Product category:
Customer relationship management software (CRM)
News Release from: eg Solutions | Subject: Production Management
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 June 2006
Using MI To Manage At Intelligent
Finance
IF approached eg and through using tried, tested and proven solutions eg was able to guarantee IF improved productivity, reduced costs and an increase in customer service levels
Intelligent Finance (IF) is a division of Halifax Launched in 2000 it offers customers a range of personal banking products over the telephone, the Internet and through Professional Advisers
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 7 Nov 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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In just four years, the bank built up assets totalling GBP15.5bn and customer accounts reached 820,000.
Despite its rapid growth, IF is a young lender and, without the luxury of years or even centuries of trading undertaken by other major banks, needs to target cost reduction without damaging the service experienced by customers.
To help achieve this, IF approached eg and through using tried, tested and proven solutions eg was able to guarantee IF improved productivity, reduced costs and an increase in customer service levels.
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To help IF achieve its targets, eg set the following objectives:.
* Create consistency through a universal business language.
* Deliver an increase in productivity by 20%.
* Reduce the cost of processing.
* Increase customer service levels and reduce the number of follow up calls in the contact centre.
* Adopt measurable KPI targets relevant to the business.
It was important everyone within IF embraced the changes proposed and understood why they were being made.
In order to do this eg worked with IF to implement a programme, to achieve quantifiable results focused on the intangible benefits of behaviour change, backed up by new work methods and technology.
The project was split into four phases: measurement; pre launch; launch and benefit realisation.
Initially eg undertook a series of site surveys which consisted of:.
* Generic Team Manager/Administration Manager questionnaires to establish the current performance against the seven steps of eg process for managing.
* Review of processes and technical feasibility within the administration function to establish impact on the rollout and full benefits of implementing Production Management.
* Review to establish the feasibility of introducing data feeds from the contact centre into the processing systems, to measure fulfilment rates.
* Understanding the strategic requirement of the business.
The site surveys found some elements of Production Management already existed within the business, such as task lists with unrefined unit times, whiteboards in operation to review progress of work throughout the day, some daily meetings and sharing of resources.
However, there was room for improvement and the findings indicated that the full use of the eg process for managing would achieve significant benefits.
In order to understand the strategic requirement of the business eg carried out a visioning exercise - what the business should look like after rollout - and risk workshops with senior management and executives.
The outcome resulted in an agreement to use Production Management as a tactical solution to the key objective of increasing productivity, whilst keeping an emphasis on customer service.
eg implemented the eg principles of production management, a training and development programme for the IF Managers and Team Leaders.
Through training and skill transfer, Managers and Team Leaders learned how to use Operations MI with the eg process for managing to provide a consistent approach to actively managing work, resources and performance and deliver the benefits of the project.
A dedicated project team from IF was trained separately from the rest of the business, in order to put them a step ahead of the others and to create the bank's own in-house experts in the eg principles of production management and eg work manager.
During this phase, eg worked with Team Leaders to breakdown the tasks in each team, to measure service standards, unit times and skills of staff.
eg then went on to build business models with the Team Managers identifying how Production Management would work in each of their areas.
'Change' sessions with the Operations and Administration Managers included:.
* Visioning.
* Risk identification, assessment and mitigation.
* Demonstrations of the software and reports coaching with emphasis on Key Performance Indicators.
The project team worked with Team Managers to ensure all tools and techniques, such as central work units, daily capacity planning meetings, daily huddles and whiteboards were all set up and ready for 'go live'.They then worked with the Team Managers to practice planning and allocating workloads.
eg also ensured Managers were communicating regularly with their teams to understand how the changes would impact on daily work practices.
Statistics, for example, which had previously been generated manually, would now be created electronically through a system designed for fairness and consistency.
Full 'on the floor' support was given throughout the rollout and 'go live'.
eg Solution Advisers, along with the project team were on hand to give Managers, Team Leaders and staff coaching on the use of eg work manager, how to generate reports and how to check the quality of communication.
Once eg work manager had gone live and Managers and Team Leaders were putting the eg principles of production management into practice, the eg Solutions Advisers continued to give their support to help IF realise the full benefits of the restructure.
As well as coaching management through the MI and working with them to understand the refinements required to achieve targets, eg also helped with strategic planning and aligned Production Management to achieve the required results.
When the teams started to see the output and measurements in reality, they soon realised the benefits and embraced the ethos.
Following the work that had been undertaken IF achieved more results than first anticipated:.
* All levels of staff and management understanding and talking the same business language.
* 15-20% reduction in resource costs.
* Quality element introduced to balance productivity measures.
* A springboard to measure customer service and quality.
* Staff feel confident that work is distributed fairly based on a set of criteria (skills, availability).
eg worked extensively with IF to ensure that all the staff had 'buy in' to the changes that were taking place.
The project team worked very closely with the Team Managers to ensure they understood the overall purpose and processes with the teams.
Team Managers were encouraged to build business models to ensure that the requirements of the business were fully understood and they would have a workable approach for their area.
Measurement results were agreed and signed off by the Team Managers and Administration Managers.
When the project was implemented eg worked extensively with the Team Managers to support them through the benefit realisation phases including coaching on how to analyse and handle output reports.
Grenville Turner, Chief Executive, Intelligent Finance "Some were sceptical about the potential to achieve even 10% resource savings before we started working with eg".
"However, now the project is completed they are talking about having achieved 15-20% savings and also significant improvements in performance".
"These results fully validate the decision to work with eg and I believe we will see the improvements for some time to come as the business builds".
"We will continue to focus our efforts on improved service which we see as the next battleground in financial services - a battle with eg's help I am sure we will win!".
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