follow the sun support model presentation

FTS could provide significant benefit in dealing with these aspects. The "follow-the-sun" model is about providing the support that clients and customers need by way of a global workflow that literally follows the sun. 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. When you keep everyone on the same page, service ticket times go down, security gets stronger, workflows become more seamless, and customers receive a better technical experience. 0000067875 00000 n [16] Josiane Kroll, Ita Richardson, Jorge LN Audy, and Jude Fernandez. By checking this box, I agree to Zendesk contacting me with marketing-related communications about Zendesk products, services, and events. The efficiency of the number of hours per day spent on actual development is much higher in the FTS model when compared with traditional software development [1]. ICGSE 2009. 0000008134 00000 n For example, a baseline work week is 30 hours after taking into account non-task activities. That means customers requests and communications are coming in quickly and oftenand these businesses must meet that demand. 0000004606 00000 n [10] Eoin Conchir, Helena Holmstrom Olsson, Par J Agerfalk, and Brian Fitzgerald. Open Scholars Know How to License Their Work for Maximum Impact<br /> 29. Depending on the answer, you might just need a globally-accessible FAQ page or Help Center rather than a team of people always on call. Based on these observations and the results presented in literature, it can be said that FTS approach is not widely used in practice because of its limitations and challenges. The research focussed on two aspects: the optimal time zone difference and the natural ease of communication (i.e. Follow the Sun is a support model which works best for service desks that work around the clock, i.e 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. I understand I may unsubscribe at any time. Focus on those regions first. But it might not, and thats OK; there are other options that allow you to deliver anytime, anywhere service and get global, fastregardless of the size of your company. 2. Lucidchart is the intelligent diagramming application that empowers teams to clarify complexity, align their insights, and build the futurefaster. How Follow the Sun Model helps you Deliver 24/7 Global Support Lucidscale connects to major cloud sources like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to pull in data automatically. IBM Software Group IBM Software Group Rational software Click to edit Track Number on Title Master Reducing Time to Market Using Follow-the-Sun Techniques Alex Cameron EDS Alex.Cameron@eds.com. This model ensures that none of your service locations are neglected or receive preferential treatment, especially if you work at a global company. Inverse schedules on an escalation policy - If you have two or more users that rotate primary and secondary on-call shifts, then you will want to create two on-call schedules and add . PowToon is a free . Quarterly Executive. (2006). This means that one team takes over the task when the first team is over. Multiple teams may be working on the product over a certain amount of time, but one defined team is responsible for overseeing the process from start to finish. It is defined as the percentage of all of the calendar time (e.g., 24 * 7 = 168 hours available per week) that is used productively for work, so, a 40-hour workweek utilizes 23.8 percent of the calendar workweek, showing that there is a lot of room for calendar efficiency improvement. What is the follow the sun model? Advantages + strategy - Zendesk Provide tools: Get your system set up with the right tools so your customer service teams can collaborate and communicate easily. Let your superior service and personalized support work as a marketing advantage to find new leads and sales. On-Call Rotations and Schedules | Articles | PagerDuty Slide 1 of 5. If the workdays among satellite offices overlap, work can be passed from an office that is shutting down for the day to an office that is still open or just starting its day. 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. FTS has many challenges associated with it and it also faces same challenges of GSD as it is a part of GSD. Theres no reason to leap forward with global support if most of your customers are in only one or two regions. The follow the sun model is a service and support method that is designed to address and satisfy customer needs without regard to geographic location or current time. working only during daylight hours. [19] Treinen, James J., and Susan L. Miller-Frost. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. Tiered support model with queries and system administrators. One such analysis is done using the calendar time [1] available for production. See how this model can benefit your IT department. Global software development: never mind the problems are there really any benefits? The tools you use should emphasize team collaboration and the automation of reporting, scheduling, planning, and progress tracking. Start small so that you dont overpromise what you can actually deliver. Your follow the sun presentation service - YouTube If your team is still in the lean, jumping phase, you might not be ready to offer global support. Lucidchart is the intelligent diagramming application that empowers teams to clarify complexity, align their insights, and build the futurefaster. The process of hand offs must be smooth and conflict free. 0000009498 00000 n 0000013868 00000 n The second case study involved three distinct projects with development sites in the United States and India, and met with drastic failure. Opinions expressed are those of the author. 3 levels of support delivery model. They also need to train employees on how to use the software and then respond to any service tickets upon deployment. Handoffs management in follow-the-sun software projects: a case study. The effective utilization of code repositories and version control management systems is crucial to the success of the FTS approach. 