Additionally, if you have a site for each area around the sun, in different timezones, you'll be able to acquire more leads in that location because you'll be delighting your customers with consistent service. Zuora uses private comments in Zendesk tickets to help communicate important details to team members picking up issues already in progress. ITIL Study Guide: Introduction to the Service Desk | Pluralsight A daily dose of irreverent and informative takes on business & tech news, Turn marketing strategies into step-by-step processes designed for success, Spotlighting bold Black women entrepreneurs who have scaled from side hustles to profitable businesses, For B2B reps and sales teams who want to turn complete strangers into paying customers, Get productivity tips and business hacks to design your dream career, Free ebooks, tools, and templates to help you grow, Learn the latest business trends from leading experts with HubSpot Academy, All of HubSpot's marketing, sales CRM, customer service, CMS, and operations software on one platform. ', Successful businesses satisfy customer needsand for some businesses, especially those that have expanded globally, that means providing superior customer service and support 24 hoursin a row. As well, such expansion can always have a positive impact in terms of brand development and brand promotion. You most likely wont need to open multiple offices, especially at first, but perhaps a small remote office or a representative located remotely in a key area or time zone may satisfy your customers needs. With so many architecture models out there for you to base your system designs on, what makes a follow the sun model stand out? To say that life during the global pandemic has recentred our focus on health is an understatement. And when the shifts switch, you'll have each site hand off work to the next shift. Companies large and small are able to provide 24-hour service without putting the burden on one site and requiring employees to work late shifts or overtime. Think of the home base as the product owner. In order to understand and use FTS, some key principles on which FTS is based are mentioned in this section. The war in Ukraine also impacted us personally. [17] Amar Gupta, Rajdeep Bondade, and Nathan Denny. But other companies may determine Theres no reason to leap forward with global support if most of your customers are in only one or two regions. endstream endobj 134 0 obj <>stream With Lucidscale, you have a single source of truth for every project, feature, and bug being worked on by IT engineers. Software development involving multiple global locations in different time zones is not always FTS if it does not satisfy all the criteria mentioned in the. Research in Follow-the-Sun software development has been done since 1990. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Since there is no overlap during the hand-off and the hand off happens, for example, via e-mail, instead of via the phone or other communication tool. 2. However, if the communication within the system is poor, it may also end up in chaos, production delays and sufficient losses for the company. 0000002842 00000 n Kroll et al. It can also be achieved in a variety of ways. Finally, communication is a key component for successful follow the sun implementation. Because it is always daytime somewhere in the world, you need a way to support customers around the globe no matter what time zone they are in and without too much delay. Since these aspects above are reported to increase efficiency, it was also concluded that when these aspects are taken into account the duration of the project is reduced. Cameron [13] highlights the example of FTS application at EDS (now a part of HP). To visualize, we created the diagram below: Global customer support might not be necessary for every company, but it's important to begin using a global customer service model if you have international customers who are submitting tickets while you're asleep. Keeps Support and the business informed so IC can focus on resolution. [5] Amar Gupta. Follow the Sun This Presentation graphic is eloquent and useful for the IT students, IT researchers, and IT specialists from various fields. Working normal daylight hours keeps employees happy, healthy, and motivated to work while your company is still able to offer round-the-clock service. Do we get enough tickets from each timezone to support a customer service agent. That means customers requests and communications are coming in quickly and oftenand these businesses must meet that demand. 0000069194 00000 n The effective utilization of code repositories and version control management systems is crucial to the success of the FTS approach. Its also important to have daily stand-up meetings. Network Security in Theory and Practice. FTS approach has only a handful of documented cases of industrial success because of its nature. Theoretically speaking, if n sites are working on this scheme, their development speed could be increased dramatically by systematically organizing the work tasks sequentially on a daily basis and optimizing the coordination costs [1]. The research focussed on two aspects: the optimal time zone difference and the natural ease of communication (i.e. The success cases in the Industry using FTS are rare, in part due to the lack of well-founded knowledge on applying FTS [9]. Follow the sun is also used by software development teams that