A Web-based application that integrates older legacy systems, CESMS initiates, schedules, tracks, and provides status for all services offered by Corporate Engineering. The cornerstone of the company's new internal e-business system for delivering client and facilities services, it offers customer-friendly features like 24-hour access to order entry and status updates and two-way communication between customers and service providers.

"Our goal was to provide a single source for all service requests and status updates," notes Stewart Joslin, who led GlaxoSmithKline's project team responsible for the initiative's software development, procurement, installation, and corporate systems integration. "In the process, we've established two-way communication, informing customers about their service requests, soliciting feedback on our performance, and asking for suggestions for improvement. The details we gather on customers and their groups will ultimately help us anticipate their needs and satisfy them better. Our streamlined intranet strategy has saved the company $750,000 over 18 months and boosted Corporate Engineering customer service."

Pre-CESMS: Confusion and Redundancy

Pre-CESMS, multiple organizations within Corporate Engineering provided similar services. Customers did not always know whom to call for specific tasks. Some would even bypass the system and contact a technician directly, leaving no record of the service call.

The different service groups used an assortment of software tools--spreadsheets and databases--that were unable to share common information. For example, every application maintained its own list of customers, buildings, locations, and suppliers, each with its own unique way of spelling names and labeling facilities. Further confusion resulted from the fact that the legacy computerized maintenance management system in place at the RTP facility utilized a proprietary language that prevented a potential interface with other GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) systems.

"We did not have a standard method for tracking the services we performed, nor was there any way to effectively measure the performance of our service providers with any benchmark," says Joslin.

In addition, each department, including Corporate Engineering, had its own Information Systems group, which often worked independently of corporate IT.

"These intra-department shops ran wild, building database applications that ultimately became business important," says Joslin. "None of these home-made applications used standard conventions or included proper documentation. None communicated or were integrated with anything else. You could say we all were our own worst enemies."

As early as 1992, GSK employees began to ask whether data from the different support applications could be shared. These questions served as the catalyst for investigating a potential interface for the multiple systems. In 1996 Corporate Engineering (CE) took its first formative steps toward e-business by putting up a home page on the corporate intranet.

"We posted organization charts, names, and phone numbers. We told everyone about our vision and our mission. We were sure our site was great," says Joslin, observing, "The only problem was that nobody ever came to it."

Essentially, CE had failed to ask customers what they wanted, which was a simple, one-click button to request service.

"It wasn't until we added a link to 'Dilbert' that we became the second most visited site at RTP," says Joslin. "At that point, we recognized that people come if you give them what they need, not what we want to tell them."

Asking itself how to expand the intranet to improve processes for both service providers and customers, Corporate Engineering's next step was to put standard operating procedures and technical manuals online. While the document links did not reduce the workload for Service Desk personnel, they did facilitate technicians' jobs by pushing information to them out in the field, ultimately resulting in more efficient service delivery.

Power of the Intranet: Two-Way Communication

Corporate Engineering's first interactive effort, rolled out in 1997, was a Web-based form Joslin designed for CAD drawing requests. The completed form was electronically routed to the appropriate service provider, who then sent an acknowledgment back to the customer via email.

Positive feedback led to the creation of more forms, which customers began to use instead of the telephone to make service requests. Having diverted these calls so quickly, Joslin's group pushed further towards standardized Web dialogue.

"This started us on real two-way communication with our customer, an important change to our original Web vision," Joslin recounts. "We decided that we did not want the customer to go anywhere else than our one page to request every service offered by Corporate Engineering--all 60 services in one place."

JAD, RAD, and the Design Process

GSK began the intensive process of gathering customer recommendations for an integrated services offering with the help of a consultant skilled in Web development. Surveys sent to approximately 50 targeted users who frequently requested specific services provided important feedback. Concurrently, service providers in daily contact with customers questioned them about preferences for a Corporate Engineering interface and the electronic tools they desired.

Subsequently the design team hosted a series of Joint Application Development(JAD) sessions with all service providers. Not only did these meetings highlight critical business issues, but they also served to gain buy-in for the project. Service providers clearly liked the Web and wanted a distinct presence on it.

To make the initiative more manageable, Corporate Engineering adopted a Rapid Application Development (RAD) process to roll out the system in phases.

"Our goal was to add services to the system every three to nine weeks, depending on the difficulty of the services or the complexity of the legacy system interface," says Joslin. "Using RAD gave us the opportunity of getting things out to our customers quickly, so they could see benefits right away."

Joslin originally planned to convert services with the least customer impact first, but it soon became obvious that the most widely used maintenance services offered the best opportunity to accurately measure the new system.

"As we defined our specifications and requirements, this big elephant grew on our conference table," he says. "We knew we couldn't carve it all in one sitting, so we took the biggest leg first and then started to whittle through the rest of it."

Recently deployed applications include a customer satisfaction and feedback process, a metric reporting module, and a system and user administration module. These tools benefit both managers and service providers themselves.

Measuring for Success

GSK's FM e-business system has racked up many successes. Along with eliminating redundant service groups, it has greatly reduced wasted time due to customer confusion. It also ensures that a much higher percentage of work completed is captured. As a result, all services for a particular group or individual can be tracked accurately, revealing where problem clusters lie. These results further encouraged the integration of many of GSK's other major IS packages, including scheduling and human resources.

Thanks to a company-wide training program targeted at changing the telephone-centered corporate culture, CESMS has also led to a dramatic decrease in monthly service desk call volume, down from 10,000 to 2,000 calls per month. At the same time, the number of work orders generated has risen from 3,000 to 8,000 per month. (Despite the system's ease of use, there are still customers who prefer to conduct business by actually talking to another person. Service desk staff continues to walk callers through the Web-based system with the hopes of converting them.)

As of March 2000, spending on the integration project totaled approximately $480,000. Joslin points out that savings resulting from the project more than compensate for these costs.

By February 2001, CE had transferred 95 percent of its services to the e-business model.

"We will never consider the project complete in the sense that work will stop," Joslin says, noting that the remaining services subject to manual processing are infrequently used. Future plans target upgrading system maintenance and support.

Customer surveys confirm that as CESMS has become more widely accepted, the customer satisfaction gap for services offered has closed significantly.

As Joslin repeatedly emphasizes, the challenge of Corporate Engineering's e-business initiative lay not in implementation but in design. GSK employees were already skilled in the appropriate technology, and the appropriate data safety and security mechanisms were already in place. The difficulty was in ensuring that the system was truly user-friendly.

"It is absolutely critical at every level," Joslin concludes, "to include in all conversations the customers who are going to use the system. When customers perceive that their interests are being served, they provide more meaningful feedback and constructive input, thereby improving the targeted sales design effort. Give customers what they are looking for, and they will give you anything you ask."

By Lisa S. Weitzman

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ISSN: 1096-4894