Following a recent eg executive dinner delegates were asked to complete a short questionnaire which highlighted the main focus to be around reducing operational and IT costs without compromising a high level of customer service.

At eg we advocate a balanced set of measures to drive overall performance improvement, spanning the key performance areas of;

Service Levels achieved, Quality scores, Skill based Capability levels achieved, Throughput levels of work, Productivity based performance indicators.

With the numerous KPI’s available within the eg operational intelligence® software suite supporting these key performance areas, we are often asked which are the most important ones to focus on to drive improvements in your current Workforce Optimisation levels?

As a business which specific eg KPI’s are you focussing on in 2012?

Do you combine or link KPI’s from one key performance area to another, for example your Service % and your Efficiency %?

What KPI’s do you use in addition to those available within the eg software suite?

Let us know by sharing your thoughts on this post by adding your comment to our blog.

We look forward to sharing the feedback we gain and our thoughts on this topic on the 13^th March at Anfield for the first of eg’s Focus Group for 2012.

Request a copy of your free white paper on Optimising Back Office Performance. eg is a back office optimisation software company specialising in two core solutions, for more information contact us via email or telephone 01785 715772.

Following a recent eg executive dinner delegates were asked to complete a short questionnaire which highlighted the main focus to be around reducing operational and IT costs without compromising a high level of customer service.

At eg we advocate a balanced set of measures to drive overall performance improvement, spanning the key performance areas of;

Service Levels achieved, Quality scores, Skill based Capability levels achieved, Throughput levels of work, Productivity based performance indicators.

With the numerous KPI’s available within the eg operational intelligence® software suite supporting these key performance areas, we are often asked which are the most important ones to focus on to drive improvements in your current Workforce Optimisation levels?

As a business which specific eg KPI’s are you focussing on in 2012?

Do you combine or link KPI’s from one key performance area to another, for example your Service % and your Efficiency %?

What KPI’s do you use in addition to those available within the eg software suite?

Let us know by sharing your thoughts on this post.  We look forward to sharing the feedback we gain and our thoughts on this topic on the 13^th March at Anfield for the first of eg’s Focus Group for 2012.

CONTACT:

About eg solutions plc

eg solutions plc is a global back office optimisation software company. Our software provides historic, real-time and predictive Operational MI. When implemented with our training programme for managers and team leaders to use this intelligence, we guarantee improvements in operational results in short timescales.

The Company, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (‘AIM’) of the London Stock Exchange, is committed to customer satisfaction and the ongoing development of its operations management solutions.

Customer Operations at Nationwide Building Society implemented eg work manager^® into the Back Office on a phased basis.  The case study looks into the benefits that eg work manager^® has provided to the Customer Events business area and how the Forecast and Capacity team can use the data now available to improve the Forecasts and Capacity plans.

Read the full back office planning case study.

Excerpt from the case study:

“The priority is to understand and analyse the data that is now available to us so that we can understand our business better and provide more Operational areas with a reliable Forecast and Capacity views so that the Customer Experience can be maintained and improved.

The analysis will involve looking at individual and team performance, highlighting any timing issues on processes that are constantly over and under performing. From this information we will be able to drive efficiencies and help to indentify teams and processes that would benefit from a Lean Review.

The data will enable me to track effectively ‘unavailable’ time and will enable this into our Forecast and Capacity models so a more realistic shrinkage rate can be used rather than the flat 25%. This will enable the team managers to plan more effectively for peak periods and give the Business confidence that resource will be available to meet demand.

We will use the information to move away from providing a flat weekly forecasts and building in the flexibility to provide varied forecasts based on daily and weekly trends.

Through the skills and utilisation data available in eg work manager^® we can now establish where there are any knowledge shortfalls and the Operation Managers can use the information to develop training plans, this will be beneficial when dealing with peak periods and ensure that the correct resource is moved between teams so that there isn’t an adverse affect on the Customer Experience, Performance and Service levels”.

Murray Sutton, Business Support Consultant – Performance and Risk, Nationwide Building Society

“Previously we were not capturing the correct way we recorded volumes of work against their SLA. By having the eg tool we have now been able to re-apply the way this is calculated but more importantly can see independently how the Ops areas are performing against it along with the age profile of work outstanding. This is far more informative for everyone within Customer Ops to be able to work on oldest work first but also now means that we have one version of data going out from the division to other areas of the group.”