are spread out across global sites. Tiered support model with queries and system administrators. That's why as the assets are transferred to the next team, you need to ensure that detailed workflow documentation and technical tasks do not require further clarification. The main criteria to go for FTS is the reduction in the development time or time-to-market. We have discussed how technology tools and infrastructure play an important role in the successful implementation of FTS. Picture this. To fulfil this need, most firms try various strategies such as working overtime, skipping steps and setting aggressive deadlines. The main goal with implementing a follow the sun support model is that people in one location don't receive preferential support. Global business processes such as call centres or help desks are not counted under the FTS umbrella. Are you able to provide 24-hour service at this time? In other words, Follow the Sun is a 24/7 customer support approach for local and international clients. If your teams are separated by 12 hours, no time is perfect to schedule regular meetingsno matter when the meetings are scheduled, one of the sites will be outside of regular business hours. Determine when your customers need you the most so you can define your goals around their needs. Believe it or not, the Covid-19 pandemic certainly influenced the decision to bring this powerful idea to life with local client support branches and personnel on every continent. The truth is, follow-the-sun support is simply a method meant to satisfy customersregardless of time or location. We identified three main themes, namely challenges and best practices, location selection and hand-offs management. How to use a follow the sun model for your IT and cloud teams - Lucidchart Project collaboration becomes immensely easier when the status of each task (and the progress made on the task) is clearly documented. Please select this checkbox if you do not wish to receive marketing communications from Zendesk. It is commonly used and regarded as the "gold standard" in the field of presentation applications. The most popular online Visio alternative, Lucidchart is utilized in over 180 countries by millions of users, from sales managers mapping out target organizations to IT directors visualizing their network infrastructure. Mechanisms for transferring work in progress to the next site is the core idea of FTS. The. follow the sun model - French translation - Linguee Formal systems such as discussion forums or internal Wiki sites may prove to be useful. 0000068636 00000 n If communication issues are not addressed they will create significant challenges in FTS adoption. PowToon is a free . Which begs another question your team should consider when evaluating options: How would you categorize your customer base, and does your customer service teams approach require variance between all of them? One of the important concepts evolved in the past decade or so is the " Follow the sun " (FTS) software development. Test the plan before implementation to ensure that hand-offs between sites will run smoothly and make tweaks to the processes as needed. But as you grow, you begin to standardize, build out streamlined processes, and build teams. A part of this may be attributed to the availability of efficient tools and enabling technologies for implementing the FTS model. In addition, passing the work to a new group lets people see the problem from a new perspective. 0000002691 00000 n Document what has been accomplished so each site can avoid repeating work. 0000063267 00000 n The initiative was unsuccessful, and the project was ultimately implemented using only the essential principles of global software development. By checking this box, I agree to Zendesk contacting me with marketing-related communications about Zendesk products, services, and events. I understand I may unsubscribe at any time. Use Lucidscale to create a higher-level overview of your architecture diagram thats ready to present to stakeholders. Slide 1 of 2. Business and operational support model. Free and premium plans. Its a great way to optimize your support. One of the ways to evaluate the efficiency of FTS is to compare the time taken to execute a project using traditional software development approaches vs FTS. One of the important concepts evolved in the past decade or so is the Follow the sun (FTS) software development. There are several major differences between traditional globally distributed software development and the FTS approach. You can, however, start planning for it. This is because work happens almost round the clock, compared to just eight hour efforts in traditional software workflow. CX is a top priority for financial services providers, and for good reason. If your business proceeds with follow the sun, managers should do their best to schedule meetings when its most convenient for both locations, and IT should adopt video conferencing and cloud-based solutions for everyone to work together. They do it by starting a team in Colorado at 8am (MST). The second case study involved three distinct projects with development sites in the United States and India, and met with drastic failure. Bugs and production problems are almost a certainty, this means companies need to organise resources and build capability to . Or, consider the approach at Solium, which provides an equity management platform that performs real-time trades 21 hours per