In the never-ending race to create the “next big thing,” technology companies have plenty on their plates. Between adapting to new strategies required for business growth and staying ahead in product development, managing everything else can become a juggling act.
Creating game-changing, industry-transforming innovation comes with a lot to carry — from the initial concept and design to building products with sustainable parts and materials to making sure your customers are onboarded for success and getting the full benefit of your technology — to maintaining, repairing and properly disposing of products throughout their lifecycle.
Keeping your existing operations running smoothly while finding time to innovate for what’s next presents a cycle of challenges — stretched resources, risk to profitability and barriers to scale, to name just a few. With so much attention on the growing demands of tomorrow, it’s no surprise that at times, it can feel like having to choose between managing service operations for existing technology or focusing on innovation — but it doesn’t have to be an “either/or” discussion.
Many technology innovators today are taking a different approach by outsourcing parts of their product and customer lifecycle management operations so they can dedicate more focus, energy, budget and resources to innovation and transformation. But knowing who to outsource to poses yet another challenge — you’ve built a product you’re proud of and the last thing you want is unpredictability in servicing it.
Harness Predictability in Your Services
Service scalability is key to long-term success for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Being able to dial resources up or down quickly to accommodate new demand, seasonal fluctuations and rapid growth is critical for short-term gains and long-term profitability.
Outsourcing IT services to a single experienced partner can be the foundation to solving many common challenges OEMs face, such as:
- Limited visibility into your supply chain
- Unpredictable, unreliable logistics networks
- Long lead times and inadequate inventory levels
- Complex, intertangled or cumbersome processes
- Resource and infrastructure gaps that slow down growth
- Compromised products with unauthorized third-party maintenance
- Inconsistent customer experience due to working with multiple third parties
- Lagging product adoption and limited customer insights
- Customers not upgrading or renewing as expected
- Quality concerns, product recalls and regulatory compliance
- Lack of sustainable options for when products reach end of life
Whether your company needs to solve a specific challenge above, reduce overall costs, enhance customer satisfaction, improve business continuity, free up resources for innovation or accelerate transformation to a new business model, an outsourcing partner can help you reach your goals of today — without limiting focus on developing for tomorrow.
Don’t Worry — We Have a Team for That
When the market and your strategy require you to be laser-focused on what’s next, an experienced outsourcing partner like Shyft Global Services helps you carry the rest — from solution installation and customer onboarding to keeping your products operational with minimal disruption throughout the lifecycle.
When you partner with Shyft, your challenges become ours to solve, your goals become ours to achieve and our team becomes an extension of yours. See how in our video:
We know your customers care about equipment uptime, longevity and supporting services as much as they care about the capabilities that sold them on your product to begin with. But meeting those expectations requires infrastructure, expertise, global processes and appropriate investments — all of which can be a detour as you pave the way for future innovation.
That’s why we take a listen-first approach when working closely with OEMs and other technology innovators to custom-design outsourcing programs that tackle operational complexities and ensure customers get the most from their technology solutions. For your business, that means one contract, a single point of contact, a consistent customer experience and access to a complete suite of end-to-end services.
How Can Shyft Support Your Business?
Maybe you’re looking to plug into a global logistics network and explore ways to optimize your supply chain strategy and avoid disruptions with some built-in fault tolerance. With Shyft’s supply chain experts and specially designed supply chain models, you can reduce fixed costs, improve inventory turns, increase visibility, enhance quality control and ensure regulatory compliance.
Or maybe your customers expect a plug-and-play solution upon arrival, rather than managing integration on their own, but investing extra funds or headcount in those capabilities just isn’t an option for your business right now. Our integration team empowers you to deliver custom-tailored, plug-in ready solutions right to your customers. And when you want to extend your capabilities to ensure a great customer experience from day one, our team handles multi-site technology deployments, from installation and implementation to migrations and advanced rollouts.
Once your technology is operational and in customer hands, what happens when it needs maintenance or support? As your single go-to services partner, Shyft eliminates the need to manage multiple third-party providers and prioritizes business continuity for both you and your customers. This means you can provide your customers with high-quality, white-labeled maintenance and support from qualified technicians — all without having to tap into your own resources.
And we know, too, that sometimes even the best products require unavoidable repairs — our team simplifies that entire process. An efficient repair program keeps your customers up and running and preserves your brand reputation. Plus, by focusing on a circular economy strategy and outsourcing processes such as logistics, repair and refurbishment, you can maximize product value, bring in new revenue streams and solidify your position as a leader in sustainability.
Finally, we know that your customers are at the core of your business. Our customer management services team helps capture additional opportunities for revenue, expansion and customer engagement. From Shyft’s capabilities in lead qualification to proactive account management to upgrades and renewals to business intelligence — and much more — you can deepen customer relationships, support your channel and grow your revenue.
There may always be a few roadblocks in bringing new products to market. But servicing legacy technology and managing complex service programs shouldn’t be what slows you down. If you’re ready to innovate boldly, we’re ready to make your goals our priority. Leave limitations behind and keep “what’s next” at the forefront of your focus — with a partner whose business was built to help yours shift forward.
About the Author
Tonja Gable serves as the Senior Director of Global Marketing and Communications for Shyft Global Services. She brings more than 20 years of marketing, communications, branding, public relations and change management experience to the role. Tonja leads a global team focused on driving brand awareness and demand of Shyft’s services through an integrated marketing approach.
