ScottishPower Case Study
Announcement posted by Graham Technology 12 Mar 2002
GT-X is a competitive-edge weapon
(David Jones, Managing Director of Information Systems, ScottishPower)
(David Jones, Managing Director of Information Systems, ScottishPower)
The ScottishPower project is a 400 seat call centre in which Graham Technology is the prime contractor, supplying GT-X Software , Sun hardware and services to assist with the configuration and implementation of the call centre management system.
The Business Opportunity
ScottishPower is a major electricity, gas and telecommunications provider with headquarters in Glasgow. ScottishPower provides services to over 5 million customers per year and has an annual turnover of 3.9 bn. They recently installed a new call centre to accommodate their business process and to improve customer service. The Corporate Vision of ScottishPower has set the goal of becoming a world class multi-utility organisation delivering increased value to shareholders, customers, and staff. Retaining existing customers and winning new business is key to achieving this goal. ScottishPower recognised that by transforming their customer service management they would be positioning themselves to achieve this.
The need was therefore identified to establish a 400 seat call centre dedicated to customer service.
The Business Problem
ScottishPowers market has become more complex due to the liberalisation of the electricity, telecommunications, water and gas industries. It is becoming increasingly important for ScottishPower to adapt to these changes and provide an all encompassing customer management system to deal with the diverse nature of their market. Before the introduction of the new call centre, each customer-facing business division within ScottishPower handled customer contacts separately. The treatment of customers was inconsistent both across the company and within Distribution and Supply (D&S) where working practices varied both between and within districts. The systems and technology (e.g. interfaces to CAPSIS) did not assist staff in dealing with customers in a user friendly way.
GT-X : The Business Solution
The solution had to address ScottishPower's outlined objectives of the customer service centre, these were :
1. Customer service is at the heart of the relationship between customer and company and services must be continually developed to meet the aspirations of both.
2. To allow exploitation of new market areas with substantial expansion capability for 3rd party service delivery.
3. Must be able to deal seamlessly with other utilities after 1997
4. Must support the marketing and branding of ScottishPower. In order to respond to the complexity of the market , Scottish Power recognised the need for a transformation in its processes to provide the highest level of service. GT-X was able to facilitate the dramatic shift from correspondence based business processes to telephony based business processes.
Moving into the call centre arena presented individual management challenges such as, handling telephone calls, providing operators with information, service consistency and controlling the process. In addition to addressing these issues, GT-X was the catalyst that transformed Scottish Power's business processes to provide world class levels of service. GT-X was recognised as the tool that would significantly reduce training time, increase productivity and bring consistency of service.
Project Execution.
The project was approved in July, 1995. The process re-engineering was completed in February, 1996. The live pilot started on April 26, 1996 with 40 operators, increasing by 40-50 users every fortnight. Today there are 400 in operation. The successful technological and business transformation has allowed ScottishPower to improve and develop its leading edge solution. ScottishPower have taken in excess of 1,000,000 calls with GT-X and are now implementing GT-X throughout other business areas.
Project Management and Co-ordination
Graham Technology supplied a project manager, technical architect and in-depth technical assistance (training and technology transfer) . These services worked together with ScottishPowers individual project managers dealing with the co-ordination of the overall project.
Graham Technology's recommendation was that all agents be provided with Sun X Terminal 1 machines, combining fast graphics performance with low maintenance and administration costs. This multi-layered client/server architecture was recommended for reasons of flexibility, stability and resilience. Having accepted the recommendation, ScottishPower has found performance to meet with their high expectations.
Software / Support & Maintenance
The support was excellent. It was outstanding.
(David Jones, Managing Director of Information Systems, ScottishPower)
The GT-X process server tool-kit was the key element to the new system, delivering process support to call centre agents. GT-X applications principally store business on Oracle or Informix databases. Hardware and software support & maintenance were also supplied by Graham Technology as required.
Business Gains.
