August, 2010
Industry News and Insights to Help Service Organizations Increase Workforce Optimization, Customer Satisfaction and Profitability.
Single Source Systems, Inc
9003 Technology Lane
Fishers, Indiana 46038
317-596-3000
Service Management-Plus 3.30 provides new workforce optimization tools.
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Assessment Tool.
Benefit from Aberdeen Group’s year-long, global research. Complete the online survey and see if your service operation is Best-in-Class.
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Complimentary Whitepaper.
Download the most recent Single Source whitepaper: “KPIs beyond the C-Suite: Engaging Performance Management Tactics at the Customer-Facing Level. How Empowering Front-Line Personnel to monitor and Track Role-Specific Performance Data Contributes to Company-Wide Success.”
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Tony Petrucciani, Founder and CEO
To learn more about the use of performance management systems in a service organization, download the recent Single Source Whitepaper,
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Performance Management Systems Help Organizations Know Which Turn to Take
“Are we there yet?,” the official refrain of the summer road trip experience, is still ringing in my travel-weary ears. I am sure anyone else recently returned from their summer vacation understands the brain-numbing effect of this oldie-but-goody blues number that pint-size backseat passengers begin singing 20 minutes out of the driveway. Such excitement! The anticipation! The agony of endurance!
With no map, no itinerary and a limited view of the road ahead, a long drive can quickly become tortuous to someone who has been fixated on a single joy-filled destination for months. “How much longer?” loosely translates to “Is there any hope of reaching our destination before my brain explodes?”
Children en route to Grandma’s house or the beach are not the only ones with innate, intense needs to be kept informed of the progress they are making toward their long-term destination goals and any possible delays or roadblocks, I theorize.
Managers of successful service organizations are much the same; They have a strong need to know where they're going and where they are at any given moment. Their day is driven by a continuous need to know "how much further there is to go" and "where are we now?" in the effort to increase customer satisfaction, workforce optimization and company-wide profitability. Such insistance on real-time analytical data and the use of role-based Key Performance Indicators (KPIS) are just some of the tactics Best-in-Class organizations today are employing as they intensify efforts to stay on their planned course for growth.
In this issue of INSIDE SOURCE, the Single Source newsletter for professionals in the service industry, you'll see that performance management is an important current topic. Not only will a well planned and executed system increase profitabililty, but it will also help you maintain a competitive edge. Be sure to download the recently released Single Source whitepaper on the topic of KPIs being used at a customer-facing level. You can also download a case study on Komax USA, and their successful uses of KPIs for cost savings.
I hope you find the insights helpful!
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Good? Better? Best?
Why You Should Take the Service Management Assessment
Single Source Systems has partnered with Aberdeen Group to offer a Service Management Assessment Tool designed to help end-user organizations manage their service operation as a strategic line of business and profit center as well as to offer personalized recommendations for improving service performance.
The complimentary tool leverages the findings from Aberdeen's year-long global benchmark research which evaluated the business pressures, strategic actions, current capabilities, and use of enabling technologies among service organizations. From the selected performance metrics, Aberdeen was able to develop a standard competitive framework of three maturity classes: Best-in-Class (top 20%), Industry Average (middle 50%) or Laggards (bottom 30%).
Using this competitive framework, the Service Management Assessment Tool makes it possible for any organization to see how it compares to the Best-in-Class service operations.
The tool allows organizations to answer a series of survey questions, and then provides a personalized assessment of whether the campany's strategies are most like the Best-in-Class, Industry Average, or Laggards. The report also offers recommended actions to improve service operations performance along several key performance criteria.
Hurry to take advnatge of the opportunity. The complimentary resource expires August 15.
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Is your company Best-in-Class? Having a firm grasp of your current competitive ranking helps you evaluate opportunities and plan realistic courses for improvement.
Don't delay. The Service Management Assessment Tool expires August 15.
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• Best-in-Class companies are more than twice as likely as Laggards to report having what would be deemed an “information culture” that places a high priority on collection, assembly and delivery of actionable business insight.
• Best-in-Class companies are more than twice as likely as all others to have training programs in place to educate end users on use of KPIs.
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Creating a KPI Culture
Preemptive problem solving is an attitude, not a task.
Monitoring high level performance indicators was at one time reserved for senior management sequestered behind the protective barrier of oak paneled doors.
Only the all-knowing CEOs, CFOs and COOs saw the numbers, understood the numbers and could control the future of the company and the fate of personnel based on those numbers. Today, companies striving to maximize performance and productivity often share access to critical performance data with multiple levels of personnel, including contact center representatives, inventory managers and service managers.
The result is a team that understands analytics is a priority for the company as a whole. Monitoring critical numbers and KPIs becomes internalized, a part of every-day interaction with colleagues and an understood component of performance evaluation and compensation.
Role-based KPI tracking can be seen as a welcomed tool, rather than an imposed must-meet dictate. The tools give real-time feedback on personal or departmental productivity. Relevant critical numbers and performance status can be monitored with vested interest. Rather than vague dictates from the corner office to IMPROVE, goals can be expressed in concrete numbers which can be monitored continually---and, most importantly---monitored by the people who have the most potential to take hands-on preemptive actions. When the company faces the customer on the ground floor, it only makes sense that performance analytics begin on the ground floor.
Giving personnel access to ad hoc reporting tools also conveys an expectation that they use them--and the responsibility of using them wisely. A trust factor is implied. It also enables personnel to act independently, thoroughly researching cause-and-effect data and making fact-based decisions. There is no longer an excuse for guessing at historical data, relying on memory, or rounding-off statistics to surface-level generalities. When multi-level drill down details are available, details are expected to be utilized. Accuracy, company-wide, improves.
For most companies today, every opportunity for increasing profits--no matter how seemingly slight--is essential. This message comes through loudly and clearly when personnel are trained to analyze multiple layers of data, sort it by multiple conditions and determine critical factors which can be monitored continuously--not just weekly, daily or even hourly.
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Single Source Sponsors Aberdeen Group's Chief Service Officer (CSO) Summit
Join us in Boston, October 7-8.
Single Source has announced it is a Gold Sponsor of Aberdeen Group’s prestigious Chief Service Officer (CSO) Summit to be held October 7-8 at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston, MA.
Under the theme of “The Fully Connected Service Enterprise,” the Summit will present CSOs with a blue-print to create a tightly knit system that links the service business and other core areas, such as sales, marketing, manufacturing, design, human resources and vendor/supplier partners.
Single Source Customer, Stephen Wells, Service Director at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems, will be speaking on the topic of “Small and Mid-Sized Service Businesses: The Challenges and Opportunities of Competing in Today’s Service Environment.” Wells has worked with the Terumo since 1976 and was highly involved in the company’s 2008 implementation of SM-Plus Enterprise to manage its extensive service operation.
As a Gold Sponsor of the CSO Summit, Single Source Systems is able to extend special invitations to decision makers at successful service organizations to be our VIP guests.
Learn more.
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The annual CSO Summit gives top managers the opportunity to...
• Collaborate with industry leaders to address critical components of service
• Collect actionable recommendations from Best-in-Class enterprises
• Network with peers and counterparts in related industries
•Receive valuable research findings to better equip your service team
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SM-Plus v3.30 Extends Strategic Service Capabilities; Further Streamlines Processes.
Service Management-Plus v3.30, scheduled for general release in Q4, 2010, will provide service-focused organizations even more opportunities to streamline their processes, increase workforce optimization and take preemptive actions to ensure customer satisfaction! Watch for more news about the exciting enhancements!
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