services, is there any consideration for size? Or is it basically just how much scope there is in maintaining the database?
Landel Cochran 16:57
right, it's really based on what it's going to take us to keep up with your database. So if it's something where you know, you have two full time people managing it right now, and you're potentially interested in having us taken over well, I'm guessing it's going to be closer to two full time people rather than, you know, one and a half time person. So it really depends on the scope of what we're doing for you, unless about the size of your organization.
Zach Malloch 17:25
So you'd have a giant organization that doesn't need a lot of maintenance. And the pricing would reflect that if you have a smaller organization who's constantly changing things, updating altering policies, then that would probably take a little bit more involvement. Okay. And then do the various subscriptions contract duration, are there various subscription durations for fully managed? Like, is it? Is it just recurring? Or is it for a couple of months at a time that you can sign on for the fully managed option? How does that work?
Landel Cochran 17:57
Generally, we ask for a year commitment with the full management service, I think we would be willing to do as little as six months if it's not something you want to commit to for a full year. But if you're a customer already up and running on RecTrac, there's a decent amount of reconfiguration that needs to be done for us to transfer the access to all of the management functions to our department. So we wouldn't necessarily want to go through this giant change where we're redoing Menus and permissions, and then a month later have to go and unwind that it's a lot of work for you folks as well. So I think of full management similar to hosting and that it's something generally you sign on for you keep going with. But you certainly wouldn't have to if you find that it's not a good fit for you.
Zach Malloch 18:42
Okay, thank you very much for that. We did have a couple other questions through here. Let's see where we are. So here's a question. We need somebody to potentially audit how they're using 3.1 and whether or not their various processes. So it's not so much that they have a really particular idea in mind that we need to redo our activity numbering scheme, but it's more, are they using RecTrac as well as they can be? Is that something that you guys
Landel Cochran 19:12
will be willing to help with that. So for a project where that's involved, instead of having specific deliverables about data entry that we would do, of course, we wouldn't know that in this Type of project beforehand, we would we would Build in time here is basically consulting time. So time is spent for us to go through either with you or on our own, to look at specific things and be able to audit how they're used, you can certainly do that. So I would look at it that way so that it would be consulting time as opposed to specific data entry delay.
Zach Malloch 19:45
Okay. And then we had another one come in here about updates, some builds new new changes that come out. Is that something that you would actually go in and apply an update to somebody? I mean, obviously if they're hosted that's going to be covered. But the question comes a little bit more specifically into. So we add a new enhancement to something that's in RecTrac and a new Build, you point that out to somebody or bringing it to their attention as part of managing the database, or how does that work.
Landel Cochran 20:19
Certainly, if they're on full management than anything that is significant change to RecTrac is something that we will have to introduce to users and make that transition smooth. So for example, here with our new modern UI, our customers on full management here are eventually going to adopt that. So we're doing a slow rollout with that has been, basically start looking at it, start testing it, and start using it with both available and then transitioning to the just the modern UI.
Zach Malloch 20:51
Okay, great. So coming up from that, a couple of questions, actually, that are basically the same. But what's the difference between VSI assist, and let's say, purchasing particular training time, in kind of tied in similar to that? What's the difference between VSI assist and having a hosted database?
Travis Barber 21:15
Yeah, good question. So. So paying for training, we will typically, again, will walk your staff, you and your staff through the process, and then leave you off with that process, here's how you do it. And then you kind of take it and run with it, versus VSI assist, where we're actually gonna, you're gonna ask us to perform a task, and we're will actually perform that within your database and get that job done.
Zach Malloch 21:38
Okay. So that that kind of leads to a little bit of a question about, so traditionally the support, you get the training, learn how to do something, and then you'd kind of continue with that, if you didn't get that training. Sorry, I'll back up a little bit. So, does does VSI assist, also cover training? Potentially. So if you if somebody wants us to do something for them, but then they want to have a little bit of explanation about what went on? What happened, how it worked, and how to do it in future? Is that something that?
Landel Cochran 22:14
Sure, so when we're taking on a project, for example, we had a customer in Illinois who was running their wedding barn on QuickBooks, and they're transferring it into RecTrac. They've been using RecTrac for a number of years, just not at this location. So we, of course, we did the data Build, we implemented the facility along with fees and quite significant questions that a lot of questions that weddings. And, along with that, you know, we implemented that in the database, and walk the users through all of the new features, the new facility that didn't exist before, for really someone who was not primarily a RecTrac user. So when we are doing data builds that introduce new things to your system and training is involved to understand what the new thing is, yes, that's generally part of the project. So we will work that into the the scope of the project.
Zach Malloch 23:12
Okay, great. Thank you very much. And then this is actually a really good question here. So if when you start working with VSI assist, and you get an idea of what you're trying to accomplish, or what you're trying to have us accomplish for somebody? Where's where is that distinction between support and assist? If somebody is having an issue, and they just, they know, they need to call VSI? But they're not entirely certain if it's the SR support? Do they always start with you guys, and then determined to go to support? Do they start with support and then move over to assist?
Landel Cochran 23:46
Great question. So the way I like to think in Super oversimplifying things. But if it's a question about how am I supposed to do this? Or is this supposed to work like that that's kind of different, or can this be changed? Right? So if it's a question about your usage of RecTrac, transaction, generally, that's going to be a support issue. If it's a question about the setup of an item, whether it's working correctly, anything about the way users are configured as far as permissions, then that generally would come to us in a full management scenario. So either way, we're going to make sure that your request gets to the right place. So if we get a an issue, that support based and it's not something that we have time, right now, for us to look into the VSI assist team, we will route it to the support team to get an answer to you as quick as quickly as possible.
