TBR. HCLT s Intelligent Tech Support Service Line Unit delivers data insights to improve the customer experience. November 2013

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1 HCLT s Intelligent Tech Support Service Line Unit delivers data insights to improve the customer experience November 2013 TBR T EC H N O LO G Y B U S I N ES S R ES EAR C H, I N C. 1 HCLT White Paper November Technology Business Research, Inc.

2 Contents Contents... 2 Leveraging data and anticipating intelligent analytical needs, HCLT moves from fix-and-go to fix-predict-prevent... 3 Transitioning from Tier I and Tier II to Tier III Tech Support requires mining existing data and anticipating clients problems and needs... 3 Factors driving HCLT to Tier III Intelligence play into HCLT s strengths, allowing the company to deliver advantages to clients (and to itself)... 4 The bottom line: HCLT s solution appears well-positioned to take advantage of the inevitable evolution of customer tech support HCLT White Paper November Technology Business Research, Inc.

3 Intelligent Tech Support SLU: Reducing call volumes and enhancing customer satisfaction by forestalling product issues SLUs position HCLT to respond rapidly to shifting industry dynamics HCLT recognizes the need to shift its organizational model to more nimbly deliver targeted engineering and R&D services. HCLT describes this as overlaying a standard product management structure onto services delivery to create and launch packaged services called Service Line Units (SLUs). HCLT has 25 SLUs, which TBR attributes to the rapidly shifting nature of ERS customer needs and HCLT s focus on nimble alignment to meet customers needs. Each SLU has a product management team and a dedicated engineering team, enabling HCLT to deliver focused engineering services to clients. Leveraging data and anticipating intelligent analytical needs, HCLT moves from fix-and-go to fix-predict-prevent Data from all directions customers, service representatives, software engineers floods customer tech support centers at all times. To date, the industry s priority has been efficiency fix the problem now with little attention paid to the intelligence analytics that could predict and head off customer problems before they arise. But if customer service representatives knew what kinds of problems the customer had before and will likely have again based on their technology platform and applications, tech support transforms from fix-and-go to fix-predict-prevent, lowering costs for the customer and the tech support center. The tech support industry has matured through its first phase, which focused on integration, communication, integration of silos, and efficiency, and is squarely in the second phase: process automation (identifying repetitive and routine tasks, automating as much as possible). The third phase, in which HCLT intends to be among the leading vendors, emphasizes intelligent analysis and a focus on customer satisfaction. To move to predict-prevent, HCLT created Intelligent Tech Support with a seemingly simple mandate: Customer service representatives need to be more empowered to respond to product queries and need to be able to solve issues during the initial call with customers. HCLT understands that empowered to respond requires tapping into the data accumulated with every tech support call, turning that data into predictive (and preventative) analytics. Transitioning from Tier 1 and Tier 2 to Tier 3 tech support requires mining existing data and anticipating clients problems and needs HCLT provides two tiers of tech support: Core Service and Process Tools (see chart). Tier 1 Core Service Tier 2 Process Tools Tier 3 Intelligence Integrated L1-L4 support services Support experience in multiple software and hardware support Automated Script Engine for creation and deployment Automated Reporting Engine TAT Product Intelligence Framework Telemetry (Engineering) User Behavior Analysis User Intelligence and Profiling Support Intelligence Support History / Error Databases 3 HCLT White Paper November Technology Business Research, Inc.

