Copyright © 2003 Americas’ SAP Users’ Group Enhancing Workflows for the Contact Center Environment Frank Bourque / Marcel Landry May 20, 2003

Copyright © 2003 Americas’ SAP Users’ Group

Enhancing Workflows for theContact Center Environment

Frank Bourque / Marcel Landry

May 20, 2003

Presentation Objectives

Demonstrate How To Select Workflows for Process Improvement

Show Tools and Solutions to Streamline and Improve Existing Workflows

Show Benefits, ROI Resulting From Improvements and Success Factors

Agenda

About NB Power

Driver for Workflow Enhancement

Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

New Brunswick Power

Government owned Electric Utility

Pending Restructuring

Holding Company

Generation

Distribution and Customer Service

Transmission

Nuclear

Service the Eastern Canadian Province of New Brunswick

Interconnects to Maritimes and New England

Distribution & Customer Service

Independent Operating Company (IOC)

Electricity service delivery to residential, commercial, wholesale, and industrial customers

Wholesale and large industrial deregulation mid-summer 2003

310,000 customers - 800 employees

26,000 km (16,146 miles) of lines

5 regional operating offices - 4 customer contact centers

Customer Service 4 locations hours of operation 8 to 8 75 Agents, 6 Super, 1 Manager, 5 SAE’s, 1 BA

Collection Services 1 location hours of operation 8 to 8 38 Agents, 3 Super., 1 Manager, 1 SAE, 1 BA

Emergency Center (Power Outages) 1 location hours of operation 24/7, 365 days 6 Agents, 1 shared Super.with customer service

Contact Center Environment

Location

New Brunswick’s Geographical Location

Maine

N-B

1200 + Users

Win NT OS / MS SQL Server DB

8 App Servers / 1 DB Server / 1 CI Server

2 BW App Server/1 DB Server / 1 BW CI

2.2g 4.0b 4.6c3.0f

FI/CO/MMAM/PS

SD/ARPCA

IS-U/CCS(Workflow)

CICPM

04/96 98 08/99

11/0197 04/03BW/CM/TM

ECCS

SAP at NB Power

10/02EnhancedWorkflow

s

IS-U/CCS:• Bus. Partner• Contract• Service Orders

Customer Service Process

Workflow

Contract

Work Order

WPS WPA• Contact Log

Request for Service

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

What is Workflow ?

Cross Application tool

Sequencing of work tasks

Right work to the right person at the right time

Dynamic decisions and approvals

Task A Who ?Task B

Approve

Task C

Approve

AND

Approve

AND

Accept ?

END

StartY

N

User 1 User 1

User 2

Mgr 1

Mgr 2

User 3

Why Workflow Enhancements

Objectives:

Reduce Cost of Service Reduce average call handle time

Reduce system training time

Reduce the number of erred workflows

Improve Customer Service

Focusing on customers needs

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

Total Incoming Calls 532,000

Total Move In/Move out Calls 48,000

Total New Services 8,500

Total Changes/Cancel Disco/Reco 3,200

Average Handle Time (AHT) 490 Sec.

Average Cost per Call (CDN) $9.05

Call Information FY 2001-2002

...and the winners are …..

Reconnect

New Service (i.e. new installation)

Change/Cancel Reconnect/Disconnect

Create Business Partner (BP)

Process Selection

Selected for Enhancements:

Several screens required to collect business data

Enter data more than once

Unnecessary screen entries

select single value from list

always select same value from list

No Cancel option led to numerous ‘in-process’ and erred workflows

Common Issues

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

Process Improvement

Improving the...

Reconnect process

New Service process

Change/Cancel Reconnect/Disconnect process

Create New Business Partner process

Includes: Move-out, Move-In, Service Order

Reconnect

Screen Changes 24

Data Fields Req'd 32

Mouse Actions 29Total Interactions Required 85

Before After

New Enhanced Process

Automatically selected if

CW >40

Change BP

Reset BP

Defaulted

Proposed based on 2 months EPP

CreditVerification

Process Improvement

Improving the...

Reconnect process

New Service process


Create Business Partner process

Includes: Conn. Obj, Premise, Installation, Move-In, Contract, Contract Acct, Service order

New Service

Screen Changes 26



Before After

4 values proposed based on service address

Automatically

selected if

CW >40

Date must be today or in past


Process Improvement

Improving the...

Reconnect process

New Service process




Process was used to change existing planned orders and business documents

Multiple conditions require multiple actions

Multiple linked documents changing

Actions dependent on:

Type of orders in place

Process Before Upgrade

Date of existing orders

New Date for documents Which Partner is calling (move-in / move-out)

What order types are affected

???

Change/Cancel Reconnect/Disconnect Effect on other orders

I.e Meter Read order may become Disconnect order

Process not streamlined - no automation of tasks

Documents manually created, reversed or changed

Some data manually entered 1 +

Process very cumbersome

Process is training intensive

Disliked by agents

20 Page document outlining possible scenarios and action required !

High rate of errors and cancelled workflows

Major impact if errors occur and left unresolved


???Com

plexi

ty !



BEFORE...

20 page of instructions based on:

Who was calling...