day. One of the principal benefits of the FTS model is the opportunity to speed up processes and reduce time to market. The traditional follow the sun model is a type of global workflow in which issues can be handled by and passed between offices in different time zones, increasing responsiveness and reducing delays. With many sites all working on the same project, the daily handoff can become a bottleneckespecially if the other team doesnt understand the problem or if their work introduces a new problem. Researching into Follow-the-Sun Software Development: Challenges and System Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on, pages 331339. This will help avoid any confusion on who ultimately owns the process., Take stock of all the team members available to maintain your IT architecture. [15] Christian Visser and Rini van Solingen. And when they are working together within the FTS model, it only doubles the trouble. Organization Support: Role Incident Liaison (IL) Description For severity 1 incidents only. You will need to determine which agile methodologies are best for the various global teams that help you to track work, allows for continuous integration, keeps team members accountable, and facilitates work hand-offs.. WDSGlobal case study: In 2004 a study conducted within the company of WDSGlobal reported the following list of what worked in FTS software development (when doing Extreme Programming) [7]: The study reported the following lessons that were learned: The study involved teams from the USA, UK and Singapore. For others, keeping all major communication and production processes in a single office or at least legislation may make more sense. The FTS approach is based on the principle of handing-off unfinished work to the next location at the end of work day. Slide 1 of 5. To manage the workflow efficiently the principles shown in Fig. Figure 6: Five essentials for applying the FTS model in practice. Stats around ticket volume by time of day will be your new best friend. There is also research that studied the impact of the number of sites on working speed and accuracy in Follow-the-Sun software development [9]. 'r( bU:nL,/C^=E#$c;kNaw ] ^6JaI-~5%)IScN8D!MZl1?/*8(Y 7 3go>".X@`kDe!K Agile has several characteristics which support FTS adoption [6]. [10] Eoin Conchir, Helena Holmstrom Olsson, Par J Agerfalk, and Brian Fitzgerald. Why 2023 Gold House A100 List Has Starbucks CEO But No Michelle Yeoh, Parent PowerED: Parents Powering Solutions In Education, Conversations Across Generations: Shawn Dove And Peter Storey, Empowering Young Adults Through Tech With Sandee Kastrul Of i.c. This type of customer support can help you provide quality, on-time support to customers 24/7. So how can companies of different sizes utilize that to their advantage? 128 0 obj <> endobj xref 128 43 0000000016 00000 n It is quite possible that hundreds of software developers and testers can be working on a project in cycles. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, everyone can work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more. 0000013630 00000 n In [1] Erran Carmel, J Alberto Espinosa, and Yael Dubinsky. Overall it was found that increasing the number of sites in a daily cycle increased the working speed. [18] Josiane Kroll, Rafael Prikladnicki, Jorge LN Audy, Erran Carmel, and JudeFernandez. 0000063943 00000 n The follow-the-sun model has proven to be successful for our business as team members were relocating and searching for safety while making sure none of the clients felt what they felt. 0000002089 00000 n Follow the Sun (FTS), a sub-field of globally distributed software engineering (GDSE), is a type of global knowledge workflow designed in order to reduce the time to market, in which the knowledge product is owned and advanced by a production site in one time zone and handed off at the end of their work day to the next production site that is Though the teams faced initial setbacks due to cultural differences and technical glitches, by re-orienting their thinking they could successfully implement agile practices across all locations on a single working codebase. Treinen and Miller Frost [19] published a case documenting two cases of FTS implementation at IBM. It is also known under different names such as 24 hour development or Round the clock development. The above principles allow FTS to be used in any knowledge work (not just software development). This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers' needs without regard to geolocation or time zone. trailer <]/Prev 478482>> startxref 0 %%EOF 170 0 obj <>stream This in turn increases productivity. Although these regions share the English language, there were cultural differences, for example, one culture has more emphasis on self-sufficiency; therefore they tend not to ask for help when problems come up. Organize the data by cloud, region, compute instance, and more., Having this tool in your arsenal transforms project management and puts you in a better position to respond to security risks and downtime., Every piece of your infrastructure is laid out right in front of you, and you can easily filter diagrams based on the task at hand, removing unnecessary details, and even @mentioned specific users to direct them to the specific part of infrastructure that needs action to be taken. Figure 4: Agile is a perfect choice of software development methodology for FTS. 0000013868 00000 n Adopting a follow