The cost of implementing the project was a lump-sum bid at 3.8 million. Ultimately, however the IT solution was delivered at 3.6 million. The change in technology and business approach reduced the cost per month to one tenth of what it was previously. The pay-back of the investment was achieved within 20 months. The implementation of GT-X reduced training times from six months to two weeks. 98% of the calls, compared to 60% three years ago , are now dealt with on the first hit, because the information is immediately on hand. ScottishPower call centre agents are now able to handle a variety of tasks including meter enquiry, change of address, credit enquiry or a sales query.
ScottishPower's Managing Director of Information Systems, David Jones expects the move away from mainframes to client/server architecture to save the company 50 million over the next 4 years. He emphasises, however, that the objective of the project is not to save money but to deal with the challenges of the business and to allow maximum flexibility in today's ever changing environment:
"We want to ensure our IT systems can deal with the challenge of the business. And if you say that all your applications have to run on a mainframe, instead of taking advantage of the flexibility that is available in distributed Unix client/server, then ultimately you are restricting the business."
GT-X has been designed to operate in a moving technology environment (where access is needed both to legacy and new systems data) as it enables customer enquiries to be dealt with effectively at the time the customer calls rather than having to call back once the relevant information has been found.
GT-X also allows all information to be accessed through a single system instead of requiring multiple screens. David Jones went on to describe the new system:
"Our IT system totally underwrites our customer facing processes. They were delivered to time and cost and the customer has gained huge business benefits. The only way to get the edge is to go for leading edge systems put in by leading edge people."
Partners for the Future
ScottishPower has now become a multi-utility organisation and are operating at the forefront of leading-edge technology. GT-X has transformed the business processes to such an extent that Scottish Power was totally prepared with a seamless solution for their emergence into the multi-utility market.
Graham Technology is now working as a strategic partner with Scottish Power to continuously improve their multi-utility services. After a successful transfer of knowledge and technology from Graham Technology, ScottishPower have become self-sufficient in developing and modifying their own scripts to meet their changing business requirements. Scottish Power believe that the new system has met all of their business requirements and that their relationship with Graham Technology is a true partnership. David Jones said,
"We needed a partner with courage, innovation and commitment to deliver. What has been delivered? We believe the best call centre in Europe. Graham Technology have a total team mentality - complete focus - One goal, one purpose, one team. They really make it happen."
The Business Opportunity
ScottishPower is a major electricity, gas and telecommunications provider with headquarters in Glasgow. ScottishPower provides services to over 5 million customers per year and has an annual turnover of 3.9 bn. They recently installed a new call centre to accommodate their business process and to improve customer service. The Corporate Vision of ScottishPower has set the goal of becoming a world class multi-utility organisation delivering increased value to shareholders, customers, and staff. Retaining existing customers and winning new business is key to achieving this goal. ScottishPower recognised that by transforming their customer service management they would be positioning themselves to achieve this.
The need was therefore identified to establish a 400 seat call centre dedicated to customer service.
The Business Problem
ScottishPowers market has become more complex due to the liberalisation of the electricity, telecommunications, water and gas industries. It is becoming increasingly important for ScottishPower to adapt to these changes and provide an all encompassing customer management system to deal with the diverse nature of their market. Before the introduction of the new call centre, each customer-facing business division within ScottishPower handled customer contacts separately. The treatment of customers was inconsistent both across the company and within Distribution and Supply (D&S) where working practices varied both between and within districts. The systems and technology (e.g. interfaces to CAPSIS) did not assist staff in dealing with customers in a user friendly way.
GT-X : The Business Solution
The solution had to address ScottishPower's outlined objectives of the customer service centre, these were :
1. Customer service is at the heart of the relationship between customer and company and services must be continually developed to meet the aspirations of both.
2. To allow exploitation of new market areas with substantial expansion capability for 3rd party service delivery.
3. Must be able to deal seamlessly with other utilities after 1997
4. Must support the marketing and branding of ScottishPower. In order to respond to the complexity of the market , Scottish Power recognised the need for a transformation in its processes to provide the highest level of service. GT-X was able to facilitate the dramatic shift from correspondence based business processes to telephony based business processes.
