I worked with a client once who was looking to implement an automated process for complaints handling. They explained their processes and began to slowly unveil their “integrated” customer system, explaining that over the years they grew to understand how information needs to move from one system to another for a single customer view.
And I froze in a state of shock.
I was looking at a standard application window with seventeen icons when it suddenly dawned on me; integration for this business simply meant the glossy front-end held seventeen manual points of entry into the back-end, which a customer advisor had to navigate in order to fulfill a simple enquiry.
And that’s where all the problems begin.Lost customer information, duplicated entries, half-truths and poor decision-making were all a result of this unnecessarily convoluted system.
Tiny Men Making Things Run Smoothly
Did you ever wonder as a child where the little men were who lived in the radio or television? Let me spin a similar yarn for the challenge of integration. [Read more...]
