Expert Training Systems (ETS) are a leading supplier of 360° feedback programmes, employee opinion surveys and customer research programmes. Established in 1989, they have developed a strong business and their customer base is growing quickly.
With many new customers come many more queries and general communication between the customers and ETS staff. A large proportion of these queries require more than one member of staff to provide their input, frequently via email or in conversations between team members and with the customer. This was inevitably leading to challenges keeping track of issues and knowing when someone had responded to the customer and with what information.
Joined-up Solutions worked with ETS to identify the main issues and extend their existing ideas. Out of these discussions, a set of coherent and achievable requirements for a software system were produced. The new system was named the Action Tracking System (ATS) and was to provide ETS staff and their customers with a means of tracking enquires, requests for changes and meeting action points.
The software development plan produced by Joined-up Solutions included a number of milestones where a new functional area of the software would be complete. At each of these milestones, a review of the system was held with the ETS stakeholders to validate the process flow.
By being able to see the working parts of the system as development progressed, ETS were able to quickly identify ways of further improving the workflow and how to refine the requirements to include these improvements. This flexibility during the development process was a key factor in the success of the system.
The Action Tracking System provides ETS customers and staff with a single location to record and view the queries and actions for their project with outstanding and completed items clearly identifiable. Queries and actions can be passed from person to person as necessary to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the customer.
Whenever an item is progressed it is updated with the details of what has been done and this information is then visible to the customer and ETS staff. When an item has been completed it remains in the system for future reference providing full traceability of decisions made.
ETS Project Managers can now more easily manage the distribution of tasks for their project since the Action Tracking System provides them with a view of the customer enquiries and actions which members of staff are dealing with. This gives the Project Manager valuable information about work in progress which may not have been part of the original project plan. Using this knowledge during the allocation of tasks improves the effective planning of project work.
The amount of time required to deal with customer enquiries has greatly reduced through the ability to direct queries and actions to the member of ETS staff most able to deal with them. A database of previous queries and actions alongside their resolution makes dealing with similar issues much quicker, reducing the amount of time a customer needs to wait for a response to their issue.
A happy side-effect is that this system is now even demonstrated by ETS at the sales pitch stage as it offers unique project support that their clients and potential clients find irresistible.