follow the sun support model presentation

Follow-the-sun - Wikipedia Several workflows seem to be using the FTS model, but in reality this is not always the case. Some companies go with the more traditional application of follow the sun: which means providing anytime, anywhere, 24/7/365 support. Three important companies which documented their experience is summarized below. Another group could start at 8:00 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. to support the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. 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. Still, it did, and that is where our plan and ability to coordinate staff remotely across the world helped keep all the processes running. The three teams consist of 2 micro-teams (composite persona [17]), with at least one person from each location. 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. 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. Many companies. Determine which services will be provided, when they will be provided, and what skill set will be needed to provide those services. Slide 1 of 2. Business and operational support model. We operate a 24/7 global support team. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 9(1):53-69, 1992. Mechanisms for transferring work in progress to the next site is the core idea of FTS. This means that one team takes over the task when the first team is over. 0000009498 00000 n The "Follow-the-Sun" support model is a structured model that works best for service desks that work around the clock. For instance, I could post for the other team to monitor a ticket I have opened. 0000065768 00000 n A feasibility study of follow-the-sun software development for gsd projects. This theme is specifically for location selection and the impact of it. The follow the sun model gives your employees their lives back to spend more time with family and recreation. To say that life during the global pandemic has recentred our focus on health is an understatement. 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]. 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. 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 2. They meet their global support goals with these two teams working together, giving them 18 hours a day of coverage without having to staff up aggressively. Implementing follow the sun methods in your global organization can be challenging. Note that it will only suit some business models. The main criteria to go for FTS is the reduction in the development time or time-to-market. 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. That means you need global customer service. Figure 4: Agile is a perfect choice of software development methodology for FTS. A part of this may be attributed to the availability of efficient tools and enabling technologies for implementing the FTS model. Follow the Sun See how this model can benefit your IT department. This in turn increases productivity. Follow-the-sun support with JIRA Service Desk - Valiantys Some sites could feel isolated and out of the loop. No one prepared us for the pandemic, but it changed the world and how we look at work tremendously. However, the distance between time zones of production can be an issue since the real-time communication between the teams can be very limited. 0000066494 00000 n The tools you use should emphasize team collaboration and the automation of reporting, scheduling, planning, and progress tracking. Or, consider the approach at Solium, which provides an equity management platform that performs real-time trades 21 hours per day. Please select this checkbox if you do not wish to receive marketing communications from Zendesk. This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers' needs without regard to geolocation or time zone. Follow the sun: distributed extreme programming development. 128 0 obj <> endobj xref 128 43 0000000016 00000 n uyLY@= 0000068561 00000 n [1] Erran Carmel, J Alberto Espinosa, and Yael Dubinsky. 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. 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. See how this model can benefit your IT department. While you wont all be in the same room for these meetings, video conferences are fairly easy to set up and schedule. Customers who aren't in your timezone won't have to wait for you to wake up to receive service. Start off by asking key questions. Handoffs management in follow-the-sun software projects: a case study. Theres no reason to leap forward with global support if most of your customers are in only one or two regions. 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 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. Organization Support: Role Communications Manager (CM) Description Coordinates emergency communication strategy across teams: customer success, marketing, legal, etc. [11] Siri-on Setamanit, Wayne Wakeland, and David Raffo. 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. Now that youve done all the groundwork of defining workload capability, visualizing infrastructure, and hammering out the handoff process, youre ready to get your new model signed off by stakeholders. In this section we give a number of research themes within Follow-the-Sun software development research. Granted, once the pandemic restrictions started to lift, we followed suit with offices. Others, such as Gupta [5], also make similar observations and propose that FTS is very well suited to support core agile practices. Project handoffs are done on a daily basis at the end of each shift. In an Agile based methodology, all major development activities (design, code, test and integrate) are carried out in every iteration cycle. Let's talk about providing 24-hour support without overwhelming one location and forcing staff to work overtime. A detailed analysis needs to be done in order to understand the advantages to be gained in time. Entertaining and motivating original stories to help move your visions forward. By submitting my personal information, I consent to Zendesk collecting, processing, and storing my information in accordance with the, By submitting my personal data, I consent to Zendesk collecting, processing, and storing my information in accordance with the, The value of agent education and training during economic slowdowns, What is employee turnover? ITSM Support Model ITSM is built on the core belief that IT is a concept that needs to be delivered as a service. 