Streamlining Relocation Services with Unified Workflows

The Customer

A leading relocation management company in the United States.

The Project

Streamlining Relocation Services with Unified Workflows

Overview

The Customer, a leading provider of white glove relocation services for individuals undergoing job changes, faced a significant challenge in managing their workflows efficiently. Their operations were hindered by disparate systems and fragmented workflows, resulting in lost or incorrect information. The Customer sought a solution that would unify their systems and enable their agents to provide exceptional customer service without the need to navigate multiple platforms.

The Challenge

The Customer's team members were struggling to access the necessary information for seamless relocation services. The lack of a centralized workflow management system led to inefficiencies, information gaps, and increased risk of errors. This not only impacted their ability to deliver top-notch service to their clients but also resulted in frustration and time-consuming manual efforts for their consultants.

The Solution

To address the Customer's challenges, our team at Improving embarked on a project to consolidate their disparate systems and create a unified workflow management solution. We worked closely with the Customer's CTO to understand their requirements and devise a plan that would streamline their operations.

The project involved merging various systems, some of which were developed using outdated technology, while others were purchased commercial products. We tackled the challenge of monitoring business events from each system, even without the ability to modify the existing code.

Through collaboration with the Customer's CTO, we established a common language of business events that could be distributed across a bus and fed into a custom-built workflow system. This system provided a visual representation of the workflow and guided agents through the appropriate steps, ensuring nothing was missed along the way.

The Technologies & Methodologies

• System Integration: We leveraged our expertise in integrating disparate systems to merge the Customer's various platforms and create a unified workflow management solution.

• Event Monitoring: To overcome the challenge of monitoring business events from systems with limited modification capabilities, we devised innovative approaches to capture and distribute the necessary information.

• Custom Workflow System: We developed a custom workflow management system tailored to the Customer's specific needs, providing a user-friendly interface for visualizing and managing workflows.

The Business Benefits

• Improved Information Accessibility: The unified workflow management system eliminated the need to search for information across multiple systems, enabling agents to access the relevant data quickly and accurately.

• Enhanced Customer Service: With a streamlined workflow, the Customer's consultants were able to provide more efficient and personalized service to their clients, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

• Reduced Handoff Effort: The new system significantly reduced the effort required for consultants to hand off tasks and information to their colleagues when taking time off. This resulted in increased productivity and minimized disruptions to the relocation process.

• Normalized Workflows: The Customer's previous processes were highly customized for each individual client, leading to inconsistencies and challenges in managing workflows. Our solution helped them establish standardized workflows for different contract types, simplifying their operations and enabling better scalability.

Lessons Learned

1. Engage Business Units Early: It is crucial to involve the business units in the project from the early stages to understand their specific requirements fully.

2. Challenge Client Assumptions: Encouraging clients to think outside the box and challenge their assumptions about what is possible can lead to innovative solutions exceeding their expectations.

3. Balance Autonomy and Collaboration: It's essential to strike a balance between client input and leveraging the development team's expertise, allowing for creativity and curiosity in addressing challenges.

Why Improving?

By implementing a unified workflow management system, the Customer achieved significant improvements in their operations. Our collaboration with their team resulted in enhanced information accessibility, improved customer service, reduced handoff effort, and normalized workflows. The Customer now has a scalable solution that empowers their consultants to provide exceptional relocation services to their clients. Through this project, we learned valuable lessons about the importance of engaging business units early and challenging client assumptions, ultimately delivering a successful outcome for the Customer.