[19] Treinen, James J., and Susan L. Miller-Frost. For example, you may need skilled bilingual managers and associates to help with international communications. %PDF-1.7 % 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. In case of any issues with the blog, please contact: guledalprashanth@gmail.com or berd.kreynen@hotmail.com. FTS feasibility study: In 2013 there was a feasibility study of FTS in the industry [18]. 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. Start small so that you dont overpromise what you can actually deliver. We would like some form of handover application within Microsoft teams to assist with a "Follow the Sun" support model. Some sites could feel isolated and out of the loop. Most employees do not want to be at work 12 or 16 hours a day. Let your superior service and personalized support work as a marketing advantage to find new leads and sales. Since hand-offs are such an important aspect of Follow-the-Sun software development, recent research studied hand-offs management. Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates. Your plan needs to include specific roles, processes, and training necessary to meet customer expectations. 0000065007 00000 n 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. There was a 30 and 60 minutes overlap between locations to enable the daily handover of tasks. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door., I said, 'Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours. The term calendar efficiency helps in understanding the analysis further. 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. 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. December 20, 2021. [17] Amar Gupta, Rajdeep Bondade, and Nathan Denny. 0000008134 00000 n on, pages 185194. There is only one site that owns the product at any point in time. A subteam can consist of one or more members. 0000065843 00000 n 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. 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. 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. The first one involved a software development project consisting of teams in the United States and Australia and met with high degree of success. Response times are increased, delays in problem-solving are reduced, and customers are satisfied. 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. Following the sun: Case studies in global software development. IBM Systems Journal 45.4 (2006): 773-783. It was developed so companies can provide round-the-clock customer service, literally following the sun around the globe. Customers who aren't in your timezone won't have to wait for you to wake up to receive service. Naturally, the language and culture barriers do not seem like such big obstacles these days. What in the world is the "Follow-the-Sun" support model? Advances in Software Engineering, 2009:3, 2009. Another group could start at 8:00 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. to support the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. FTS could provide significant benefit in dealing with these aspects. Sorry something went wrong, try again later? 0000069194 00000 n This facilitates easy job hand-offs and fits nicely within the FTS model. When compared to traditional global software development, FTS workflow is more difficult to achieve. Challenges and improvements in distributed software development: A systematic review. You'll have increased response times, fewer delays in solving issues, and satisfied customers. We have showed earlier that using the concept of calendar efficiency, FTS gives lot of room for decreasing the development time. You can, however, start planning for it. 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. 0000002842 00000 n 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. 0000007104 00000 n 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. In Global Software Engineering (ICGSE), 2010 5th IEEE International Conference on, pages 165174. Figure 4: Agile is a perfect choice of software development methodology for FTS. It is quite possible that hundreds of software developers and testers can be working on a project in cycles. The purpose of this article was to present a comprehensive study on the FTS model for software development. In creating a support structure based on this schedule, they examined the business units they needed to support and each region. The follow the sun customer support model is designed to address customer needs without regard to geographic location or current time. @|Q%q_2.gINPQ1Aq!>(ob@d9I8j3.a(fdb@n@8nZk;aza azv(;@ r endstream endobj 129 0 obj <>>>/Metadata 126 0 R/Outlines 108 0 R/PageLayout/SinglePage/Pages 123 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 130 0 obj <>/ExtGState<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]/Properties<>/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/Tabs/W/Thumb 109 0 R/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 612.0 792.0]/Type/Page>> endobj 131 0 obj [/ICCBased 142 0 R] endobj 132 0 obj <> endobj 133 0 obj <>stream Project collaboration becomes immensely easier when the status of each task (and the progress made on the task) is clearly documented. 1 gives the relevant facts regarding various working schemes. Figure 6: Five essentials for applying the FTS model in practice. User interface data decision support system model with arrows and icons. F @_|Ln VY*ay Te2`nf 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. This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers' needs without regard to geolocation or time zone. 0000063943 00000 n This theme is specifically for location selection and the impact of it. In the gaming and retail industries, for example, 24/7/365 support might be pretty standard. 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. If not, determine what you are able to provide customers right now as you work toward your long-term 24-hour service. That means you need global customer service. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 9(1):53-69, 1992. It is always noon somewhere, right? Initial handoffs mainly consisted of daily work summaries, which were later augmented by knowledge transfer activities. When youve got teams working round the clock, your troubleshooting efforts become more efficient. So how can companies of different sizes utilize that to their advantage? 