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Companies and IT organizations that provide technology support services (either internally or externally) are struggling to find a service approach that moves knowledge closer to their customers – one that lowers costs, improves customer experiences, and, importantly, balances technology and the human connection.
Adopting a “Shift Left” strategy addresses these needs. It works best when automation is balanced with – not blocking or inhibiting – the human factor to provide a personalized customer experience.
What is Shift Left and What Does it Mean in Technology Support Services?
Shift Left is a practice that originated in software delivery. In traditional software development, requirements live on the left side of the plan and delivery/testing requirements live on the right side. The aim of Shifting Left is to improve quality and cost-effectiveness by moving critical activities as early as possible in the development lifecycle of a product, process, etc.1
Definition: For technology support services, the Shift Left approach is built on the concept of moving a person, process, or technology closer to the customer, resulting in a faster, more efficient, and more effective resolution.
More than just self-service or web submission (automation), it makes experts and knowledge more readily available to customers. Its adoption provides enterprises with better service and better business results.
In this context, Shifting Left seeks to optimize the customer experience by combining the efficiency and speed of technology with the intelligence of human expertise and the warmth and personalization of exceptional customer service to resolve issues or accomplish tasks with the highest possible customer satisfaction.
This transformational approach positions technology support providers to better meet the new customer demands for services. A goal of Shifting Left is to break down organizational silos in order to allow providers and customers to co-create value.
A Shift Left approach can include a technology focus, a human focus, or combined focus:
Technology Focus
Some IT support service providers are shifting knowledge through technology – putting organizational and product expertise in an information warehouse that is front-ended with automated self-service. Although this can lower the cost to deliver support services, an automated Shift Left decreases the level of personal service by increasing the level of self-service. This may hide the true service cost because customers spend extra time and money that would otherwise be expended by the service department.
Human Focus
When the experts and their deep knowledge are moved closer to customers seeking assistance, it is a human-focused Shift Left. This creates an avenue for two-way communication where services and support are powered by people – the experts with the answers. Addressing the need for expert knowledge of an issue, deep analyses of a unique problem, or a consumer demand for personalized attention is a human approach to co-creating value.
A Combined Shift Left
Here, technology support services are powered by people and enabled by technology. This approach recognizes that, while technology has a place in service delivery, it isn’t the primary interface between the human needing help and the organization obligated to provide it.
This hybrid Shift Left approach recognizes that human experts need technical agility and prowess to resolve complex issues.
Why is a Shift Left Needed in Technology Support Services?
Technology support services are being disrupted by digital transformation: automated response systems have replaced help desks, chatbots are used instead of call centers, and software is leveraged to analyze business instead of simply being used as a system of record. As digitization occurs and matures, enterprises can lose the human touch.
At the same time, personalization is becoming a differentiator, as customers demand excellence in the services they receive. For many, this includes a higher degree of human service, coupled with technology that empowers them to self-help when desired.
Changes in technology are also affecting support services. As hybrid IT has enabled vendor and platform proliferation, the need for support services has increased. This seems to contradict a broadly assumed benefit of digital transformation: a reduction in the need for support.
The current barriers between traditional levels (or tiers) of support make providing a seamless experience challenging. When issues are escalated between tiers, it takes too long to solve a customer’s problem, and the quality of service generally decreases. From a service provider’s point of view, service costs are increasing while the ability to deliver knowledge and assistance to customers in an innovative way is becoming more challenging.
How Shifting Left Helps Improve Technology Support Services
Considering a provider’s goal for delivering technology support services, and a customer’s goal for receiving them, adopting a Shift Left strategy provides mutual benefits:
Knowledge and expertise are moved closer to customers: When issues and their resolutions are generally clear-cut and occur frequently across a large base of customers, an automated Shift Left via self-service excels when customers simply require access to information to consume on their own. This approach delivers faster access to answers, reduced time and effort, less downtime, and frees man-hours to address other issues or initiatives.
Improved customer experience/better customer service: With a technology-enabled Shift Left, the easy access can lead to happier customers. With a human-powered or combined Shift Left, experts on the front line provide the personalization and extra care that digital-savvy customers demand.
Lower service costs through automation: Strategic uses of technology – such as AI-powered self-service or AI as a tool helping engineers perform with higher quality, greater efficiency, and better scalability – can reduce service costs for providers, translating to lower support costs for customers. Note: beware of over-reliance on technology to reduce costs at the expense of the customer service experience.
Customer service as a differentiator: Even though a service can be provided via technology, customer expectations of service are sufficient to drive a human-powered Shift Left. Sometimes, technology isn’t enough to meet the need. When more human involvement is demanded, or human experience is critical, Shift Left personalization can provide competitive advantage.
The Impact of Shifting Left on the Technology Support Service Model
As Shifting Left moves services closer to the customer, it provides access to better people, delivers a better service model, and creates better outcomes. In order to achieve this, a new strategy must be embraced.
A traditional technology support service model often sees experts applying trial and error—or at least some analysis—to identify and fix the root cause of a problem. This is typically done “behind the scenes” before presenting an answer or delivering a service. When the barriers come down between the service expert and the customer, the issue-resolution/problem-solving activity becomes transparent.
In a Shift Left approach, the experts are not focused on just closing cases – they are solving problems. Ideally, case count goes down when the root cause of the problem is identified and addressed. End users also need to embrace this change to problem solving – the addressing of root causes for long-term solutions. Education and reinforcement may be required to ensure that providers and customers adapt to the new model.
IT service providers will be best served by walking the fine line between leveraging digital investments (such as AI-powered self-service) that put information right at the customer’s fingertips and delivering personalized assistance from enabled and empowered experts.
Moving Forward
When transforming a technology services model, best practices note that technology can be isolating. A balance must be struck between convenience and connection. Allow industry expertise and customer profiles to guide which legacy processes to preserve and which to evolve. Identify where the human element in services can improve overall outcomes. Consider a Shift Left approach that includes value-driven experts utilizing thoughtful innovation to provide a reliable and personalized experience to customers. Purchasing professionals seeking enterprise software support should consider providers that integrate technology with a human connection. Seek partners that have the wisdom to balance digitization with personalization – those who have Shifted Left.
Pat Phelan, VP, Market Research, Rimini Street
Pat Phelan is responsible for research across the enterprise software market including applications and technology strategies, software vendor support and third-party support, providing quantitative and qualitative strategic insights. Prior to joining Rimini Street, Ms. Phelan spent 18 years with worldwide analyst firm Gartner where she served as research vice president for enterprise software and ERP products, and was the leading analyst covering third-party enterprise software support. During her time at Gartner, Phelan provided thousands of CIOs and IT leaders with research and advice on strategies and options for managing the business application life-cycle and costs, and published nearly 300 research reports.
Renee Wells, VP, Product Strategy, Rimini Street
Ms. Wells is a 27-year veteran of IT and enterprise software with extensive experience in network engineering, management consulting, product marketing, and product management. She is responsible for leading the product strategy of Rimini Street’s comprehensive suite of services specifically designed to enable Oracle and SAP licensees to address new opportunities and challenges across today’s dynamic IT landscape. Previously, Ms. Wells held leadership roles in product marketing, product management, strategy, and consulting at AT&T. She also held roles in Technology Solutions Co, Advanced Computer Systems, Eclipse Computer System, and IBM.
1 BMC Software, Inc., “What is ‘Shift Left?’ Shift Left Testing Explained,” July 31, 2017. https://www.bmc.com/blogs/what-is-shift-left-shift-left-testing-explained/