Agile Business Change Blog Thoughts on Agile Strategic Business Change and Agile Delivery

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There are some aspects of service (and more general customer relationship management) that can be assisted by IT and some that are more within the ambit of the business. The business is responsible for the staff and their skills for example, whereas IT is responsible for the systems that facilitate delivery of the services. In more detail:

• Service experience: the business is responsible for setting the tone of the experience the user will have of the organisation. For example, if phone menus are used, is the data used fully, routing the call to the appropriate department? If not, users will see through the unnecessary questions.
• Operation/Organisation: the business is also responsible for ensuring that best service is delivered across all departments, whether it is providing professional advice, or fulfilling an order.
• Staff and Skills: the training that staff have and their skills provide the context for the service experience across the operation. This area is also responsibility of the organisation.
• Process: the processes used to deliver the services are ultimately the responsibility of the organisation, but they need to be facilitated by the IT systems.
• IT: the technology provides the basis for processes and the operation. Generally, this is provided primarily by the CRM together, supported by the website for self service and reporting.

There are a number of areas where the IT systems need to form the basis for the processes and indeed, John Seddon identifies the IT systems as the principal area that need to be improved to provide the basis for improved service. The main needs are for good, well joined up technology, including:

• CRM with the capability to:
  • Provide the single source of truth for members and other stakeholders, storing all the key data needed to provide service to them
  • Support the processes needed to deliver the services efficiently and provide a platform for automation and improvements
  • Easily capture details of an enquiry and hand over those details to another department to follow up if necessary
  • Support efficient execution of  services, for example, through caller identification and auto-dialling
• A website Content Management System (CMS) that provides self service and personalisation
• Good online systems (potentially the website CMS) for promoting and purchasing events and products such as books
• Measure the demands being made and the services delivered, with analysis to feed back into further improvements.