This is where FTS potential gains a lot, as is evident in the bottom rows of the table. IEEE, 2009. Improving global software development project performance using simulation. The various composition features of this PowerPoint image like the design, color, text, etc. The follow the sun model is certainly not a new concept - nor is it unique to corporate travel management or the travel industry. They also divide their support to cater to two groups of customers: participants (employees at companies) and client administrators (HR teams administering equity and compensation). The number of sites had only a small impact on the accuracy. Slide 1 of 2. Business and operational support model. If possible, these meetings could be conducted during the hand-off so that the team can better communicate and share knowledge with each other. 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. Computer, 42(1):66-73, 2009. Are you using a tool that makes it easy to scale, and to quickly hand off support tickets? 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. The major benefit is the development duration or the potential in reducing the time-to-market. z.,'ECC4@ad4pw7?/.iyfhLV%=>=(TvxZN}!p7oN3~4T i+U[8 fZ)6 +r) IBM in 1990s was probably one of the first companies to record the implementation of FTS in its software development teams globally [1]. If your team is still in the lean, jumping phase, you might not be ready to offer global support. One of the principal benefits of the FTS model is the opportunity to speed up processes and reduce time to market. The FTS approach is based on the principle of handing-off unfinished work to the next location at the end of work day. Ultimately, this means better customer service and improved customer experiences. 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. Oops! With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, everyone can work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more. Test the plan before implementation to ensure that hand-offs between sites will run smoothly and make tweaks to the processes as needed. 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. 0000013868 00000 n And that's where the follow the sun customer support model comes in. Some other day to day tasks enabled by software include logging time spent by developers, issue tracking, real time reporting, code reviews, and documentation. In creating a support structure based on this schedule, they examined the business units they needed to support and each region. Follow the sun: distributed extreme programming development. It is used mainly for school presentations and businesses. 0000002089 00000 n Support Model Ppt Slides Download | PPT Images Gallery | PowerPoint What could shorter department turnaround times mean for what youre trying to achieve globally? Finally, communication is a key component for successful follow the sun implementation. Documenting how many resources are available every month at the start of a new project will help your team determine accurate timelines and avoid team member burnout. Essentially, it's 24/7 support, no matter where the sun is up, without needing any customer service department to work late shifts. When compared to traditional global software development, FTS workflow is more difficult to achieve. The work involved a software project developed by teams in Mexico, India and Australia, which followed Scrum. 0000063267 00000 n 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. Within the FTS approach, one of the teams always plays a leading role, being responsible for strategic planning, quality assessment and much more. For others, keeping all major communication and production processes in a single office or at least legislation may make more sense. Project collaboration becomes immensely easier when the status of each task (and the progress made on the task) is clearly documented. What is the follow the sun model? Advantages + strategy - Zendesk Regardless of where the bulk of customers are located, if you know that youre receiving a lot of tickets outside of your standard support hours, then its time to start thinking about a rotational support model. Is a "follow the sun" model right for your company? How do companies similar to your own handle support? Nataliya Andreychuk is the CEO of Viseven. One key benefit of a follow the sun model is high uptime. IEEE, 2010. Follow the sun is also used in software, technology, and other sectors as a customer service model. This theme is specifically for location selection and the impact of it. This Presentation graphic is eloquent and useful for the IT students, IT researchers, and IT specialists from various fields. A survey of major approaches for accelerating new product development. They are summarized in the table below. Open Scholars Know How to License Their Work for Maximum Impact<br /> 29. However, manually building the documentation from scratch could be a daysor even weekslong processan unnecessary burden when youre trying to implement a new model., We can help you visualize your cloud infrastructure in just a few seconds. culture and language). We're committed to your privacy. 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. Others, such as Gupta [5], also make similar observations and propose that FTS is very well suited to support core agile practices. 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 It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. This infrastructure must always be available on demand and accessible. However, one slight difference is that Agile stresses on face to face communication, whereas in FTS inter-site communication between production sites is maintained at the bare minimum by using automated tools. Carmel [6] argues that only the nature of some phases of the development cycle such as testing are well suited for FTS. on, pages 185194. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition, 2/E. In Global Software Engineering, 2009. One of the important concepts evolved in the past decade or so is the " Follow the sun " (FTS) software development. You will want to standardize on the technology and tools you use to support your agile methodologies and implement, monitor, revise, and manage your follow the sun model. Linear sequential approaches such as the Waterfall model seem to be inefficient for the FTS approach. Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. The FTS approach utilizes distributed team members spread across time-zones to achieve a single project outcome with the main objective of gaining speed and reducing the time-to-market of a project [13]. You can, however, start planning for it. Its also a great record to have on hand to show various stakeholders just how much your department can accomplish in any given window of time., Visualizing your cloud infrastructure in a centralized location that is accessible to all global team members will create an accurate and consistent picture of your follow the sun model from day one. What is a Follow the Sun Model? | Global Call Forwarding follow the sun model - French translation - Linguee Ultimately, the processes kept running, the staff were not forced to work overtime, and none of the offices were overwhelmed, and that is key when it comes to a successful business model. See how this model can benefit your IT department. [5] Amar Gupta. 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. 8. 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. Working normal daylight hours keeps employees happy, healthy, and motivated to work while your company is still able to offer round-the-clock service. The effective utilization of code repositories and version control management systems is crucial to the success of the FTS approach. CX is a top priority for financial services providers, and for good reason. . 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. Managing international teams may be a challenge. Selecting locations for follow-the-sun software development: Towards a routing model. Your team needs to deploy a brand-new, process-defining software to all the computers and devices on your companys networks. Follow the sun is also used by software development teams that are spread out across global sites. It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. Sure, this could mean 24/7/365. The focus is on using automated tools which simplify the repetitive tasks. [16] Josiane Kroll, Ita Richardson, Jorge LN Audy, and Jude Fernandez. Free and premium plans, Content management software. 