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Lead Product Manager, Remedy BMC SoftwareTwitter: @JonHall_

Jon Hall

Swarming - a radical new way to deliver service

Servicedesk and IT Support Show, June 2015, London

BMC Customer SupportGlobal Support

Follow-the-sun support - 24 hours, 365 days.Many Support Centres are co-located with R&DOver 500 support specialists with over 2,600 years

of combined experience200,000+ incidents addressed each yearCommunication skills and knowledge are key

factor in hiring agents

Best PracticesKnowledge-centred support (KCS)Industry BenchmarkingQuality Management ProcessesProblem ManagementCollaboration and SwarmingIntegrating Support, Communities and Social

Media

BMC Contact Centres

Support Centres

Support Centres Co-located with R&D

Pleasanton/Sunnyvale

Houston

AustinMcLean/Herndon

Lexington

Sao Paulo

Buenos Aires

Spain

DublinWinnersh

Amsterdam

Paris

Tel Hai

Pune

Singapore

Shanghai

BeijingSeoul

Dalian

Tokyo

Melbourne

Houston, TX, USA

Dublin, Ireland

Dalian China

Swarming has been used in parts of BMC for over 5 yearsRemedy customer support adopted it in 2014Key drivers

• Customers, and BMC’s Chief Customer Officer• Desire to reduce median resolution time (“fix in 5”)• Assessment of existing processes

Background

“First I speak with someone who doesn’t

know very much…

Then I speak with the person who knows

a bit more…”

LEVEL 2 SUPPORT LEVEL 2 SUPPORTLEVEL 2 SUPPORT

LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT

Classic Tiered-Support Structure

Escalation

Escalation

…or here

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT

LEVEL 2 SUPPORT LEVEL 2 SUPPORTLEVEL 2 SUPPORT

The issue can spend a long time here

LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS

When the answer may be here…

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT

LEVEL 2 SUPPORT

LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS

Ticket may sit at L1 for some time

before being escalated…

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT

LEVEL 2 SUPPORT

LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS

…only to come right back for more

information

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT

LEVEL 2 SUPPORT

LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT

LEVEL 3 SPECIALISTS

LEVEL 2 SUPPORT

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTSubject matter experts are frequently

overwhelmed…

“Collaborativecommunities can reach across

the usual disciplinary and organisational silos that inhibit

cooperation, learning, andprogress”

“Wikinomics”(Don Tapscott and Anthony

D.Williams)

Consortium for Service Innovation

Consortium for Service Innovation

“Streaming”Siloes and Hierarchies

DirectedPre-defined, Linear process

Escalation basedMeasured on activity

Intelligent SwarmingNetworkOpt-InEmergent, loopy processCollaboration basedMeasured by value creation

“Digital swarming… using collective intelligence to break down information silos.

In the digital swarming environment, the collective can rapidly filter out bad information, which mitigates the risk ofmisinformation”

CISCO white paper

To ensure rapid resolutions to critical issues.

To replace (and dramatically improve upon) the traditional tiered support structure.

To significantly reduce backlog of long-term troublesome support tickets.

Swarming techniques at BMC

“Severity 1” Swarm “Dispatch” Swarm “Backlog” Swarm

Severity 1 Swarm1%

Prioritise

Swarming process

Severity 1 SwarmsRapid responders

• Three agents on a scheduled one-week rotation• Primary focus: Provide immediate response, and resolve as soon as

possible

Swarm lead

Communications

Other membersResearch, coordinate,

test

Severity 1 Swarm1%

Local Dispatch Swarm

99%

Prioritise

30% solved here

Swarming process

Dispatch Swarms“Cherry pickers”

• Meet every 60-90 minutes• Primary focus: Can new tickets be resolved immediately?• Also: Validation of ticket details before assignment to product line

support

Experienced analyst

Less-experienced analyst

Local Product Line Support Teams

Severity 1 Swarm1%

Local Dispatch Swarm

99%

70%

Prioritise

30% solved here

Swarming process

Local Product Line Support Teams

Severity 1 Swarm

Local Dispatch Swarm

Prioritise

Severity 1 Swarm

Local Dispatch Swarm

Prioritise

Local Product Line Support Teams

Swarming process

Local Product Line Support Teams

Local Product Line Support Teams

Swarming process

Backlog Swarm Backlog Swarm Backlog Swarm

Backlog SwarmsGlobal fixers of troublesome tickets

• Meet weekly • Primary focus: Deal with challenging tickets brought to them by local

support teams• Take the place of individual subject-matter-expert escalation

Experienced analysts

R&D Engineers

Success factorsEmphase good decisions on behalf of BMC and customer

• Particularly in Dispatch Swarm: Guidelines, not rules• Gives teams the freedom to break the process if appropriate

Prepare for what will change• Backline teams will face fewer, but more complex issues• Swarming breaks traditional productivity measurements

Ensure staff are ready to become customer facing• Level 2 and Level 3 are no longer “hidden away”

Make use of the processes• Use Dispatch Swarm instead of escalations to SMEs

Tools and platforms• Mobile is often an excellent swarming enabler

The results (so far!)…25% improvement in median time to resolution8 percentage point higher customer satisfaction indexBig increase in issues closed in <2 daysSignificant reduction in backlogHalved time for onboarding new staffFreed resources for new, boutique offerings

“I have probably doubled my knowledge of the products in the past year because of swarming, and I have been here a long time”

Senior Support Team Member

Some further reading

Consortium for Service Innovation:

Intelligent Swarming: Considerations for Starting Out

CISCO:

Digital Swarming -The Next Model for Distributed Collaboration and Decision Making

Don Tapscott/Anthony D. Williams

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

http://www.slideshare.net/JonHall7/

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