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Onboarding of new customers. I feel like we must do this different than most places because I've not been even able to find a good system to even track the step

Onboarding of new customers. I feel like we must do this different than most places because I've not been even able to find a good system to even track the steps and things I do to get them set up and started. I've tried just about every task and project manager out there, most of them were good enough, but nothing was ever perfect. Using Basecamp now, has proven to be "good enough" so far (support has been perfect though). I feel like a bunch of this should be able to be automated with something that already exists.

jasonallen 10y ago
I'm confused by what you mean. I'd argue that onboarding new customers should be your core competency, the focus of your main product. What am I missing?
- devopsproject 10y ago
  > What am I missing? The human element. We make an application that makes use of folder on a network share. One of the developers here types up instructions each time we install a new site. If the customer has trouble or opts to have our help, they will connect remotely to create a folder and some sub folders. This takes anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour if they have trouble connecting remotely. I mentioned in a developer meeting that we should create an install script for the network folders. It would save the company hundreds of hours or work. One developed asked how I would do it. A generally competent developer, who has worked with files and folders for many years, asked how we could deliver a program to create folders. I nearly walked out (and we still dont have a 4 line script to create the folders we need)
- blakesterz 10y ago
  >> I'd argue that onboarding new customers should be your core competency, the focus of your main product. I suppose that's true, in a way. We host open source stuff for stuff, we support people, we do lots of stuff, some of it is automated, and some of it isn't. I was just saying a larger part of getting the new customers in production would be good to have more automated and I've not yet found an easy way to do that. I do like the idea of that being a core competency, though not quite a focus of the main product.
jenkstom 10y ago
If nothing off-the-shelf works, then you may need either a customization of an existing product or an entirely new product. If there's nothing out there like it, then this is a competitive advantage for your company and you should consider investing significant resources into it. Hire a developer or consulting company that creates such software. Just keep in mind that maybe 1 in 5 of those projects actually succeeds, so do a lot of due diligence up front. Don't go with "lowest bidder" and make sure your project manager has profound domain expertise and works very closely with the development team. Paying twice as much to a proven implementor is worth it if the lowest bidder fails to pull off the project. In that case your rate of return is going to be rather bad.

jasonallen 10y ago

I'm confused by what you mean. I'd argue that onboarding new customers should be your core competency, the focus of your main product. What am I missing?

devopsproject 10y ago
> What am I missing? The human element. We make an application that makes use of folder on a network share. One of the developers here types up instructions each time we install a new site. If the customer has trouble or opts to have our help, they will connect remotely to create a folder and some sub folders. This takes anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour if they have trouble connecting remotely. I mentioned in a developer meeting that we should create an install script for the network folders. It would save the company hundreds of hours or work. One developed asked how I would do it. A generally competent developer, who has worked with files and folders for many years, asked how we could deliver a program to create folders. I nearly walked out (and we still dont have a 4 line script to create the folders we need)
blakesterz 10y ago
>> I'd argue that onboarding new customers should be your core competency, the focus of your main product. I suppose that's true, in a way. We host open source stuff for stuff, we support people, we do lots of stuff, some of it is automated, and some of it isn't. I was just saying a larger part of getting the new customers in production would be good to have more automated and I've not yet found an easy way to do that. I do like the idea of that being a core competency, though not quite a focus of the main product.

jenkstom 10y ago

If nothing off-the-shelf works, then you may need either a customization of an existing product or an entirely new product. If there's nothing out there like it, then this is a competitive advantage for your company and you should consider investing significant resources into it. Hire a developer or consulting company that creates such software. Just keep in mind that maybe 1 in 5 of those projects actually succeeds, so do a lot of due diligence up front. Don't go with "lowest bidder" and make sure your project manager has profound domain expertise and works very closely with the development team. Paying twice as much to a proven implementor is worth it if the lowest bidder fails to pull off the project. In that case your rate of return is going to be rather bad.