Go BackWhat does my business need to do about Business Intelligence?
Comment by Faraz Khan, Business Development Director, ProtoCall One:
Business Intelligence (BI) is the subject du jour with IT vendors - so much so that they tend to assume all businesses fully understand what BI is and that they are well on the way to implementing BI solutions. This is true to an extent, as various research findings show that BI is indeed still one of the top investment priorities for UK CIOs.
However, businesses are now demanding more from BI. It shouldn't just be a tool for power users within the organisation - division heads and C-level executives. It is the 'information consumers' - operating managers like product managers, sales managers, marketers and engineers, and employees who interact directly with the customers such as front-line staff and customer service representatives - who are demanding to access, analyse and share data, the kind of critical data that BI solutions can deliver.
A recent survey from Metrica revealed that nearly one in two contact centre managers are 'let down' by the lack of relevant information available to them. The same number felt dissatisfied by the quality and timeliness of the information they are given, and agree that it doesn't allow them to identify issues early enough. Whilst these statistics might not surprise many in the industry, what should surprise them is the brand value and goodwill that can be destroyed as a result. So how can businesses maximise the use of more flexible, affordable and accessible BI tools, and empower a larger audience?
'BI for the masses'
To date, the implementation of BI systems has suffered from fragmentation and sprawl as a result of organisations deploying solutions on a tactical, departmental basis. The penetration rate for BI is generally pegged at around 20 per cent or less of potential users. The main reason for this is that solutions have traditionally been complicated to use by anyone other than the power users.
A number of factors are driving the need for more advanced business intelligence solutions which can offer faster and more accessible insight into business operations. The first is the unprecedented data growth evident within every enterprise. Not only is the volume of data growing at an exponential rate, but the diversity of data is also increasing. Organisations are capturing and storing data from a multitude of sources, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and are also seeing a proliferation in unstructured formats, such as text, images, voice and video. Secondly, increased collaboration is driving the need to make BI more accessible. Businesses are becoming highly collaborative, sharing data and resources with external partners. This means there is a far more diverse range of data sources for all employees to consult when making business decisions.
These factors mean that BI can no longer be confined to just the power users in an enterprise and must now be brought to a new and wider audience - the operational workers who can access and act upon business data from the desktop applications they are familiar with.
The right kind of information
Contact centres for example, deal with a plethora of information on a daily basis. This volume of information being collected is so great that it's almost impossible for organisations to keep track of exactly what's being said or done. Despite the millions of pounds spent on CRM systems and other contact centre solutions, the reality is that the most important part of the customer record - what the customer actually says - is often missing from the equation. This had led to a growing realisation amongst service leaders that they may be focusing on the wrong information.
Previous contact centre metrics focusing on efficiency measures, such as Average Handle Time (AHT), Service Levels, Abandon Rate and Utilisation, have driven the wrong behaviour. The reality is that a contact centre's staple measurement - AHT - is only valuable when it is looked at in more detail and in conjunction with other metrics, because in some cases, longer talk times can lead to higher satisfaction, revenue, or both. Therefore it is important for contact centres to get at the valuable unstructured data that's contained in each and every customer interaction - data about products and services, about how customers feel about the business, and even what they're saying about the competition - to be able to make better and more informed decisions.
Many companies only get half of the overall service performance picture because they only monitor part of the information they require. Simply recording voice transactions between agents and customers is not enough. By capturing both the voice and data - or screen sequences - taking place on the desktop, management can gain valuable insight into how effectively their employees manoeuvre CRM systems, handle screen navigation and respond to customer needs. This provides more context for identifying training requirements and customer service improvements. Forward-thinking organisations will also try to identify areas for process and technology improvements by analysing how agents are using technology and determining if the technology is performing as expected or designed.
From simple reporting to Business Intelligence
Companies have to identify from the outset which specific Key Performance Metrics (KPIs) will deliver pro-active decision-making and performance improvement. Once these have been selected, contact centres then face the challenge of building a platform that can deliver this information to all relevant parties and in some cases, individuals enterprise-wide. In many cases, the underlying data to feed these KPIs is already there - so the challenge is to bring together data from existing, often disparate sources.
Contact centre infrastructures typically consist of a range of telephony, transactional and business systems that generate volumes of data, from multiple sources, such as IVR, ACD, Workforce Management, Billing, CRM, HR, Order fulfilment and even Excel spreadsheets - none of which are referenced or integrated.
Business Intelligence systems enable companies to have a more comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting their business, and help them make better decisions - consistent, 'data-based' business decisions that produce better results than decisions based on 'guesswork'. In addition, BI applications can enhance communication between departments, coordinate activities, and enable companies to respond more quickly to changes (e.g. in financial conditions, customer preferences, supply chain operations, etc.) because they are usually supported by data warehouses in which analytical information about these processes reside.
Analytical tools take this visibility one step further. They allow businesses to make sense of the information, run different scenarios and be able to visualise the impact on the contact centre, and the wider business. Analytics extend the functionality from agent performance management into customer behavioural analysis and profiling, trend analysis, root cause analysis and other measures. Each in turn can be used to carry out process reviews that identify ways in which the processes and agent training can be fine-tuned to improve overall effectiveness of customer service, from the viewpoints of both the business and the customer. With this complete view of performance, executives are able to identify emerging trends and take action more rapidly.
From BI to competitive advantage
Having access to timely and accurate information is an important resource for a company, in that it can expedite decision-making and improve customers' experiences. In the competitive customer-service sector, a company should have accurate, up-to-date information on customer preferences, so that it can quickly adapt to changing demands.
We've all heard the rhetoric before: the contact centre doesn't have to be a 'cost centre'. And with the help of BI software, this can become a reality as the contact centre becomes a valuable part of the enterprise. Companies can gather information on the trends in the marketplace and develop innovative products or services in anticipation of customers' changing demands. With the right tools in place, they can also move from historical to future and predictive analytics help them better understand customer segments and behaviour patterns, rapidly discover trends and develop customer/product profitability models.
Bringing BI to the masses will allow other departments that indirectly touch the customer to capture and review samples of business processes and perform root cause analysis to determine clear action steps for improving effectiveness. Arming your operating managers, customer service representatives and groups throughout the enterprise with the necessary information that will enable them to make daily decisions, will also enable them to learn more about how their processes impact customers, as well as how they can help contribute to positive customer experiences, impact the business's bottom line, and add to the company's overall competitive advantage.
1Source - CCF February 2007 issue