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. Our offerings for Salesforce include the same 24x7x365, follow-the-sun support with a guaranteed response of under 10-minutes for P1 critical issue . On-Call Rotations and Schedules | Articles | PagerDuty FTS could provide significant benefit in dealing with these aspects. 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. This infrastructure must always be available on demand and accessible. 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. [9] Rini van Solingen and Menno Valkema. "Follow the Sun" Support Model for Business Intelligence Follow the sun software development: New perspectives, conceptual foundation, and exploratory field study. System Sciences, 2009. ). 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. Organization . Essentially, it's 24/7 support, no matter where the sun is up, without needing any customer service department to work late shifts. Your team needs to deploy a brand-new, process-defining software to all the computers and devices on your companys networks. FTS has many challenges associated with it and it also faces same challenges of GSD as it is a part of GSD. 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). [14] Josiane Kroll, Sajid Ibrahim Hashmi, Ita Richardson, and Jorge LN Audy. Your global customers will appreciate that bugs and other issues can be resolved quickly and that they dont have to wait for a team in a different time zone to fix the problem. 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. System Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on, pages 331339. There are numerous advantages if the FTS implementation is successful which are reduced time-to-market, reduced software costs, increased international relationships leading to better diversity among companies, etc. This schedule is determined by global stock exchange hours. Slide 1 of 2. Because of the hand-offs, work is owned by and worked on by one site at a time. We have showed earlier that using the concept of calendar efficiency, FTS gives lot of room for decreasing the development time. 8. A clear path will help your troubleshooting teams and engineers coordinate and get to the bottom of the issue faster., Mastering the handoff process (moving project tasks from one team to the next) is probably the hardest, but most crucial, element of successfully implementing a follow the sun model. In Global Software Engineering Workshops (ICGSEW), 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference on, pages 1823. When a task is handed off from one engineer to another, there is an up-to-date, accurate architecture diagram to work from.. In its early days, this customer service approach only seemed feasible for big companies that had the resources to open and staff multiple offices around the world. In addition, passing the work to a new group lets people see the problem from a new perspective. Finally, communication is a key component for successful follow the sun implementation. [4] AGupta, Amar. Naturally, the language and culture barriers do not seem like such big obstacles these days. 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. 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? The model you choose, develop, and refine should be the one that works best for you and your customers. 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. Agile methodologies fit well with follow the sun models because all work is completed within set iteration cycles. This process could take weeks if only one team in one time zone is working on the project. Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates. The follow the sun model is certainly not a new concept - nor is it unique to corporate travel management or the travel industry. Do you want to provide complete 24-hour service? What about the companies your business aspires to emulate? This facilitates easy job hand-offs and fits nicely within the FTS model. 0000010855 00000 n Free and premium plans, Sales CRM software. Well explain how to calculate and reduce turnover in your organization. Are you using a tool that makes it easy to scale, and to quickly hand off support tickets? In addition, there is research about location selection and the effect of the number of selected locations. Try another search, and we'll give it our best shot. Response times are increased, delays in problem-solving are reduced, and customers are satisfied. Cameron [13] highlights the example of FTS application at EDS (now a part of HP). When compared to traditional global software development, FTS workflow is more difficult to achieve. Follow-the-sun support model is a very common paradigm for enterprise support companies wanting to deliver round the clock critical support for business critical applications. We're committed to your privacy. One of the important concepts evolved in the past decade or so is the " Follow the sun " (FTS) software development. 