Pro tip : Quirky literary and cinematic references all over this project. Can you collect them all?

Prologue

Dearest Gentle Reader 🎀,

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Yay! We're doing E&R for a product that's mandatory to use once purchased by enterprises (you can't drop off) and everyone pretty much has a standard use for it (you can't get too creative)😨.

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So, how do you tackle E&R for a product like that?

Imagine you've got a pen.

What do you do with it? Sure, you could draw a line.

But you could also write poetry. Nibble at the tip, balance it over your nose. Stain your fingers in indigo ink. Even chart out a trajectorial plan that will change your life.

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In both cases, it is not the pen, that is always there, who has decided. It is you, the user, who has created all the difference between a simple line and a world of possibilities.

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With that understanding, let us turn to EAM360, and explore what is like to simply carry the product along just because boss lady told you to, and truly use it to efficiencize tasking and make your own life simplified on field. And in that bridge, is where you find the true value of the product.

Let us, together, look at E&R as a powerful impact-driver that shapes how technicians work real-time everyday.

Chapter 1 : Understand and define

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Let's go back to the beginning of why EAM360 was created.

Over the past 2 decades or even more, we have been constantly talking about digitization as a core interest of infrastructural enterprises. The need of an organized system of handling infrastructure and assets has led to the rise of ERP, and in consequence, EAM - Enterprise Asset Management.

Years later, various tech giants have created multiple technology solutions for EAM and CMMS including the likes of SAP and IBM's Maximo.

After these were created and fully adopted within the larger ERP structure, though, some core needs of technicians were still left to be addressed.

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"Every little thing is filled with paperwork! 🤦"

"I travel to far-off remote locations with 0 connectivity. Just how do I record all this information you need precisely?" 🙁

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"Man, some of this stuff is pretty complex. I'm super new to the workforce and I don't understand anything! 😭"​

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Well, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

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That's when EAM360 (of course, with other similar products!) was invented.

EAM360 is, by definition, a mobile solution for IBM Maximo. It is a "skin" over IBM Maximo that adds a simplified layer between the user and the ground software.

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Users of EAM360 get to handle EVERYTHING they need using a simplified mobile interface. It could be anywhere from tracking and updating work orders, viewing a distributed geospatial map that helps them track assets real time, handle specific types of inspections and so much more.

Here's a look at some of the modules pretty commonly used and also mentioned above:

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This not just made Maximo asset management a whole lot more convenient for users, it also made tasking fully mobile!

And that brings us to the core value proposition of EAM360 - what are the CVPs and how do users tend to experience it?

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Understanding the Core Value Proposition​

EAM360’s greatest value to users is the fact that it offers complete and comprehensive mobility for IBM Maximo users. Users are able to view their day-to-day tasks directly on their mobile devices, view extensive information about their tasks no matter how far they are from their workplaces into the worksite, and very easily collect extensive necessary data through various multimedia options.

• Handle all your tasks on a mobile device: No more needing to log every single task into IBM Maximo. Use EAM360 instead for a more simplified, consolidated view of your Maximo workflows.
• Go offline, stay on track: Offline mode with EAM360 helps tackle every single task and retrieve information even in completely remote areas.
• Ditch the paperwork: With EAM360, eliminate the use of paperwork 100% by completely digitizing and automating tasks.
• Increase productivity: Get work done faster on mobile, increase TAT and reduce response times.

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How do users experience the CVP of the app?

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Some major actions that help them experience the CVP include:

1. Completing work orders by adding, updating and signing off tasks
2. Capturing any form of multimedia attachments like images, videos, audio etc
3. Using SR, assets and MR module to contribute to overall seamless asset tracking in the enterprise
4. Employing a chosen integration such as Beacons, Scanners, ArcMaps.
5. Completing work actions in offline mode, i.e., using EAM360 in remote locations with little/no connectivity.
6. Reacting to notifications of new work orders assigned by alerts from mobile devices.
7. Getting alerts of tasks and safety hazards using geofencing capabilities

...and more.

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What would be the natural frequency of EAM360?

Let us bring back one of our ICPs, David.

David is a maintenance engineer who is responsible for handling his maintenance tasks assigned to him in a week. Like many others in the organization, David works on a shift basis, and has an 8-hour shift every working day of the week.

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During every shift where he is assigned work orders, David carries EAM360 to his workspace and uses it extensively in that time.

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That is why we classify the natural frequency of this product as 5 times a week, or daily every working day—for this particular ICP that makes up the largest cohort of its users.

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Are there any sub-products within EAM360 Technician?

EAM360 the brand itself has 4 role-based apps—Technician, Storekeeper, Inspector and Manager.

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The product we have chosen to explore in this project is the EAM360 Technician app, as these can all be classified as distinct products used independently by different organizations and roles.

Now, does EAM360 Technician (let’s call it just EAM360 for simplicity) itself have a sub-product?

