Throughout the last 7 years I have spent working in Customer Success in the high tech space there remains a singular constant that I have pinpointed as the foundation of customers that are successful with any complex solution: Training and Enablement. Without proper training and enablement of any business solution even the most impactful tools can quickly become shelf-ware. In an effort to help our valued SVM customers shake off the proverbial “dust”, I recently sat down with our SVM guru Waqas Mahmood. Waqas is a Manager of our Technical Support and Engineering team that focuses on Flexera’s SVM solution. I hope this interview enables all of you to maximize your usage and ROI of our best-in-class SVM solution.   John: We have thousands of SVM customers that all sit in different stages of adoption maturity. Are there any universally valuable landing pages within our community for users of all experience levels? Waqas: Absolutely. Our SVM solution is constantly being improved, enhanced, and enriched by new functionality and gadgetry. The one need that both new customers and experienced customers weigh heavily is a need for training on the latest and greatest facets of SVM. We have a fantastic collection of SVM Practice Guides (Great for setup, administration, and functionality application) in our Learning Center. There is also a great collection of small byte-size videos that highlight features and commonly incurred obstacles. You can access that here: SVM Learning Center   John: In CS we often hear that our SVM customers are thirsty for more thought leadership. Do you have any suggestions on where we can find this information? Waqas: Our SVM expert team at Flexera is constantly creating new SVM blog content that highlights important topics and issues within the vulnerability landscape. We also make sure to point out any action needed by our SVM customer base. You can access our monthly blogs here: Monthly SVM Community Blogs   John: You mention a lot of great content focused on supporting technical users and admins located within the learning center, are there any areas focused on supporting end users? Waqas: Thorough enablement requires the creation of quality collateral for all user personas. We have some fantastic user guides that are accessible HERE. This is the same area where our customers can find the most up to date SVM release notes.   John: What about system maintenance, how should our customers track upcoming scheduled maintenance and service downtime for SVM? Waqas: Our team offers a great email alert service to help customers track these important events. You can subscribe HERE. John: In closing, what is the best advice you can offer our SVM customers that will help them get the most out of SVM? Waqas: Our most successful customers live within the community hub. There are hours and hours of great content built into the community that specifically target SVM enablement and Customer Success. Block out an hour or two every week for learning and enablement during which you can comb through the various areas of community dedicated to our SVM solution. This enablement time will pay huge dividends by allowing you to better prioritize your various daily, weekly, and monthly security initiatives that will impact your organization. Most importantly, get involved! Ask (and answer) questions within our customer blog spaces. Get to know our SVM experts and fellow SVM customers. We have dedicated resources for moderating and curating our community content. The community will help you maximize the ROI you receive from SVM.   I hope you all found this interview as helpful as I did. I look forward to e-meeting you all in the community VERY soon!   Sincerely, John H Johnson Manager, Customer Success   Some other great resources/blogs related to general security and threat intelligence topics are listed below: CIO.com / Security DarkReading.com The Guardian: Data and Computer Security   ... View more