No More Tiers for Support: Moving from a Streaming Model to a Swarming Model

Description:

Replacing the traditional linear escalation model (streaming) with a collaborative network model (swarming) using the KCS Methodology is producing new levels of creativity and productivity in high-tech support organizations. Join us as we profile the experiences of BMC, Microsoft, and Red Hat, who are replacing the traditional streaming model with a swarming model to improve the speed and accuracy of problem solving (productivity), employee morale and engagement, and customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Notes

-  Groupwisdom is best!

BMC Software

People assigned to "swarm team" for 1 week a month

-- Directed Swarming

-- 2 swarm teams, 3 people each

-- New case assessment

-- Severity 1s

Goal of Swarm

-- Can we solve quickly

-- What additional information is needed

-- Who is best to take the lead?

RedHat

Goal:  Get the right resources on cases as quickly as possible with as few touches as possible

-- Solve issues faster

-- Remove overhead of ticket escalation

Old process

-- People can only see cases in the queues

-- Once someone takes a case its not visible

-- Level 1 to Level 2 escalation

-- Separate Silos

KCS is key. We headed there.

Virtual Account Teams, cross functional teams

Specialty Based Routing

Once solved Answers go back to KB

New process

-- People can see all the cases relevant to their skills and interests.

-- People take ownership for cases.

-- Others can contribute (opt-in) to the resolution of any open case

-- People can request help from others in developing resolutions.

-- People collaborate on customer issues

-- Exceptions management

Service Cloud Implementation

-- Views, knowing what to work on

-- Tags Enable unique views

-- Notifications: workflow mgmnt

-- Service Entitlement: Prioritize work

-- Reports: is the ship on course

Benefits

-- Increased visibility

-- Increased relevance of collaboration

-- Nurturing the technical communities

Outcome

-- Faster resolution, which drives CSAT and loyalty

-- Skills transfer and continuous learning

Been doing swarming for about a year, reduced backlog by 70%

Lessons Learned

-- Don't over engineer the process or the tool.  Dont be too reactive with changes to the system. Just because you can change it, doesn't mean that you should

-- Culture change - shift from individual outcomes to team outcomes

-- Consistency and Communication - Hearing vs internalizing.  Rate of change made it hard to keep everyone informed.

-- Collaboration, not all issues are worthy of collaboration

Next Steps

-- Refining measures

-- Combining swarming and KCS workflow elements

-- Continual evolution around the mindset shift

-- Improving collaboration

What have we learned?

-- New way to align people to work

-- Facilitate how they solve problems - collaboration

-- Employee engagement

-- Optimal use of skills and knowledge

-- People entering the workforce are already doing this in social media.

KCS is the team sport and Collaboration is the game