The Horizon is Around the Corner

© 2004 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 111

The Horizon is Around the Corner

Erich ZirnheltLivia Wilson


Industry Perspective – Where we fit

Three types of Support Needs:

Commodity/Component

Application Systems

• Over 85% redundancy• KCS not applicable• Seed and Feed Strategy• Web-based support optimal

• Over 60% “how to’s”• Many hand-holding interactions

required• Less volatility – complexity drive by

layers (i.e. OS/dependent components/compatibility

• Release –driven KM strategy (cost driven down with release maturity)

• High – content reuse

• Complexity plus volatility driven by customer environments

• Costs driven by exceptions not trends

• Symptoms and causes classifications are in different areas – reporting skewed

• Skill matrices not maintainable

NowSoon


Business Concept : Opportunity and Background

Opportunity Statement:

Enable the support organization to support enterprise customers with:

• Less escalations and critical situations

• Up-to-date knowledge about emerging products

• Lower resource burden for legacy/mature products

• No redundant effort

• Less management intervention

The business needed a new way to FOCUS on its work.

Background: EMC Software Group's Legato Software Support is a successful Knowledge-

Centered Support organization.

High complexity/medium volume, systems support business

Over 80 products, 80% mature, 20% driving large resource burden

Resources for managing knowledge not available

Momentum for being proactive was lost

Resources over-occupied with working cases and management as traffic cops


High level ISN Illustration – It Ties it Together – Creates Focus

KnowledgeManagement

ResourceManagement

PerformanceManagement

IntegratedSolutionNetwork

Just In Time - Expertise AccessRegulated Collaboration using Profiles

Case Impact ValuesReputation Model

Knowledge NormalizationEconomic Model


Business Context:

People realize all cases are not created equal and …

learning is a key performance driver but …

don’t have a means to…

value case work, and learning appropriately.

Value Proposition:What if:

1. We valued cases according to the impact of the problem (how complex, how severe, how much learning it drives)

2. We could let people “cherry pick” which cases they could best solve

3. We could tell engineering which problems had the greatest impact on our business – and how much it would cost us - if they don’t fix them

4. We could ensure problems were resolved in the most effective way by the most appropriate resource every time

5. We had a new valuation model for work that is not based on the “old way” of thinking about support

Business Context & Value Proposition


Traditional Metrics - Cases


Traditional Metrics - Calls


Successful KCS Adoption

0%

90%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11

12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11

12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11

12 1 2

2002 2003 2004 2005

Ra

tio

Ca

se

Lin

ke

d t

o K

B C

on

ten

t

No Link

Linked


Old Thinking

Good knowledge “use” statistics are good news - People going through the motions

Work is measured by time and quantity (content and cases in same model)

We are victims– Have a hard time justifying additional resources– Don’t get training early enough– Have to support “unqualified” Configurations– Are not a strategic resource


KCS Strategic Objectives

Connection of New to Known

ACT

Identify and solve problem – look for

resolution connections

Integration of Context and

Content

Proficiency

Development

Improve

Analyze impact

normalize content/process

Aligned

Stakeholder Values

Outcomes in Statistical

Control

Rethink

Determines how to reset capacity of

system

Mature Products

Front line/Customer TeamsEmerging Products

QA, Support Planners, SMEs


New Thinking

Quantify value of issue – Impact from all stakeholder perspectives

• Severity, customer value, product and problem

Pull people into it efficiently– They are the best judge of relevance to their expertise– Let people who want to know – learn– Team approach new problems

Work the problem properly– Triage to get on right path, set relief, keep track of value

Quantify problems not cases


Create Resolution Paths

Connection Refuse

(KB66675)

Connection Timeout

(KB66170)

QS: IP Naming(KB65924)

IP Naming(KB65924)

RAP not in Remote Access list (KB65998)

IP Naming(KB65924)

Client Alias (KB65871)

Remote Access Client

(KB65997)

