Enterprise/Vendor Partnering Can Allow Both to Deliver on Achieving Differential Value

When Xerox envisioned advancing a more consistent customer experience through digital transformation, the print and digital document products and services brand started on a three-year journey. When the project was completed, which included leveraging Genesys Cloud CX technology, seven legacy platforms were retired. This migration involved 3,600 agents who spoke a combined 14 languages and worked in fully remote positions.

Along the way, three key challenges were identified, according to Genesys:

• Standardize disparate customer experience (CX) processes, tools, and infrastructure
• Fix reliability, functionality, and service quality issues
• Provide a consistent omnichannel experience

Xerox had a clear vision of the four outcomes it expected to achieve with this investment

• System integrations within the customer call center
• Workforce engagement to optimize the employee experience
• Outbound calls that offer expedient customer answers, efficient time management of the workforce, while ensuring global communication compliance
• Inbound calls are routed efficiently regardless from which channel the customer initiates engagement (chat, messaging, voice)

Xerox emerged with its goals realized, which ultimately combined to build a stronger CX to continue positioning itself as an industry leader. This client example highlights how Genesys was able to stand out as a valued business partner through its own differentiators — its Value Management Office (VMO) that developed a comprehensive implementation plan to deliver a “white-glove” approach.

The VMO is an integral part of assisting the Genesys team and customer, in this case, Xerox, to create a team environment that includes close collaboration and frequent feedback, according to Angel Henry, Senior Director of Transformation VMO for Genesys.

Genesys PS VMO leverages an Agile Mindset and Agile principles and processes in its coaching and instruction support of 700 implementation consultants. It also mixes traditional project management methods with Agile ones to support customers from on prem to cloud-based.

“We achieve this by co-creating with the customer a list of items, known as product backlog items, ensure customer priority is provided from most-value to nice-to-have, and iterate on working on the items in two- to three-week timeframes,” Henry said. “Upon the completion of each timeframe, our teams review what has worked well and where we need to make changes to always keep value as top of mind for everyone.”

Henry said enterprises looking for cloud-based solutions with digital transformation partnerships should address the following considerations:

• Security
• Data backup
• Downtime and maintenance allowances

She also offers an outline to guide an enterprise through its negotiations with a potential digital transformation partner/vendor:

Creation of a business continuity plan to address the unavailability of systems:

How transactions will proceed and be documented until available; identify who will be responsible and who needs to be notified; what tasks are deemed highly critical, critical, and other issues of concern for the customer.

Creation of a backup and recovery plan:

Education and research of various cloud options, such as personal/private clouds, hybrids, or outsourced; identify who will be responsible for patching, upgrades, and general maintenance and frequency; ensuring system and applications fail-over instead of being completely unavailable; noting that the expectation now is to ensure that 99.95% uptime is achieved.

Review regulatory requirements for your industry and special considerations:

What requires third-party tracking and auditing of the company’s data; data security policies that are required from both your company and cloud host, if the cloud is hosted by a vendor.

Once these critical considerations have been explored, document all decisions in a service level agreement (SLA) to ensure both parties fully understand what is expected from either side.