In addition to verbal communication, teams can also use visual documentation, such as flowcharts, kanban boards, and Gantt charts as part of their daily hand-offs. 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. 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. This infrastructure must always be available on demand and accessible. 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. After considering your demographics and volume, could you make up some of the support volume by using a mobile app? IEEE, 2013. 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. [7] Monica Yap. However, FTS is not. This type of customer support can help you provide quality, on-time support to customers 24/7. The process of hand offs must be smooth and conflict free. 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. 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. They also need to train employees on how to use the software and then respond to any service tickets upon deployment. As well, such expansion can always have a positive impact in terms of brand development and brand promotion. We have discussed how technology tools and infrastructure play an important role in the successful implementation of FTS. This project involved five global teams distributed across five different countries. Improving global software development project performance using simulation. Others, such as Gupta [5], also make similar observations and propose that FTS is very well suited to support core agile practices. 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. Fourth IEEE International Conference 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. Slide 1 of 2. Business and operational support model. Deriving Mutual Benefits from Offshore Outsourcing: The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory Scenario. (2007). 0000005432 00000 n 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. 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. 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. 2 traditional software development stresses on minimal job hand-offs, whereas FTS focusses on day-to day job hand-offs [1]. Modern day software development is spread more and more across national and international boundaries. I am talking about the follow-the-sun model, or FTS for short. Lastly, we showed that there was a study which researched hand-offs management. The three teams consist of 2 micro-teams (composite persona [17]), with at least one person from each location. The follow the sun methodology can be a game changer., Teams working towards the same goals and maintaining the same cloud infrastructure can become extremely fragmented when located in different time zones. 0000063267 00000 n Still, it did, and that is where our plan and ability to coordinate staff remotely across the world helped keep all the processes running. In fact, a study conducted by the CMO Council found that arranging technical assistance and 24/7 accessibility were the top two ways that companies could improve product experience for users.. It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. Three categories of challenges were found, namely challenges in coordination (e.g. To get a proper picture of the background on FTS, there is a need to understand a development pace and its associated concept of time to market, which are the main drivers of the development of FTS. In California, teams start in waves at 7am, 8am, and 9am (PST). The various composition features of this PowerPoint image like the design, color, text, etc. Apart from the usual difficulties faced in globally distributed software development, FTS also has the additional challenges of managing daily job hand-offs. But in reality not many companies are following this methodology due to a few documented successes and a significant lag in FTS research. y&[vx_TsrbV_[tQoMPDv2[%Xq?>R ,&$[f5_vv=EW\p6{`A7ejw@aAs]9#~;.#%hw AVC$+p( 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. You can, however, start planning for it. Figure 3: Comparing FTS model with other global workflows [1]. 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. 0000013987 00000 n ppt.gc.ca. Presenting support model PPT slide template. With follow the sun model, support timings are always during the day which means all your agents will be able to perform much better without requiring to alternate shifts which can affect their productivity Global visibility: Follow the sun is a great way for your company to sell globally right from the start. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition, 2/E. 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. 0000009498 00000 n [11] Siri-on Setamanit, Wayne Wakeland, and David Raffo. It is always noon somewhere, right? For example, a baseline work week is 30 hours after taking into account non-task activities. As described by Carmel [1], the agile methodology is best suited for FTS. Nataliya Andreychuk is the CEO of Viseven. 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. Cameron [13] highlights the example of FTS application at EDS (now a part of HP). Tiered support model with queries and system administrators. HWY1S%lI^t#ByFwOC+aPvrsjL Picture this. In Global Software Engineering Workshops (ICGSEW), 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference on, pages 1823. If not, determine what you are able to provide customers right now as you work toward your long-term 24-hour service. For example, another Zendesk customer, Prezi, has teams in two locationsone in San Francisco and one in Budapest. 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. 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]. 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 . Think of the home base as the product owner. For me, staying connected with clients in every corner of the globe was always important. The initiative was unsuccessful, and the project was ultimately implemented using only the essential principles of global software development. [17] Amar Gupta, Rajdeep Bondade, and Nathan Denny. And when the shifts switch, you'll have each site hand off work to the next shift. [16] Josiane Kroll, Ita Richardson, Jorge LN Audy, and Jude Fernandez. Well explain how to calculate and reduce turnover in your organization. But as you grow, you begin to standardize, build out streamlined processes, and build teams. Journal of Management Information Systems, 27(1):17-38, 2010. 0000063943 00000 n Several reasons such as misinterpretation of specifications, multiple rework cycles, lack of proper coordination and communication between teams, time zone issues and cultural differences were attributed to the projects failure. 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. Are you able to provide 24-hour service at this time? To fulfil this need, most firms try various strategies such as working overtime, skipping steps and setting aggressive deadlines. A handoff from one site to the other can be occasionally empty due to public holidays or emergencies. 