In our interview series, Dell Technologies Customer Success executives sit down with our first line of support to answer questions about Dell Service Account Managers (SAM) and Dell Technical Account Managers (TAM). Helen Shanahan, Senior Director for EMEA of Account Management Services at Dell, speaks with Silvia DeLaCagiga, #DellSAM Ambassador.
Could you tell us how you got into such an exciting IT role?
I kind of fell into the Tech world about 28 years ago (the original plan was to be an accountant!). I started at IBM for a couple of years, then spent several years at Oracle and have been at Dell for the past 18 years.
My current role is leading the Account Management Services (AMS) organisation of Technical and Service Account Managers (SAM) across most of mainland Europe. I also have a global IT related strategy role for Customer Success, and I am the sponsor for Women in Account Management Services globally. I live in Dublin, Ireland with my twins, aged nine.
Can you tell us how the Service Account Manager (SAM) role can best be defined?
Defining a SAM is not easy because, in my opinion, the SAM wears several hats and is a ‘jack of all trades’. I would say SAMs have two main functions: First is to help their customers extract the maximum value from their Dell purchases; Second is to help their customers navigate Dell Services as well as, when needed, be the voice of their customer into Dell.
How do you think the SAMs enable the integration of customer experience with IT´s deliverables?
In AMS we have one key metric and that is Customer Satisfaction with our SAM Service. The SAMs are driven by ensuring their customers get the most out of what they bought from Dell. SAMs also make sure that customers are highly satisfied with their post-sales experience and are pleased with the added value the SAM provides to them.
How do SAMs analyse their customers’ data?
The SAMs have access to vast amounts of data both directly and indirectly related to their customers IT solutions. The analysis of that data provides the SAM and their customer with key insights to past events but can also help identify known or possible future events which may impact the systems stability. These predictions enable to take proactive steps to ensure uptime, stability and efficiency for their solutions. The SAM can add further to proactivity and efficiencies by introducing their customer to tools, such a Secure Connect Gateway Secure Connect Gateway and TechDirect
How do you think SAMs contribute to the wider tech ecosystem?
SAMs can be a big factor in how much value and success customers get from their technology. And in turn, that technology is utilized to enable people to be more connected, efficient and successful.
