| Defense Agency
Improves Service Delivery, Eliminates
Manual Labor and saves $6 million |
| Organization: Defense Agency |
| Sector: Armed Forces |
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| Challenges |
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Extended times for service delivery |
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Fragmented information systems |
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High level of manual labor required |
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Increasing costs and customer dissatisfaction |
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| Results |
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Integrated information resource for
all steps in segmented process |
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Ability to easily determine order
status and intervene if necessary to
keep on schedule |
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Standardized databases and IT application |
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Manual labor nearly eliminated |
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Reduced costs by $6 million |
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Greater customer satisfaction
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| The Defense Agency
is called upon to provide global C4
services (command and control, communications,
and computer services) that are interoperable,
secure, and reliable to the Department
of Defense and other defense-related
federal agencies and offices. As technologies
have changed rapidly, the demand for
more extensive and improved communications
has increased. This increased demand,
coupled with the numerous organizations
involved in delivering services, has
altered the process for ordering and
installing Internet connections, T1
lines, classified networks connections,
voice communications and other telco
services. It has become more complex
and lengthy. The time from order to
installation was 173 days, when the
ideal was 100 days. This extra time
was costing Defense Agency money, manpower,
and customer dissatisfaction. Defense
Agency wanted to find a way to decrease
service delivery time. |
|
| Operational
Challenges |
The time between
order and installation had grown for
various reasons. Up to 15 different
computer systems, with different types
of databases, were used, with each containing
data relating to pieces of the service
delivery process. These systems were
not linked in any way, and there was
no comprehensive view of service delivery
status. A great deal of manual effort
was being expended to track order status
and there were significant and costly
coordination problems, both internally
and with customers.
Defense Agency wanted to find a way
to connect these legacy systems so that
all individuals and offices involved
in the delivery process could see the
status of any individual order at a
glance. An important part of any solution
was not changing the existing systems
so that people could continue to rely
on them for their part of the process.
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| CellExchange
Solution |
CellExchange
led the Defense Agency team through
its three-week Cambridge Executive
Workshop (CEW), during which they
designed the concept for an application
that would overlay the existing computer
systems and allow individuals across
the agency to standardize data and
check status on any order.
The CEW is a powerful, collaborative
forum where CellExchange works with
government agencies and Fortune 1000
firms, bringing together executives,
managers, end users, and other stakeholders
to move new ideas to fruition. During
the CEW, CellExchange specialists
in business solutions and technology
works with clients to: |
|
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Drive an unbiased, intellectual problem-solving
approach by tapping Harvard and MIT
resources; |
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Generate new, high-impact ideas using
CellExchange's "left and right
hand" framework; |
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Identify "lazy assets"
and areas that would benefit from new
technologies and improved processes; |
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Create a comprehensive,
compelling business case with quantitative
and qualitative benefits. |
|
| The CEW allowed Defense
Agency to: |
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decide what the workflow and tracking
application would look like: what it
meant to provide a common view, what
type of functionality it would include,
how alerts would be used, and more; |
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develop 40 milestones for Defense
Agency's internal process to identify
when certain stages of the order and
installation process should occur; |
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map out how the various data sources
support the process by developing a
software tool to aid in determining
which data sources affect other steps
in the process; and |
|
outline an implementation
plan for the solution. |
|
| Through the fast-paced
format of the CEW, Defense Agency developed
a coordinated, powerful solution that
incorporates a workflow and tracking
application that provides a common,
comprehensive view of delivery status,
provides reporting and metrics of delivery
system performance, offers delivery
time projections, and coordinates workload
management. The solution will contain
alerting and coordination mechanisms
for jeopardy reporting and escalation,
and provide the means for interactive
communication to allow different workgroups
to report easily on changes and delays.
The new application would be based on
a consolidated and standardized database. |
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| Solution Benefits |
By eliminating the fragmented, uncoordinated
process, the CellExchange solution is
expected to reduce service delivery
times by 30 days initially through process
re-engineering, and with additional
improvements, reach target levels.
Because one of the increased cost factors
for Defense Agency was caused by length
of time from order to installation,
reduction of the service delivery time
will decrease the number of days where
costs are borne while services are not
yet delivered. This is expected to save
the agency $ 4 million each year.
An additional $2 million in savings
per year is anticipated because of reduced
tracking labor, rework, and rescheduling.
Less measurable by numbers, but equally
important are the improvements in customer
satisfaction and efficiency because
of better job planning and order tracking,
and fewer instances of rescheduling.
The solution's $6 million in cost savings
and positive effect on customers will
allow Defense Agency to radically improve
its operations. |
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