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). 0000013630 00000 n 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). Figure 6: Five essentials for applying the FTS model in practice. Opinions expressed are those of the author. The war in Ukraine also impacted us personally. Each production site works during the day as a subteam and it needs within-site coordination. 2008. And due to these restraints, teams may have a tough time truly collaborating. 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. 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. Here's how to deliver an experience that meets people's high and evolving expectations. 3 levels of support delivery model. 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. 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. The handoff process can become the weakest point in your model due to technical, cultural, and communication style differences across each team., This is where Lucid can really help you shine. 0000063868 00000 n 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. [4] AGupta, Amar. These difficulties prove that a systematic approach is needed in achieving a quick time-to-market strategy, which in turn leads to the Follow the Sun software development scheme. ](Ohg2jFy0tz H`?d/r_@IEPCZGr H Now, what does this look like in action? 0000015792 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. Prashanth G.L, Santosh Malagi, Laurens Van Den Bercken, Ade Setyawan Sajim and Bernd Kreynen are the authors of this blog. This is a BETA experience. We operate a 24/7 global support team. F9,Y%9Q@o:B"w7Fy||:R_q};gxJ2#'S2"8S$I(y'_`}WHw6(iEM:+9%Wl )ThVXNo"iN U=v f4. In Global Software Engineering (ICGSE), 2010 5th IEEE International Conference on, pages 165174. In this post, we'll learn what the follow the sun customer support model is, the benefits, best practices, and how you can decide if it's the right model for your business. The main reasons to use this approach are that you'll have faster problem solving, consistent levels of customer service, reasonable work hours, and you'll be able to branch into new markets. 0000065768 00000 n Let's talk about providing 24-hour support without overwhelming one location and forcing staff to work overtime. Within the FTS approach, one of the teams always plays a leading role, being responsible for strategic planning, quality assessment and much more. 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 Management of Engineering and Technology, Portland International Center for, pages 24582466. At the same time, I can attest that it takes considerable investment, time and human resources. The research focussed on two aspects: the optimal time zone difference and the natural ease of communication (i.e. 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. Free and premium plans, Customer service software. [13] Alex Cameron. Collaboration between teams is very important in Agile, a trait which is also a characteristic of FTS model. Document what has been accomplished so each site can avoid repeating work. By checking this box, I agree to Zendesk contacting me with marketing-related communications about Zendesk products, services, and events. Agile places a lot of emphasis on continuous integration (using automation) encouraging every team to maintain an updated and testable version of the code which can be used by the next production site. They meet their global support goals by working together, providing a combined 18 hours a day of coverage. Treinen and Miller Frost [19] published a case documenting two cases of FTS implementation at IBM. 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. The first one involved a software development project consisting of teams in the United States and Australia and met with high degree of success. You'll have increased response times, fewer delays in solving issues, and satisfied customers. However, the distance between time zones of production can be an issue since the real-time communication between the teams can be very limited. The iteration period lasts for a short time period (between two to four weeks). 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. Are you using a tool that makes it easy to scale, and to quickly hand off support tickets? Follow the sun is also used by software development teams that are spread out across global sites. Mechanisms for transferring work in progress to the next site is the core idea of FTS. 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. The follow the sun customer support model is designed to address customer needs without regard to geographic location or current time. The sun never sets for businesses that rely on remote support, and global support, for customer service. Do I qualify? F @_|Ln VY*ay Te2`nf [12] Miguel Jimnez, Mario Piattini, and Aurora Vizcano. Project collaboration becomes immensely easier when the status of each task (and the progress made on the task) is clearly documented. Follow-the-sun paradigm background reading. Because of these reasons FTS is best suited for Agile. If possible, these meetings could be conducted during the hand-off so that the team can better communicate and share knowledge with each other. 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. By its basic definition, "follow-the-sun" means that support literally follows the sunit's a type of global workflow in which issues can be handled by and passed between support locations in different time zones to increase responsiveness and reduce delays. The success cases in the Industry using FTS are rare, in part due to the lack of well-founded knowledge on applying FTS [9]. The truth is, follow-the-sun support is simply a method meant to satisfy customersregardless of time or location. Heavy overload still improves the efficiency by just 12% but it is not an effective long term strategy due to employee burnout. For some companies, it means providing anytime, anywhere, 24/7/365 supportthe original definition of the follow-the-sun model. Because of its uncommon nature, FTS is also least practiced in the industry and has very few documented examples of success. And customers in one location do not get preferential or more support than any other location. By following the sun, the issue is worked on until it is resolved. Start off by asking key questions. 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. Modes of communication in FTS approach may be asynchronous or synchronous. Managing and continuing recruiting and growing regionally helped implement the FTS model for all departments and reinforced the ability to provide top-notch customer service. Global software development: never mind the problems are there really any benefits? Subscribe to the Service Blog below. 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 effective utilization of code repositories and version control management systems is crucial to the success of the FTS approach. [18] Josiane Kroll, Rafael Prikladnicki, Jorge LN Audy, Erran Carmel, and JudeFernandez. 