Buying business software has evolved over the past 10 years. It used to be that there were several large players producing large suites that theoretically solved all your problems.

Turns out these behemoths couldn’t solve all the problems of an organization. There are many still around, but their usefulness to modern, digital-first organizations is minimal.

Today, thanks to the cloud, there has been a rise of lighter, faster, more specialized software. This revolution has enabled organizations to adapt and “plug and play” software as their needs changed. Integrations took center stage and software had to quickly adapt to provide open APIs and even out-of-the-box integrations.

What hasn’t kept up is the buying process for organizations. Legitimate fears of security and “too much software” chaos created a conflict between the business attempting to solve business problems and IT attempting to keep everyone safe. The result can be long sales processes and a tendency towards doing nothing rather than moving forward and solving problems.

Here at Talkoot, we understand. Our goal is to provide some insights into our philosophy to help unlock the stalemate of indecision and get down to solving problems.

At the heart of it all is implementation. How easy, how fast, how seamless can software fit in with your people, processes and product line. Secondarily it’s all about risk mitigation. Will purchasing a software lock you into an unrecoverable scenario? What if it’s not working out?

Talkoot sees success in three phases. Each phase includes measurements and ways to adjust, change or stop.

 

1. Setup and training

This is where it all begins and is the most critical stage. It’s also the best place to make go/no go decisions. This phase can either be an all-in phase or it can be treated as a pilot. Whichever way you choose to go, pilot or all-in, to really get a sense of how Talkoot will help your team, it’s important to use real data and go through a real process to create real content. Just clicking around in a powerful system like Talkoot won’t give you a good indication as to whether it’s for you.

During this phase we import data, train users, learn about existing processes, and work closely with the core users to learn and adapt.

Time: 2-6 weeks

Tips and Tricks: pick a specific product line, commit to the process (that is, skip the trial and use real data and timelines)

CASE STUDY: Thanks to Talkoot’s configurable workflows and flexible data model, Talkoot’s customer success team was able to get Outdoor Research’s data loaded in the system, and the OR team trained and ready to produce in just two weeks.

 

2. Initial ramp-up & early stage efficiencies

By now a team is getting a good sense for how Talkoot works. Users are trained and initial work has begun. It’s usually at this point that a few things happen:

• Companies realize that others would benefit from seeing the data and content that used to be buried
• Additional product lines or seasons are included
• Integration conversations begin or actual integrations are set up
• Teams adapt and streamline their process thanks to their improved skills using Talkoot
• Teams start looking into our AI and how it can further speed production
• Users become more proficient and start using advanced features such as bulk update, Brandcheck, AI, carryover, and more

Each of these events builds more confidence and increases the time and savings the team is seeing.

Time: 2-3 months

Tips and Tricks: This is a moment when customers start to see the full value of Talkoot. Early in the process, we make sure Talkoot is set up to support your previous process. As teams become familiar with Talkoot, they see the ability to re-invent their process to make it much faster and more efficient.

“The error rate is below 5% now because there are a number of eyes on the copy and having a laid-out process helps a lot. In terms of copy, we are miles ahead of where we were even three years ago.” —Stew Brinegar, Data Management Lead, Burton

 

3. Long-term benefits with integrations and additional enhancements

At some point, all your products are flowing through Talkoot, integrations are in place, and you’ve gone through several seasons. You are beginning to see the benefits of better copy on your sites and in your channels. It’s time to sit back and enjoy all the free time you have.

It’s also a good time to start thinking about the future. Taking more advantage of AI maybe. Deeper integrations. Talking with the Talkoot product team about future enhancements and wish list items.

Time: 1 year

Tips and Tricks: We love to work with customers to build features that improve their lives. Once your team has mastered Talkoot, it’s a good time for us to take you through our roadmap and talk about what future features matter to you.

CASE STUDY: With several integrations that pull in product imagery, data and requests for content from around the world, and push completed content to their ecommerce site, adidas is saving over $1M/year in production costs with Talkoot.