QlikView revolutionises information culture at Blake
August, 2010
Call centre outsourcer given seamless, effortless deep analytics.
Tracking promises
Blake is an outsourced contact centre provider offering inbound and
outbound contact services on behalf of clients. Its business is
extraordinarily complex, featuring intricate business processes and
serving more than 50 clients, each with its own requirements and data.
IIn November 2009 the company identified a need for a business
intelligence (BI) tool – initially to track statistics in its outbound
operations (collections and sales). “To improve efficiencies, we wanted
to analyse certain key metrics,” says Janet McFarlane, Blake BI
Executive.
Transactional BI
Previously, the company compiled reports for this purpose with data from
the contact centre management system. “Every report took time to code,
test and release, and tied up IT resources,” says McFarlane. “We needed
a tool that could provide a holistic view of our data and give
insightful trending by seamlessly and easily integrating various
different systems. We wanted to decrease our reliance on IT, and of
course there were considerations of cost and time.”
In 12 years as a BI executive McFarlane had been exposed to many BI
tools. “I wanted to see what QlikView could do, so we invited a demo
from Durban-based QlikView Partner, Insight Consulting.”
Upuli de Abrew, director at Insight, says Insight developed a proof of
concept (POC) analytical model, incorporating PTP and collections data.
Sceptical at first about QlikView’s claims of quick development; deep,
user-driven analytics; ultra-fast queries; and flexible, consolidated
presentation, McFarlane was impressed by the POC. “Insight Consulting
proved that QlikView could easily meet all our requirements and more,
and that the value-add would be large. We chose QlikView as our main
information platform across the business.”
Project notes
The first data model to be built by Insight Consulting was a
fully-fledged collections model. To this end Blake acquired QlikView
Enterprise Server with client access licences and a large, powerful
server. “The hardware had to support the high data volumes of a contact
centre and the transformation of complex data from disparate sources
into simple, easy-to-use QlikView data models,” De Abrew explains.<br />
She says while initial development was concluded fairly quickly,
enhancements and refinements were introduced later. “Blake revised their
key performance indicators [KPIs] a few times, which required changes to
the logic. Fortunately, QlikView lends itself to agile, iterative
development.”
DDe Abrew notes that many of the users were BI novices and were at first
reluctant to change their ways. “But once the ease-of-use was
demonstrated to them, it became a non-issue.” Soon after go-live, the
tool became fully utilised, she says. In addition to good user
acceptance, the in-house BI team has begun developing new data models
themselves; the first a telephony model that monitors calling stats with
a view to improving staff efficiency.
Impact
McFarlane says the new BI tool revolutionised the company’s information
culture. “Blake had never had such easy access to information, or such
deep analytics or easy views.”
- Quick and easy access – QlikView is user-driven and offers quick and
easy analysis of voluminous, complex data from disparate sources. Its
easy-to-navigate interface facilitates trend analysis and problem
isolation.
- Easy development – After a four-day training course, Blake’s BI team
is developing and delivering high-quality QlikView data models.
- Up-to-date – Data models are refreshed daily, so the information is
always fresh.
- Powerful analysis – QlikView allows users to navigate down to debtor
or agent level, allowing easy identification of problems and
intervention.
The future
“We’ve only done about 40% of what we want to achieve with QlikView,”
says McFarlane. “In time we want to do a systems-wide implementation to
get a holistic view of our HR, finance and operations, to enable better
strategic decisions across the business, seamlessly and without effort.”br />
““We’ve only done about 40% of what we want to achieve with QlikView,”
says McFarlane. “In time we want to do a systems-wide implementation to
get a holistic view of our HR, finance and operations, to enable better
strategic decisions across the business, seamlessly and without effort.”
User comments
A user survey yielded the following comments:
- QlikView gives you the exact information in one place, quickly and in a
few clicks. The integrity of the data is proven and trusted. And
the fact that you can drill down to the last detail lets you get
to the root of problems.
- QlikView is a one stop shop. I can now ascertain, for example,
customers’ PTP Paid percentage increases or decreases over time,
which leaves staff well informed and motivated. Agents can also
be trained much faster than previously, as there is no need to
wait until the end of the cycle to extract live data.
- QlikView gives me a clear indication of the calls received, which agent
took the call, what quick comment he or she captured, and even
if an agent failed to action an account. I am able to ascertain
wastage and improve on discipline.
- I cannot wait for TMS and HR reports to be added to QlikView
- To collate month-end reports, I used three systems previously. Now I
use one – QlikView.
- The comparisons allow me to do trend analysis.
- QlikView allows me to prioritise accounts.
- Various reports have greatly assisted in better managing the teams and
allowed me to watch performance closely.
|
About QlikView South Africa
QlikView South Africa is the local representative and distributor for
QlikTech, whose powerful, accessible business intelligence solution
enables organisations to make better and faster decisions. Its QlikView
product delivers enterprise-class analytics and search with the
simplicity and ease of use of office productivity software. The
in-memory associative search technology it pioneered makes calculations
in real-time enabling business professionals to gain insight through
intuitive data exploration. Unlike traditional business intelligence
products, QlikView can deliver value in days or weeks rather than
months, years, or not at all. It can be deployed on premise, in the
cloud, or on a laptop or mobile device – from a single user to large
global enterprises. QlikTech is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania,
with offices around the world and a network of over 1,100 partners to
serve more than 13,000 customers in over 100 countries worldwide. For
more information, please visit www.qlikview.co.za
Editorial details
QlikView South Africa
Davide Hanan
Tel: 0861 754 589
Cell: 082 788 5791
Email: davideh@qlikview.co.za
Web: www.qlikview.co.za
DUO Marketing + Communications
Maria Oosthuizen
Tel: 021 683 8223
Cell: 084 506 7649
Email: maria@duomarketing.co.za
Web: www.duomarketing.co.za
|
|
