Discovery Sales Engineer - South Africa #5308

Description

Discovery Sales Engineer - South Africa

Position Overview

EBSCOhost databases and discovery technologies are the most-used, premium online information resources for tens of thousands of institutions worldwide, representing millions of end-users. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box. The ability to create these custom solutions is achieved by harvesting metadata from both internal (library) and external (database vendors) sources, and creating a pre-indexed service of unprecedented size, speed, and customization.


The Discovery Service Engineer (DSE or a.k.a. Sales Engineer) is the primary technical resource for the field sales force. The DSE is responsible for actively driving and managing the technology evaluation stage of the sales process, working in conjunction with the sales team as the key technical advisor and product advocate.

Primary Responsibilities:

•Regional authoritative expert on technology aspects of platform functionality, markets, trends
•Strive to be an EDS feature expert. Use the product(s) frequently and thoroughly. Gain continual knowledge progression of the technology platform by participating in frequent internal technology trainings and product strategy sessions
•Act as the EDS technology champion for your region. Stay abreast of industry and technology trends. Conduct market research and competitive intelligence
•Flow of feature enhancement requests from the field into Product Management and the SDLC process
•Pre-sales customer presentations and meetings, and RFIs/RFP
•Present EDS technology solutions as well as new releases and future feature
•Conduct sales presentations, focus groups, and other consultative customer requirements gathering exercises via frequent web-based and on-site session
•RFI/RFP support
•Support the trial process and initial post-sales support/nurturing
•Perform administration and configuration of customer interface profiles, and training when appropriate
•Library web site integration which may include Widget development (small snippets of HTML and JavaScript code), or use of the EBSCO API within custom web applications (e.g. PHP)
•Troubleshoot customer specific issues (e.g. ILS integrations)
•Assist the Customer Satisfaction team on key accounts
•Relationships:
•Establish strong relationships with regional Sales and customer support teams, as well as existing and prospective customers
•Customers tech gurus at key accounts
•Manage relationships with key regional technology partners and vendors, when necessary
•Create and manage Sales support tools
•Build demos: EDS profiles, library web site integration samples, localized API app samples (e.g. PHP), widgets (e.g. HTML/JavaScript mini pages), etc.
•Create PowerPoint presentations to convey technology concepts
•Author and assist with documentation to support the regional pre-sales process
•Assist Customer Satisfaction/Success and Marketing with product marketing deliverables and authoring content for FAQs, Help, customer communications, and white papers
•Provide regular updates to Discovery Service Engineering management, keeping the flow of information and lines of communication open
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Desired Skills and Experience

Requirements:

•Minimum three(3) years of progressive experience in Consulting, Product Management, Sales or related field
•Minimum three(3) years of experience and excellence in presenting technology, Internet, or software application products to internal and external audiences and various levels of Management
•Minimum two(2) years experience with EBSCOhost products, Integrated Library Systems(ILS), Institutional Repositories, or other closely related web applications and/or library technology products
•B.S. in Computer Science, Library Science, or a related field
•Ability to travel approximately 60% within to regional and international locations: customer sites, conferences, and focus groups

Preferred Qualifications:

•Expertise in Integrated Library Systems (ILS) products and protocols (e.g. Z39.50, OpenURL, NCIP)
•Experience with institutional repository software and standards (e.g. OAI-PMH)
•Experience with portal software (e.g. VuFind, SharePoint) and programming with Application Programming Interfaces (API) in a web application language (e.g. PHP, Ruby, Java, C#, ASP.Net)
•Proficiency in HTML and JavaScript development
•Proficiency in large data file analysis (e.g. MARC, XML) and manipulation
•Previous experience with the interface usability habits of universities and research institutions’ various types of users such as students, researchers, faculty, and librarians