Lawson Streamlines Its Tech Support

Lawson Software has built a global business by providing clients with open-architecture software systems. But its technical support needed technical help.

Surveys showed that client satisfaction had sunk to 85%, several percentage points lower than it should have been.

“That was when it was deemed that we had to do better,” says Jeff Quast, who served as quality programs manager in the Lawson Software Global Support Center. “We were fully expecting higher numbers. We were using 90% as an acceptable threshold.” Lawson serves more than 2,200 clients worldwide in the healthcare retail, government and education fields. Diagnosing client problems was time consuming because the firm has application servers, Web servers and database servers that all interact.

Critical support problems requiring immediate attention comprised 1.3% of over 100,000 support calls received by Lawson every year. The other 98.7% concerned mundane but annoying problems that needed a faster fix time. But the process was cumbersome. After the initial contact, the firm would usually have to recontact customers. More often than not, a case would be open for several days, and difficulties in making contact would further drag it out. “The process was painful and very long,” says Quast. “Clients didn’t like it and we didn’t like it.”

That was one problem. Another was that Lawson had to understand how the customer had implemented the software before it could solve the problem.

“There’s a lot of different settings and variables in complex support,” says Quast. “You try to duplicate problem scenarios but invariably when you can’t duplicate the problem, you finally find out that the key variables are not what the client thought.” The company tried using dial-in access to the customer’s computer to reduce the time, but this too proved to be inefficient. What Lawson needed was a solution that would enable the support staff to gain access to the customer desktop when troubleshooting problems for the more serious problems. And it realized that it had to look outside for that.

The solution?

“We started using WebEx,” Quast says. “With that our tech reps were able to establish secure remote access to customer machines. They could install upgrades, perform maintenance troubleshoot and engage in proactive support regardless of location, all without end-user intervention.”

With WebEx, Lawson used the Internet to see what the client was seeing on their computer screen. But the customer remained in full control. Not only could they assist Lawson techs, they had the ability to cut them off at any time.

“With other tools I’d have 100% control and access to customer files,” says Quast. “Clients didn’t like that with HIPAA regulations and privacy acts. So this assisted viewing concept was easy for us to sell.”

Lawson’s next step was to implement interactive support. Clients could use the Internet to post problems, access screen chats and leave messages. Additionally, by logging into the support site they could use an electronic tool to get to a support rep and use an e-mail / chat hybrid to resolve problems.

“The beauty is that if I’m using Lawson interactive support and I still need to see your system we have it with one click from WebEx,” Quast continues. Within 30 seconds I’m viewing your screen.”

Prior to restructuring support techniques it took an average of 15 days and exceeded 90 minutes of labor time to resolve a client’s problem. Currently, the time to resolve a client’s case declined to 4.7 days–a 70% improvement in days till closed, Quast says.

“We close over 50 percent of our issues the same day,” he adds. “It’s just the complex calls that take longer. Basically our customer satisfaction is now at 97 percent.”

The changes implemented at GSC helped internal efficiency and the customer experience with the support center while yielding what Quast calls an “enormous ROI.”

“We’re a cost center and we gauge ROI by amount of time spent on an issue,” Quast says. “We’ve improved our time on cases by approximately 40 percent. Most of that can be attributed to getting back up to speed when you’ve been disconnected from the customer for a day or two. In the old model you need to catch up. With electronic, it’s all there – right now.”

In 2002, Lawson’s GSC staff created 141,466 support cases. WebEx was used on 11,721 of those calls, helping to reduce labor time by 25%. Lawson estimated that this translates to an annual savings of nearly $600,000 and an ROI in excess of 700%.

Prior to restructuring the support center, Lawson had 239 full-time support employees. Currently there are 144 full-time support employees handling the same amount of cases. The average customer contact to resolve a case has also dropped.

Phone contact, made approximately every other day, averaged 6 times before a case closed. With the electronic support system now in place, the majority of issues close in four days.

“Having the electronic tools in place has made all the difference,” Quast says.