Page 15 - SPiCE Magazine (September 2019)

14 The SPiCE Magazine • From the Operations Floor: Excellence @ 40 The SPiCE Magazine • From the Operations Floor: Excellence @ 40 15

Keeping Score:

Are we getting there?

By Prabhakar Bisen, Chief Operating Officer

realistic. Our performance last year stayed short on last four months, as the Delivery and TechOps lead-

this expectation. However, it was kind-of taken for ership started to baseline performance at process
granted as client SLA wasn’t consistently tracked as a and task levels, subsequently working on bridging

key metric across the organization. It also resulted in the performance gaps, we now have a very different
“If you’re not keeping score, of the tools and the outcomes that were delivered service penalties, albeit minor, being paid periodically. viewpoint in these reviews. It’s a work in progress and

you’re just practicing. ” eventually weren’t measured consistently. The SLAs needed a strong focus as we wished to build a is evolving as we meet every month. We are starting a
‘Tech Tool Penetration’ and ‘Productivity Impact’ stronger Voice of the Customer. Over the last eight to similar review for Business Services.
I saw this quote in the boardroom of a large US-based measurement was a question. As a solution, the nine months, the Quality team, in strong collaboration Our aspiration is to establish baselines for global

Healthcare firm, several years ago. I was awestruck TechOps team developed an intuitive, yet detailed, with Delivery teams, worked on an effective and pro- performance and technology adoption for each
by the simplicity of this deep meaning quote. I noted mechanism to capture these two parameters. Today, active SLA tracking mechanism. As a result, we saw segment and have every geo / program performing
it down and looked for its origin. This was one of the we see results across the organization. We know significant improvement in our SLA adherence globally to those standards.

famous quotes of Vince Lombardi, the well-acclaimed, which tool has how much utilization and what its with our penalties going down by more than half over
So, in essence, as we aspire to be the most exciting
former Head Coach of American Football Team Green impact is among geographies and account levels. this period.
and successful Content Technology and Solutions
Bay Packers. While Vince Lombardi had meant this for It’s been an enormous and arduous exercise, but the
Segment Reviews firm in the world, it’s incumbent upon each one of us
his team, chiding them to be more competitive, this has results have been rewarding. We are using these
to keep score in everything we do. That would surely
an equal, if not a stronger, relevance for our business. measurements to drive our technology strategy of In the beginning of this year, we initiated two
take our game and successes to the next level.
In that context, I wished to share with you some recent Standardization, Industrialization and Platformization. Business Segment reviews, one each for Journals

initiatives in Operations on how we have established and Books. It was really underwhelming in the Remember though, that we are keeping score not
Service Level Performance and
keeping score and how we have applied it as a matter Related Penalties beginning to see how the teams for the same for the sake of keeping score alone. So, I close with

of practice. clients across two different geographies lacked another quote from Vince Lombardi,
Service Level Agreements are foundational to our benchmarks on production performance and tools.
Technology Penetration and Absorption
delivery of services to the clients. The least clients The issue wasn’t that one geo was generally superior “If it doesn’t matter who
While we have several and more tools developed to expect from us is 100% adherence to these service to the other on all metrics. Some teams in the same
wins or loses, then why
ease, enhance or completely automate the delivery levels, but we all understand that for a variety of geography were doing exceptionally well in some
keep score? ”
of our services to the clients, the broad-based usage reasons, 100% adherence may not be practical nor areas but lacking in others and vice-versa. Over the