Elizabeth Erskine – MI Manager Performance & Risk

Read the full Back Office Planning case study.

There are more case studies from eg available and you can Read what our clients say about the eg operational intelligence® software suite.

If you want regular updates on our news and knowledge sign up to our newsletter.

Why eg?

eg is the only back office optimisation software company that guarantees return on investment and is paid based on the results delivered – whatever you invest in implementation will pay for itself, typically within 6 months.

Our software is totally scalable to match the needs of your organisation with live implementations ranging from 10 to over 5,000 users currently being supported, and scalability proven for up to 10,000 users on a single server.

Our software is working hard for client businesses across the globe, and with over 41,000 users it is resilient and built for everyday use by your business.

To arrange a demo please contact us on +44 (0) 1785 715772 or email ask@eguk.co.uk

This topic was raised within a recent site survey, where a potential client was always satisfied with the weekly team performance reports as they came back showing ‘lots of green’, meaning agreed target thresholds had been met.

However, when eg further analysed the ‘Team Performance KPI’ figure of 101%, we discovered that there was a big variance in actual individual performance of between 50% – 150%. So, below standard individual performance was being ‘hidden’ within the accumulated team performance effort and opportunities to manage and identify this underperformance was unknown.

Once the findings were presented back, the Team Manager was very quickly able to manage the underperformance leading to a reduction in the performance variance and reaped the benefits of increased outputs. If we always accept the combined effort results rather than take the opportunities to really analyse our data, then these types of opportunities to improve would be lost.

Have you had any similar experiences within your organisation, where tapping into the underlying data has identified opportunities to make tangible improvements? If so, it would be great to share these with our client base by adding your comments below…

Or, if you would like to know how eg’s back office optimisation product suite can help you discover where significant improvement opportunities are hiding in your organisation, then email or telephone us on +44(0)1785 715772.

He said that by being able to report on work throughput, backlogs, service standard achievements and quality, and at the same time analyse productivity, staff skills and unit costs has been invaluable, as “within days enabled them to identify changes in capability to drive through efficiencies without effecting customer services or processing levels.”

Read the case study

Six years on they are still using an advanced version in the same way enabling them to take a centralised view of all work types, across multiple sites and systems had helped them avoid individual backlogs and improve end to end customer service, whilst the business has been expanding.

They are currently in the final stages of integrating the human resources, finance and information systems into the shared services model.

Williams closing comments were “eg’s systems gives us a consistent platform in terms of workflow management and allows us to take our process view back to basics and review whether we are applying them as well as we have been in the past.”

If you are interested in finding out how you can streamline your back office, contact eg on +44(0)1785 715772 or email us for your free site review.

The solution……Adapt the right leadership style for the right people – Understand the diversity of individuals in the team and monopolise on their strengths and weaknesses to drive results.

This is easier said than done when dealing with humans that are driven by emotion.

So how do you motivate your team to achieve results?  Coaching is widely used and can be effective when done well but often coaches are not selected based on the right skills or training.

In one of our previous blogs Paul Cooper from The West Brom asked how others managed to make customer facing  staff who are, on the whole, at the lower end of the salary scale come back day after day?

People are our most important asset and in order to motivate you need to plan and forecast accurately, communicate the plans and expectations, set realistic and achievable targets coupled with the effective coaching, challenging and cheer leading that is needed to drive results and motivate individuals to succeed – not easy to do own your own but help is at hand.  eg have a proven methodology for success that is endorsed by the ILM and provides a recognised qualification.  If you’d like a copy of this just email me or with any specific questions.

Here’s some food for thought in the meantime “emotions move people!”

“Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory states that instead of using one style successful leaders should change their leadership styles based on the maturity of the people they’re leading and the details of the task. Using this theory, leaders should be able to place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the relationships with the people they’re leading, depending on what’s needed to get the job done successfully.” Source: http://www.mindtools.com

As a thank you to our clients for completing the survey we entered all respondents into a prize draw for a £50 voucher of their choice. This year’s winner is…

Wendy Crowe at Zurich

At eg we are committed to our clients making the best use of our products and services. Our annual client satisfaction survey required clients to complete the survey to ensure we are constantly achieving the highest standards of service as we are always striving to improve. The purpose of this survey was to find out what they expect from eg with the Helpdesk and Software Support service.