Zach Malloch 24:42
Okay, great. And is there a significant difference in price based on whether somebody's hosted or not hosted but has a good method of connecting to the database?
Landel Cochran 24:53
No, no, it's all the same.
Zach Malloch 24:56
So as long as we can get to the database, right, we can manage the database so Okay, Okay, great. I think that there was another small piece that came up here. I think that that is actually stuff that we've already answered for the most part. So we have about five minutes left. If anybody has other questions, certainly send them our way. Landler Travis, any sort of final, final ideas, final thoughts?
Landel Cochran 25:26
I've just encourage anyone, if you have any questions, send them over. Certainly rather look into something than the not. So let us know how we can help you. That's our goal here is to let you focus on your customers while we focus on your database.
Zach Malloch 25:42
So I did have a quick thought that came up as a response to that. So actually got another one. How do we do different discounts. Now we'll cover that in a future topic. If you wanted to engage with VSI, assess, they could set up the fees, they go into all these scoring. Support, it's been great to do well, they continue to do that. So so the there was a question about will support help Build reports? And the answer is yes. But if I can take a little bit of a liberty, I think the distinction is still that when you're on support, we will help you work through building those reports. But if you're on VSI, assist, you can tell us what you want, and then we will create that report for you. So that's kind of the distinction between those things.
Landel Cochran 26:34
If you are working on a custom report, you're giving it a good solid effort. We're always willing to help you with that. And support. So absolutely. What you said is absolutely right.
Zach Malloch 26:44
Okay, great. Let's see, have some people already talking about getting some budgetary stuff ready? So that's good. And yeah, I guess any, any closing statements from anybody hear about any of this?
Travis Barber 27:01
No, I mean, I think we, you know, we had some a few successes here. Recently, we had a customer in Missouri that had a contracted facility, that contract ended maybe a little sooner than they thought we were kind of left for managing a and Aquatic Center and not having this staff, the management staff know how to actually run it in the back end. So we were able to step in very quickly and, and get the data up to date and get their users acquainted with it and and do the handoff. So So although there's still a full managed customer, they're actually on their way to being kind of more self sufficient. But we've we kind of filled that role as their lead RecTrac administrator for a year plus, and helping them that transition now. So it seems like it's been a great relationship. It's kind of a success story for us,
Landel Cochran 27:51
then, you know, I don't think they're unique. And that, you know, they open a new facility and after a year, and I'm like, majority of the people who are working there, not everyone who was involved with RecTrac hadn't moved on. So we provide a level of stability, when we're doing full management where, you know, we'll still be here, our team is going to know what's going on with your system. So if you lose a lead person, we're still going to provide the stability for you.
Zach Malloch 28:16
Okay. So two quick questions here. One is when do we anticipate fully offering service?
Travis Barber 28:23
Today. We're ready to right now.
Zach Malloch 28:26
Okay. And then what purpose does the datamanagement@Vermontsystems.com address serve? So I guess we'll just expand this a little bit, and say, so if you want to get started with using VSI assist, you would start with datamanagement@vermontsystems.com. And I think maybe just to clarify very quickly, initially, the department was called data management, but now we're switching it to VSI assist, and we'll probably see that start to transition over. So the same thing. If somebody did want to engage, you said, We're available right now. Assuming that discover that people are available discovery requests were made to people as desired. What's the what's the draw? Or the the what's the overhead between starting and actually having a starting to do work for people from initiating the contact to getting everything?
Travis Barber 29:19
You know, like, I literally worked on most of those discovery calls, I'm gonna let you answer that. But once the discovery is over with and, you know, agreement on on the on the price and value that starts pretty much immediately.
Landel Cochran 29:31
So as quickly as we can, and like I mentioned, you know, if you're interested in a project with a very tight timeframe, let us know what it is and we'll see if we can meet that.
Zach Malloch 29:41
Okay. So, if anybody has, I think we're right at the end of our session here. If anybody has questions about any of this, once again, datamanagement@Vermontsystems.com They can get in touch with VSI assist, started the discovery process and you can work with sales and actually Get a Quote for everything. Project Based Services are really more of an hourly rate. And then the the fully manage opportunity, or is there a package you're calling it or anything like that.
Landel Cochran 30:13
We're calling it our full management service or managed service. And we charge on a monthly rate for that.
Zach Malloch 30:18
And once again, that's determined by your discovery of the scope of work anticipated the number of people that you would think you're trying to replace with VSI, assist management, that sort of stuff.
Landel Cochran 30:29
And then generally, if a customer is on our management service for a year when they come up for renewal, and most of the things that VSI are on a yearly schedule, We'll reevaluate what we put in for the last year and how much we're asking you to pay for that. So if we notice that we can readjust and lower your costs based on what we're putting in, we will certainly do that.
Zach Malloch 30:51
Okay, great. Well, thanks, guys. For all the RecChatters, thank you for joining us and paying attention and being a part of everything that we do. If anybody wants to say hi to Landal. He'll be presenting at the symposium next week as well. I in several others others of us, we might see Travis Travis sometimes likes to duck out in the fall. So we'll see. And, yeah, just say, if anybody's coming in next week, if not, we will be having a live from the symposium edition on Thursday next week. And the following Thursday, we'll be talking about SMS. So text messaging from RecTrac. We'll be joined by Jordan Tipson. And Patrick Hayden for that. And yeah, thank you guys so much for joining us. Thank you all for attending.
Landel Cochran 31:36
Thanks.
Zach Malloch 31:37
Thank you very welcome. And I'll probably have to Click this more than one time for we'll go ahead and in that meeting, so we'll talk to everybody soon. See you later.