Nataliya Andreychuk is the CEO of Viseven. She is a leading digital transformation evangelist for the pharma and life sciences industries.
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It is always noon somewhere, right? So how can companies of different sizes utilize that to their advantage? Let’s talk about providing 24-hour support without overwhelming one location and forcing staff to work overtime. I am talking about the follow-the-sun model, or FTS for short. This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers’ needs without regard to geolocation or time zone.
The FTS model has proven its potential for decreasing time to market, accelerating product development and ensuring consistent client communication. At the same time, I can attest that it takes considerable investment, time and human resources. Note that it will only suit some business models. For others, keeping all major communication and production processes in a single office or at least legislation may make more sense.
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.
How Did The Idea Come About?
For me, staying connected with clients in every corner of the globe was always important. 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. Shifting to a remote-based model streamlined our FTS approach with the ability to provide client services without opening an office location first.
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Granted, once the pandemic restrictions started to lift, we followed suit with offices. For some, it may make more sense to have people in the office rather than working from home to expand and grow without opening an office first.
Major Challenges And Obstacles
According to the FTS model concept, production and maintenance can be separated between locations in different time zones. One of the cornerstone principles of FTS is that certain assets are repeatedly shared between the offices at the end of the production circle or a working day so that the second team can continue the production/maintenance. In theory, FTS can increase time to market by approximately 60%, which seems attractive. However, if the communication within the system is poor, it may also end up in chaos, production delays and sufficient losses for the company.
Here are some major challenges that management should anticipate:
Disproportionate Teams
FTS is much more complex than the shift method since the teams working on the project are normally disproportionate. Within the FTS approach, one of the teams always plays a leading role, being responsible for strategic planning, quality assessment and much more. Since the teams may have different tasks, it is important to ensure that each team has a common understanding of goals, methods and company policies.
Limited Communication
Managing international teams may be a challenge. And when they are working together within the FTS model, it only doubles the trouble. Naturally, the language and culture barriers do not seem like such big obstacles these days. However, the distance between time zones of production can be an issue since the real-time communication between the teams can be very limited. 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.
Tight Schedules
One of the principal benefits of the FTS model is the opportunity to speed up processes and reduce time to market. This means that one team takes over the task when the first team is over. 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. 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.
How To Get The FTS Model Running
As someone who has been working with the top 100 pharma companies, I know that preparation and planning are key. No one prepared us for the pandemic, but it changed the world and how we look at work tremendously. The war in Ukraine also impacted us personally. 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. Still, it did, and that is where our plan and ability to coordinate staff remotely across the world helped keep all the processes running.
Benefits
As a management approach, FTS provides your business with several opportunities that, when fully realized, may benefit your business. From our experience, I would like to point out the major ones:
Increased Response Time
Under no circumstances should the FTS model be reduced to the distant custom support team. However, it may be one of the most potent benefits for your business.
Non-Stop Development
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. You can turn light-speed production and service delivery into one of the signature advantages of your brand.
New Opportunities in a New Market
Another important benefit of the FTS model is the opportunity to learn more about new markets and lay the foundation for the further development of the definite regional market. As well, such expansion can always have a positive impact in terms of brand development and brand promotion.
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. 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. 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.
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Author: Nataliya Andreychuk, Forbes Councils Member
