Learn how Splunk's customer-facing team teamed up with Gainsight to adapt to changing market conditions and emerging technology, improving relationships and ensuring positive client outcomes.
4. AGENDA
4
1. About Jeffrey Johnson
2. About Splunk
3. Success Journey & Evolution
4. The Old World
5. The New World
6. Tool & Process Changes
7. Q & A
5. ABOUT ME
5
• 1 year golf pro
• 2 ½ career holes-in-one
• 10 years software development
• 10 years in life sciences software start-ups
• Developer
• Tech Support
• Education
• Professional Services
• Product Management
• Voice of Customer
• Inherited Splunk Community in 2016
dormie@splunk.com
Jeffrey Johnson – Director Customer & Community Programs
6. ABOUT SPLUNK
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Company (NASDAQ: SPLK)
Company Mission:
Make machine data accessible, usable and valuable to everyone.
Founded: 2004
Customers: 12,500+ worldwide
Revenue: $930M (FY17 projected)
Employees: 2,600+ worldwide
Headquarters: San Francisco
7. SPLUNK’S CHALLENGES
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• Rapid-growth
– In a “do-ocracy”
– Lack of consistency
• Organizational Alignment
– Sales Engineering
– Professional Services
– Support & Success
– Documentation
– Education
CUSTOMERS SPLUNK
• Platform
– So many possibilities
• Imagination
– Art of the Possible
• High complexity
– Enterprise software
• “Small” accounts
– Resource constraints
8. SPLUNK’S GOALS
• Foster Splunk Champions
• Maximize Customer Value
• Accelerate Adoption
• Self-Enablement
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9. WHAT DO CUSTOMERS NEED?
• Voice of Customer
– NPS & relationship surveys
– Engagement surveys
– Customer Advisory Councils
• Business Value Consulting
– Art of the Possible
– Glass Table Exercises
• Metrics
– What do successful customers purchase?
– Usage and adoption trends
– How do successful customers engage
– Measure impact of services on success
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17. TEAMS IN SILOS
17
Field Tech
Services
Pro Serv Sales Eng
Customer
Success
Support CAST EDU Community
Chief Revenue Officer
18. CUSTOMER ADVISORY & SUCCESS
TEAM
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MISSION
• Adoption
• Value RealizationPost-
Sale
Renewals
Communi
ty
EDU
CAST /
SAE
Support
Pre-
Sale
Sales
Reps
Sales Eng
PS / Client
Architect
Field
Enablem
ent
Sales
Ops
19. CUSTOMER ADVISORY & SUCCESS
TEAM
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• 2013
• Initiation (2 / 3)
• 2014
• Show value (8 / 15)
• 2015
• Growth (32 / 60)
• 2016
• Global (55 / 130)
Post-
Sale
Renewals
Communi
ty
EDU
CAST /
SAE
Support
Pre-
Sale
Sales
Reps
Sales Eng
PS / Client
Architect
Field
Enablem
ent
Sales
Ops
21. CUSTOMER ADVISORY & SUCCESS
TEAM
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• Stick with standard
terminology
– “Customer Success Manager”
