Meet Team PKF SCS: Sage Account Manager

Support, Sales, Consultancy, Marketing and Development. These are more than just departments at PKF Smith Cooper Systems – they are teams of people that have brought the company to where it is today.

Many of you may not have interacted with any of these departments or you may have interacted with them all! Either way, this series is intended to introduce you to the people behind the titles and give you insight into the people who make up Team PKF SCS.

Today, we’re hearing from Vanessa Watson. Vanessa is one of our Sage Account Managers – you might have interacted with her before.

Keep reading to find out more about Vanessa and how her PKF SCS journey began.

We have also featured a range of other team members, so to catch up on our past articles click here.

How did your journey start at PKF SCS?

I started my journey with PKF SCS at least 15 years ago, when I meet with Richard Brewster as his Sage account manager. I also know Chris Smith from his previous roles prior to joining PKF SCS, and also Richard Torr. I have watched PKF SCS grow over the years, to where they are today as one of the top Sage Business Partners in the country.

I formally joined PKF Smith Cooper in July 2021, when the Price Bailey Business Systems team was acquired.

What’s the most exciting part of working for PKF SCS?

I have been in the Sage world for almost a quarter of a century (gosh that makes me sound old!). What I find most exciting about working for PKF SCS is the interaction with a wide variety of customers and learning about their businesses.

I am a problem solver and I enjoy finding the solutions to my customers’ problems, whether it be software or development additions or even suggesting more efficient ways of extracting or inputting data.

How have you had to adapt your role and interactions with customers when it comes to working from home?

I have essentially been working from home for 20+ years, well before COVID-19. What I found hard was reducing my face to face meetings, as that is a part of my job role that I really love. I find that Teams meetings are good, but there is nothing like meeting customers at their place of business, as you really get a feel for the business and the pain points that they are experiencing.

What business goals are you looking forward to achieving in the next year?

The largest challenge of this year is Microsoft’s decision to end of life TLS1; this has had an impact on about 75% of my customer base. I have set myself a goal to get all my customers who are eligible on the patch or upgraded by June 2022. This will give them some breathing space before the September 30^th deadline.

What advice would you give to other Sage Account Managers when it comes to driving sales in a post-COVID landscape?

My best advice is to listen!

That is all for this time around, thank you very much for reading and a huge thank you to Vanessa for sparing the time to answer our questions!