Doing More With Less--Managing a
Support Center More Effectively
-Omar Reece, Lawson Software
Welcome!
• Who is Lawson?
– Lawson Software provides business process
software solutions that help services organizations
in the healthcare, retail, professional services,
public sector, financial services, and other strategic
markets achieve competitive advantage. Lawson's
solutions include enterprise performance
management, distribution, financials, human
resources, procurement, merchandising and
services automation.
• Lawson’ Support Model (phone and online interactive-chat)
• “Complex” support—90 minute average case time, 40%
first case closure rate
SCP Certified
• SCP Certification—Five years in-a-row.
• Maturation Process—We wanted to do more with what we
had, how could SCP help?
• We were scoring “off the charts” for response—too fast
answering the phones.
• What was the impact of this to other areas (e.g., backlog,
time to work other issues, etc.)?
• This case study outlines a re-engineering process in one
area of support
– Change the way you take calls without effecting customer
satisfaction or primary response rate while at the same time
reduce the group backlog while making agents more
productive
Identifying Areas to Focus
• Idle time—amount of time an agent not
working while waiting to take next issue
• Scheduling—how much time do agents
have to resolve existing issues?
• Cross-functional—do your agents only
work in specific areas, or are they “utility
players”?
Case Study—Procurement/Distribution
• Idle time—up to 70% idle due to
emphasis on primary response
• Scheduling—frontline/backline/point
person responsibilities all scheduled
• Not Cross-functional—Dedicated
Distribution personnel, dedicated
Procurement personnel
Idle Time
• Idle time—up to 70% idle due to
emphasis on primary response
– Primary response (picking up the phone)
was leading mgmt objective. Achieved
through scheduling many agents to be
available
– Could not quantify how productive agents
were while waiting for the next call, but felt
like could never really start something
because phone “could ring”
Scheduling
• Scheduling—frontline/backline/point
person responsibilities all scheduled
– Many staff members were needed to cover
frontline shifts to achieve response (4
hours/day)
Scheduled Backline (case transfers from
other areas/email cases) (3 hours/day)
Scheduled point person (1 hour/day)
Not Cross-functional
• Not Cross-functional—Dedicated
Distribution personnel, dedicated
procurement personnel
– Consultants specialized in products
supported
– Phone models separate
– Volume low for smaller group
– Based this on perceived higher customer
satisfaction—customer intimacy
Changes Made
• Combined Two Groups to handle all incoming
phone issues
• Scaled back frontline phone coverage to staff
as minimally as possible
• Took away other “non resolution” type
responsibilities (e.g., escalation coverage)
• Instituted overflow system where scheduled
agents would “jump in” only if calls were
holding. That way, if things are slow, agents
are most effective
Results of Case study—areas effected
• Total idle time--Reduction
• Service level--Maintained
• # of Hours Issues Were Worked by
scheduled agents--Reduction
• Backlog--Reduction
• Customer Satisfaction—Increase
• Agent Productivity--Increase
Total Idle Time--Reduction
Weeks
27
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
3
120:00:00
108:00:00
96:00:00
84:00:00
72:00:00
60:00:00
48:00:00
36:00:00
24:00:00
12:00:00
0:00:00
1
Idle Hours per week
Idle Hours Per Week
Service Level (% of calls answered in 3 minutes)-Maintained
Service Level
95.00%
90.00%
85.00%
80.00%
Weeks
27
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
3
75.00%
1
Service Level
100.00%
# of Hours Issues Were Worked by Scheduled Agents
Weeks
25
22
19
16
13
10
7
4
192:00:00
168:00:00
144:00:00
120:00:00
96:00:00
72:00:00
48:00:00
24:00:00
0:00:00
1
Hours/week
Scheduled Agents
# of Hours Issues Were Worked by Non-Scheduled
Agents (Ad-hoc)
Non-Scheduled Agents
28:48:00
19:12:00
14:24:00
9:36:00
4:48:00
Weeks
27
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
3
0:00:00
1
Hours/week
24:00:00
Backlog—44% Reduction
Total Backlog
600
400
300
200
100
Weeks
27
25
23
21
19
17
15
13
11
9
7
5
3
0
1
Backlog in Cases
500
Customer Satisfaction--Increase
Overall Satisfaction (Service 800 Event Surveys)
100.00%
Score
95.00%
90.00%
85.00%
80.00%
75.00%
70.00%
Month Month Month Month Month Month Month Month
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Month
1/
1
5
2/
12/
15
3/
13/
1
4/
16 5
-4
5/ / 30
16
-5
/3
6/
16 1
-6
/3
7/
16 0
-7
/3
8/
16 0
-8
/3
9/
16 0
10 -9/3
/1
0
611 10/
3
/1
6- 1
11
12
/3
/1
0
612
1/ /31
16
-1
/3
2/
16 1
-2
/2
8
1/
1-
closes
Agent Productivity—35% Increase in Production
Efficiency
closes per support consultant
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
dates
Questions?