• Break roles apart
– CSM
– Consulting / Implementation
– Build Engineer
• Be prescriptive
– Recommend the right services
– Exert your expertise
LESSONS LEARNED ADJUSTMENTS
• Confusion on role of SAE
– Internal & external
• Role is too broad
– Different for each customer
• Hard to hire
– Tech + business focus
– Splunk expertise
• Customers are looking for
direction
22. THE NEW WORLD – INTEGRATED TEAMS
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Customer Success
Field
Technical
Sales Eng
Solution
Architects
Services
Pro Serv
CAST
Support EDU Community
Chief Revenue Officer
• Focus on long-term success of customers
• Unified team, uniform delivery,
consolidated knowledge
• New & distinct service roles
• Clear definition of services & roles
23. THE NEW WORLD – INTEGRATED SERVICES
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Data Analysis/Visualization
Scope Architect Deploy
Value Realization /
Journey
Expert/Architect Services Implementation Services Support Services
Program / Project Management
Advisory / Transformation and Expansion / Expert Services
Education, Training and Knowledge Transfer
24. THE NEW WORLD – L.A.E.R.
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Support Active
management
Escalations
Adoption Use Case
Analysis
Build
Engineer
Advisory Best
practices
Value
Consulting
Education Training Certifications
Sales Eng Continued
discovery
Community
involvement
Sale Implementation
25. 25
Pro Serv
• Implementation
• Dashboards
• Configuration
• Onboarding
• Upgrades
CAST
• Value realization
• QBRs
• Cases & Features
• Dashboards
• Configuration
• Onboarding
• Upgrades
Sales Eng
• POCs
• Dashboards
• Configuration
• Value realization
THE NEW WORLD – CENTRALIZATION
26. 26
Services
CONSULTING
• Implementation / Configuration
• Data ingestion
ADVISORY
• Value consulting
• Adopt & expand
BUILD
• Dashboards
• Visualizations
Sales Eng
• POCs
• Client Architects
• Use Case Solutions
THE NEW WORLD – CENTRALIZATION
28. PRESCRIPTIVE SERVICES
1. Shift to prescriptive service offerings
2. Utilize internal expertise, experience, data, past successes
3. Minimize “What can we do for you?”
4. Customers are seeking your expertise
5. Mature the offerings over time
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29. THE NEW WORLD – PRESCRIPTIVE
SERVICES
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Complexity
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH
Maturity
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH
Apps
ES
ITSI
UBA
Svc Recommendation *
- 100 Pro Serv
- Named CSM
- 100 EDU Credits
- 10 Certifications
- Enterprise Support
- Build Consultant
* EXAMPLE ONLY
30. EVOLVE PROCESS & TOOLS FOR SCALE
Splunk was 40+ CSMs before adopting Gainsight – living in the wild west
Had minimal on-boarding and training for new CSMs
Had complete lack of service delivery standards
Purchased Gainsight primarily for standardization of service delivery
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31. EVOLVE PROCESS & TOOLS FOR SCALE
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STRATEGY
• Customer journeys
• Standardization
• Playbooks
• Service delivery
SCALE & AUTOMATION
• Playbook automation
• Lifecycle transitions
• Automated touchpoints
ASSET REPOSITORY
• Templates
• Process documents
34. EVOLVE PROCESS & TOOLS FOR SCALE
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LESSONS LEARNED
• Focus on process development in early stages
• Understand your customers and paths to success first
• Invest in tools at the right time (10-15 person team)
• Plan for the necessary long-term support resources
– Tool administration
– Content development & maintenance
– Continuous improvement
35. FINAL WRAP-UP
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1. Align service organizations to focus on Customer journey
& success
2. Centralize services & knowledge
3. Be prescriptive with customers about how they get to
maximum value realization
4. Right-time adoption of tools and process
5. Invest in process & asset development
- RE Do-Ocracy, reference Linton’s ”Rush to do the right thing”
Not in priority order
Bart (sales) would re-order and put Adoption at the top
We have the same goal, but taking a customer-centric view serves all parties
Key to VoC is action on insights
If you’re not going to act on the information, don’t bother asking the question
Credit BRMI – Business Relationship Management Institute
Mature from Ad-Hot – Order Taker – Service Provider – Trusted Advisor – Strategic Partner
Early days are about supporting and growing an immature product
Add individual services
Add strategic services
Bundled services
Automation of delivery
Immature model where most customers are not getting attention from implementation until renewal
Slightly more mature model, services & support are interacting, but mostly smashing bugs, being reactive to problems.
Not strategic or outcomes focused
- Created CAST to focus on the move to strategic account management
- SAE = Splunk Advisory Engineer
Align teams with customer-centric model of service delivery
Helps to optimize individuals and roles
Gives a 30,000 foot view of services across the customer journey
Focus on hand-offs when necessary
Everyone aware of the full service library
Some overlap of services is OK & expected
Value Realization SHOULD be done at both SE and CAST - But the services should be standardized
How prescriptive an org can be will vary by maturity, size, complexity, etc
Focus on finding a model that works for you
Building a tool to help customers and field to assess their needs
Create realistic, informed, integrated set of success services
Current field sells as little PS as possible to close deals and maximize license
Field has to be enabled, incented and bought into the long-term customer success mantra