Problem
- Overall concept, system approaches and technologies used by a technology start-up are highly innovative; the solution is very powerful and has a lot of potential
- However, the solution is not yet ready for use in day-to-day operations at the customer’s site: Problems and instabilities occur during ongoing operation, and difficulties can be solved remotely only with difficulty or not at all due also to uncertainties over the system status as well as the implementation of set administrative measures
- The sustainability of problem solutions and functional enhancements is not always given: highly motivated employees often solve problems ad hoc and without an overall view, updates and patches are installed on demand and at any time, often without consistent quality assurance
- The startup’s organization, processes and personnel cannot keep up with sales success, customer expectations and necessary company growth, and sometimes unrealistic promises to customers and expectations of market requirements are also at play
Contribution ResultONE
- Support in levering immediate improvement potentials
- Establishment of essential mechanisms and processes for quality management development, operation and maintenance, oriented towards ISO and ITIL respectively
- Guiding employees to act and work in a structured manner in line with defined processes, introducing clear roles and responsibilities, and adhering to commitments and promises
- Support during longer-term optimization, including
- Planning of binding feature roadmaps and clear separation between standard functionality versus individual customer features and their handling
- Establishment of a stable operation designed for stand-alone use without the need for manual intervention with various “auto-repair” mechanisms
- Introduction of clear processes for quality assurance throughout the entire lifecycle, including releases and acceptances with customer participation
- Support in managing growth, including
- Handling of customers by the company, active management of customers and their individual expectations
- Establishment of an escalation culture, support for the improvement of the product quality perceived by customers
- Agreement on actually tenable time frames, realistic functional scopes and achievable SLAs
Result
- Significant increase in the product quality perceived by the customer and in the stability and performance of the system
- Bug fixes, product improvements and customer communication are based on defined processes; quality management works end-to-end
- Customer satisfaction and trust in the solution due to significantly higher adherence to commitments