This week: Availon strengthens customer advice team for Vestas® systems

As a new addition to the sales team since May 2011, Heiko Bieber is responsible for service and maintenance agreements and the implementation of optimization potential through upgrades, focusing primarily on Vestas® systems. Before moving to Availon, Heiko worked for various wind turbine manufacturers – in the last six years as a customer adviser at Vestas®, where, initially as Key Account Manager und subsequently as Customer Relationship Manager, he was responsible for supporting major customers with installation sites in Germany and with international operating strategies.

“Since opening its Competence Center near Hamburg, Availon has taken the necessary time to study the system technologies very closely, and has developed modular service concepts and turbine optimization technologies that meet the needs of our customers. In terms of the range of services we can offer, we are easily the equal of the system manufacturers, and in some areas, for instance in the development of technical upgrades, I believe we even have a lead on them as we have the advantage of being able to look at things from an independent perspective,” Heiko states with conviction. “One of the things I particularly appreciate at Availon,” he continues, “are the flat hierarchies, because when the need arises, the short communication channels mean that solutions and decisions are forthcoming in a very short period of time. As a result, both I and the customer are able to avoid costly lag times. At Availon, decisions are made without the need for long, roundabout routes, enabling me to respond speedily and flexibly to customer needs.“

Since the beginning of January 2012, Heiko Bieber has been supported by Matthias Sievers. A qualified commercial clerk and business administration graduate, Matthias previously worked for around seven years at Vestas®, initially as a Customer Advisor for private operators of wind turbines and for small and medium-sized plant portfolios in Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein region. From 2009 onwards, he was appointed to the position of Customer Relationship Manager, dealing with major customers. “Through our broad wealth of experience, Heiko Bieber and I had already acquired a high level of expertise. Nevertheless, on joining Availon, we were both deeply impressed by the extent and depth of the technical know-how available and the quality of the servicing and maintenance instructions developed by the company. Everything is carefully thought through and geared to continuously improving the technology of the turbines. Service satisfaction has come to hold an increasingly important place on the customers’ checklists and is probably one of the most important criteria in the process of selecting a service provider today. We see it as our primary task to assist the customers in turning their wishes and ideas into reality, advising them on what service activities are meaningful and what kind of service contract is most suitable for their turbines. The success of a relationship between the parties to a contract is also a question of trust and dependability,” Matthias Sievers states.

With the inauguration of the Competence Center in May 2009, Availon also embarked on a detailed analysis of specific plant technologies with the aim of constantly adding to the know-how available at Availon, thus enabling the turbines to be consistently improved and their availability to be enhanced still further.

“We have consistently made use of all conceivable synergies so as to build a comprehensive store of service know-how for specific types of systems. In this context, the strengthening of our team by the addition of Heiko Bieber and Matthias Sievers means a genuine enrichment. Our reinforced know-how base will therefore be a huge asset in the increasing level of customer dialogs concerned with full service contracts, where we are seeing a sharp upward trend,” says Ulrich Schomakers, CEO of Availon GmbH.

"Vestas" is a registered trade mark of Vestas Wind Systems A/S, DK