0000067044 00000 n Do we get enough tickets from each timezone to support a customer service agent. 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.. They are required to fill in a request form through a portal. The effective utilization of code repositories and version control management systems is crucial to the success of the FTS approach. The major benefit is the development duration or the potential in reducing the time-to-market. Essentially, it's 24/7 support, no matter where the sun is up, without needing any customer service department to work late shifts. Apart from the usual difficulties faced in globally distributed software development, FTS also has the additional challenges of managing daily job hand-offs. If your team is still in the lean, jumping phase, you might not be ready to offer global support. 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. The geographically dispersed nature requires the use of software applications which facilitate tele-conferencing, VoIP calling, instant messaging etc. 2. Understand and optimize your cloud infrastructure today with Lucidscale. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, everyone can work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more. Global software development (GSD) is now the need of the hour more than ever. The Follow the Sun model allows brands to spread customer support over multiple time zones, which provides the necessary support that customers might need at odd hours of the night, or if they themselves are living in a different time zone. However, FTS is not. This is a BETA experience. Figure 2: Calendar Efficiency in different Working Modes [1]. IEEE, 2014. Agile has several characteristics which support FTS adoption [6]. 0000009498 00000 n Zuora also employs a daily handoff model, in which open and pending matters are passed along to the next team when one goes off duty. Learn how to use a follow the sun model for your IT and cloud teams. See how this model can benefit your IT department. Working normal daylight hours keeps employees happy, healthy, and motivated to work while your company is still able to offer round-the-clock service. 3 levels of support delivery model. 5 are applied in practice. Journal of Management Information Systems, 27(1):17-38, 2010. z.,'ECC4@ad4pw7?/.iyfhLV%=>=(TvxZN}!p7oN3~4T i+U[8 fZ)6 +r) Organization Support: Role Communications Manager (CM) Description Coordinates emergency communication strategy across teams: customer success, marketing, legal, etc. There are several major differences between traditional globally distributed software development and the FTS approach. The implementation of FTS, if not practiced correctly, may result in failures and projects going over budget [10]. Hand-offs are the central idea of the FTS approach. 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. 0000013987 00000 n Another consideration is the way you use technology. 4KKq#VPd)M(*=X i d`rdadcNaVdnep!!!!|F_f0b 0000064539 00000 n What is the Follow the Sun Customer Support Model? Are you able to provide 24-hour service at this time? 0000063868 00000 n And that's where the follow the sun customer support model comes in. A follow the sun model can help your organization provide 24/7/365 support to customers across the globe, regardless of time or location. As a management approach, FTS provides your business with several opportunities that, when fully realized, may benefit your business. The impact of number of sites in a follow the sun setting on the actual and perceived working speed and accuracy: A controlled experiment. With rising customer expectations around better service in todays macroeconomic environment, its important to lean on customer education programs to boost agent knowledge and productivityand to help your business retain customers. The top three best practices that were found in research are agile methods, the use of technology for knowledge sharing (e.g. 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. Collaboration between teams is very important in Agile, a trait which is also a characteristic of FTS model. If communication issues are not addressed they will create significant challenges in FTS adoption. 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. 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. 0000065768 00000 n The three teams consist of 2 micro-teams (composite persona [17]), with at least one person from each location. 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. Selecting locations for follow-the-sun software development: Towards a routing model. Another documented case of FTS application was by Infosys [20] in 2005 where FTS was applied to small subsets of the project cycle. 0000013504 00000 n 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. Organize the data by cloud, region, compute instance, and more., Having this tool in your arsenal transforms project management and puts you in a better position to respond to security risks and downtime., Every piece of your infrastructure is laid out right in front of you, and you can easily filter diagrams based on the task at hand, removing unnecessary details, and even @mentioned specific users to direct them to the specific part of infrastructure that needs action to be taken. Many companies are looking for efficiency in software development in terms of quality and development time. 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. Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. We have also elaborated in depth about the real world examples where FTS was applied. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. 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 Oops! "Follow the sun" is a service and support model designed to address customer's needs regardless of geographic location or time-zone. 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. 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 handoff from one site to the other can be occasionally empty due to public holidays or emergencies. HICSS09. Every time you learn you have a new customer base, you find someone to support them. Figure 3: Comparing FTS model with other global workflows [1]. This infrastructure must always be available on demand and accessible. 