In its pursuit of world-class performance and improvements in client service, IBM Daksh has developed, refined and implemented a battery of leading edge software tools.
It's the power and extensive functionality of these tools, combined with the quality and approach of our people, that have powered the rapid and ongoing development of our business.
Business Need and Challenges
Indian call centers spend a substantial amount of resources in training agents to achieve a better clarity of speech and improvement in the quality of language. The training process comprises of an evaluation/ assessment element, which is subjective, time-consuming and vulnerable to human errors. A typical assessment entails the agent/ trainee being asked to speak on a particular topic of "free speech" or guided conversation. The trainee might also be asked to pronounce specific words, which are then analyzed by a human trainer as a way of identifying specific areas of improvement. The trainee or agent repeats the pronunciation of specific words until the pronunciation is correct. This entire process entails a large turnaround time, and owing to limitations on the number of trainees that can be evaluated per assessor, the evaluation/ assessment process has become a bottleneck in the training process.
Solution
Taking these challenges into consideration, a voice and accent training software is being developed. This software is made up of a learning tool and the assessment tool. The learning tool aids agents during their training to achieve clarity of pronunciation, correct syllable stress for various words, an optimum rate of speech, correct grammar, fluency and comprehension. It also provides examples of how an agent should pronounce a particular word and then compares the agent's output with an ideal speaker's output. The assessment tool is used during recruitment and after training to assess pronunciation, grammar, fluency and vocabulary.
This tool will ensure that we have a comprehensive, objective assessment and learning tool for voice-based training across IBM Daksh.
Benefits
This innovative application promises to shorten the evaluation time, while improving training effectiveness by leveraging technology and expediting the trainee's learning curve. It will also reduce the need for trainers in BU's. Some of the other anticipated benefits include:
- Potential for future further upgrades and customization
- Delivery of standardized in training
- Consistent and standardized of evaluation
- Efficient system with less dependency on people
- Elimination of subjective-evaluation by scoring trainees numerically
- Massive scalability: agents can be assessed simultaneously across geographies and locations
- Detailed information on individual areas of improvement that for each agent
- Reduces excessive time spent on drills in training
Business Need and Challenges
Voice and accent training is a standard part of our New Hire Training program. To make sure that customers all over the world can understand the way our people speak, every new hire is trained in what we call voice and accent neutralization. We needed an objective assessment of the voice and accent skills of our people. Subjective analysis can be both lengthy and expensive.
Solution
Based on these challenges around subjective evaluation and the need to track effective training, IBM developed the Performance Evaluation Grid (PEG) tool. PEG is a highly objective tool for assessing prospective agents on the basis of voice and accent. It works as a common tool for calibrating voice quality and is used by recruiters and trainers. We use PEG to assess the voice skills of job applicants and to judge whether any given voice can be trained or improved. The tool is also used for post-training analysis, which gauges the degree of improvement in agents' voice and the effectiveness of the training session. PEG provides us with a proven scientific way of evaluating applicants' and agents' voices.
Benefits
- Assesses agents objectively and& identifies specific areas of training
- Gauges training effectiveness and identifies trainer expertise
- Defines a benchmark of processes across business units
- Leads to greater predictability
Business Need and Challenges
Training is critically important in the BPO industry. IBM Daksh management understands the importance of investing in training to gain short- and long-term benefits. In the past, equipping the new hires with the skills and competencies they need to do their job was not always easy. Despite the need to spend a lot of time and effort on training, the trainee did not have enough time to understand the process flow and practice on the job. One-to-one training was neither possible, nor economic, if there were many trainees.
Solution
In response to these challenges, the IBM Daksh software development team designed IBM Simulation Producer, an application simulation program, ideal for quickly producing learning interactions. The program captures images and events such as mouse and keyboard interactions that a trainee uses in an application.
Once the program has captured the actions and recorded screen activity, it creates an HTML file that can then be used for self-tutoring and refresher tutoring.
Benefits
- A trainer can, in effect, train many people.
- As this is a self-educative tool, the trainer can be freed up to focus on his regular work.
- Simulation Producer makes documenting the learning experience easy by automatically producing Microsoft Word documents that describe, with graphics and text, each event that occurred during the simulation.
- There is no need to manually download or install plug-ins or helper applications. The trainee simply needs Netscape or Internet Explorer, with Java enabled, in order to run the simulation.
