Peer to Peer Magazine

March 2012

The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association

Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/57001

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 42 of 103

As a management team, how do you ensure that you are all on the same page? Jeff: Communication is key to the success of any support department/ organization. Regularly scheduled meetings with a set agenda are needed to ensure everyone is communicating. However, there are risks in having too many meetings, so it is imperative that you spend time understanding who needs to attend, the frequency with which they occur and the agenda. Don't have a meeting just to have a meeting. Angelos: To state the obvious, a good communication plan and change management process are important in ensuring everybody is informed and in agreement. In addition, regular meetings with published minutes of all the key decisions and actions seem to work pretty well. Michele: Our goal is to regularly focus on the overlap and synergies between each of our support functions. For example, the service desk sharing frequent call topics with the training and communications teams helps us develop workshops and targeted communications, so we can effectively provide our users with valuable tools to enhance their workflow. In turn, when a training session helps identify topics with which attendees are struggling, they can share that with the service desk and communications teams during support briefings, and help prepare newsletter or intranet tips to share with users. How do you quantify the value (ROI) of moving to a global support model? Nina: The value is easy to identify. Having a well-connected group of support analysts all trained in the same way, using the same processes and working to the same service levels and expectations is priceless. The return on investment in real terms is harder to quantify. But as the service matures, individual downtime should be reduced; thus, reducing the impact of each incident, especially at critical times when users are offsite or traveling. In an industry where time really is money, a global support model that can cater to all types of requests and incidents both effectively and efficiently will save time. Angelos: There are very strong arguments for reducing costs by deploying a global support model — most of which are derived from global economies of scale. Here are some of the ways in which we have seen cost savings: GROWTH KEEP COSTS DOWN DRIVE You Do It. We Help. 44 Peer to Peer • Follow-the-Sun Service Desk: If your firm is strategically situated with offices in the Americas, EMEA and Asia, 24-hour support can be provided across core business hours with minimal need for overtime during out-of-hours shifts. With hub offices in Chicago, London and Hong Kong, we can cover a large portion of the working day without the need to pay overtime or allowances for nonsocial hours (although the latter is becoming rare). • Employment of Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Technology: This allows us to benefit from overflow capabilities during peak/busy periods and reduce the amount of staff required to operate various shifts within certain regions. • Utilization and Sharing of Global Skills and Expensive Subject-Matter Expertise: While we still consider outsourcing where it makes sense, we are generally in a position to keep certain skill sets inhouse and best utilized across a number of global projects and other initiatives. What is an example of a global support process that has worked really well? What hasn't worked as well, and how did/will you adjust to resolve the problem? Jeff: Rolling out a global incident management system and process went very well. The success was the buy-in from all IT members throughout all the regions. Some of the offices were not logging/

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Peer to Peer Magazine - March 2012