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Yes, we do have a product called EAM360 Inspector, which is by itself a stand-alone product (think of it like a spin-off series). However, it can also be purchased within the existing product as an individual module for users who wish to perform both functions. So the goal of the project is to "down-sell" users the Inspector app instead of Technician if there is a risk of churn, and not the other way around.

Let us try to arrange this information:

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What action makes for an active user?

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For EAM360 Technician, the natural frequency we've already calculated indicates that it is a daily (working days!) product.

Assuming that our ICP David's primary JTBD is completing his assigned work orders on asset maintenance, which is why he has "hired" the product - we average about 10 work orders per day. That means, for David to be an active user, the metric is -

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Completing 70 work orders in 1 month makes David an active user of EAM360 Technician.

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How about EAM360 Inspector? If David's tasks for one month is solely inspections (remember, he could be doing this along with his other tasks during the rest of the year too), that means he is assigned around 1 inspection task every week.

What is his activation metric?

Completing 4 inspection tasks in 1 month would make David an active user of EAM360 Inspector.

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Chapter 2: Deep-dive into Engagement

At this point, we've coasted through a deep-dive of who our users are, what value they derive from our product, and how they experience the value of our product as an active user.

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We’re going to start off with user segmentation by identifying our ICPs and mapping them into two segments that matter the most. 

• How do different ICPs engage with the product?
• Are they Casual, Core or Power users of our product?
• What features do they value the most?

In the upcoming sections, we shall explore why we pick these specific types of segmentations.

Natural frequency, again

Before all that, let us try to understand the natural frequency of the product. EAM360, once purchased by the organization, is often (but not always) mandated to be used to complete tasks. This means there is no possibility of drastic differences in the natural frequency of usage when it comes to number of days used.

We can, however, think of frequency in another dimension - how many times a user actually uses an app per shift. This is quite granular to think about seeing as there is no standard across the world for the number of transactions per shift.

But let us hypothesise like this -

Conventionally, we know that a shift (day) carries about 10-12 tasks allocated, and updating data to a bare minimum only takes around 10 minutes per task : then the most basic user will use EAM360 only for around 120 minutes, or 2 hours per day. The most powerful user would notch this up to a solid 25 minutes per task, since they could use extensive features like maps, image capture etc. That would mean they spend up to 4 hours per day on the app.

Let us try to retain this logic to help segment users into casual, core, power users.

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Who would be the Casual, Core and Power users of EAM360?

• A casual user would simply view their day's work orders and update tasks on the app. They would probably take a maximum of 10-15 minutes per task to read instructions, details and update data. They also don't interact much outside their expected module.
• A core user would extensively use their main module and take support from 1-2 related features. They could use it to navigate to locations, complete entire cohorts of tasks, and also have a basic IoT integration they use along side.
• A power user makes use of at least 4-5 important modules such as work management, SR allocation, asset management, collaborating with storekeepers etc. They are also prone to use extensive integrations. They could be enough valuable to them that they are unable to go about their day's tasks without EAM360.

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Segmenting by ICP and features

Let us explore 3 ICPs of EAM360 and how they tend to interact with the product.

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Figuring out what works : Engagement frameworks

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There are 3 possible associations we can make here for engagements - breadth, depth and frequency.

Let us try to understand what each of them mean in our product context, and which of those would work logically for EAM360.

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Designing engagement campaigns

Based on our understanding of user segments, and the need to bring casual users to core and core users to power, let us try to create 5 engagement campaigns.

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Our engagement framework is breadth based - that means we want to invite more users to actively make use of multiple modules within EAM360, and also opt in for EAM360 Inspector where needed.

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We’ll create 3 campaigns to help shift casual to core and 2 to go from core to power.

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With that, we hit the closure of engagement, however, jumping on to retention is going to help us understand this even more in depth.

Chapter 3: Retention and Resurrection

All happy users are alike, each unhappy user is unhappy in their own way.

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​That being said, we are going to look and define retention, churn, resurrection and more throughout this chapter to help us hold to users longer and firmer.

Hey, isn’t EAM360 mandated to be used by organizations post purchase?

Yes! Once the purchase is complete and the product is onboarded, users cannot simply stop using the app for their day-to-day functioning–it becomes a part of their workflows and they stick with it until the contract is closed.

What is mandatory is that every transaction performed does reach Maximo, however, that does not necessarily indicate that each transaction is directly happening through EAM360. It might certainly be a part of day-to-day operations, but can still abstain from using it for the required function and create a workaround by options like:

•  Substituting with paperwork and directly inputting to Maximo
• Creating paper-based form and uploading in bulk to EAM360 off site (defeating the purpose) 

and so on.

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Retention here can be classified into 2 folds:

1. Customer retention
2. User retention

Let us pick these apart in sections and devise an understanding about why the numbers are the way they are.

