Why do so many organisations fail to get value from their software?

Most organisations fail to get full value from their software because adoption is treated as the client's responsibility once a sale is complete. Research from Zylo's SaaS Management Index found that around half of all enterprise software licence spend goes unused. [CONFIRM: add the report year and a link before publish.] The root cause is almost never the software itself, it is the absence of structured onboarding, data migration support, user training, and ongoing review. Organisations end up paying for tools that are partially used or abandoned, while continuing to rely on spreadsheets and disconnected systems that the software was supposed to replace. Where a supplier does not resource Customer Success, adoption tends to be left to the client, and that is what shows up at renewal.

How does Tractivity's Customer Success model differ from competitors?

Tractivity's Customer Success model differs from competitors in three specific ways. First, the entire team is UK-based and named publicly on the Tractivity website, clients know who they are working with before they sign, and can hold that relationship to account. Second, onboarding includes active data migration from existing spreadsheets and legacy systems, rather than directing clients to self-serve resources. Third, every client receives a formal Quarterly Business Review that examines usage data directly, identifying adoption gaps and unaddressed training needs. What suppliers publish about their Customer Success teams varies, so it is worth checking each shortlisted vendor's own website and G-Cloud listing for named contacts, published support hours and a written SLA, and asking in writing for anything that is not published.

Why Accountability Starts With Naming Your Team on the Website

This blog post is the second article in the four-part series, The ROI Imperative. Tractivity Chairman, Paul Rivers, examines why most software vendors fail their clients after the sale, and how Tractivity has built its Customer Success model around genuine accountability, not the illusion of it.

You can read the other articles here: Article 1 | Article 3 | Article 4.

The account manager myth

If you visit the Tractivity website, you'll find something uncommon on SaaS websites: the names and faces of our UK Customer Success team.

That's a deliberate choice. Not a quirk of web design.

When organisations procure software, any software, there is almost always a gap between what the vendor promises in the sales process and what the client experiences six months in. The demo looks polished. The procurement process is time-consuming. The onboarding is attentive.

And then, gradually, the level of engagement drops off. Tickets take longer to be answered. The 'dedicated account manager' can turn out to be harder to reach than the sales process suggested, and buyers often find they were never told how many other accounts that person carries or which working hours they keep. The renewal comes around, and the client isn't entirely sure they've had value, but switching feels difficult, so they renew anyway.

I've watched this pattern play out for years. We have set out to build something structurally different.

The Customer Success model we have built

At Tractivity, we have a UK-based Customer Success team, and you can see every one of them by name on this website. They are not a support desk. They are professionals who understand Stakeholder Engagement and work alongside our clients on an ongoing basis. They have a very specific remit: to ensure that every client is getting a return on their investment in Tractivity.

In practice, that means several things. First, intensive onboarding. When a new client joins us, we don't hand them a manual and wish them luck. And we certainly don’t solely point them at a Help Centre or an AI agent, even though such functions have their role in the support mix.

Instead, we work with them to migrate their existing data, often from a combination of (usually poorly structured) spreadsheets and legacy systems, into Tractivity. We train their users. We configure the system around their workflows. We don't declare success until they are actually using the platform.

Second, Quarterly Business Reviews. Every Tractivity client has a formal QBR with their Customer Success Manager. We look at usage data together. We ask hard questions. Are all the relevant people using the system? Are there features the client is paying for but hasn't yet adopted? Is there a training need we haven't addressed? This isn't a sales call disguised as a check-in. It's a genuine audit of value. Is it for our benefit or the Client’s? In reality, it’s both.

Third, we measure Net Promoter Score. We want to know what our clients actually think of us, not what they say to our faces, but what they'd tell a peer. NPS is a discipline that forces honest reflection, and we take it seriously.

Why do we name our team?

You can't hold an anonymous team accountable. When a client knows they are working with their account manager, when they can see that person on our website and can put a face to the relationship, it changes the dynamic entirely. It signals that we are serious about the long-term partnership, not just the initial sale.

Support and account management are worth checking on a supplier-by-supplier basis, because what is published varies a great deal. Some publish specific hours: Syrenis records 09:00 to 17:30, Monday to Friday in its G-Cloud filing, and Borealis's G-Cloud listing records phone support 9 to 5 UK time, Monday to Friday, while its own help centre lists 9am to 5pm Eastern Time. Others publish no hours at all: Simply Stakeholders publishes none on its site, and Open Point publishes a 24/7 helpdesk lodgement but services tickets only during "local Business Hours," which it does not define.

Whoever you shortlist, ask for three things in writing: the published support hours, the time zone they are measured in, and the name of the person who will own your account. Tractivity's answer is UK and EU working hours, a named UK Client Success Manager on every subscription, and a managed SLA as standard. Based on publicly available information, reviewed August 2026.

We have 112+ named UK clients across eight sectors, from NHS organisations and HM Treasury to the Welsh Government, National Grid and EDF. If you are comparing suppliers, count the named UK public sector clients each one publishes on its own website, and ask every one of them for UK references you can call.

Enlightened self-interest

I'll be honest about something: our focus on client adoption and ROI is not purely altruistic. It is also good business.

Clients who use Tractivity fully stay longer. They expand their usage. They refer others. Clients who don't use it, who let it sit as expensive mustard on the side of the plate, are at risk of leaving at renewal. Our entire commercial model depends on our clients succeeding.

So our Customer Success team's job isn't to manage satisfaction scores. It's to make sure that the investment our clients have made in Tractivity is genuinely working for them, and then ultimately for ourselves.

That alignment of incentives is, I believe, exactly how the relationship between a software vendor and its clients should work.

In the next post, I explore the real competitor we face, which is not any software platform, but the organisational status quo.

Frequently asked questions

What does a UK-based Customer Success team do? A Customer Success team is not a support desk. At Tractivity, our UK-based team works alongside clients on an ongoing basis with a specific remit: to ensure every organisation is getting a genuine return on their investment. That means intensive onboarding, regular usage reviews, and honest conversations about whether the system is being fully adopted, not just whether tickets are being resolved.

What is a Quarterly Business Review in software? A Quarterly Business Review, or QBR, is a formal check-in between a software vendor and their client that goes beyond account management. At Tractivity, QBRs involve reviewing usage data together, identifying features that haven't yet been adopted, and asking the hard questions about whether the system is working as it should. The goal is a genuine audit of value, not a sales call in disguise.

Why does it matter whether a software vendor names their support team? Accountability requires visibility. When clients can see who they are working with - a named person, not an anonymous team - it changes the nature of the relationship entirely. It signals a commitment to long-term partnership rather than post-sale disengagement. If a supplier does not publish who will own your account, ask for that name, their working hours and the escalation route in writing before you sign.

What is Net Promoter Score and why do software organisations use it? Net Promoter Score, or NPS, measures how likely a client is to recommend a product or service to a peer. It's a discipline that forces honest reflection, because it captures what clients actually think rather than what they say in a renewal conversation. At Tractivity, NPS is one of the ways we hold ourselves accountable to client experience, not just client retention.

Why do software vendors lose clients after the initial onboarding period? The most common cause is a gradual withdrawal of engagement after the sale is secured. The demo is polished, the onboarding is attentive, and then the contact drops off. Account management can quietly become a mailbox rather than a relationship, and buyers often find that the number of accounts their manager carries, and the hours that manager works, were never put in writing. By the time renewal comes around, clients aren't sure they've had value, but switching feels difficult, so they stay. At Tractivity, we've deliberately built a model designed to prevent exactly that pattern from forming.