4-page Case Study - Posted 5/1/2008
Views: 439
Rate This Evidence:
Call Centre Automates Processes, Cuts Training from Six Weeks to Five Days
The Reed Elsevier Group publishes 15,500 journals, books, and online publications every year. Quadrant Subscription Services serves Reed and numerous other publishers. Its 100-strong call centre subscription-focused team uses a mainframe application to manage subscription processes according to guidelines set by the company’s various publishing clients. By 2006, the system required a better solution to manage the ever increasing quantity of customer records and intricate client specific guidelines. Microsoft® Partner 5 Fifteen helped Quadrant deploy a new subscription management application based on Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006. Quadrant has now automated its business processes so employees can focus on customers rather than systems. Staff training time is reduced from six weeks to just five days and the company can expand its workforce easily to address new business opportunities.
Situation
The Reed Elsevier Group is a leading publisher of more than 15,000 journals, books, and reference works, and 500 online information services. Its reader base consists of science, medical, legal, and business communities across the world. It also organises more than 430 trade exhibitions every year. Based in the United Kingdom, Reed has 200 offices across the world and employs 36,500 people. In 2006, it reported revenues of £5 billion (U.S.$8.7 billion).
The group’s subscription fulfilment arm, Quadrant Subscription Services, is one of the premier publishing services bureaux in the U.K. Launched in 1972, Quadrant manages subscription fulfilment and controlled circulation of more than 260 titles of magazines, books, newsletters, and online products. It serves Reed as well as many other publishers through its subscription bureau based in West Sussex.
The company’s success relies on its 100 customer service employees, who serve 3 million subscribers in the U.K. and U.S. To process readers’ requests, such as subscription booking and renewal, staff must follow guidelines specified by the publishers. When a reader calls the customer service centre to cancel a magazine subscription, for example, operators follow cancellation rules specific to that particular publication. These could include stopping the subscription immediately, cancelling it on expiry, offering a full refund of the subscription fee, or applying pro-rated refunds. Quadrant operators perform 70 such business functions for each publisher.
Since 1993, the company has used a subscription management application called AMPS. It worked on mainframe computers and employees accessed it through IBM terminals. But, by 2006, this application was struggling to manage the number of customer records and the complex business transaction rules. John Osborn, IT Director, Quadrant Subscription Services, says: “Our operators had to complete most tasks by following a sequence of processes that varied by publisher guidelines, which allowed room for misinterpretation or error.”
For instance, to action an international address change, an operator may have to recalculate the subscription fee based on the outstanding issues and adjust the address to the new region code. “Training the staff to perform such technical functions took up to six weeks,” says Osborn. This meant we could not quickly hire new employees or use contract staff to fill in during busy periods.”
Without this substantial training period, operators could not be expected to remember every client’s specific transaction rules and, for instance, could potentially charge the reader the wrong subscription fee. The IT team also found it difficult to update the rules according to changes in the portfolio of publications managed by Quadrant. The system followed a number of transaction procedures that were unsuitable for the new publishers.
Moreover, employees were unable to work on multiple publishers’ accounts until further training on a specific client’s transaction rules had been completed. Without the ability to use temporary staff, Quadrant was regularly required to overstaff each service team throughout the year to cover seasonal workloads, such as during Christmas, when subscription sales reach a peak.
“To support the business, we urgently needed to do two things,” says Osborn. “Firstly, automate the client-specific sequence of functions and free staff to focus on their customer service roles. Secondly, provide them with a user-friendly interface.”
Solution
Since 1992, Quadrant has worked with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner 5 Fifteen to manage the AMPS application. Osborn and his team approached the same company to upgrade this subscription services application in September 2006.
Rod Fenwick, Managing Director, 5 Fifteen, says: “In the initial prototyping phase, we first identified the company’s subscription management requirements. Then, we demonstrated the potential solutions using the various technology options available.”
Quadrant chose Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 over technologies including Oracle, and IBM products such as Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) and an IBM processor. Osborn says: “We decided to build a subscription management application using BizTalk Server 2006 because it has the most efficient business process automation features. In addition, in our view, Microsoft products are much more affordable than the other options.”
In the first phase, the 5 Fifteen team spent three months on site with Quadrant customer service employees to define their working model. They deployed the new system, called eCustomer View, in three phases. Fenwick says: “The staff needed to improve service quickly. So we identified the 25 most frequently used business functions and automated them first. In the next two phases, we migrated the remainder of the 70 transaction processes.”
