When organizations evaluate Enterprise Content Management software, they spend most of their time comparing features — OCR, workflow, storage options, integrations. Support usually comes up last, if at all.
That's backwards. Features are what you buy. Support is what determines whether those features actually work in your environment, day after day, year after year.
Here's what to look for — and what to watch out for.
The Call Center Problem
Larger software vendors almost always route support calls through a tiered call center. You open a ticket, wait for a response, get escalated, wait again, and eventually — if you're persistent — reach someone who knows the product well enough to help.
For straightforward questions, this works. For anything involving your specific environment — how your IBM i is configured, how your scanners are set up, what version of the viewer you're running — it breaks down fast. The person on the phone doesn't know your setup and doesn't have time to learn it.
What "Real" Support Looks Like
The alternative is working with a team small enough that support staff actually know the product and can engage with your specific situation. At RVI, that means our support calls are handled by the programmers and technicians who work on the software — not a separate team reading from a knowledge base.
That distinction matters in a few specific ways:
Setup and installation done right
A good support team doesn't just hand you a manual and wish you luck. They walk through the installation of RVI PC software on your server and workstations, verify the configuration, and make sure everything is talking to each other before they sign off. Getting setup right the first time prevents the majority of support calls later.
Scanner configuration that actually works
Scanner setup is where a lot of ECM implementations quietly fail. The scanner works fine on its own — but it's not configured correctly for the RVI Viewer, or the scan settings (resolution, color mode, file format) aren't right for your document types, or the routing isn't set up.
Our technicians configure scanners to work with RVI specifically — not generically. That includes the right settings for your documents, whether you're scanning invoices, contracts, HR files, or engineering drawings.
Hardware troubleshooting tied to your software
Hardware issues that affect RVI — a scanner that stops communicating, a workstation that won't connect, a server configuration that's causing slowdowns — sit in a gray area that generic IT support isn't equipped to handle. Our team understands how RVI interacts with the hardware around it, which means we can diagnose and resolve these issues without the finger-pointing that happens when the software vendor blames the hardware vendor and vice versa.
Access to programmers when you need them
For technical questions that go deeper than configuration — custom indexing logic, integration questions, unusual workflow requirements — you need someone who can read code and understand what's happening under the hood. With RVI, that access is part of what support means.
What to Ask Before You Buy
If you're evaluating ECM software and want to assess the quality of support, these questions cut through the marketing:
- Who answers support calls? Dedicated support staff or the development team?
- What's the average response time? Hours or days?
- Does support include setup and installation, or is that billed separately?
- Who configures the scanners? And do they test with your actual document types?
- If there's a hardware issue related to the software, who owns that problem?
The answers reveal a lot about how a vendor prioritizes the post-sale relationship.
Support as a Long-Term Investment
The organizations that get the most out of RVI over the long term are the ones with an active support relationship — not just a license. As your document volume grows, as you add new document types, as your team changes, as new features become available, having a support team that knows your environment means you're never starting from scratch when something needs to change.
We're a small team and we're proud of that. Small means every customer relationship matters. It means when you call, you reach someone who knows who you are.
Want to Talk to Our Team Before You Buy?
Schedule a demo and you'll meet the same people who would support you after the sale. No handoff, no call center — just the RVI team.
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