We asked clients to rate different factors shown below on the basis of importance and satisfaction:

• Supportive partnership/relationship between our two firms
• Ability to deal with fault reporting in a timely manner
• Effective communication
• Delivering systems enhancements in line with customer needs
• Quality of development
• Behaviours of our software support employees
• Understanding of your client situation/ability to work within their culture
• Ability to deliver on time

The results show an increase in the importance of systems enhancements and the quality of developments provided as well as how effectively they can be matched and fitted around the companies’ current activities and culture.

It has also shown an overall improvement of how satisfied our clients are with the quality of developments supplied and how eg have understood their situation and fitted into working alongside their culture.

For further details please email or contact Rachel Oliver direct on +44 (0) 1785 715772.

Customer Operations at Nationwide Building Society implemented eg work manager^® into the Back Office on a phased basis.  The case study looks into the benefits that eg work manager^® has provided to the Customer Events business area and how the Forecast and Capacity team can use the data now available to improve the Forecasts and Capacity plans.

Read the full back office planning case study.

Excerpt from the case study:

“The priority is to understand and analyse the data that is now available to us so that we can understand our business better and provide more Operational areas with a reliable Forecast and Capacity views so that the Customer Experience can be maintained and improved.

The analysis will involve looking at individual and team performance, highlighting any timing issues on processes that are constantly over and under performing. From this information we will be able to drive efficiencies and help to indentify teams and processes that would benefit from a Lean Review.

The data will enable me to track effectively ‘unavailable’ time and will enable this into our Forecast and Capacity models so a more realistic shrinkage rate can be used rather than the flat 25%. This will enable the team managers to plan more effectively for peak periods and give the Business confidence that resource will be available to meet demand.

We will use the information to move away from providing a flat weekly forecasts and building in the flexibility to provide varied forecasts based on daily and weekly trends.

Through the skills and utilisation data available in eg work manager^® we can now establish where there are any knowledge shortfalls and the Operation Managers can use the information to develop training plans, this will be beneficial when dealing with peak periods and ensure that the correct resource is moved between teams so that there isn’t an adverse affect on the Customer Experience, Performance and Service levels”.

Murray Sutton, Business Support Consultant – Performance and Risk, Nationwide Building Society

“Previously we were not capturing the correct way we recorded volumes of work against their SLA. By having the eg tool we have now been able to re-apply the way this is calculated but more importantly can see independently how the Ops areas are performing against it along with the age profile of work outstanding. This is far more informative for everyone within Customer Ops to be able to work on oldest work first but also now means that we have one version of data going out from the division to other areas of the group.”

Elizabeth Erskine – MI Manager Performance & Risk

Read the full Back Office Planning case study.

There are more case studies from eg available and you can Read what our clients say about the eg operational intelligence® software suite.

If you want regular updates on our news and knowledge sign up to our newsletter.

Why eg?

eg is the only back office optimisation software company that guarantees return on investment and is paid based on the results delivered – whatever you invest in implementation will pay for itself, typically within 6 months.

Our software is totally scalable to match the needs of your organisation with live implementations ranging from 10 to over 5,000 users currently being supported, and scalability proven for up to 10,000 users on a single server.

Our software is working hard for client businesses across the globe, and with over 41,000 users it is resilient and built for everyday use by your business.

To arrange a demo please contact us on +44 (0) 1785 715772 or email ask@eguk.co.uk

Each year eg solutions plc, the back office optimisation software company and other supporters of Doornkop host a Christmas party for the children and this year the children went to Dude hall in Soweto – organised and supported by the eg South African team who raised the funds through a sponsored fun walk.

The children put on an amazing mini concert for the guests with all the different classes taking part in an activity. Lunch for the day was prepared by Digipos with the support of Samantha Phelps who sponsored the party packs and cup cakes, she was introduced to DNCC by eg’s Kay Moodley.

The day ended once all the children had received a Christmas present, kindly donated from the toy run organisation.

The money raised for this year’s Christmas Party totalled R8,775 and was raised partly by a run for fun as well as other donations from clients and members of staff at eg solutions.

We would like to thank everyone who has donated to the Charity to make this event possible as well as our own eg team who attended the event, they included Tony Cohn, Kay Moodley and Nols Mbele.

The Doornkop Needy Children Centre provides shelter, clothing, education and love to orphans and destitute children from the age of 0–5 years.  Currently around 160 children are in their care.

Find out more about the Doornkop Needy Children’s Centre and how you can get involved, and email ask@eguk.co.uk.