ID

Focus Area

Observation

Impact

Remediation Activity

1

First Line Management Systems

In order to improve efficiency and productivity, organizational policies must be understood, and department level processes and procedures must be documented, shared, operationalized, and periodically reviewed for currency. By storing the information in a centralized location, information can be readily accessible to any employee and risk can be minimized by an employee leaving the organization.

Processes and Procedures to be reviewed and refined to ensure that Employees understand their overall deliverables and specific procedures on how to perform their jobs.

Lack of well-defined processes/procedures can lead to prolonged downtimes, impacting business and client experience.

1. Review the current as-is process documentation and begin efforts to update the documentation.

2. Use the IPC ticket analysis data and Client Escalations to ensure individual procedures are captured.

3. Establish system to capture new information

4. Document the information using standard style guides

5. Establish Review and Approval cycles.

2

First Line Management Systems

Clearly defined roles and their associated responsibilities are critical to relating how individual responsibilities contribute towards the organization’s mission, vision, and goals. When this relationship is established, each and every employee will be able to see how they contribute to the organization and the value that they add.

Roles and responsibilities to be reviewed and refined to ensure all employees are aware of what is expected of them.

Unclear roles and responsibilities can result in ineffective management of staff, important work being missed or falling short of the expected results, conflict and arising from ownership of certain tasks, and negative impact to the business and client experience.

1. Document the roles and responsibilities using a defined template.

2. Communicate the roles and responsibilities with the employees, management, and HR.

3. Provide training specific for the roles.

3

Operational Management

The Training Management process focuses on ensuring new and existing resources are trained to effectively perform their jobs and deliver the services which meet the SLAs/SLOs. It ensures that there is a structured way to conduct the initial training that considers all aspects of IT and Business and conducts refresh training based on skill gap analysis. The input into the training program comes from the reporting and measurements team, knowledge management team and quality management team.

The Skills Management process ensures management is provided with the appropriate level of insight to identify talent that currently exists and talent which needs to be developed. By having properly trained and skilled resources, it becomes much easier to achieve the organization’s goals. Having a management system that is up-to-date on all aspects of the employee’s experience, ambitions, and performance levels will ensure that not only are the employees positioned to properly execute the roles, but their job satisfaction levels will also increase.

Staff need to undergo a skill gap analysis and be provided with refresh training.

Lack of trained/skilled resources can impact response and resolve times which can lead to prolonged downtimes and negative impact to the business and client experience.

1. Establish Roles and Responsibilities that are aligned with HR, Management, and Employee expectations.

2. Establish development programs, career and personal.

3. Conduct skill gap analysis using a defined template.

4. Ensure training manuals are created and refreshed accordingly.

5. Link with Training Management, Knowledge Management, Quality Management, and Continual Service Improvement Management Systems.

4

Operational Management

The Knowledge Management process focuses on ensuring all employees have adequate resources available to them to understand and resolve the issues they are encountering. It ensures that a centralized tool is available with appropriate workflow, approval process, validation process and access by both the IT and business teams.

Knowledge Management system (ServiceNow or Other) and its supporting processes need to be reviewed. System needs to be centralized as information is currently located in multiple locations.

Lack of an effective knowledge management system and processes can lead to prolonged downtimes, negative impact to the business, and client experience.

This can also cause great frustration for the agent.

1. Develop Infrastructure Wide Knowledge Management System (KMS). This will consist of Knowledge Management Tool and supporting Processes.

2. Tool and supporting processes need to be communicated to teams and education/marketing sessions need to take place (Roadshows).

3. Establish connection between Quality, Reporting and Measurements, Analytics and Continual Improvement Program focals to share analysis and update KB accordingly.

4. Establish reports for new and newly updated documents by team, by employee, etc.

5. Consider requiring agents to reference the KMS article number that they used when diagnosing and resolving or referring each incident. Increase Infrastructure collaboration in Knowledge Management.

5

Operational Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) System should be continuously looking to improve the quality of the services that are provided. The TQM system ensures that consistent reviews of key support processes, reviews of the work the analysts are performing, reviews of customer satisfaction surveys and overall reviews of the system to identify areas of improvement are taking place.