0000063267 00000 n At the same time, I can attest that it takes considerable investment, time and human resources. PjYIh$ 3lKPt[?7\p rNt[n@rS +@G9z|t- ]P$>(h)tQ c5+${._~;i$ X~,h XOjcL^W? 0000002691 00000 n December 20, 2021. In order to understand and use FTS, some key principles on which FTS is based are mentioned in this section. On-Call and Incident Response: Lessons for Success | New Relic In an Agile based methodology, all major development activities (design, code, test and integrate) are carried out in every iteration cycle. A part of this may be attributed to the availability of efficient tools and enabling technologies for implementing the FTS model. Entertaining and motivating original stories to help move your visions forward. Published: The geographically dispersed nature requires the use of software applications which facilitate tele-conferencing, VoIP calling, instant messaging etc. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, 'dfcc1cf6-fca7-455f-9c43-26ff2fba10ed', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Get expert insights straight to your inbox, and become a better customer success manager. This is because work happens almost round the clock, compared to just eight hour efforts in traditional software workflow. It is also known under different names such as 24 hour development or Round the clock development. Most of the current code repositories are cloud based and accessible across geographies. A survey of major approaches for accelerating new product development. . ](Ohg2jFy0tz H`?d/r_@IEPCZGr H Customers who aren't in your timezone won't have to wait for you to wake up to receive service. F9,Y%9Q@o:B"w7Fy||:R_q};gxJ2#'S2"8S$I(y'_`}WHw6(iEM:+9%Wl )ThVXNo"iN U=v f4. You'll have increased response times, fewer delays in solving issues, and satisfied customers. Modes of communication in FTS approach may be asynchronous or synchronous. If youre using a customer service platform with great analytics, youll be able to make data-driven decisions about the right time to expand globally. The follow the sun model is a service and support method that is designed to address and satisfy customer needs without regard to geographic location or current time. The "Follow-the-Sun" support model is a structured model that works best for service desks that work around the clock. [11] Siri-on Setamanit, Wayne Wakeland, and David Raffo. In theory, FTS can increase time to market by approximately 60%, which seems attractive. One shortcoming of this article is that we have only investigated the effect of FTS on speed, not on the product quality because of lack of suitable documented references. It is quite possible that hundreds of software developers and testers can be working on a project in cycles. 0000065768 00000 n 0000069194 00000 n 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. 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. Do we get enough tickets from each timezone to support a customer service agent. Do you want to provide complete 24-hour service? Challenges and improvements in distributed software development: A systematic review. A novel approach to distributed concurrent software development using a follow-the-sun technique. An optimal FTS configuration could raise the calendar efficiency as high as 71.4%. Follow the Sun is a customer support method that focuses on providing consistent customer support without regard for geographic location or time restraints. Research in Follow-the-Sun software development has been done since 1990. Having multiple subteams on deck to keep a project moving along 24 hours a day empowers your entire IT department to set realistic short-term deadlines, avoid working overtime, and complete roadmaps more efficiently., Think about what your IT team is really trying to accomplish on your roadmap for the next year. The truth is, follow-the-sun support is simply a method meant to satisfy customersregardless of time or location. The ability of project management tools to integrate with development tools can help reduce the duration of project cycles in FTS. So how can companies of different sizes utilize that to their advantage? Follow the sun is also used in software, technology, and other sectors as a customer service model. Learn how to use a follow the sun model for your IT and cloud teams. They do it by starting a team in Colorado at 8am (MST). 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. When youve got teams working round the clock, your troubleshooting efforts become more efficient. In this distributed model, the CIA [8] (the triad of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of service and data) assumes paramount importance. Naturally, the language and culture barriers do not seem like such big obstacles these days. 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.. Major lessons learned in the study that could improve FTS from their experience include: It was also observed that hand-offs between different sites were especially difficult in the weekends. 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. There is a common product repository which allows each site to be in sync with their work at the end of each workday. z.,'ECC4@ad4pw7?/.iyfhLV%=>=(TvxZN}!p7oN3~4T i+U[8 fZ)6 +r) There are claims that FTS is being used at General Motors and at OfficeTiger [4] [5]. If you plan well and start slowly to see what works and what doesnt, you can more easily scale your efforts and ramp up services until you meet your goals and satisfy customer expectations. But other companies may determine This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers' needs without regard to geolocation or time zone. Apart from the usual difficulties faced in globally distributed software development, FTS also has the additional challenges of managing daily job hand-offs. Oops! 