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Business Need and Key Challenges
Transforming business processes is critical to the way we add value to our clients' businesses. The manner in which we re-engineered the business processes of a Fortune 100 Telecom business is typical of the kind of process automation and streamlining that we undertake. Our client's existing process was heavily reliant on manual activity with almost no process automation. The old process was liable to produce errors and involved duplication of work. What's more, there was no mechanism to track the time spent by agents on specific sub-process activities. This led to performance management and employee time tracking issues.
Solution
IBM Daksh designed and developed a comprehensive and robust VB-based application. This consisted of a back-end database and a front-end tool that would be used by agents. All the files that were created as a part of the customers' plan swap requirements were stored in the application's database. Agents were then able to pull out files from the central database by using the front-end screen of the application on a First in First out (FIFO) basis. The case handling and reporting screens were integrated, to improve report generation. Supervisors were provided with a tool that allowed them to monitor agents in real time.
The scope for errors in the process was drastically reduced and each agent's time was fully recorded for time tracking and quality monitoring purposes. As each file was uniquely stored in the database, file duplication was eliminated.
Results
IBM Daksh successfully planned, designed, built and implemented the application that reengineered the client's processes. The benefits were highly significant:
- Full process automation led to zero defects in case management.
- Productivity improvement of 30-40% due to reduction of process turnaround time.
- Remote monitoring led to improvement in performance metrics.
- Enhanced reporting capability as reports can be generated and exported to MS Excel format.
- No possibility of duplication of work, as each file is uniquely stored in the database
Business Need and Challenges
SPADE is a software tool that IBM Daksh developed to resolve some of its own business needs. Our old manual process for monitoring attendance was prone to error and often resulted in numerous gaps in payroll processing. The process entailed duplication of effort, and there were concerns about the accuracy of the data maintained.
Solution
IBM Daksh's software development team designed and developed SPADE, a workforce management tool that uses VB (Virtual Basic) with SQL (structured Query Language) as a backend. SPADE tracks team members' attendance, adds and updates new employee details, performs team formations, shift and batch information updates, attrition and quality monitoring of calls etc. SPADE is also used to track head counts, floor strength and payroll data.
Benefits
SPADE has been deployed throughout many processes at IBM Daksh's delivery centers. Its use has resulted in reduction of headcount in many instances. Some of the other benefits produced by this innovative tool include:
- Help in payroll processing.
- Compensation calculator - used in the stack ranking process.
- Quality tool which acts as a database to record all transaction monitoring done for voice and email support.
- Search engine feature helps in analyzing data, based on Agent/TL/Period/Lob/ Process/Auditor etc.
- Acts as a closed loop corrective action tracker for agents
Business Need and Challenges
In many processes, especially in technical support, it was a challenge to track and meet customers' expectations on call back time. There was a business need to develop a tool that could track escalations and schedule call-backs, depending on priority-flags and the product or issue-type. The existing process was cumbersome and error-prone, because of a strong dependence on Excel files. This led to uneven utilization of resources.
Solution
Taking the business's needs into consideration, IBM Daksh developed ASG, a call back management tool that enables
- Automatic assignment of call-back requisition
- Automatic reminders and the prioritization of pending contacts
The tool has inbuilt system intelligence with pre-defined rules and thresholds. It also grants varied profile sets with defined rights.
Benefits
- ASG has enabled IBM Daksh to outperform its clients' own customer satisfaction targets.
- Average call back time has been reduced from four days to less than one day
- Real time reporting capabilities help keep a time check on process health and efficiency
Business Need and Challenges
A common feature of the BPO industry is the highly unpredictable and dynamic nature of the business transactions it handles. A new product feature roll-out, the release of a new version of a consumer electronics product, a holiday season, and year-end closings can all increase business transaction levels dramatically. You can see these in peaks in call-volumes or back-end transactions. These spikes must be accommodated with only a minimal impact on staffing levels in a shift if costs and levels of prompt and efficient service are to be managed efficiently.
Solution
IBM Daksh software development team designed DRCMS as a solution to address the challenges that peaks in demand can create. This tool was developed using VB as front-end and SQL at the back end enables better management and deployment of headcount in a particular shift.
Benefits
DRCMS handles roster change and shrinkage issues. It contributed to improved service level performance and reduced revenue loss. Some of the other benefits included:
- Real-time roster change management system.
- Customized views and user profiles
- Error proof / optimum staffing plan.
- Real time reporting capabilities
- High impact on client service level and customer satisfaction
- Helps manage highly erratic call volume during season.
- Acts as a single point of reference to alleviate disconnects between and within functions, such as the transport and operations teams.
Copyright (c) 2006 by IBM Corporation
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