IFS success services tackle challenge of software 'outcomes'
It’s a tough one and a big ask — you’re a software company and you need to stay current and to show some level of evidence to suggest that your portfolio, suite and wider stack of software and services is constantly evolving.
Stopping short of a full re-architecting of any codebase or structure, enterprise applications company IFS has used a slightly softer term to describe its current engineering overhaul – so not quite a re-architecting of software, but a reimagining of software.
The company has taken the wraps off its new ‘success service’ offerings – a set of service and support offerings that are engineered to deliver predictable costs, manageable timelines and technology-business outcomes.
Software outcomes
That term ‘outcomes’ sounds like marketingspeak, but it’s real ‘thing’ in enterprise software delivery because the industry is talking openly about the suggestion that customers might now start to increasingly look at only paying for outcomes-based delivery agreements.
This is where software vendors charge for software based upon the tangible business success that customers can evidence after software has been deployed. IFS CEO Darren Roos spoke to press in breakout sessions at the company’s annual IFS World user conference and said that he has had conversations about full outcomes-based deals that involve a degree of profit sharing… and that ultimately, customers don’t want to do them.
Regardless then, IFS has focused on outcomes with its latest services reimagining.
The company insists that, for too long, software vendors have neglected the importance of ensuring customer success beyond go-live. As such, IFS has introduced two new service offerings aimed specifically at helping customers maximise what their software can do and deliver.
The new product plays are differentiated to cater to the needs of businesses from global enterprise-scale organizations looking to work extensively with a dedicated customer success team, to mid-sized companies that want right-sized application management and support (AMS) on an ongoing basis.
IFS Select & Success
IFS Select is a services framework for customers – and the company says it supports customers on data-driven strategic decision-making based on real-time data, to ongoing business support, on-site enterprise architects, IT change management etc.
IFS Success provides a services framework that allows customers to choose the outcome-based service components that they need relevant to their business priorities.
The four pillars of IFS Success are:
- Value Assurance: Understanding the expected business value and running the initiatives needed to unlock it.
- AMS (Application Management Services): Operational and expert application management with ongoing access to IFS as well as quick response and resolution times.
- Safeguarding: Offering customers choice through a network of partners from system integrators, change management specialists and boutique industry technology houses.
- Customer Success Management: For customers using two or more of the components above, IFS will work to ensure the business is served with continuous improvement and enhanced support models.
IFS senior vice president of consulting Stefano Mattiello has explained that his company is continuously improving the ways in which the software is deployed and utilised. He notes that the IFS methodology has been extended to include post-go-live value realisation and value maximisation phases to reflect customers’ evolving business needs.
In addition, heavy investment has been made in the IFS Solution Composer to visualize IFS solutions as well as in the IFS Industry Accelerators to help customers go live better, faster, and adopt the software in the most cost-effective ways.
Beyond implementation…
This is a positive discussion point, surely?
We (arguably) need to change the label “After Sales” to “Beyond Implementation Services” and this is perhaps something of what IFS is pushing towards.