Employees access eCustomer View as a Web service through a user-friendly Windows®-based interface. The system uses: BizTalk Server 2006—its orchestration engine automatically recognises the rules specified by a publisher and processes the transaction correctly.
- Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 database software—to manage customer records.
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0—development environment.
- Microsoft Visual C#® development tool—to create online forms.
- Verastream—an integration suite that provides mainframe, Web, and desktop modernisation tools.
The system went live in February 2008. Osborn says: “We were expecting to use the system for only three of our publishers by now. But the rollout was faster than planned and 15 of our clients are using eCustomer View already. We’re very pleased that it is performing efficiently.”
Benefits
With the new eCustomer View application, Quadrant has reduced the staff training time from six weeks to just five days. The system completes all transactions automatically and new staff can start work on the system without delay. As a result, Quadrant could acquire new large publishing clients and set up additional call centres to serve them. Osborn gives credit to BizTalk Server: “It gave us a good environment to not only upgrade the AMPS application, but also to re-engineer our business processes. With up-to-date technology, we are now working more efficiently.”
Training Time Cut From Six Weeks to Five Days
Previously, training took six weeks. Call centre staff had to acquire technical knowledge of the system and learn programming codes before they could answer customers’ telephone queries. Now, with the automated business rules and a user-friendly Windows-based interface, employees work through drop-down menus and complete tasks in one click. Osborn says: “To cancel a subscription, operators simply click a button on their computer screens, and BizTalk Server automatically determines what needs to be done. As a result, we reduced training time to just five days. And it is focused on customer service functions as opposed to use of technical tools.”
Quadrant Manages Business More Efficiently
Customer service executives can work on any publisher’s account without having to memorise transaction rules. Osborn says: “Staff productivity has significantly increased. For example, we freed eight of our customer service employees in a 40-strong call centre to work on the new accounts.”
Quadrant can also hire temporary staff at times of high demand because they can work on the system following a brief period of training. This helps the company manage unexpected peaks in the number of customer calls. Osborn explains: “If a truck delivering a certain magazine’s monthly subscriptions has an accident, we get thousands of unforeseen calls. We can now cover such incidents with the help of temporary staff without burdening the permanent employees.”
Business Expands Operations, Serves New Customers
The company can now pursue new business opportunities knowing that it can easily expand its customer service teams. Quadrant recently acquired a large publishing client—The Economist—in the U.S. To serve this additional customer base, it set-up a new call centre in St. Louis in March 2007.
Osborn says: “Since we did not have to spend a long time training employees, we could start operating at this centre six weeks earlier than scheduled. All operations in this facility run on eCustomer View.”
BizTalk Server Automates Processes, Improves Service Quality
The orchestration engine of BizTalk Server automatically identifies which rules apply to a certain customer request. For example, when an operator chooses the option to change a company’s address, BizTalk Server determines the number of people at that company, permitted transaction rules, and workflow. It then automatically changes the addresses of all the subscribers from that company.
“Now, employees can focus on the call rather than manipulating the system while they’re talking to the customer. This has greatly increased the quality of service.”
New Features Enhance Employee Productivity
Quadrant integrated eCustomer View and the publishers’ Web sites using BizTalk Server. When a reader makes online requests on a publication’s Web page, such as subscription booking and change of address, Quadrant can process the transaction from its call centre.
With Microsoft technology, the company could also add an efficient search feature to the system. Osborn says: “Previously, operators had to type in a customer’s name, post code, and subscription number to find the address. Now, we have integrated the global address list with the eCustomer View application. Executives type in key words to search for addresses. This method is easier to use and the data is more accurate.”
Quadrant Achieves Better Collaboration with Third Parties
The next step for Quadrant is to expand eCustomer View to third-party call centres, which it uses to serve customers in their local languages.
Osborn says: “Using BizTalk Server, we plan to integrate our system with third parties. This will help us view call records and monitor operations at these call centres on a day-to-day basis, and further improve the quality of our services.”
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio,go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/
For more information about 5 Fifteen products and services, call +44 (0)1753 440515 or visit the Web site at: http://www.5fifteen.com/
For more information about Reed Elsevier Group products and services, call +44 (0) 20 7930 7077 or visit the Web site at: http://www.reed-elsevier.com/
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published May 2008
