Techstreet™ analysts debunk the myths associated with switching from one standards provider to another.
We understand that in some industries, switching vendors can be particularly burdensome, especially when you’ve worked with the same one for quite some time. Luckily, switching standards providers doesn’t have to be a challenging transition when it comes to Techstreet Enterprise. In fact, we’ve found that many of the commonly cited barriers that keep engineers, librarians and technical professionals from optimizing standards management for their organization are easily overcome with Techstreet Enterprise.
Below, our team of experts debunk the myths:
#1: Switching will be a headache – it’s hard for users to learn a new standards management platform.
Fiction.
We appreciate that change can be daunting, so we developed several ways to make it as easy as possible for you and your team to switch standards providers. When you become a Techstreet Enterprise customer, we provide you with value-added onboarding service packages to best support your organization’s needs. You can choose the level of support you require, based on your organization’s size and/or unique implementation needs.
The following services are included in your Techstreet Enterprise subscription, with additional types of support available as upgrades:
- Account creation for all new bulk users
- Web-based training on the platform to get you up to speed quickly
- Year-round webinar training
- Technical assistance throughout the course of your subscription
It’s worth noting that year-round, we offer two live training webinars geared towards both regular users and administrators. Our “Introduction to Techstreet Enterprise” training is perfect if you are new to Techstreet Enterprise or interested in a refresher course. Our “Administration Training for Techstreet Enterprise” session is specifically designed so administrators can manage their subscription like a pro.
Also, our customer relationships set us apart in the standards industry. We are known for our commitment to providing exceptional customer service and have a global team with deep industry knowledge.
“I receive new document requests from end users every day. The Techstreet experts respond right away and often go the extra mile to support our team. For example, sometimes it turns out the requested document isn’t an industry standard, but the Techstreet team still takes the time to explain what the document is and where we can find it. I’m very happy and will be a long-term customer based on this level of service.”
#2: Our organization is too small to switch from single copy purchasing to a standards subscription.
Fiction. If more than one person in your organization needs to regularly access standards, a subscription is more likely to provide better value. Benefits of a subscription and associated tools include reducing search time and improving workflows, increasing quality and safety, eliminating redundant purchases, gaining insight into standards usage and spend, and more.
You can start small with your subscription content and then build it up as your needs grow with our prorated add-ons. We can customize standards packages to fit your needs, no matter the size of your collection.
#3: It’s not worth the effort to switch providers if we can’t get all the content that we need in one place.
Fiction. Did you know that Techstreet offers more than 550,000 industry codes and standards – one of the world’s largest collections – from more than 150 standards publishers around the globe? There’s a good chance we offer the standards you need. That said, it’s not uncommon for organizations to work with more than one provider, depending on their specific situation, so it’s worthwhile to contact us and see how we can help you optimize your program. With our customizable content sets, you pay for only the standards you need.
#4: We’ll incur overage charges or penalty fees from our current provider if we switch.
Unfortunately, this one could be true depending on your current standards management agreement, which is why we always recommend checking the terms and conditions of your current contract as you prepare to make any changes. But it certainly isn’t how we do business. While other standards management providers may leverage audits and proprietary usage statistics to create exit obstacles for your organization, we’re committed to a transparent partnership from day one. Thanks to our self-serve usage reporting dashboard, customers can get a snapshot of activity across users, documents, locations and publishers any time they need, so you have the insight you need to keep all aspects of your program completely under your control.
Figure 1. Techstreet usage reporting dashboard shows activity across users, documents, locations and publishers.
#5: We’d have to destroy our existing hard copies of standards under our current subscription license.
Fiction. Standards management subscription license terms usually state that organizations must destroy printed copies of standards upon expiration of their subscription since these hard copies are owned by the standards publishers. However, in cases where an organization switches their standards provider from one reseller to another, the question arises as to whether this ‘destroy’ clause is still valid. Our view is ‘no.’ Here’s why: the copyright is held by the standards publisher, not the standards reseller. To put it another way, the standards publisher is not concerned with which standards reseller provides you the standard. so long as an active subscription is in place with a standards reseller.
Other standards resellers, on the other hand, have been known to use this ‘destroy’ clause to scare their customers from switching standards providers. That is, they claim that organizations must destroy all hard copies, even if they still have a valid subscription through another provider. We believe this approach is unfair and unreasonable. At Techstreet, we understand that these standards belong to publishers, who determine usage rights, and we don’t add onerous restrictions on our customers.
Ready to make the switch? We’re excited to work with you! Visit discover.techstreet.com to learn more.
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