Primary Contact (SPOC)

As the title suggests, the SPOC is our main contact at a customer site. All communication with the customer (aside from working with end users and issues such as billing/invoicing) will pass through the SPOC. This includes:

• Reporting outages and other user-impacting system events
• Gaining approval for user account changes (password resets, permissions, etc)
• Gaining approval for larger changes to the environment and coordinating any needed downtime

Specific responsibilities of the SPOC include:

• Generally serving as a liaison between EMPIST and the company, particularly with C-Level staff
• Coordinating and approving onsite dispatches with the Field Operations Manager
• Receiving phone calls at any time of day or night regarding system outages and, if needed, coordinating onsite access for a dispatch engineer
• Initiating all requests for new user setup, user termination, or user account changes involving access to sensitive information, or approving those requests if made by another staff member
• Serving as the initial point of contact for new equipment/service purchasing and deployment

Billing Contact

The Billing Contact is someone our back office can contact in order to discuss matters related to billing, invoicing, purchasing, etc. We prefer to have two billing contacts (this could be two individuals, or one person and the AP team, for example) that could receive invoices and any related billing correspondence. This contact may also fulfill one or more of the other roles discussed above.

Primary Decision Maker (PDM)

An individual will need to be designated for an organization when a SPOC is not able to make final decisions regarding technology purchases. If applicable, it is important that our Team be able to meet with the PDM (via phone or in person) to discuss a proposal or solution that is being recommended by EMPIST. It is important that these types of discussions (when necessary) happen between the EMPIST Team and the PDM directly instead of being relayed to the PDM via the SPOC. Your organization’s Account Manager (AM) will be discussing strategic recommendations on a Quarterly basis and it is important that these discussions include the PDM(s).

Specific responsibilities of the PDM include:

• Being available to review / discuss strategic recommendations being made by the EMPIST AM.
  • These meetings will occur a minimum of once per quarter (but can occur more frequently if requested) or, as necessary, when issues occur that require a net new purchase and fall outside of the approval rights of the SPOC and / or include a major change to the environment.

Escalation Contact (EC)

The escalation contact is someone who is contacted in the event of an outage who is not the SPOC. We maintain a list of three people to whom we reach out during an outage. We go in order, with the first contact generally being the SPOC (though not required). Contacts #2 and #3 (if not specifically requested to be designated as the #1 primary contact) are escalation contacts. If the SPOC cannot be reached, we reach out to contact #2 and then contact #3, if needed. Also, all three will be added to a distribution list on our Outage Logs receiving updates on outages via email as we provide them. If the SPOC is generally responsive in these situations, the additional Escalation Contacts are rarely contacted via phone.

Specific responsibilities of the EC include:

• Receiving phone calls at any time of day or night regarding system outages and, if needed, coordinating onsite access for a dispatch engineer (this is assuming SPOC is unresponsive)
• Dispatch may ultimately require the SPOC’s input, but the EC can receive the initial call from EMPIST if unable to contact the SPOC.

Onsite Contact (OC)

An Onsite Contact is essentially a SPOC for a remote office location aside from the main company office. The responsibilities of an Onsite Contact are generally the same as a SPOC, except without the approval and user management aspects. The main SPOC of the organization still performs those roles and is kept updated on happenings at the remote location along with the Onsite Contact.

Onsite Contacts are required to:

• Serve as a point of contact for coordinating deliveries, deployments, or other work being done at that particular location.
• Receiving phone calls at any time of day or night regarding system outages and, if needed, coordinating onsite access for a dispatch engineer at their location
• Occasionally provide “remote hands” assistance to engineers, checking server or network equipment and performing very basic troubleshooting steps per the engineer’s instruction