Making a case for enterprise case management

Your processes are in a mess. You have no idea how much work actually comes into the organization. You want to invest in a Case Management tool but just don’t know where to begin. The vendors all pitch forward with suggestions and want a few coins for a decent licence sale so it makes sense to pick a nice juicy process doesn’t it ?

No.

Invariably both your vision and the vendors will be opposite.

• What makes sense for me commercially ? (the vendor)
• What makes sense for my business case ? (the business)

You see, there are perhaps only two customer service processes in the entire enterprise that will be your first candidates for implementing a solution if [caveat] your intentions are to eventually scale across the organization. Otherwise both you and the vendor will limit the grand vision and a point solution is all that will come of it. That and another beleaguered workforce who have to bear the cost of multiple applications to handle the simplest of tasks.

It takes two, baby

So what two processes do I recommend you look at then ? Simple:

• Customer Enquiries
• Customer Complaints

Both processes sit across all product and channel domains. This is especially true if you’re looking at a Case Management solution for the majority of enquiries logged will incomplete, inconsistent and incorrectly routed.

Building the case

But why only these two ? It boils down to where they ultimately lead.

Complaints is perhaps one of the best processes to actually tell you from a customer’s perspective what is actually wrong with your organization, not what you think is wrong with it. Whether you like it or not, the customer has their finger on the pulse of your broken processes more than you do. And implementing an automated solution, whether simple workflow or full-blown case tool, will give you that much needed insight and tracking in order to support further process improvement and widen the scope for Case implementation.

Enquiries is a real mixed bag but it’s a piece of the servicing layer that sits right at the top with hooks into everything. What’s more, built in the right way it will contain all the fundamentals for process and component reuse, again especially from a Case solution point of view. This is an inherent problem when tackling implementations with a view to making it enterprise scale. Deliver a point solution to take care of a specific pain point and you tie yourself in knots further down the line. That quick win to prove it works will become a millstone round your neck so don’t let a vendor hand you the rope.

Now get started

Forget creating triage clinics and patching tactical wounds without a strategic goal in mind. Look for processes that cut across domains and that will tell you more about your business operations and what your consumers think of you than curing divisional pain point.

Both enquiries and complaints should be used as examples within a business case for creating and supporting a process-centric organization and radiate the benefits from there.

Now all you have to do is pick the right tool. Simple isn’t it.