Why LOCAL Support Matters
15 Apr 2025
When you’re researching which software solution to invest in, it’s easy to become fixated on the minutiae of product features and technical specifications.
Sure, these are important. However, experience has taught many Australian and New Zealand businesses the value of a further consideration that’s equally as important – the availability of local customer support and technical expertise.
A key question to ask – especially for those of us operating businesses in a distant time zone on the far side of the planet – is: “Who do I turn to if there’s a problem?”
Because that’s the moment when the value of true local customer support becomes really apparent!
Beyond FAQs, Reddit & Chatbots
FAQs, social media forums and chatbots can be helpful. But when it comes to IT systems, this kind of self-service can only help you so far. In a crisis, having genuine local human expertise and support available is invaluable.
This is particularly true when it comes to integrative solutions such as Managed File Transfer (MFT). These often require expert configuration to integrate with the other software your organisation depends upon for daily operations.
While the best MFTs can have your team up and running quickly for even complex, multi-step workflows, some scenarios – for example, establishing a disaster recovery environment, or setting up hybrid file transfer approaches – may require MFT vendor support.
That’s why the breadth and depth of local support should be a key consideration when choosing an MFT solution.
The Tyranny of Distance
Access to local expertise and support is even more important for Australian and New Zealand businesses, operating as we do in what the rest of the world views as a smaller market in remote location and time zone.
That can lead some vendors to – deliberately, or by omission – deprioritise customer support for Australian and New Zealand businesses.
(How many times – either as consumers or business owners – have you needed support during our local business hours… only to realise that overseas customer support and technical support personnel are still sound asleep, or clocked off for the weekend?)
A vendor which provides “boots on the ground” in Australia and New Zealand - ready and willing to service local customers’ needs – is a real advantage.
Beyond Emergencies
The value of having human experts available locally extends far beyond those critical moments when IT systems have failed.
Professional services – such as end user training, and knowledge transfer to your IT own support personnel – are also valuable advantages.
Key Customer Support Questions for Software Vendors
Here are some important support questions I recommend you ask a software vendor when assessing which software solution will be best for your organisation:
What hours do you provide customer support?
Are technical experts available locally?
Are your technical staff expert in this specific solution?
How many times have your technical staff deployed your solution to A/NZ businesses?
What training do you offer? Can it be customised? Is it interactive or demonstration-led? Can I review a course outline before purchasing sessions?
Is certification available for my team?
What professional services are available, and how do you deliver them?
Is Migration Assistance available?
How are customer issues prioritised within your Customer Support team?
What is the process for submitting a Support Request?
Is there a Customer Portal available for downloading the latest updates, release notes, and documentation?
Learning from Others’ Experiences
The experiences of fellow customers can help bring the advantage of local support into sharp focus. Browsing third-party review sites such as G2, Software Reviews, and Capterra, you’ll find many reports from MFT customers about their dealings – positive and negative – with various MFT vendors’ support services.
They make for thought-provoking reading!
In addition, here are some expert reports and summaries comparing MFT offerings and customer service arrangements.
Info-Tech Managed File Transfer Category Report: The Info-Tech Research Group evaluated the most popular managed file transfer software and vendors in the market – GoAnywhere MFT, MOVEit, IBM MFT, and more. Their detailed analysis includes a deep dive into vendor satisfaction for ease of vendor support, implementation, and product strategy. The report also provides head-to-head comparisons of leading solutions.
G2’s MFT Grid Report: This report provides an analysis of providers in the MFT arena and covers satisfaction ratings, feature comparisons, market presence data, and more.
The Best MFT, with the Best Local Support
At Generic Systems Australia, we have decades of experience installing and supporting the world’s premier MFT, GoAnywhere, across Australia and New Zealand.
Founded in 1993, we’re proud to count among our clients some of the region’s most iconic brands. Leveraging our unique skills and readily available local support, they rely on us to make their IT systems more secure and efficient, in turn, making their teams more productive.
A long-term partner of Fortra (formerly Help Systems, and Linoma Software, the original authors of GoAnywhere MFT), our in depth understanding of GoAnywhere’s capabilities - including Advanced Workflows, data translation, auditing and compliance, automation and security - enables us to devise optimal deployment solutions, provide rapid Proofs of Concept, and move ahead quickly with implementation.
In fact, we have exclusively managed GoAnywhere deployments for some of the region’s largest multinational corporations and Government departments, as well as small- to medium-sized businesses.
Our Australia-based technical experts provide clients with the reassurance that local help will always be on-hand.
If you’re exploring how to boost your efficiency and bottom line by leveraging Secure Managed File Transfer technology, please feel welcome to contact me for an obligation-free discussion.
Or, if you’d prefer to read more, you can check out the many resources on our Generic Systems Australia website, including our exclusive Local MFT Buyer’s Guide.
At Generic Systems Australia, we’re your local experts in MFT.