This article is based on a presentation given by Giso at our Customer Success Festival, Amsterdam in 2024.

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With businesses tackling complex processes and embracing digital transformation, it’s not enough to simply provide software solutions – true success comes from ensuring customers derive measurable value from their investments. 

This is where adoption becomes a game-changer.

As someone who has spent years shaping customer success strategies at Siemens, I’ve witnessed the challenges and opportunities that come with driving adoption in industries as diverse as automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing.

In this article, I’ll take you through the approach we’ve developed at Siemens to scale adoption and deliver value, even in the most complex customer environments.

We’ll explore:

  • The structure of Siemens’ customer success organization
  • The development of our global Adoption Framework
  • How we address adoption challenges in traditional industries
  • The tools and processes we use to measure and report on success
  • How we’re setting the foundation for scalable, customer-centric growth

By the end, you’ll see how a structured approach to adoption can transform customer relationships and drive lasting impact.

Building strategy and operations for customer success

Today, my role at Siemens focuses on strategy and operations within customer success, a division I had the privilege of initiating. 

I pitched the need for an operational backbone to our directors, emphasizing that without a dedicated function managing the operations of customer success, scaling would be nearly impossible. 

While our team is still relatively small, this early formalization is a crucial step toward creating a mature, scalable model.

The adoption challenge in traditional industries

Adoption is a term that’s frequently mentioned but often misunderstood. In traditional engineering companies, like those we serve – think Boeing, BMW, and others – adoption is a multifaceted and challenging process. 

Unlike simpler scenarios where adoption might involve monitoring the consumption of features, we deal with customers immersed in intricate processes like designing, developing, and manufacturing cars, planes, and other complex products.

Driving adoption in such environments requires addressing questions like “how,” “when,” and “whom.” It’s not just about encouraging usage but about embedding our solutions into the customer's workflow in a way that delivers measurable value. This makes change management an essential component of our strategy.

The importance of change management

Change management, in this context, is about creating what I call a “landing strip” for our solutions.

It’s about ensuring that the customer’s team can start consuming the software effectively, integrating it into their operations, and ultimately realizing its value. This process is far from straightforward and involves navigating complex organizational structures and processes at the customer’s end.

Our focus is on helping customers transition from simply owning our software to actually leveraging it as a driver of innovation and efficiency in their business. This requires a nuanced approach tailored to their specific needs and challenges.