We need a questionnaire which we will use to gather data about a PoC or final install. Some parts of this questionnaire will be filled by our sales chaps. Other details will be unfilled. The Project Engr will then have to contact sales, Shraddha, or the client to get the rest of the data. He will submit the filled questionnaire to us before beginning install. It is possible that one or two items will be filled incorrectly (the client may not be clear, the Project Engr may misunderstand, etc) but at least 95% of the details will be captured in writing.
The ProjEngr needs a checklist to check what he's done. I am not clear how this will be created, but we will need to discuss it now with PSG and STG.
PSG does not get feedback from client after pilot setup is done. This feedback is the responsibility of sales. They must check with client, note down complaints, forward them to Shraddha and PSG, so that corrective action can be taken.
Support and PSG both need good feedback from client, specially about Support quality and long-pending problems. Three ideas have been discussed:
We will definitely want the alternate-month site visits by Support Engrs to be done. (This has been started twice before, and has been abandoned for no good reason. It clearly shows attitude problems in Support. No explanation for this abandonment is available.)
We will have a Support Head, and he will make visits to the client too. It is possible that he will accompany the support Engr on every alternate visit to the client.
Kishan talked about Reliance Infocomm IDC's process for closing support ticket loops. We will study that to see what we can adopt.
We will assign one Support Engr to each client. Many-to-one mapping from client to Support Engr. The client will be told who his designated Support Engr is. Even though all Support Engrs will work on problems of all clients, the assigned Support Engr will be responsible to ensure that open tickets are closed and the client is happy. The assigned SE will be responsible for escalating and driving L2 and L3 resources to get closure on non-standard problems.
The client's satisfaction feedback will directly impact the SE's salary increments.
SE assignment to clients will change every 1 Apr and 1 Oct. Typically, no SE will handle a client for more than 12 months at a stretch.
Time limit for closing a ticket: 4 hrs. All tickets not closed in this time will be up for review during daily reviews.
Shraddha and/or I will review pending tickets every day. We will look through all pending tickets open at the end of the day, and will ask for reasons from Support.
One SE will be assigned the job of "Technet and all their clients" by rotation one month at a time. This SE will not be given any other client responsibility. He will work only during General Shift, and will only tackle Technet related accounts. If he has any time free, he will also solve other client problems, but will not be responsible for any of them.
When the Technet-assigned SE is on leave for more than one day, some other SE will be asked to take up Technet work in addition to his normal clients for that period.
As in point 4 above, the assigned SE's name will be conveyed to Technet every month when the rotation kicks in.
We expect that this situation will continue till Diwali at max. By that time, either the Technet clients will be migrated to v3 and will become like other clients, or will go out of support.
We need details of setup of each client. This must be kept on our Intranet. The SE assigned to a client will be responsible for updating the setup details of that client whenever there is any change. The details must be sufficiently detailed to allow a new team to completely and exactly replicate the Merce setup in case some servers crash and reinstall is needed.
The training of SEs needs to be improved. The following ideas have been discussed.
we will set up an LMS for helping our engineers study online. The LMS will help us monitor which engr is spending how much time on which course material, which engr is not visiting the LMS at all, and so on. We will use the online testing facility of the LMS to have questions for engrs to tackle.
From now on, whenever we respond to a complaint and solve a problem, we must give the customer full details of the cause of the problem, the items we tried (and perhaps failed) to solve it, and the items we did to actually solve the problem. "Full disclosure" of all technical activities will henceforth be followed.
We are recruiting a Support Head.
Sit with PSG and STG and figure out what they want/mean by checklist (point 1 above). Responsibility: Abhay will discuss with Hemant and Jignesh and call me for a meeting within Fri 16 Apr.
Sit with Kishan and PSG and figure out whether the RelInfocomm process can be adopted here, and if it's needed (point 3 above). Responsibility: Kishan will call for a meeting with Shraddha, Abhay and me and discuss this process, by Fri 16 Apr.
Abhay will submit a draft mapping of client-to-SE by Tue 13 Apr to Shraddha and me.
All auto-emails generated from OTRS for ticket escalation to be switched off (point 5 above) because manual review of open tickets will now be done. Abhay to get this done by Fri 16 Apr.
Abhay to give Shraddha and me clear instructions about how to look at open tickets in OTRS (point 6 above), by Tue 13 Apr.
Shraddha to work on moving Technet installations to v3 or terminate support contracts with them. Get a first-cut response from Technet by 30 June (point 7 above).
Abhay will create setup specs for AZB or Supreme (his choice) and will discuss with Jignesh and Hemant, get feedback, and incorporate changes by Fri 23 Apr. Then he will show this to Kishan and me by Tue 27 Apr. Based on this, all other SEs will capture details of their respective clients by 30 June (point 8 above).
Kishan and I will do a first-cut review of course material by Mon 19 April, and will have a clear action plan about changes/updates needed by Fri 23 Apr (point 9 above).
Kishan, Shraddha and I will interview one specific candidate by Fri 16 Apr for Support Head (point 11 above) who is already in the pipeline. If this candidate is unsuitable, we will continue searching, and will aim to make a final offer to some candidate or other by 30 Apr.