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. The focus is on using automated tools which simplify the repetitive tasks. What Is the Follow the Sun Model? | Lucidchart Blog Every time you learn you have a new customer base, you find someone to support them. Businesses can reduce the amount of time it takes to progress from ideation to planning and development when a team is working on the project on a 24-hour schedule. Communication through emails and Slack with 16+ hour gaps between responses can lead to deployment missteps, security breaches staying open longer, and IT engineers completing redundant work., With a follow the sun model, on the other hand, daily handoffs of projects and tasks build better communication lines between global offices and their network engineers. Sign-up and get customer insights, trends, and more in your inbox. Many factors influence the need to develop the products quickly such as avoiding contract creep, schedule slippages, budget overruns and other managerial reasons. The term calendar efficiency helps in understanding the analysis further. Production sites involved in the software development are many time zones apart. The various composition features of this PowerPoint image like the design, color, text, etc. [13] Alex Cameron. It's a model that provides support for clients at all times of the day or night, every day. Any issues can be resolved in near real time since theres always a team member ready to take action.. Although this seems like such an intuitive idea to work with, it is not practiced widely, misunderstood often and has had few documented industry success cases. The work involved a software project developed by teams in Mexico, India and Australia, which followed Scrum. Cameron [13] highlights the example of FTS application at EDS (now a part of HP). 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. One of the important concepts evolved in the past decade or so is the " Follow the sun " (FTS) software development. With this model, none of your locations are neglected or receive better customer service. If possible, these meetings could be conducted during the hand-off so that the team can better communicate and share knowledge with each other. Background, main ideas and principles behind FTS were discussed followed by a brief review on Agile for FTS, advantages and limitations of FTS. Although the advantages presented above could take your business to the next level, adopting a follow the sun model comes with its own set of challenges and disadvantages. Try another search, and we'll give it our best shot. Health Program Analyst Skills For Your Resume And Career - Zippia 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. 0000066494 00000 n Thank you for subscribing to our email communication. 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. Follow the sun 2011 - SlideShare By following the sun, the issue is worked on until it is resolved. It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. We've got a true, "follow the sun" model, allowing access to support engineers [.] Follow the Sun Support - SyncApps, the #1 Integration Cloud It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. Picture this. PDF How to Provide Global Support The model you choose, develop, and refine should be the one that works best for you and your customers. What Is Follow-the-Sun and Why Should You Care? In Global Software Engineering Workshops (ICGSEW), 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference on, pages 1823. The purpose of this article was to present a comprehensive study on the FTS model for software development. 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 theme is specifically for location selection and the impact of it. It can also be achieved in a variety of ways. The constant workflow increases response time and reduces time to market. If a system goes down or a major bug cripples workflows, employee productivity and customer experiences can plummet quickly., More than ever, customers expect instant action and response when they experience a technical problem with a product theyre using. 2 traditional software development stresses on minimal job hand-offs, whereas FTS focusses on day-to day job hand-offs [1]. The three C's of applying a Follow the Sun Model | Appnovation [18] Josiane Kroll, Rafael Prikladnicki, Jorge LN Audy, Erran Carmel, and JudeFernandez. Each production site works during the day as a subteam and it needs within-site coordination. That being said, we have a few tips for you if you decide to implement this model: Now, before you jump into a follow the sun customer support model, let's determine if it's necessary for your company. Organization . And due to these restraints, teams may have a tough time truly collaborating. A follow the sun model keeps everyone on the same page, working towards the same project end goal., Lets walk through some best practices for setting up a follow the sun model., While a follow the sun model means teams in multiple locations could be involved, its important to define what the home base is for each project you take on, whether that is your site or another one. To fulfil this need, most firms try various strategies such as working overtime, skipping steps and setting aggressive deadlines. In addition, team members in the Beijing office start at 7am, 9am, 1pm, and 2pm CST (China Standard Time). They meet their global support goals by working together, providing a combined 18 hours a day of coverage. The specifics of this model require team managers to have constant control over the workflow because delays may result in the poor coordination of teams. ). Improving global software development project performance using simulation. In California, teams start in waves at 7am, 8am, and 9am (PST). The FTS model doesnt seem to be a suitable choice for complete projects, when compared to its applicability for particular phases like - testing where it works very well due to less dependency on hand-off work. Another documented case of FTS application was by Infosys [20] in 2005 where FTS was applied to small subsets of the project cycle. It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. N#"$(591 = |% z#i{vXP!M^\`NVBq Support Model - Slide Team The organization which we are using in our example has offices spread worldwide and the Follow the Sun support model works wonderfully well for it. 