Quality Management system needs to be reviewed and optimized. Centralized team should be in place to conduct quality reviews.

Lack of a robust quality management program can lead to continued issues with Repeat Calls, Misrouted Calls, Growing backlogs, Prolonged downtimes, Skill Gaps, and negative client experience.

1. Design Infrastructure Wide Quality Program.

2. Assign focal and develop supporting processes.

3. Develop quality ticket monitoring Templates and scoring methodologies.

4. Hold occasional quality ticket monitoring scoring sessions with each Staff (not just those needing help improving QTM scores), with Staff and management jointly looking for opportunities for service improvement in both soft and hard skill areas. Use the quality ticket monitoring program to raise the bar on service quality provided, even for those calls where quality ticket monitoring scores are high.

6

Operational Management

Building a Service Performance Management System begins with establishing a robust reporting & measurements system. Reports & Metrics need to be designed and delivered to the right audience at the right interval for use in tracking and trending and further detailed drill down analysis. Properly designed reports and metrics will allow you to baseline your performance and compare the results against industry standards and internal organizational expectations. Once the reports and appropriate measurements are in place, regular performance reviews can take place to assess the health of the business.

Service Performance Management needs to be optimized to ensure that the reports and metrics being generated are of value and providing the necessary insight to IBM and BBD teams on current performance and what changes need to be made.

A Lack of Service Performance Management System can lead to missed contractual and operational targets, employees unaware how their contributions are impacting the contractual deliverables, and lack of improvement in the environment. This can lead to issues with the quality of the work, prolonged downtimes, negative impact to the business, and poor client experience.

1. Obtain catalog of all reports and measurements on the account (Internal and External).

2. Obtain list of all data sources for each of the reports and measurements.

3. Obtain list of all communications related to reports and measurements.

4. Identify is who pulling the data and preparing the reports, measurements, and communications.

5. Map current reports and measurements to contractual and internal requirements (Operational and Service Level Reports).

6. Document measurements requirements using provided template (specify Objective, Definition, Formula, Data Capture, Measurement Interval, Reporting Period, Hours of Support, Resource Range, Weighting Factor, Service Level).

7

Operational Management

The Continual Service Improvement process leverages the Reporting & Measurements, Quality Management, Knowledge Management, and Training Management processes to drive the Shift Left strategy in the organization. The ultimate goal is to increase End User uptime and availability by driving issues towards End User Self Enablement, Automation, and Self-Healing.

Continual Service Improvement system needs to be reviewed and ensure that it is aligned with the other key supporting processes.

Lack of a robust continual service improvement system can lead to continued issues with the quality of the work, prolonged downtimes, negative impact to the business, and poor client experience.

1. Define the Role and Responsibilities of the current CSI Manager.

2. Ensure expectations are clear.

3. Coordinate with Knowledge Management, Quality, Training/Skills, and Service Performance Management focals to identify improvement opportunities.

4. Develop cadence system to manage CSI program and report on progress.

8

Backlogs

Lack of Operational Management systems can result in growth and mis-management of ticket backlogs. Leading to poor service experience and client dissatisfaction.

Common contributing factors to backlog issues:

1. OM3 - Growth/Workload Management

2. OM5 – Skills/Training Management

3. OM6 – Resource Management

4. OM8 – Knowledge Management

5. OM9 – Technology & Tools Management

6. OM14 – Service Performance Management (Reporting & Analytics)

7. OM15 – Continual Service Improvement Management

8. OM17 – Issues/Escalations Management

9. OM19 – Queue Management

10. CORE-C – Event/Monitoring & Alerting

11. CORE-C – Performance & Capacity Management

12. CORE-C – Asset Management

13. CORE-C – Configuration Management

14. UM5 – Cross-Department Management

15. UM6 – Vendor Management

16. UM9 – Global Delivery Management

1. Client dissatisfaction due to the length of time being taken to resolve the issues

2. Tickets being placed on SLA Hold to avoid SLA impact

3. Tickets in a Queued state, indicating delays in picking up tickets and working on them

4. Lack of updates to client resulting in client dissat and status calls

1. Understand workload dynamics. Are volumes increasing? (OM3)

2. Understand impact of skills/training on backlogs. Are tickets aging due to skill issues? (OM5)

3. Understand of impact of staffing levels on backlogs. Do you have sufficient staff to handle the workload you are receiving? (OM6)

