Real-Time Control & Prioritisation

Some of the contents are from my book "The Glance of The Dollar Fairy"

The true essence of any business process is consistency. They may be consistency in performance, consistency in meeting service levels, consistency in revenue or consistency in growth and profitability but consistency nevertheless. I have observed in many cases that BPOs get off to a great start and then fail to consistently hold on to that pace or the consistency of performance. They blame it on various factors like over-delivery, product issues or quality or workforce and actually, most of the time they are spot on but that does not erase the fact that there was something wrong and they were supposed to make it right. Typically a rise and an ebb.

This rise and ebb in processes are mostly arrested by the reputed top liners by use of systems, technologies and SOPs but again consistency is always a challenge and has spelt nightmares for thousands of managers.

In my experience, I have observed that a typical ebb is plagued by one single factor and that is the effort to invest in the process in real time with real-time strategies. The reason for this is primarily the historical data that is so much a foundation of the SOPs adopted that real-time defects result in outcomes that do not always coincide with the efforts. Continuous effort or consistent efforts cause monotony and if those efforts don't fetch the expected results, there is a general emotion of fatigue in the workforce. But again, this typical phenomenon of results not being as expected is natural and unavoidable. It is in this unavoidable crevice that lies the key to the solution to this problem and that solution is real-time control and prioritisation.

If we go by definition, Real-time control systems are closed-loop control systems where one has a tight time window to gather data, then process that data and finally update the system. If the time window is missed, then the stability of the system is degraded. It elaborates specifically on stability and control. Factually, understanding, we can define it as a process of eliminating errors through a close watch.

REAL-TIME CONTROL IS LOOKING AT A PROCESS CLOSELY ENOUGH AND THEN UNDERSTANDING THE DEFECTS THAT MAY ARISE DURING THAT OBSERVATION. THEN SEPARATE THE DEFECTS INDIVIDUALLY AND ADDRESS THEM TO ERADICATE THE POSSIBLE FALLOUTS OF THOSE DEFECTS.

Looking at the above definition, one thing is clear and that is identifying and addressing defects. Now the first question that comes to mind is which defect to address first or what would be the order of addressing the defects. The obvious answer to that question will be addressing those defects that hit the stability of the process in the order of impact (high to low). The action of choosing based on the intensity of impact is prioritisation.

PRIORITISATION IS THE ACTION OF CHOOSING TO ADDRESS A FAULT IN THE ORDER OF THE INTENSITY OF ITS IMPACT ON A GIVEN PROCESS STARTING FROM HIGH TO LOW.

If I were to elaborate more on this process I would start by shaping the activity roadmap of observing a business process by classifying it into various process outcomes and ordering them as per the criticality of impact.

For a business to encourage real-time control and prioritisation, the teams must be completely thorough about the process in question.

THE SUCCESS OF BUSINESS PROCESSES IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE DEGREE OF KNOWLEDGE THAT THE PROCESS OWNERS AND THEIR TEAMS HAVE. THERE IS NO SHORTCUT TO THIS AND NO OTHER WAY TO APPROACH A PROCESS AND THERE IS NO MEASUREMENT OTHER THAN THE DEEPEST AND CLEAREST OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE PROCESS IN QUESTION.

I love to cite examples of a typical BPO top-line process whenever I share insights into real-time control and prioritisation. Let me take an example of a technical support Helpdesk for an off-shore OEM, the largest in its class as per as market share is concerned. The support centre is handling customer queries regarding installation or troubleshooting of the hardware in question. During this operational process, various variables go into the process. Key examples are call volume, average handling time per customer, first call resolution, total problem resolution, upselling of hardware or accessories, the average speed of answer, break times and outbound calls in case of escalations or customer experience or ticket closure.

The typical defects in such a process will be a fall in service level, high average handling time, abnormal callbacks, low issue resolution rates and therefore low customer satisfaction rates.

Here a process supervisor needs to prioritise the KPIs with service level on the top followed by issue resolution rates and customer satisfaction rates. The immediate approach to address service level will be reducing handling time and effectively managing break times. However, this process will positively impact the service level but may negatively impact the issue resolution rates. Immediately this will go up the priority list and the process supervisor will engage SMEs to ensure issue resolution and keep a tag on the customer handling time thereby minimising non-resolution and increasing customer experience. This is a random exercise where different variables take priority at different stages of the process instability thus ensuring that KPIs are delivered as per their targets.

A BPO's biggest mistake would be taking the process SOP for granted. The reality is always the other way around and SOPs are challenged at regular intervals. It is a different matter that they prefer to live on an illusion of excellence basis the strength and dominance of their operational strategies.

The dynamics of any domain define the dynamics of the process in question that underline the outsourced or shared operations in that domain and dynamics are all about variables and not constants. Variables demand continuous inputs and a successful outcome will only be achieved by prioritising the variables in line with the real-time triggers and dynamically changing their order basis the element that is defined by the exercises of real-time control.