- move-in or out customer

What is requested...

- change or cancel order

What type of Service Order Exists...

- Meter Read, RECO, DISC

When is it required…

- Before or after move-in/out

AFTER...

1 template for Changes

- simply enter New Date

1 template for Cancel

Reduced investigation

5 pages instructions per process

Use Workflow extensively

Documents changed in background

Validation of order type

Validation of date


Process Improvement

Improving the...

Reconnect process

New Service process




Create Business Partner (person)

Screen Changes 9



Before After


Want to add more information?

Used to add more numbers


Want to add more information?

Used to add more numbers

Credit Verification

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

Development Approach

Guiding principles for developmentof enhancements:

Reuse existing function modules/sub-screens...

Recycle available methods and tools...

Reduce modifications & changes...

Development Tools

Development Context: IS-U/CCS SAP Workflow

Dialog Programming > Data collection forms

Call business object methods in ABAP code Master Data Generator

MDG = ?

Development Tools

SAP Workflow Used to integrate all custom component

and process steps

Standard object methods used

Customized methods built

Customized Object attributes

Ties business process together

Development Tools

Dialog Programming used ... Created custom data collection forms

(templates)

Majority of data collected at once

Built-in validation and processing logic

Prevents ‘false starts’

Perform basic error handling

Development Tools

Call business object methods in ABAP code…

Simple to implement and re-use standard methods

Integration of multiple background processing methods into a single block of code

Streamlines data capture and processing by displacing user interaction to front of process

Workflow

Calling BOR Method in ABAP CodePast approach, build WF steps using standard methods

1 Process Step = 1 WF Task SAP Method OK CANCEL

SAP Method

Data Transfer

OK CANCEL

Data Transfer

CustomMethod OK CANCEL

CustomMethod

Data Transfer

Business Partner6601345

CW = 24

Complex workflow definitions

Interrupted data flowMany user interactionsPiecemeal data

collectionSlower processMore errors

Development Tools

Development Tools

Call BOR Methods in ABAP code

Eliminates need to copy code … therefore...

Reduces upgrade ‘trauma’ Compresses data entry and req’d

navigation. Less User Interactions =

Less Call Handling Time

ABAP Program

Call function Create… Define Parameters

2

Collect Customer Dataon Form / Validate

Entries OK ?

OK CANCEL

Collect all required data

1

Business Partner6601345

CW = 24

4

3

3

Call Method A

Result = 6601345

Call Method B

Result = 6601345 / CW = 24

Create BP

Assign CW

Master Data Generator Tool used in IS-U/CCS to

automatically create or modify master data

Utilizes templates to create objects / documents

Allocates user defined or dynamically selected data to template

Can be used to create multiple instances of data

Operates much like a ‘black box’ for master data creation

MDG

User Specified Parameters

Defaulted Values

Dynamic Runtime Values

Business Partner ABusiness

Partner BBusiness Partner C

Development Tools

Development Challenges

First serious use of dialog programming

On Project Training

New Object Methods to handle custom data processing

First use of Master Data Generator

On Project Training

Complex data validation schemes for the Change/Cancel Reconnect/Disconnect

Required repetitive & rigorous testing

Project Structure Resources from IT and Business

5 month timeline

Person efforts: IT - 84 weeks (198K)BU -18 weeks (33k) Cons - 3 weeks (42K)

Off-site project Focus & Continuity

Client / Steering Committee

A B A P De ve lo pe rs (3 )A B A P C o nsu lt (1 p .t.)

W o rk flo w A na lys t /D e ve lo p er

(1 )

F u n ctio n a l A na lyst(1 )

C o n tac t C e n te r S M E(1 )

P ro je c t L e ad

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

ROI expected in less than 2 years

cost of implementation low vs. benefits gained

Reduced Erred Processing

from an avg. 24/day to an avg. 3/day

Reduced System Training Time

from 1 day to 1/2 day

BenefitsBenefits

Improved Customer Service more emphasis on the customer as opposed to the

system

Expanded User Base Collection Services now performing

Reconnects/Disconnects

Reduced reliance of new agents on Subject Matter Experts new agents become confident quicker

Benefits (Cont’d)

Quotable Quotes...

“…This was too easy, I must have forgotten something...”

“…WOW!!! What great changes…”

“…This is much easier to work than the previous screen…”

“…Awesome!!! This will make our job easier…”

“…Workflow enhancements RULE!!! …”

“…Very pleased and impressed to where SAP has evolved…”

What did our users have to say...

Agenda

About NB Power


Process Selection

Enhanced Processes

Development Tools

Benefits

Success Factors

Questions

Developers and Business resources worked side-by-side

Off-site project area

Development items assigned to Owners

Testing occurred immediately after development

Prototype developed early and presented to the Business

Training prepared and delivered by team member from the Business

Critical Success Factors

External resources involvement must be long term to have proper return on knowledge transfer

Training client performance needs to be a priority

Development client needs adequate data

Improved test system for interfaces

Critical Success Factors (Cont’d)

Thank You !

Copyright © 2003 Americas’ SAP Users’ Group

Thank you for attending!

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Session Code: 3401

Frank BourqueMarcel Landry