0000001156 00000 n 0000002089 00000 n Zuora uses private comments in Zendesk tickets to help communicate important details to team members picking up issues already in progress. Theres no reason to leap forward with global support if most of your customers are in only one or two regions. Where are our customers primarily located? Employee turnover is the number of workers leaving your business at any given timeincluding voluntary and involuntary exits. Calendar efficiency can be increased in a simple way by working overtime (overload mode), but this only improves the efficiency by 6%. Treinen and Miller Frost [19] published a case documenting two cases of FTS implementation at IBM. You may opt-out by. For example, a baseline work week is 30 hours after taking into account non-task activities. For some companies, it means providing anytime, anywhere, 24/7/365 supportthe original definition of the follow-the-sun model. IEEE, 2009. 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. Non-stop development can become a serious advantage when you need to reduce time to market or offer your clients better production, development and deployment terms. She is a leading digital transformation evangelist for the pharma and life sciences industries. 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. Focus on those regions first. Most agile practices emphasize face-to-face communication. 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. This way, the problem remains a priority and is worked on until the customer is satisfied. For example, another Zendesk customer, Prezi, has teams in two locationsone in San Francisco and one in Budapest. The FTS approach is based on the principle of handing-off unfinished work to the next location at the end of work day. Its a great way to optimize your support. 'r( bU:nL,/C^=E#$c;kNaw ] ^6JaI-~5%)IScN8D!MZl1?/*8(Y 7 3go>".X@`kDe!K You can turn light-speed production and service delivery into one of the signature advantages of your brand. 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. This is where FTS potential gains a lot, as is evident in the bottom rows of the table. IEEE, 2013. This project involved five global teams distributed across five different countries. 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? 0000063267 00000 n video calls) and process documentation. Here are some major challenges that management should anticipate: FTS is much more complex than the shift method since the teams working on the project are normally disproportionate. 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. [9] Rini van Solingen and Menno Valkema. A part of this may be attributed to the availability of efficient tools and enabling technologies for implementing the FTS model. Or, consider the approach at Solium, which provides an equity management platform that performs real-time trades 21 hours per day. However, it may be one of the most potent benefits for your business. 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. System Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on, pages 331339. [12] Miguel Jimnez, Mario Piattini, and Aurora Vizcano. In this section we give a number of research themes within Follow-the-Sun software development research. Open Scholars support emerging Open Learning alternatives<br />In-Class Support in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania! Three categories of challenges were found, namely challenges in coordination (e.g. Opinions expressed are those of the author. I am talking about the follow-the-sun model, or FTS for short. Figure 1: Follow the Sun approach follows a 24h task hand-off based approach to software development. [6] Carmel, Erran, Yael Dubinsky, and Alberto Espinosa. The follow the sun model gives your employees their lives back to spend more time with family and recreation. The tools you use should emphasize team collaboration and the automation of reporting, scheduling, planning, and progress tracking. However, the distance between time zones of production can be an issue since the real-time communication between the teams can be very limited. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, everyone can work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more. And when the shifts switch, you'll have each site hand off work to the next shift. A novel approach to distributed concurrent software development using a follow-the-sun technique. 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. With Lucidscale, you have a single source of truth for every project, feature, and bug being worked on by IT engineers. 2 traditional software development stresses on minimal job hand-offs, whereas FTS focusses on day-to day job hand-offs [1]. The follow the sun model is certainly not a new concept - nor is it unique to corporate travel management or the travel industry. 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. Infosys concluded that applicability of FTS was limited and highly specific to the nature of the task at hand. 0000067875 00000 n The various composition features of this PowerPoint image like the design, color, text, etc. Are you ready to follow the sun?. 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. I have a team that is 12 hours ahead so we're not online at the same time. time zone difference and hand offs management), communication and culture. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. This Presentation graphic is eloquent and useful for the IT students, IT researchers, and IT specialists from various fields. 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. There exist several case and field studies over the years, which resulted in challenges and best practices of FTS. Think of the home base as the product owner. 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. It is commonly used and regarded as the "gold standard" in the field of presentation applications. Slide 1 of 2. 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. This means that one team takes over the task when the first team is over. 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. ). 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.

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