When referring to World Wide mission critical customer support
24x7x365 for a Software company that has support centers in Europe,
Asia, and North America,
and supports customers in different languages, what is a good
definition for the term 'follow the sun' model

Hi flc10:

Thanks for the interesting question. 

I've found the following descriptions of "follow the sun" support
models.

Cisco AVVID Partner Program Coordinated Support Manual
URL: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/so/cuso/epso/avpnpg/appcs_ds.htm
Quote: "The four (4) centers share the 24-hour day to deliver seamless
24-hour, around-the-clock support to Cisco customers. These centers
employ a 'follow the sun' model where one center goes 'offline' and
another center picks up responsibility for the next 'shift.' The
duration of a shift may vary from center to center and the shifts may
also change periodically based on call volumes, holidays, and other
operational considerations. Automatic telephone routing is performed
based on current shift schedules and time-of-day routing. Toll-free
numbers are used to direct customers to Cisco and internal call
routing directs callers to the appropriate center."

Wipro’s Innovative Service Delivery Model
URL: http://www.wipro.com/itservices/infrastrucmgmt/drpisdm.htm
Quote: "This is the traditional multi-site service delivery option.
Support calls can be routed to an onsite or offshore support center
based on time-of-day (nights) or day of the week (weekends). Wipro has
been delivering such support in IT infrastructure and is well versed
in practical aspects like swing shift, overlapping period, smooth
handover of open trouble tickets, escalation mechanisms etc."

So, if I had to put the idea into "new words", I'd say:

The "follow the sun" model of customer support uses a strategically
placed group of worldwide support centers so that there's always a
center open during "business hours" anywhere on the globe. Through an
automatic phone and data routing system, customers are serviced by
avialable technicians 24/7.

Hope this helps!

websearcher-ga

Search Strategy (on Google):

"follow the sun" model
"follow the sun model" support

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Request for Answer Clarification by flc10-ga on 14 Jun 2003 12:39 PDT

THis is good....  Can I ask one clarification?  Is it practical to
also say that customers could call 'one number' from any where in the
world and will be provided mission critical support 24x7x365 days a
year.  our customers currently have to dial different numbers
depending on the country.  We are trying to find out if we could
reduce these numbers down to 1 or 2 phone numbers

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Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 14 Jun 2003 13:02 PDT

Hi flc10:

Yes, I've found several instances where "follow the sun" models are
accessed with one number worldwide, including:

Processes and Competencies in the TAC
URL: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/3/latam/pdf/TAC.pdf
Quote: "Although TACs are located in several global locations,
customers need to know only one number to contact
the TAC. Many countries have their own Cisco toll-free
numbers, and customers can always contact the TAC
through a nearby country if no local number is available. No
matter when a call comes in, customers are automatically
connected with one of the TACs worldwide.
complete case information is dispatched to Technical
Response Teams for action.
Technical Response Teams are teams of CSEs whose
expertise allows them to solve customer problems. Response
team engineers receive the dispatched calls from the Global
Call Center and work the problems through to resolution."

However, I wouldn't necessarily say this is the norm. 

Hope this helps.

websearcher-ga

Thanks for the information

This is an excellent answer. Had I been the questioner, I would have
given it five stars.

Seems magnesium-ga is quite helpful criticizing questioners in their
ratings.  Perhaps he/she should be answering these as he/she obviously
knows everything already and apparently has all the time in the world
to do so.

agreed...never done this before