 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
case study
 |
case study |  |
|
Getting Started
Perception is the only reality. Business success is all about customer satisfaction. The customer is much more likely to be satisfied if he believes his needs will be met, and if his expectations are satisfied. The easiest way to satisfy expectations is to set them correctly in the first place. So focus on the customer's perceptions and expectations, and solve his problem. Instructions You are presented with a realistic case study involving a fictitious life insurance company's pension plan division and a series of problems that involve a TCC, BRS and an experienced IT manager who calls MC with a problem. The goal of the case study is to highlight situations where a TCC or BRS can use their customer management skills to partner with their customer. Throughout the scenario, you are given multiple-choice questions and questions where you type in an answer, enabling you to participate in the case study. The questions are intended to be a useful way to check your learning; your responses are not tracked and scored. Players
International Life Insurance (ILI) is a small life insurance company headquartered in the U.S. At its Pension Division in Memphis, Tennessee, business interruptions are not only demoralizing to the staff, they are expensive, and undermine the confidence of ILI's corporate customers and their retirees. The Pension Division, which sells and manages 401K and similar retirement plans, is ILI's most profitable division, with a net annual income of over $65 million. The IT department in Memphis is responsible for both the division's data processing activities and its staff and customer web access. The 600,000 annual data procession jobs are regularly scheduled, but peak at the end of each month, quarter and year. Job completion in a timely manner is mandated both contractually and legally. Unscheduled activities include online operations supporting up to 4000 simultaneous user sessions, and over 150 million transactions per month. These transactions support financial deposits, withdrawals and transfers. The Pension Division's dramatic growth over the last few years, together with customer and staff demands for ever increasing online access, has strained the IT department, sometimes to the breaking point. IT manager, Ernest N., has struggled to keep up with the educational, technological and budget demands of his job. At the urging of senior management, Ernest has contracted with HP for Mission Critical Systems Support services. The objective is simple in Ernest's mind: maximize uptime, minimize recovery time, prevent data loss at all costs and get him that promotion to Director. The Situation It's 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, and Ernest has just gotten home from work. His cell phone rings. Ernest runs a 24x7 operation. The quarter has just ended, and quarterly reports have to be prepared. They will be available on the web, and printed copies need to be sent to both the corporate customers and their retirement plan stakeholders. West coast 401K participants will be getting online soon to check on their accounts, and agents are probably already preparing for the calls they plan to make on Friday morning. Ernest answers the phone and is told by his night supervisor that they have a "big" problem. It might be the database because both the batch and online operations seem to be affected. Ernest hurries to his car. Fortunately the office is only a five-minute drive, and the system has only been down two or three minutes so far. On the drive back, Ernest wonders how this might affect his annual performance review scheduled for next Tuesday morning. A quick check with the night supervisor and his tech lead provide Ernest with little additional information. After giving them directions to keep checking, Ernest calls MCSS. Thank goodness he entered both the number and his primary contract handle into the speed-dial - no more looking for that little yellow sticky. |
||
 |
 |
|
|