Benchling Success Packages: Supporting our customers with the ‘digital’ and the ‘transformation’

Can you imagine if IKEA sold bed frames without the assembly manuals? Or if BowFlex let you purchase home gyms without any guidance on how to use them? 

There are so many physical goods we would never think of purchasing without a guarantee from the seller that they’ll guide you through the proper setup, training, and continued education you need to make the best use of it. After all, a bed frame isn’t very comfortable when it’s not put together. 

And when it comes to buying software, we should hold sellers to the same standard: training, best practices, and optimization are just as important as the software itself.

That’s why we’re offering Benchling Success Packages — designed to provide customers with everything they need for a successful R&D digital transformation, including best practices, training, and optimization services. With Success Packages, you can make sure that you actually get the ROI you’re looking for from your R&D digital transformation. 

Here’s our philosophy on why the “transformation” is just as important as the “digital” and a look at what our Success Packages offer. 

1. R&D software requires support, training, and optimization — but you shouldn’t have to carry that load on your own.

It's reasonable to expect companies that you buy software from to provide comprehensive success services, such as training, product support, and technical optimization. While this is more common in horizontal (industry-agnostic) enterprise software, most R&D software vendors only offer limited levels of support on email or phone. 

This still leaves gaps in many areas — change management, data strategy, feature absorption, new employee onboarding — the list goes on. Some companies try to fill these gaps on their own with expensive consulting services or with their internal IT resources. But they’re often stretched thin, and they shouldn’t be expected to become the expert on every single piece of software your team uses. 

Especially for complex, foundational technology like R&D software, it’s important to have a vendor that can provide this level of support for you. If you have to sit around for days or weeks waiting for product support answers, you and your team will get frustrated quickly, as it prevents you from doing your daily work.

With the right training and support from the vendor in place, your users will be able to hit the ground running and make the most of the new software. That’s why at Benchling, we staffed our Product Support team with experts who can get your technical questions answered quickly, with defined SLAs. Our Technical Account Managers keep your Benchling platform resilient and always aligned to the needs of your science teams. And our Customer Success team offers training, value realization consulting, and best practices to help you optimize your R&D workflows.

2. Your science evolves. Your software should, too.

We’ve seen this with hundreds of companies over the years: you change how you model complex entities, or you tweak your R&D process to add in new forms of research or focus areas. And then, the metadata you want to capture changes to meet those new focus areas. 

On some R&D platforms, changing your implementation and processes means the cumbersome and time-consuming effort of writing new code. But even with a point-and-click interface for your R&D software like Benchling offers, making changes to your overall process can be a lot for internal teams to manage. 

Your vendor should be able to offer you best practices for facilitating these evolutions smoothly. That’s why we offer Optimization services, where our team of product and technical experts who have seen these changes before time and time again can consult you on the best path forward and manage the changes you need to make end-to-end. 

3. Your R&D software should mirror your unique R&D processes. 

Your R&D software is inextricably linked to your R&D. How decisions are made in your business and how data is captured are directly correlated to the way you set up your software. When you’re implementing software, you need to consider adoption within the company, governance you expect to take place over time, and the business value you hope to measure from it. You also need to consider how each software deployment fits in with your overall digital strategy.

These are all elements of a successful implementation that your vendor should be able to provide best practices in and guide you through over time. That’s why Benchling’s Customer Success team provides best practices and consultations to help guide you through these elements of change that can make or break your success with the software.

Support beyond the software: Benchling Success Packages

At Benchling, we strive to be a strategic partner to our customers. We built our Customer Experience team with scientists who have experience at the bench, and technologists who have expertise in large-scale technology implementations — to give you the best of both worlds. 

Our Standard Success Package, included with every Benchling license, gives you the self-serve tools you need to get questions answered quickly and access foundational training. You can access Benchling Learning Labs, our Help Desk, and get best practices from our Customer Success team. 

As your company scales and you’re looking for more expertise or optimization, you can access additional packages like our Premier Success Package or Enterprise Premier Success Package. These allow high-growth and large R&D organizations to consult with Benchling experts for specific technical, administrative, and success services — helping keep your R&D running as efficiently.

Software, success, or both?

If you’re undergoing a digital transformation for your R&D organization, consider how you’re approaching it. Is your team set up to succeed for the long term? Reach out to learn more about adding a Success Package to your Benchling implementation.