4 categories 100+ Product Sustenance projects handled SOURCE: HCLT MTTR CSAT Backlog Virtual Chat Assistant Engine Social Support Curation In Tiers 1 and 2, HCLT can provide basic tech support, but the breakthrough what will take HCLT to Tier 3 Intelligence is mining the data and pushing the predictions and preventative solutions down to the CSR, allowing the first level of contact the best opportunity to solve a customer s problem, reducing the likelihood of future calls, lowering call volume and raising customer satisfaction. To take a simple example, consider a customer calling tech support because of printer compatibility issues. If the customer service representative knows the customer s history and profile, including previous issues and previously applied patches, as well as related issues, based on the technology (such as a firewall preventing printer compatibility), the CSR can predict what could be coming next, such as a problem with a DLNA server. Rather than take a future tech support call or lose a customer (too frustrated to call tech support again), the CSR can either prevent an anticipated problem or route the customer to a person who can better handle the issue. Intelligent Tech Support relies on three basic data streams: the technology in play (a customer s solutions, applications and configurations), the customer s history of tech problems and solutions, and metadata trends around like customers. With extensive support networks in place and long-standing relationships with clients, HCLT maintains substantial knowledge on what technology any one customer has in place. HCLT can forecast when technology-specific issues will arise by analyzing similar configurations and patterns across comparable technology architectures. By analyzing the specific kinds of problems a customer routinely has, HCLT can anticipate when and what will likely come next and even get ahead of the problem with preventative support. HCLT groups customers into peer groups, based on technology systems, size, demand for tech support and industry. By examining the metadata trends across these groups, HCLT can anticipate potential problems and see opportunities for solutions across multiple technology platforms. How is the tech support database created? Data exists within a client organization (engineering/crm); HCLT creates software connectors into the databases to carry out analytics. Ready-built connectors or customized connectors will convert data into metadata on a schedule determined with the customer. HCLT s system determines which algorithm to run for a particular customer, depending on type and volume of data available. 4 HCLT White Paper November Technology Business Research, Inc.

5 Factors driving HCLT to Tier 3 Intelligence plays into HCLT s strengths, allowing the company to deliver advantages to clients (and to itself) Three factors are driving HCLT to Tier 3 Intelligence: Process Tools (Tier 2) have all the necessary elements (in technology and data gathering) to support intelligent, analytics-powered tech support. HCLT, in other words, has the data and the capabilities to exploit that data, compelling the company to design a solution to take advantage of those data assets and push the analysis down to the CSR level. HCLT estimates customers use 70% of a product s potential. Calls to tech support, therefore, provide an opportunity to ensure a customer understands how to use all of a product s features; the CSR can analyze a customer s configuration and environment, find relevant features and train the customer to use the product better. Over time, this proactive approach will yield higher customer satisfaction and feedback. Additionally, Intelligent Tech Support provides advantages for HCLT and its customers: Through online feedback, such as message boards and social media, HCLT can apply an algorithm to analyze feedback, generating recommendations on how to improve customer support. Direct client feedback will no longer be treated as a nonessential data point, but will be fed into the Intelligent Tech Support analytics effort, providing a constant refinement process. With product advocacy training customers to better use technology by showing examples of features that customers are not using HCLT can track whether a feature is unnecessary. The bottom line: HCLT s solution appears well-positioned to take advantage of the inevitable evolution of customer tech support HCLT s Intelligent Tech Support solution is in a pilot stage, with HCLT planning to roll out the solution to customers across multiple verticals in early 2014.The Intelligent Tech Support solution enables clients to extract intelligence from customer data and apply it where it can have an immediate impact, reducing clients operating costs and incident volumes and improving overall customer satisfaction. By leveraging predictive analytics to equip the CSR with preventative solutions, HCLT will differentiate itself from competitors that continue to rely on labor arbitrage for customer care services. 5 HCLT White Paper November Technology Business Research, Inc.

6 About HCL HCL is a $6.2 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two companies listed in India: HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India s original IT garage startups. A pioneer of modern computing and a transformational enterprise, HCL s diverse range of hardware and software offerings span a wide array of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of 88,000 professionals of diverse nationalities that operate from 31 countries, including more than 500 points of presence in India. For more on HCL, please visit About TBR TBR Technology Business Research, Inc. is a leading independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in the business and financial analyses of hardware, software, professional services, telecom and enterprise network vendors, and operators. Serving a global clientele, TBR provides timely and actionable market research and business intelligence in formats that are tailored to clients needs. Our analysts are available to further address client-specific issues or information needs on an inquiry or proprietary consulting basis. For more information TBR has been empowering corporate decision makers since For more information, visit This report is based on information made available to the public by the vendor and other public sources. No representation is made that this information is accurate or complete. Technology Business Research will not be held liable or responsible for any decisions that are made based on this information. The information contained in this report and all other TBR products is not and should not be construed to be investment advice. TBR does not make any recommendations or provide any advice regarding the value, purchase, sale or retention of securities. This report is copyrightprotected and supplied for the sole use of the recipient. Contact Technology Business Research, Inc. for permission to reproduce. 6 HCLT White Paper November Technology Business Research, Inc.