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. 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. z(nK9:QS%i$MEaab:a=KpLD;so@ The University of Dar es Salaam Computing Centre is going to offer you in-class facilitation of all of the openEd 2.0 course modules against a moderate fee.<br /> 28. Three categories of challenges were found, namely challenges in coordination (e.g. Read on to learn what a follow the sun model is and how to implement it at your company. This is a highly collaborative, communicative approach to customer service, and it's a delicate line to balance. Its a great way to optimize your support. They are required to fill in a request form through a portal. 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. With so many architecture models out there for you to base your system designs on, what makes a follow the sun model stand out? 0000001891 00000 n These questions will help you determine if you have enough tickets coming in from each area in the world and if it's a standard practice to offer 24/7 support. 7. The success cases in the Industry using FTS are rare, in part due to the lack of well-founded knowledge on applying FTS [9]. 4KKq#VPd)M(*=X i d`rdadcNaVdnep!!!!|F_f0b 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]. We operate a 24/7 global support team - Microsoft Community I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery store. Another culture would not offer their help unless they were asked while the third considered that presenting the problem was a sufficient invitation for willing team members to jump in and help. To say that life during the global pandemic has recentred our focus on health is an understatement. According to Carmel [1], FTS has challenges such as coordination barriers, cultural differences, and communication difficulties depicted in Fig. This efficiency further increases with the number of locations and shifts. Free and premium plans, Operations software. We showed that there are three main research themes, namely challenges and best practices, location selection and hand-offs management. If not, determine what you are able to provide customers right now as you work toward your long-term 24-hour service. It is a model in which work from one site is handed over to another, which is many time zones away (for example, U.S.A to India), in order for the work to be advanced while one team rests for the night. For example, another Zendesk customer, Prezi, has teams in two locationsone in San Francisco and one in Budapest. 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. 0000063943 00000 n A detailed analysis needs to be done in order to understand the advantages to be gained in time. Lastly, we showed that there was a study which researched hand-offs management. 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. Here's how to deliver an experience that meets people's high and evolving expectations. A subteam can consist of one or more members. Beside this benefit, there are also other advantages as well which can be found on Fig. See pricing, Marketing automation software. It must also ensure that all the required information and reports to continue the work are visible and easily accessible. Overall it was found that increasing the number of sites in a daily cycle increased the working speed. You can update your preferences or unsubscribe at any time. Collocated multishift locations where labour is cheap and software development happens round the clock in eight hour shifts does not fit in this category. If you dont have international offices, create a plan that uses staggered start times to cover the time zones you are focusing on. Sure, this could mean 24/7/365. Follow the Sun: Introduction (1 of 3) - SlideServe In any case, one thing is clear: To provide the highest level of customer service, your support team must decide when to be available. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, '12501f7c-8e26-4e3c-9642-7afbe078156a', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); The follow the sun customer support model is designed to address customer needs without regard to geographic location or current time. A research carried out by Yap [7], a globally distributed software project team (UK, USA, and Singapore), followed the FTS approach under the Extreme Programming (XP) model (an Agile methodology 0000003713 00000 n Combine all of this with an efficient follow the sun framework, and youll be delivering best-in-class service to all of your users. Start off by asking key questions. Is a "follow the sun" model right for your company? To help decide whats best for you, your team, and your customers, ask the following questions: When youre small, youre actively jumping to meet the needs of customers. Your plan needs to include specific roles, processes, and training necessary to meet customer expectations. Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates. Their teams are based in Honduras, Romania and the Philippines. One way to implement a follow the sun approach is to have customer support owned by one site at a time -- wherever the sun is up. 0000007104 00000 n The top three best practices that were found in research are agile methods, the use of technology for knowledge sharing (e.g. The three teams consist of 2 micro-teams (composite persona [17]), with at least one person from each location.
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