4. Understand the impact to backlogs as a result of knowledgebase gaps. Is your knowledgebase up to date and is it being consistently used? (OM8)

5. Understand the impact of technology & tools to your backlog. Is the ticketing tool, software distribution tool, remote takeover tool, etc. impacting your ability to work on the tickets? (OM9)

6. Understand utilization dynamics. Are people working at expected levels? Do you have the right reports to show you what is happening? Is there analytics taking place to help you understand where the issues are? (OM14)

7. Understand the lack of continual service improvement management has on the backlog. Is someone working with the knowledge, skills, reporting, and analytics teams to understand the root cause of the backlog and taking actions to address the issues? (OM15)

8. Understand the lack of issues/escalation management system have on the backlog. Are issues which are impacting the backlog being addressed in the timely manner? Issues such as client availability to troubleshoot or provide the required information? (OM17)

9. Understand the impact of queue management on the backlog. Is queue management taking place? Is there a process to deal with aging tickets? Is the queues being managed 7/24? Are tickets being assigned to people to work or are people picking up tickets they want to work? (OM19)

10. Understand the impact of the Event / Monitoring & Alerting Management on the backlog. Are false alerts resulting in the creation of tickets? Is event management process in place to deal with the false alerts and remediate them immediately? (CORE-C)

11. Understand issues with Performance & Capacity Management on the backlog. Are issues with CPU, Memory, Disk, etc. resulting in alerts being generated, contributing to the backlog? (CORE-C)

12. Understand the issues with Asset / Configuration Management on the backlog. Are issues with the asset database resulting in tickets being unable to be marked complete, resulting in the growth and aging of the backlog? (CORE-C)

13. Understand issues with cross department management on the backlog. Are issues with other teams impacting the backlog? Are other teams slow to respond/resolve? Are other teams bouncing tickets back? (UM5)

14. Understand issues with Vendor Management on the backlog. Are the Vendors slow to respond, slow to resolve, rejecting work being assigned to them? Are the contracts with the vendor not clear in terms of expectations? (UM6)

15. Understand issues with Global Delivery Management on the backlog. Are issues with GD resources/processes impacting the backlog? Hours of work? Quality of work? Responsiveness? DOU/SOW issues with GD teams? (UM9)

9

Dispatch Rate

The dispatch rate from the service desk to other teams is important because it reflects the efficiency of the desk and it results in higher cost to the organization. When the approximate costs to handle a ticket at the service desk is between 8-10 dollars, @25 dollars at Level 1.5, @50 dollars at Deskside and higher when sent to other higher level groups. It can get quite costly if the dispatch rate is high. It can also result in prolonged downtimes for the user if the issue has to move from the service desk to level 1.5 to deskside to other teams. This prolonged downtime can also result in negative client experience and client dissat.

Common contributing factors to dispatch rate issues:

1. OM3 – Growth Management

2. OM5 - Skills/Training Management

3. OM6 – Resource Management

4. OM7 – Quality Management

5. OM8 – Knowledge Management

6. OM9 – Technology & Tools Management

7. OM13 – Service Level Management

8. OM14 – Service Performance Management (Reporting & Analytics)

9. OM15 – Continual Service Improvement Management

10. OM17 – Issues/Escalations Management

11. OM19 – Queue Management

1. Prolonged downtime for the End User if the issue cannot be resolved at the Service Desk and has to be dispatched to other teams

2. Increased costs as cost per ticket rates are much higher for teams above the service desk

3. Negative Client Experience and impact to Customer Satisfaction

1. Understand the impact of growth/increased workloads is having on the dispatch rate. Are the agents feeling pressure to send the ticket to deskside to answer the calls waiting in the queue? (OM3)