Server file usage(KB66110)

RAP: Unable to extract resources

(KB66255)

IP Naming(KB65924)


Network Configuration

(KB65894)

Composite Hostid(KB14798)

Link to Admin Guide #p65

Cannot Request Command Execution (KB66555)

QS: Backup fails with RSH

(KB30502)

IP Naming(KB65924)

QS: Network Configuration

(Legato65894)

Unable to Send(KB65873)

Inactivity Timeout(KB66134)

IP Naming(KB65924)

Modify Inactivity Timeout attribute

(KB33022)


Network Configuration

(KB65894)

Access Violation on Unknown Host

(KB65870)

IP Naming(KB65924)


NIC (KB65894)

TCP/IP (KB13178)

Client Alias (Legato65871)

Network Issues

Instead of separate content objects and focusing on content “standard”– work on the “logic”


Set Single Focus Indicator – at a system level

Determine potential impact at case creation– 3 dimensions (only one is set through case worker)

• ? Complexity– Single-product environment – problem-based– Multiple-product – product-based

• ! Problem Impact (Severity) set through case worker by customer• $ Customer importance

Assess actual impact over time – Degrade value over time (using principles of games theory)

• Level of erosion based on “gravity” of situation• Relief status slows down erosion• False relief resets from original point• Share value with participants

Case Value

Case Value

Time

Cost (value lost)

Sensitive P

roduct

Hot Custo

mer

Severity 1

Complexity

Severity

Customer

Importance


Knowledge Economy – How does it focus?

$$ !! ??

Customer Value Severity Value Product Value

25% 25% 50%

Premier or Compliant ATSP

60% Sev 1 100% Low Complexity

20%

Other ATSP 40% Sev 2 90% Medium Complexity

40%

Basic 20% Sev 3 45% High Complexity

80%

Strategic Acct 0 / 20% Sev 4 10%

Relevance

Critical or Hot Site 0 / 20% Sev 1 Sensitivity 0 / 20%

Set by PTS or Sales Set by Customer Set by Support Planners

Determined by Case Owner

The calculated value is done by the system – not the user


Case Value Examples

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

9/21

/04

9/23

/04

9/25

/04

9/27

/04

9/29

/04

10/01

/04

10/03

/04

10/05

/04

10/07

/04

10/09

/04

10/11

/04

10/13

/04

10/15

/04

10/17

/04

10/19

/04

Cas

e V

alu

e

Case ACreated Sev 1Closed Sev 2Day 1 Loss: 41.6Total Loss: 155.7

Case BCreated Sev 2Closed Sev 2Sensitive ProductDay 1 Loss: 119.6Total Loss: 824.0

Case CCreated Sev 3Closed Sev 3Day 1 Loss: 30.7Total Loss: 153.6


Strategy For Adoption

1. Define and Document1. Principles2. Use Case

2. Socialize1. Tiger teams2. Roundtables3. Brown bags

3. Trend in background to build history

4. Play a hand for free

5. Set targets bottom up

6. Socialize and Create pull

7. Keep score and replay


Results

Teams look at workload based on cumulative impact not volume – daily huddles

Management does not get blind sighted with:– Sales initiatives trying to cut in line– Hot Sites coming from the top-down– Comparison between teams’ perceived “productivity”

People working few hard cases versus lots of easy cases don’t feel slighted

No hiding behind lots of cases which are mostly in relief status

– Junior people handle administrative work and closure


Next Stage

Teams build equity from cases worked effectively– Have senior people earn equity at a domain instead of case level– Have junior people on team for triage, case closure and leg work– Motivated to have them worked on the web and with lowest cost

touch point

Team share best practices for working complex and high volume queues

Engineering and sales get projected cost views for problems they introduce

– Problem Id’s are associated at back end of workflow– No more arbitrary categorization of cases at front end


Strategy and Change Management


New Goals = New Drivers

Documents

The Horizon is Around the Corner