Moving into the call centre arena presented individual management challenges such as, handling telephone calls, providing operators with information, service consistency and controlling the process. In addition to addressing these issues, GT-X was the catalyst that transformed Scottish Power's business processes to provide world class levels of service. GT-X was recognised as the tool that would significantly reduce training time, increase productivity and bring consistency of service.
Project Execution.
The project was approved in July, 1995. The process re-engineering was completed in February, 1996. The live pilot started on April 26, 1996 with 40 operators, increasing by 40-50 users every fortnight. Today there are 400 in operation. The successful technological and business transformation has allowed ScottishPower to improve and develop its leading edge solution. ScottishPower have taken in excess of 1,000,000 calls with GT-X and are now implementing GT-X throughout other business areas.
Project Management and Co-ordination
Graham Technology supplied a project manager, technical architect and in-depth technical assistance (training and technology transfer) . These services worked together with ScottishPowers individual project managers dealing with the co-ordination of the overall project.
Graham Technology's recommendation was that all agents be provided with Sun X Terminal 1 machines, combining fast graphics performance with low maintenance and administration costs. This multi-layered client/server architecture was recommended for reasons of flexibility, stability and resilience. Having accepted the recommendation, ScottishPower has found performance to meet with their high expectations.
Software / Support & Maintenance
The support was excellent. It was outstanding.
(David Jones, Managing Director of Information Systems, ScottishPower)
The GT-X process server tool-kit was the key element to the new system, delivering process support to call centre agents. GT-X applications principally store business on Oracle or Informix databases. Hardware and software support & maintenance were also supplied by Graham Technology as required.
Business Gains.
The cost of implementing the project was a lump-sum bid at 3.8 million. Ultimately, however the IT solution was delivered at 3.6 million. The change in technology and business approach reduced the cost per month to one tenth of what it was previously. The pay-back of the investment was achieved within 20 months. The implementation of GT-X reduced training times from six months to two weeks. 98% of the calls, compared to 60% three years ago , are now dealt with on the first hit, because the information is immediately on hand. ScottishPower call centre agents are now able to handle a variety of tasks including meter enquiry, change of address, credit enquiry or a sales query.
ScottishPower's Managing Director of Information Systems, David Jones expects the move away from mainframes to client/server architecture to save the company 50 million over the next 4 years. He emphasises, however, that the objective of the project is not to save money but to deal with the challenges of the business and to allow maximum flexibility in today's ever changing environment:
"We want to ensure our IT systems can deal with the challenge of the business. And if you say that all your applications have to run on a mainframe, instead of taking advantage of the flexibility that is available in distributed Unix client/server, then ultimately you are restricting the business."
GT-X has been designed to operate in a moving technology environment (where access is needed both to legacy and new systems data) as it enables customer enquiries to be dealt with effectively at the time the customer calls rather than having to call back once the relevant information has been found.
GT-X also allows all information to be accessed through a single system instead of requiring multiple screens. David Jones went on to describe the new system:
"Our IT system totally underwrites our customer facing processes. They were delivered to time and cost and the customer has gained huge business benefits. The only way to get the edge is to go for leading edge systems put in by leading edge people."
Partners for the Future
ScottishPower has now become a multi-utility organisation and are operating at the forefront of leading-edge technology. GT-X has transformed the business processes to such an extent that Scottish Power was totally prepared with a seamless solution for their emergence into the multi-utility market.
Graham Technology is now working as a strategic partner with Scottish Power to continuously improve their multi-utility services. After a successful transfer of knowledge and technology from Graham Technology, ScottishPower have become self-sufficient in developing and modifying their own scripts to meet their changing business requirements. Scottish Power believe that the new system has met all of their business requirements and that their relationship with Graham Technology is a true partnership. David Jones said,
"We needed a partner with courage, innovation and commitment to deliver. What has been delivered? We believe the best call centre in Europe. Graham Technology have a total team mentality - complete focus - One goal, one purpose, one team. They really make it happen."