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Understanding customer retention

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So what does retention look like? Here’s a bird’s eye view.

At a macroscopic level, EAM360’s retention rate is 100% 🚀😲.

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And we don’t just say it's because “yer a wizard, EAM360” and leave it at that.

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Every single one of EAM360’s acquired customers continue to stick with the product till date and have not churned out by cancelling contracts and terminating support.

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EAM360 also has customers who increase license purchases as their organization size grows.

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Let’s assess why:

1. EAM360 is heavy on purchase cost and lighter on support—it works well on perpetual licensing model. Support is a very minimal spend for the kind of organizations we cater to which organizations typically don't mind paying.
2. It is very difficult to switch between enterprise class mobile apps at a rapid rate. Once purchased, any mobile app in this space is likely to be a permanent solution for an organization.
3. The organizations can revert to their old methods even leaving the product unused without major impact. There is no urgent need that is directly solved by the product an organization cannot function without and would look for alternatives to. So customers could still be "retained" on paper even if the app serves only an ancillary purpose.
4. Last but most important reason—quality of product 🙂this category of product comes with heavy change management, and once comfortable, organizations typically do not feel the need to switch. EAM360 is one of the top 4 most favoured apps in this market.

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So, does this mean that every single user across the board is retained for EAM360 without any churn? Absolutely not. Like every other product, EAM360 has its own share of churn.

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This, however, can be measured through how specific users churn and how certain users are retained by continuing to use the product end-to-end.

Understanding user retention 

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User retention is a completely different ballgame—for a product that demands so much change management and adoption, it is evident that not all users and departments would be open to having a mobile app included in their operations.

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Though casual users have a very steep drop off, core and power users form a majority of the user base and have pretty steady retention curves which is why there have not been any major customer-level churn.

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The most logical way to approach retention would be not at ground-user levels but at a clustered department level.

That is because retention happens with the overall teams within a specific department, which reflects into churn as well. Let us calculate the curves with the help of data available.

Here is a chart that shows the retention numbers for Casual, Core and Power users, along with their retention % in the Y axis:

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Deep dive into retention 

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Let us evaluate the retention based on a couple of factors such as ICPs, their acquisition channels and what features or sub-features they have used the most.

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These are the kind of ICPs that drive maximum value - those who are using it to the activation point - completing work orders, logging in at least to the minimum number of times per week.

Now, what are the acquisition channels that drive maximum retention?

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What are the top 2 acquisition channels?

Note: Here, all numbers are measured in terms of # of departments / total # of departments. Ex: 70% retention rate means 7 out of 10 departments are using the product.

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Let us do the same exercise by feature, and try to understand what features and sub features drive the most retention rate.

With the above few exercises, we have devised what kind of users are the most likely to stick with the app through the longer run.

Now, it is time to figure out where the users are churning out - and how we can bring them to the other side.

Exploring burn, churn and re-return

So, what does churn look like for EAM360?

First things first, let's talk about what happens when a user actually end up churning.

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Do they simply opt in for another product, are they open to exploring other vendors and their offerings?

…well, not really. 

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Let's talk voluntary and involuntary churn

What are some of the voluntary and involuntary reasons a user might churn out for? Let's tabulate in the image below:

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Now, we have our top voluntary reasons for churn that include:

1. Poor user adoption - a lot users do not use the app to its needed capacity
2. Ineffective change management - people do not realize how they can achieve the CVP of the product
3. Don't understand the app - Could be caused by ineffective training or orientation
4. Expectation unmatched - they had a different idea of what the app could do, or the app fails to help them , has bugs etc.

​Red flags 🚩🚩🚩: What are some negative actions you would look for?

Now that we have some negative actions that correlate to our voluntary churn reasons, let us start off by creating resurrection campaigns that can prevent a user from completely dropping off from being a mobile user.

​Resurrection campaigns ​

Here are 5 resurrection campaigns that can bring in-danger segments back to active states.

Some of these resurrection campaigns might initially look like they go against the rule and consume a heavy budget - however, the cost here subjectively is just a fraction of what the company will lose on a cancelled contract long-term. That is why they are confidently feasible approaches.

Beyond the ideas of right and wrong campaigns, there is a field. We shall meet our resurrected users there.

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Epilogue

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The true key to apt engagement and retention in this product (like others, too) lies primarily in sculpting the attitude of users to drive more adoption. When users decide that they simply do not like the idea of the product (not even the product itself), they will churn rapidly and cause a hit to the entire market as mentioned above.

Engagement campaigns must be highly user-centric and work on a bottom-up basis - for it is the users who have the final say over the extent to which they end up utilizing the product. Retention should be a balance between a bottom-up and top-down approach - since the leadership teams who are not even direct users of the product hold heavy sway over ensuring it stays in the users hands.

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And that might be the subject of a new story but our present story is over.

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All's well that ends well, after all 😀.

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