The last 3 questions below are
discussed in this post ... the first 2 were discussed in my previous post.
(1) Can you provide some data on how
you've executed in recent years against your product roadmap?
(2) How do you define the word 'solution'?
(2) How do you define the word 'solution'?
(3) What are the various ways that you specifically ensure customer success?
(4) Which of your product capabilities would you say are "truly game-changing" if any, and can you provide examples of customers that have experienced this type of business impact?
(5) How do you deal with a situation
where a large and strategic customer requests product changes or enhancements
that would likely not be applicable to -- or leveraged by -- many other
customers?
---------------
What are the various ways that you specifically ensure customer success?
A comprehensive program for ensuring
customer success is one of the key things that separates solution providers
that otherwise have comparable technology and people capabilities. Such a
program typically begins with fully understanding -- and then tracking to -- the
customer’s definition of success. The ‘tracking
to’ part of this relates to having a variety of mechanisms and means for effectively
intervening (ideally as a partnership) when the trajectory of success metrics does
not foretell a good outcome. Those various "mechanisms and means" are the heart of any customer success program and should be fully understood and well documented. It should
also be noted that success metrics might appropriately look different for the “initial
go-live” phase than for a broader roll-out phase, a solution optimization or
maximum adoption phase, etc. Finally, the
role that “driving user adoption and understanding adoption impediments” plays
in ensuring customer success cannot be over-stated.
Which
of your product capabilities would you say are "truly game-changing"
if any, and can you provide examples of customers that have experienced this
type of business impact?
Game-changing is, of course, beyond “wow
factor.” We’re talking about a solution
or suite of solutions that fundamentally if not radically changes the way a
business operates – leading to new (and often material) sources of value and/or
competitive advantage. One example in
the world of HR/Talent Management technology is the ability to better understand
cause and effect in the context of what people-related factors are behind a
precipitous decline in sales, or an exodus of some strategic customers. While this “game changing” capability relies
on leveraging science or sophisticated statistics in HR/HCM, a game-changing
impact can also be the result of a simple feature or capability that allows the
potential benefits of a system to be unlocked or fully realized.
An example from my background was the introduction of a “Challenge Feature” in a Global Workforce Planning & Decision Support Tool which allowed global line managers the ability to easily flag and comment on questionable or incorrect data on employees in their charge. Due to a combination of well-designed workflows and internal service level agreements involving all data owners, “challenges” were automatically routed to and addressed by the appropriate data owner within 24-48 hours. The manager’s free-form comments in a “Challenge Box” also helped the data owner – wherever they resided in the world -- research the problem if necessary. This fairly simple feature totally elevated confidence in the data … inextricably tied to confidence in -- and use of -- the system, which drives ROI of course.
An example from my background was the introduction of a “Challenge Feature” in a Global Workforce Planning & Decision Support Tool which allowed global line managers the ability to easily flag and comment on questionable or incorrect data on employees in their charge. Due to a combination of well-designed workflows and internal service level agreements involving all data owners, “challenges” were automatically routed to and addressed by the appropriate data owner within 24-48 hours. The manager’s free-form comments in a “Challenge Box” also helped the data owner – wherever they resided in the world -- research the problem if necessary. This fairly simple feature totally elevated confidence in the data … inextricably tied to confidence in -- and use of -- the system, which drives ROI of course.
How
do you deal with a situation where a large and strategic customer requests
product changes or enhancements that would likely not be applicable to -- or
leveraged by -- many other customers?
There is probably no correct or
perfect answer to this one; rather it’s perhaps a “test of vendor integrity.” The vast majority of solution
vendors will have to deal with this situation at one time or another to win a
very large/strategic account or generally take their business to the next
level, so it is probably wise to be dubious about claims of “our roadmaps are never hijacked or dominated by any one customer.” That said, a SaaS multi-instance
or "secure SaaS" architecture is often able to solve this dilemma for the vendor
and their ‘unique’ customer. When this
is not an option, the feature could perhaps also be tied to a particular customer/user profile, so other SaaS customers would not even see the particular
functionality.
Steve Goldberg
HR Technology Advisor
July 2012
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