A highly complex call centre system servicing members of Sanlam Health`s medical aid scheme, Sanmed, has been designed by users in the division. The relatively low involvement of IT staff has resulted in a system which exactly fits the division`s requirements, yet which was implemented within five months. "Because this is a business process, it was imperative that we involved users from the start," says Sanlam Health business process analyst Etienne Venter. "We had a structured methodology in Aris, with which we were able to focus the users and the IT staff on what was required." Using the Aris process management toolset from Software Futures IDS, the Aris division of Software Futures, users and IT staff identified the objectives, functions and controls involved in the business. The team then broke these down to their lowest level, and from that the data path was mapped. Flowcharts were produced from which developers could program a user interface which resided on the system`s middleware, and which could access data seamlessly across all four systems. The developers faced a bigger challenge to produce a system which would give the 115 operators in the customer information centre access to information across these four systems, each relevant to customer service, yet each resident in its own packaged solutions. These were: * A document imaging system for claims storage running on Exsol; * The Diamond claims processing system; * A member administration system called Med2000; and * Billing and payments system running on SAP R/3. To reply to telephonic queries, call centre agents have to access information in one, several or all systems. This was time-consuming and information was not always comprehensive. The call, therefore, was lengthy, resulting in long call queues; members often had to call more than once in order to get all the information they needed; and often callers hung up before an operator could attend to them. "We needed a system which was more accessible to the customer, a system which would make the agent more productive, and which would allow the agent to take more calls per day and provide more comprehensive information," Venter sums up. "Without a structured toolset it would have been difficult to develop such an interface. "The beauty of Aris is that we not only had a specification which detailed not only the data requirements, but also the business requirements," enthuses Venter. "The documentation was comprehensive and complete, and it was used not only by the developers, but also by the training department to develop training courses for the new system." Maintenance, too, has been simplified to the extent that business specifications are maintained in the Aris repository by the business and is used as a quality input for IT enhancements. "We provided our super-users with Aris Easy Design, a `lite` version of Aris, which is used to monitor the system and recommend amendments." A complete picture of the system makes it easy for the maintainer of the system to identify bottlenecks and areas of duplication; for example, minor functions are performed by more than one department. Venter said the model developed in Aris would be used as a foundation for the company`s correspondence and underwriting process, and an image-enabled documentation and application processing system. Software Futures is a Computer Configurations Holdings company.
Share
Editorial contacts