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. 0000008134 00000 n This efficiency further increases with the number of locations and shifts. In creating a support structure based on this schedule, they examined the business units they needed to support and each region. 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. The handoffs can be applied to any software development task. 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. This in turn increases productivity. A follow the sun model can help your organization provide 24/7/365 support to customers across the globe, regardless of time or location. Employees hand off work at the end of each shift to the next site that is beginning a new shift several time zones to the west. 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. 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. A global service model in place to keep every team member connected, consistent and making continual progress on projects, tasks, and bug fixes. 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. Free and premium plans, Operations software. This research [15] introduced a routing model, which supports the selection of geographical locations for Follow-the-Sun software development. Do you want to provide complete 24-hour service? Prezi, for example, has teams in two locations: San Francisco and Budapest. 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. To manage the workflow efficiently the principles shown in Fig. 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. 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. 0000063228 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. 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.. The impact of number of sites in a follow the sun setting on the actual and perceived working speed and accuracy: A controlled experiment. They do it by starting a team in Colorado at 8am (MST). 0000064539 00000 n In case of any issues with the blog, please contact: guledalprashanth@gmail.com or berd.kreynen@hotmail.com. In addition, passing the work to a new group lets people see the problem from a new perspective. culture and language). The FTS model has proven its potential for decreasing time to market, accelerating product development and ensuring consistent client communication. We identified three main themes, namely challenges and best practices, location selection and hand-offs management. hb```b``b`2^21 Pc3HbL=6(TMA`2 DeI&6P)be7fLS;X|Oim5kQT,.Fj=,gwK,7# Or, consider the approach at Solium, which provides an equity management platform that performs real-time trades 21 hours per day. 0000002089 00000 n 0000063342 00000 n That means you need global customer service. Lucidchart is the intelligent diagramming application that empowers teams to clarify complexity, align their insights, and build the futurefaster. Are you ready to follow the sun?. Collocated multishift locations where labour is cheap and software development happens round the clock in eight hour shifts does not fit in this category. 42nd Hawaii International Conference on. Naturally, the language and culture barriers do not seem like such big obstacles these days. Calendar efficiency can be increased in a simple way by working overtime (overload mode), but this only improves the efficiency by 6%. Many companies are looking for efficiency in software development in terms of quality and development time. Test the plan before implementation to ensure that hand-offs between sites will run smoothly and make tweaks to the processes as needed. 0000001891 00000 n 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]. It can also be achieved in a variety of ways. [5] Amar Gupta. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. 2013. Research in Follow-the-Sun software development has been done since 1990. 128 0 obj <> endobj xref 128 43 0000000016 00000 n 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. If all the IT teams within your company use a follow the sun model, the project could be completed in days. This schedule is determined by global stock exchange hours. ', 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. A detailed analysis needs to be done in order to understand the advantages to be gained in time. What could shorter department turnaround times mean for what youre trying to achieve globally? Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates. Please reload the page and try again, or you can contact Zendesk for support. It may take more time than anticipated to ask questions and receive answers. %PDF-1.7 % Results are generally from case or field studies, resulting in identified challenges and best practices to improve the methodology. Let your superior service and personalized support work as a marketing advantage to find new leads and sales. 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. Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. The second case study involved three distinct projects with development sites in the United States and India, and met with drastic failure. IBM Software Group Rational softwareRational User Conference 2003 Presentation Overview Changing Times - The trend towards globalisation . 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. When compared to traditional global software development, FTS workflow is more difficult to achieve. Do we get enough tickets from each timezone to support a customer service agent. The implementation of FTS, if not practiced correctly, may result in failures and projects going over budget [10]. 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. 0000002728 00000 n Bugs and production problems are almost a certainty, this means companies need to organise resources and build capability to . Carmel [6] argues that only the nature of some phases of the development cycle such as testing are well suited for FTS. The major benefit is the development duration or the potential in reducing the time-to-market. Formal systems such as discussion forums or internal Wiki sites may prove to be useful. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door., I said, 'Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours. The follow the sun customer support model means that you have customer service representatives available whenever the sun is up -- so as it becomes daytime for different parts of the world as we orbit around the sun, you'll have various customer service sites beginning their day and handing off their issues to another site. 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. Beside this benefit, there are also other advantages as well which can be found on Fig. 0000006358 00000 n 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. No one prepared us for the pandemic, but it changed the world and how we look at work tremendously. This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers' needs without regard to geolocation or time zone. Figure 1: Follow the Sun approach follows a 24h task hand-off based approach to software development.
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