the sun support methodology can help you provide high-quality, on-time service and support when your internal and external customers need you.. Another consideration is the way you use technology. Most of the current code repositories are cloud based and accessible across geographies. It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. video calls) and process documentation. are manually changeable. Rimini Street Managed Services for Salesforce clients benefit from the responsive, client-centric support model that Rimini Street is known for with its Oracle and SAP enterprise software support. When youve got teams working round the clock, your troubleshooting efforts become more efficient. "Follow the sun" is a service and support model designed to address customer's needs regardless of geographic location or time-zone. Here are some major challenges that management should anticipate: FTS is much more complex than the shift method since the teams working on the project are normally disproportionate. Try another search, and we'll give it our best shot. Nataliya Andreychuk is the CEO of Viseven. 0000066494 00000 n Modes of communication in FTS approach may be asynchronous or synchronous. Companies large and small are able to provide 24-hour service without putting the burden on one site and requiring employees to work late shifts or overtime. Rather than making the customer wait several hours until you can get back to working on a solution, follow the sun allows you to pass on the work to the next site. 7. Are the majority simple, transactional issues like password changes and processing returns, or are they more complex technical issues requiring more resources? As an agency with many Ukraine-based staff members in February 2022, it was the kind of situation none of us wanted to believe would ever happen. Learn how to use a follow the sun model for your IT and cloud teams. Some key assumptions in deriving the above principles are listed below: Follow the sun approach involves daily handoff of the work which suggests that there will be some reduction in the project duration. This schedule is determined by global stock exchange hours. Follow-the-Sun (FTS) is a strategy in Global Software Development (GSD) focusing on software development twenty-four hours, seven days per week with physically distributed teams. 0000067044 00000 n To this end, the FTS research needs to be done comprehensively, so that companies start adopting it in real-time projects. 2008. Follow the Sun: Introduction (1 of 3) The Sun's apparent path across the sky for each day of the calendar year - from sunrise roughly East to maximum altitude (or "culmination") exactly South to sunset roughly West - has been observed and thought about for at least the last 5000 years. Free and premium plans, Customer service software. Beside this benefit, there are also other advantages as well which can be found on Fig. We have underlined some of the essential concepts of FTS such as use of Agile for FTS, tools required and learnings from past experiences for the efficient implementation of FTS. A customer service platform with mobile access might allow you to stagger your shifts between home and work, and to cover different time zones, without having to hire a remote representative. At any given time only one team owns the product unlike other global configurations in which multiple locations can own different parts of the product. By staggering their support personnel start times across these key time zones, they are able to meet the service level-agreements theyve set for their customers. Agile methodologies fit well with follow the sun models because all work is completed within set iteration cycles. In this article, based on my personal experience, I will point out some of the tasks the FTS model helps to solve best and what you should know about the FTS model to help your agency reach its goals. It's a model that provides support for clients at all times of the day or night, every day. Slide 1 of 2. A global service model in place to keep every team member connected, consistent and making continual progress on projects, tasks, and bug fixes. Follow-the-sun paradigm background reading. Service and development sites are spread out across many time zones, allowing work to be passed from location to location. 4KKq#VPd)M(*=X i d`rdadcNaVdnep!!!!|F_f0b The various composition features of this PowerPoint image like the design, color, text, etc. Your team needs to deploy a brand-new, process-defining software to all the computers and devices on your companys networks. IT architecture and the people who program and maintain the architecture can make or break a companys daily operations, particularly for companies with a global presence. By following the sun, the issue is worked on until it is resolved. A systematic literature review of best practices and challenges in follow-the-sun software development. Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates. Since the teams may have different tasks, it is important to ensure that each team has a common understanding of goals, methods and company policies. Quarterly Executive. (2006). In any case, one thing is clear: To provide the highest level of customer service, your support team must decide when to be available. The term calendar efficiency helps in understanding the analysis further.
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follow the sun support model presentation