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. 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. Handing off work from site to site balances the workload and makes it easier for you to offer consistent levels of service at all times. A typical ITSM process can involve something as simple as an employee asking for a new laptop. December 20, 2021. 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. Follow-the-Sun Strategy: A Process for Global Software Development To this end, the FTS research needs to be done comprehensively, so that companies start adopting it in real-time projects. The top three best practices that were found in research are agile methods, the use of technology for knowledge sharing (e.g. In the gaming and retail industries, for example, 24/7/365 support might be pretty standard. 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. 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. The war in Ukraine also impacted us personally. Software tools used for actual FTS implementation must include both managerial and technical aspects, to adapt to the changing requirements of the software development process. Read world-renowned marketing content to help grow your audience, Read best practices and examples of how to sell smarter, Read expert tips on how to build a customer-first organization, Read tips and tutorials on how to build better websites, Get the latest business and tech news in five minutes or less, Learn everything you need to know about HubSpot and our products, Stay on top of the latest marketing trends and tips, Join us as we brainstorm new business ideas based on current market trends. Hand-offs are the central idea of the FTS approach. The result was that the project was completed in 5.5 weeks, while it was estimated to be completed in 6 weeks in non-FTS mode, so it reduced time. This facilitates easy job hand-offs and fits nicely within the FTS model. There are claims that FTS is being used at General Motors and at OfficeTiger [4] [5]. ](Ohg2jFy0tz H`?d/r_@IEPCZGr H Typical challenges such as coordination, communication and culture differences presents a bigger challenge to FTS than GSD, as FTS involves daily hand-offs. 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. Treinen and Miller Frost [19] published a case documenting two cases of FTS implementation at IBM. Determine when your customers need you the most so you can define your goals around their needs. FTS approach has only a handful of documented cases of industrial success because of its nature. In Agile Conference, 2005. 0000065007 00000 n 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. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Its hard to fill swing or overnight shifts. Bugs and production problems are almost a certainty, this means companies need to organise resources and build capability to . When a task is handed off from one engineer to another, there is an up-to-date, accurate architecture diagram to work from.. Follow The Sun Model: 24/7 Customer Support | Gladly This means that efficiency in task hand-off is of paramount importance to the success of the FTS approach. But other companies may determine The ability of project management tools to integrate with development tools can help reduce the duration of project cycles in FTS. 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. 0000002691 00000 n 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. This process could take weeks if only one team in one time zone is working on the project. Agile seems to be the best and most suitable for FTS based approaches because the principles of Agile anf FTS complement each other. Organization . For example, in the United States, some of your employees could start the day at 6:00 a.m. to support the Eastern and Central Time Zones. Kroll et al. 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. ITSM Support Model ITSM is built on the core belief that IT is a concept that needs to be delivered as a service. Sorry something went wrong, try again later? 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. Provide tools: Get your system set up with the right tools so your customer service teams can collaborate and communicate easily. 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 . Do I qualify? 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. 0000004606 00000 n We would like some form of handover application within Microsoft teams to assist with a "Follow the Sun" support model. However, since we are talking about the FTS model, we already imply that our teams are most likely disproportionate and may need to be more interchangeable regarding specific tasks. No one prepared us for the pandemic, but it changed the world and how we look at work tremendously. If communication issues are not addressed they will create significant challenges in FTS adoption. It may take more time than anticipated to ask questions and receive answers. ). [4] AGupta, Amar. Stars, 16 Agency Leaders Explore The SEO Trends Impacting Their Work In 2023, 15 Smart Ways To Address High Employee Turnover, How Vietnam's Entertainment Industry Can Increase Its Global Reach, 6 Best Practices For CEOs And Professional Leaders Using LinkedIn. For this model to work, all sites must be using the same tools and development methodologies (planning, bug tracking, version control, reporting, and so on). Then, use a calendar to map out how many employees will work each shift in each time zone and how many hours are worked each week all together. This means that one team takes over the task when the first team is over. 3 levels of support delivery model. Follow the Sun Support - SyncApps, the #1 Integration Cloud In When I got there, the guy was locking the front door., I said, 'Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours. 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.. Join 64,500+ Customer-Facing Professionals, Pop up for FREE CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP TEMPLATES. What Is Follow-the-Sun and Why Should You Care? Most agile practices emphasize face-to-face communication. Figure 4: Agile is a perfect choice of software development methodology for FTS. A key observation from this study is that even after decade long progress of FTS, its challenges are not overcome yet and it may be relevant to notice that there are no substantial benefits to FTS, thus FTS achievability is an empirical question for which a necessary first step is a consistent definition. Support Model - Slide Team Document what has been accomplished so each site can avoid repeating work. Sign-up and get customer insights, trends, and more in your inbox. This can be done by evaluating when your customers need you most, and carefully considering how to meet them where they are. 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. This type of customer support can help you provide quality, on-time support to customers 24/7. 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. 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]. Picture this. 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. follow the sun workflow in global software development. Subscribe to the Service Blog below. 0000068636 00000 n If you dont have international offices, create a plan that uses staggered start times to cover the time zones you are focusing on. In this distributed model, the CIA [8] (the triad of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of service and data) assumes paramount importance. I am talking about the follow-the-sun model, or FTS for short. Figure 6: Five essentials for applying the FTS model in practice. Please reload the page and try again, or you can contact Zendesk for support. Because they have sites spread across the world, companies using the follow the sun model will find it difficult for everybody to be in the same room at the same time. Software developmentusing the 24-hour knowledge factory paradigm. Mechanisms for transferring work in progress to the next site is the core idea of FTS. Are you ready to follow the sun?. Tools to support data security and encryption such as VPNs are also important.
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