2. Understand the impact of skills/training on the dispatch rate. Is the dispatch rate high because agents do not have the skills or have not be adequately trained? Are skill gaps across the board or confined to a group of agents, day of the week, hour of the day, a specific application, etc.? (OM5)

3. Understand the impact staffing levels are having on the dispatch rate. If there are staffing gaps, are agents being forced to cut the call short and send the tickets to deskside so they can take the next available call and avoid ASA and ABDN impact? (OM6)

4. Implement a quality management program (quality ticket monitoring and quality telemonitoring) to assess for ticket handling gaps. (OM7)

5. Understand the impact of the knowledgebase on the dispatch rate. Are tickets being dispatched to deskside and other teams because the knowledge does not exist, is not clear or is not being used? (OM8)

6. Understand the impact of technology and tools on the dispatch rate. Are tickets being dispatched because the agents do not have access to a working or reliable remote takeover tool? Do they not have access to remotely install SW? Do they lack admin rights to perform certain functions? (OM9)

7. Understand the impact of Service Levels on the dispatch rate. Are the call SLAs so aggressive that, agents are being forced to cut the calls short and dispatch tickets to deskside to avoid SLA miss? (OM13)

8. Understand the impact of Service Performance Management on the dispatch rate. Are adequate reports and measurements lacking to understand the behaviour of the dispatch rate? Is there an adequate analytics process in place to understand where the gaps are and how to close the gaps. Are agent utilization reports and targets in place to ensure consistency in handling tickets? (OM14)

9. Understand the impact of a lack of continual service improvement program on the dispatch rate. Are the observations and recommendations being made by the skills, quality, knowledge, reporting and measurements and analytics teams being acted on? (OM15)

10. Are issues raised to address challenges with being unable to resolve higher number of tickets at the service desk being addressed by management? (OM17)

11. Is there queue management in place to track and trend dispatch rates in real time?

10

CSAT

Customer Satisfaction is an indicator of the client experience with the level of service being provided. A poor customer satisfaction score can be reflective degraded service being provided to the client and/or a lack of understand by the client of the service that they are eligible for.

Common factors that can have an impact on customer satisfaction are:

1. EE1 – Employee Development

2. EE2 – Employee Communications

3. EE3 - Employee/Manager Feedback Programs

4. EE4 - Monthly Accomplishments

5. EE5 - Employee Council

6. EE6 - Employee Social Events

7. EE7 - Awards & Recognition Program

8. EE8 - Round Table Discussions with Sr. Leaders

9. EE9 - Skip Level Interviews with Sr. Leaders

10. EE10 - Structured 1-on-1 Meetings

11. EE11 - Structured Team Meetings

12. EE12 - Pre-Shift Process / Daily WHY

13. EE13 - Weekly Scorecard / Monthly Operational Reports

14. EE14 - Inter-Department Management

15. EE15 - Employee Lunch & Learns

16. EE16 - Employee Roles & Responsibilities

17. EE 17 - Employee Performance Reviews Management

18. OM2 – Steady State Management

19. OM3 – Growth Management

20. OM4 – Financial (Cost) Management

21. OM5 – Skills Management

22. OM6 – Resource Management

23. OM7 – Quality Management

24. OM8 – Knowledge Management

25. OM9 – Technology & Tools Management

26. OM10 – Risk Management

27. OM13 – Service Level Management

28. OM14 – Service Performance Management

29. OM15 – Continual Service Improvement Management

30. OM – Issues/Escalations Management

31. OM19 – Queue Management

32. FLM1 – Roles and Responsibilities Management

33. FLM4 – Meetings Management

34. UM3 – Customer Relationship Management

35. UM5 – Cross Department Management

36. UM6 – Vendor Management

37. UM7 – Crisis Management

38. UM9 – Global Delivery Management

39. UM12 – Contract Management

40. UM13 – Account Governance

1. Dissatisfied clients may avoid using the service

2. Dissatisfied clients may escalate to senior management

3. Dissatisfied clients may request the service be cancelled

4. Dissatisfied clients may request additional oversight to ensure the service is being rendered as per contract and expectations

5. Additional costs may be incurred to understand and remediate the cause of the dissatisfaction

1.