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. "Follow the sun" is a service and support model designed to address customer's needs regardless of geographic location or time-zone. Advances in Software Engineering, 2009:3, 2009. Follow the sun is also used by software development teams that are spread out across global sites. By checking this box, I agree to Zendesk contacting me with marketing-related communications about Zendesk products, services, and events. Production sites involved in the software development are many time zones apart. Calculation, effects, and prevention tips, Streamline call center BPO management with data-driven WFM, Why great CX is the doorway to success with open banking for financial services firms. The truth is, follow-the-sun support is simply a method meant to satisfy customersregardless of time or location. A novel approach to distributed concurrent software development using a follow-the-sun technique. IEEE, 2005. If your team is still in the lean, jumping phase, you might not be ready to offer global support. We would like some form of handover application within Microsoft teams to assist with a "Follow the Sun" support model. Research concluded that nine aspects of management are important for improving hand-offs efficiency [16]: improving communication quality, ensure knowledge transfer between team members and production sites, management of hand-offs information, developing teams trust before and along the project, ensure compliance of deadlines, establishing time rules, providing proper technology and tools, delegating responsibility and coordination of task allocation. Another documented case of FTS application was by Infosys [20] in 2005 where FTS was applied to small subsets of the project cycle. This way, the problem remains a priority and is worked on until the customer is satisfied. We have discussed how technology tools and infrastructure play an important role in the successful implementation of FTS. IEEE, 2010. working only during daylight hours. Follow the Sun Support - SyncApps, the #1 Integration Cloud This project involved five global teams distributed across five different countries. On-Call and Incident Response: Lessons for Success | New Relic 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. Provide tools: Get your system set up with the right tools so your customer service teams can collaborate and communicate easily. They also need to train employees on how to use the software and then respond to any service tickets upon deployment. 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]. VX8pt@I:4QLBfbjT,m}66 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. 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. We identified three main themes, namely challenges and best practices, location selection and hand-offs management. For some companies, it means providing anytime, anywhere, 24/7/365 supportthe original definition of the follow-the-sun model. F @_|Ln VY*ay Te2`nf N#"$(591 = |% z#i{vXP!M^\`NVBq 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. HWY1S%lI^t#ByFwOC+aPvrsjL In Agile Conference, 2005. Are you ready to follow the sun?. Kroll et al. But these steps will add to the increase in cost due to burnout and fatigue [2]. The various agile methodologies such as Scrum, Lean, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), DSDM etc., share much of the same characteristics and practices and are widely practiced in Globally Distributed Software Development. By following the sun, the issue is worked on until it is resolved. Slide 1 of 5. 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. It's a model that provides support for clients at all times of the day or night, every day. Here's how to deliver an experience that meets people's high and evolving expectations. [7] Monica Yap. A follow the sun model can help your organization provide 24/7/365 support to customers across the globe, regardless of time or location. Another consideration is the way you use technology. Is a "follow the sun" model right for your company? 4KKq#VPd)M(*=X i d`rdadcNaVdnep!!!!|F_f0b 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. Beside this benefit, there are also other advantages as well which can be found on Fig. Overall it was found that increasing the number of sites in a daily cycle increased the working speed. 0000004606 00000 n When youve got teams working round the clock, your troubleshooting efforts become more efficient. Do you also have self-service options like a knowledge database? As a management approach, FTS provides your business with several opportunities that, when fully realized, may benefit your business. The sun never sets for businesses that rely on remote support, and global support, for customer service. Prezi, for example, has teams in two locations: San Francisco and Budapest. 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. Collocated multishift locations where labour is cheap and software development happens round the clock in eight hour shifts does not fit in this category. Linear sequential approaches such as the Waterfall model seem to be inefficient for the FTS approach. This research [15] introduced a routing model, which supports the selection of geographical locations for Follow-the-Sun software development. And due to these restraints, teams may have a tough time truly collaborating. Follow-the-Sun in Action One of our partners, a large mobile advertising and app monetization company that gets 20,000+ tickets each week, leverages the follow-the-sun model with a total team of 85 associates to support their customers around the world. The war in Ukraine also impacted us personally. 0000013744 00000 n 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. 0000013630 00000 n 'r( bU:nL,/C^=E#$c;kNaw ] ^6JaI-~5%)IScN8D!MZl1?/*8(Y 7 3go>".X@`kDe!K

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