Call Center Knowledge Base

2. Call Center Knowledge Base PROBLEMS • There is no way to present the information used by agents in one place because it is stored in many different LOB systems. • There are no business processes or security to control information used by different groups of agents • There is no automated process for Agents to provide feedback on the information they use to assist customers. • There is no way to organize and display critical real-time information to agents. • Business Owners rely on IT personnel when updating content, adding agents, or organizing content

3. Data Stored in Many LOB Systems PROBLEM: There is no way to present the information used by agents in one place because it is stored in many different LOB systems. • Agents have to remember passwords for many different systems • Agents have to search many different systems to find information, and the information is inconsistent between systems • Agents have access to large amounts of information that they don't need - no way to separate information between different groups of agents • There is no way to reuse content in different locations and information is becomes inconsistent

4. Lack of Automation PROBLEM: There are no automated business processes to control information used by agents • Limited manual approval process for content. • No ability to schedule the publishing of content • Heavy IT involvement drives up costs • Information is never removed from the system, even when it becomes inaccurate • No expiration or archiving of content increases data center costs • No automated process to easily facilitate agent feedback

5. Metrics and Feedback PROBLEM: There is no automated process for Agents to provide feedback on the information they use to assist customers • No automated process to easily facilitate agent feedback • No way to track the content agents use most • No way to track the content agents never use • Lack of continuous process improvement

6. Too Much IT Involvement PROBLEM: Business Owners rely on IT personnel when updating content, adding agents, or organizing content • Business owners rely on expensive IT resources to perform their jobs • Even minor changes to content require developers and deployments • Processes are manual and take much longer than is acceptable

7. Business Case SOLUTION • Quickly Access the Right Information • Find information in many ways • Taxonomy • Search • Aggregations • Toolbar • Real-Time Alerts • Reduce call times and churn • Single system and password for all content • Real-Time information • Control the Flow of Information • Automated business processes • Prevent inaccurate information • Legal compliance • Publish, expire, and archive content autonomously via workflow

8. Business Case SOLUTION • Centralize Information • Integration LOB information to display the right information in a single location • Single Sign on - one password to remember • Information is consistent because its either stored or pulled from the right place • Leverage Existing Technology • Many companies already have SharePoint and are only using a fraction of its capabilities • Big ROI on technology that customers already own • Proven, popular, flexible, and supported platform • Services provided to fit the application to clients business model

9. Case Study: Client X PROBLEM • Client X current does a billion dollars in revenue each year and has over 6000 employees worldwide. Their employees overseas are mostly contracted customer care agents and have no Active Directory credentials • The client came from humble origins and up until 2 years ago had no centralized IT department – instead, each department had developers that designed or implemented systems specific to their departments needs. • As the company grew integration between these home grown solutions became incredibly costly and data became silo-ed. The systems were built in different programming languages, required different skill sets to maintain and administer, used different databases, and while each system was documented, documentation on the integration between these systems was non-existent. • When the company – out of necessity – centralized the IT department, it became a nightmare to manage. • Important company data was inconsistent, stored in many different places, and there was little or no way to share knowledge between departments accurately • Without a centralized content management system and business processes in place, customer care – the front lines of the organization – often gave inconsistent information to potential and existing customers and in some cases offered promotions that were no longer valid. • Customer attrition was horrible and the “run the business” IT budget left little room for improving technology • In an effort to fix these growing pains, and after lengthy research and cost analysis, the company decided to explore SharePoint as a potential solution to its problems.

10. Case Study: Client X SOLUTION • Client decided to bring in professionals with SharePoint experience, and they hired us to design and implement a SharePoint solution to solve these problems. After much analysis we decided to create a new corporate intranet to manage organizational content, facilitate interdepartmental team collaboration, and a single knowledge base for customer care and marketing. • The solution leveraged SharePoint’s content and document management features, centralized the company’s content into a single place, and used approval workflows to ensure information was accurately published. These workflows and content rules also allowed marketing to expire promotional information on the correct date, preventing agents from accessing and passing on expired information to customers. • The corporate communications department was empowered to push company information. • Customer care agents in remote locations can access the knowledgebase through a customized-forms based SSO and integration of a GSA allowed quick access to information. Information and Links that are commonly used are published in a customized sliding toolbar – accessible on every page of the KB. • Through custom development, the NOC was given the ability to push real time information to these call center agents via a real-time alert box, also on every page of the KB. • A set of REST based services allows other LOB applications, including the primary CRM application to pull information out of the SharePoint KB in a quick and secure manner. • The number of data repositories is now one – SharePoint – and there is a consistent platform for building new solutions • Developers can program in VB, C#, or C++ to extend SharePoint or build new SharePoint applications, and maintaining these new applications is a breeze since administrators don’t have to learn new systems – just manage one SharePoint deployment for many applications.