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A Life Cycle Evaluation Framework for Analytical Solutions

The term "solution" is over-used in the enterprise software market and is no less so in the analytical and business intelligence segments. Too often providers over-emphasize software functions in customer and prospect communications, ignoring the critical role that a well-managed professional services organization or partner delivery model plays in customer success. Today's savviest software buyers are among those evaluating analytical solutions; they know few promised benefits are as quickly realized and turnkey as the latest vendor press release purports. Winning analytical software providers understand this reality and buyers should cast a wary eye on those who cannot illustrate and prove they possess a lifecycle approach to delivering sustainable value.

Business as Usual

Many providers of analytical software report helping their customers achieve customer-centric aspirations, yet these same providers frequently do not practice what they preach. More often once landing a sale, providers take on the persona of a bucket brigade, passing pails of water toward a fire. Discreet groups hand off customer responsibilities from one another as quickly as possible, often forgetting key details along the way - which only stalls the project. This is problematic for buyers of analytical software who typically are contesting within highly competitive markets that feature quickly changing customer preferences.

Within some provider organizations this problem is systemic and requires a sea change in the way they do business. Others have the right pieces in place but lack the framework for organizing and communicating their approach to delivering value. Regardless, customers evaluating analytical solutions - particularly those to address critical operational customer relationship issues - should seek out providers who view the customer relationship as their "win" not simply the software sale.

Customer versus Product Viewpoint

Too many providers unconsciously impose their internal processes on their customers, disguised as the means through which value is obtained. The "solution" is a product which customers purchase, and fulfillment is provided by some combination of a license and services delivered by the provider itself and/or third parties. This product-centric model worked in the past, yet it fails to consider that software today has become fundamental to the way customers operate their businesses. And in some cases, the software has literally become the business, as in pure play e-commerce Web sites and e-store versions of brick-and-mortar retailers.

Thus, it has become of critical importance that customers are able to rapidly evaluate, adopt and evolve new software as their business changes. For visionary software providers and their partners, this means organizing their businesses and delivery models around the ways in which customers interact with them: a life cycle approach that considers the stages and changing requirements that customers experience throughout their relationship with a software provider.

Accelerating the Customer Life Cycle

A typical customer lifecycle curve presents the profit or value a provider receives from its customers over the course of their relationship. This curve appears in Figure 1.

Figure 1

It is incumbent upon providers, as money-making entities, to extract as much value from their customers as possible during this time period if not lengthen the cycle. In fact, that is the premise underlying a concept known as "customer equity management," a methodology for helping marketers maximize the length and value of their customer relationships.

Within the context of a software customer life cycle, however, this view can be problematic for a buyer looking for rapid cycle times and continuous innovation. These "Type A" organizations leverage analytics to improve their businesses, often in real time and in line with customer-facing processes. For them, analytics is a key differentiator in a competitively intense market characterized by fleeting customer loyalties. These customers want shorter life cycles with a given solution. Doing so allows them to more rapidly realize their vision, adopt innovation from providers and thus increase responsiveness to market demands.

A Different Take on the Customer Life Cycle

To meet the demands of an analytical solutions customer, providers should be scrutinized for an integrated delivery model which accelerates the customer lifecycle by optimizing the mix of resources applied to each stage of a customer's relationship. The results can be quicker cycle times that:

  • Bridge the gap between needs identification and solution adoption,
  • Accelerate time to value,
  • Help customers leverage analytical technology inline with their business processes to achieve their objectives.

Figure 2 shows a typical customer life cycle but presents it a bit differently. The y axis, provider value quotient, represents the mix of software and human consultive resources applied at each stage in the provider/customer relationship, as opposed to the profit or revenue. The three zones (services-software-services) illustrate the major provider assets applied to each stage of the relationship.

Figure 2

Customers should look for their providers to offer services in three relationship stages (evaluation, adoption, evolution). For example:

  • Evaluation Services: Both business and technical services to help customers frame the issues surrounding their interest in analytics and the business processes they wish to impact, helping them craft a road map for deploying a software solution.
  • Adoption Services: The implementation services for integrating and operationalizing the software within the customer environment as well as the consulting, training, knowledge transfer and ongoing support necessary to ensure the solution's adoption across the targeted processes and people.
  • Evolution Services: Recognizing that customer environments change, these services help rapidly adapt a solution to evolving needs. Services should be available to help customers meet new business and technical requirements with their original investments.

It is through the coordinated and optimized utilization of software and consulting resources that customers can achieve greatly reduced cycle times, enabling them to more quickly utilize their analytical solution and be able to take advantage of new innovations from their provider. The customer relationship thus becomes not a series of handoffs between departments but instead a holistic, seamless and repeating process. Relative to the previous, life cycle diagram in Figure 2, a provider's relationship with its customers takes on the shape n figure 3 - faster and more frequent cycles and thus greater value in the same amount of time.

Figure 3

For organizations considering analytical solutions, speed is a critical success factor when taking on new software projects that affect core business processes. Yet thoughtful consideration is needed to ensure business objectives align with technology initiatives. Importantly, business-driven technology requirements change very quickly in dynamic markets. To meet the demands of these customers, analytical solutions providers need to be evaluated based on their ability to deliver coordinated life cycle services. An integrated approach which optimizes the mix of resources applied to each stage of a customer's relationship can yield quicker cycle times that ultimately benefits both customer and provider.


Gib Bassett is president of Analytic Strategy Group, a research and consulting firm focused on the analytics and business intelligence markets.

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