EFQM Good Practice Competition 2014 Creative Customer Solutions

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1 EFQM Good Practice Competition 2014 Creative Customer Solutions Registration form Contact person Ricardo González Lafuente Job Title Customers Committee Organisation CTI SOFT Street San Sebastián Zip and city San Sebastián Country Spain Phone Activity sector Information Technology The registration form and submission report have to be returned together with the video to Vinciane Beauduin at EFQM by 16 May 2014 at the latest. Should you have any queries, feel free to contact Vinciane Beauduin via at or by phone on Good Practice - Submission Report Good Practice Title Customers Committee Organisation overview CTI SOFT was launched on Since 2005 it is located in the Technology Park of San Sebastian, with 1,300 m2 in property. Its object is "studies, projects and designs and their corresponding computer analysis and programming, and the distribution of IT projects; in general, the performance of all activities related to the above." CTI Soft is an Organization leader in information technology for integrated business management. We develop the SPYRO ERP. From the beginning we defined as our principal objective to provide a comprehensive response to the requirements of the management of business processes, relying on focus and resolve all technical issues, from the analysis of operations, staff training, to full integration of computing resources. MISSION We are a company that creates and integrates IT solutions for the optimised management of business processes in industrial, commercial and service organisations, looking for the maximum customers satisfaction, the self-realization of our staff and the and shareholder returns. VISION Being a clear leader in the market, both in terms of IT management solutions, high level of customers satisfaction, and in terms of overall quality. 1

2 VALUES Teamwork and Comradeship We tend towards our customers satisfaction We are an innovative company We communicate clearly We keep our promises We develop the SPYRO ERP, which is implemented in more than 300 companies, with more than 5000 users working with it all around the world. Our customers are mainly located in the Basque Country and Navarra, although we have local offices and distributors throughout Spain: Madrid, Valencia, Canarias, Galicia,... Equally, there are users working with SPYRO in China, India, Canada, and throughout Europe. From our beginnings, Quality has been an essential axe of our management, and we have strongly betted on it. Thus, CTI began in the path of quality in 1996 with the project to implement a Quality System, based on ISO standards, obtaining in 1998 the ISO-9001 Certification of its Quality System, and becoming the first ERP development company achieving it nationwide. In 1999, in collaboration with GAIA and EUSKALIT, the EFQM Model of Company management is adopted, obtaining in 2006 the Silver Q recognition from the Basque Government and EUSKALIT, for obtaining a score higher than 400 points based on the EFQM Model. In 2010 we obtained the Golden Q, scoring more than 500 points in the model and becoming the first company in our industry which obtains it nationwide again. Other certifications, awards and achievements in recent years: 2006 Best Service Company Chamber of Commerce of Gipuzkoa 2007 Level 2 CMMI Capability Maturity Model Integration awarded by the Carnegie- Mellon University for the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) 2007 Equality between women and men 2007 Agreemenn with Basque Country Ministry of Industry 2008 Finalist at Best Good Practice Recognition awarded by Emakunde (Basque Institute for Women) as Entity working for Equal Opportunities for women and men. We signed an agreement for the spreading of the Excellence amongst the industrial Basque SMEs. Awared by EUSKALIT, for the Spyro Good Practice of Strategic Management, Support software for managing according to EFQM ISO Certified by APPLUS 2012 Best Management Practice in Advanced Services Category 2012 FlexicurIty Company Award EUSKALIT, with the presentation of SPYRO TOUCH, management software aimed at tablets and smartphones. ADEGI (Association of Companies in Guipuzcoa), for the implemented measeures in terms of work-life balance. 2

3 Desired Results Summarise the key objective(s) of the approach you have adopted What has been improved in detail? Motivation and objectives Changing needs of the companies with their own particularities, made extremely dificult to determine which new improvements and features we should include in our product, SPYRO ERP, in order to provide the maximum value to our customers. Before the Customers Committee, we used to collect those needs through the Sales and Marketing team, Universities, Technological Centers,... Eventually we noticed that some of the improvements that we included in SPYRO were only used by a handful of customers, and conversely, when we explained some custom-made development to a customer, which was done for another, he usually showed himself enthusiastic and requested it. As result of the participation of our staff in the processes management, and their contribution with improvement suggestions when detecting this lack of information from such an important group as our own customers, it appears the proposal of creating a committee with both our qualified technical staff from the R & D unit and customers, which, after a reflection of the strategic committee, we decided to implement. We concluded that if our product must meet the needs and expectations of our customers, who better than themselves for transmitting them. That is why we bet on creating an innovative, pioneer and unique process, at least in our sector and country : THE CUSTOMERS COMMITTEE Since we could collaborate with our customers, why couldn t we use that for meeting their expectations and needs about new products, services, testing new products,? Main Objectives : - Align the new developments of the SPYRO ERP to the actual needs of our customers - Improve the satisfaction of our customers through improvements prioritized by themselves - Check the proper functioning of the new versions before they are released (Beta-tester) - Improve our version update service, becoming it more stable and functionaly powerful. - Validate the interest in new products before releasing them to manufacturing Thanks to this Committee, those proposals that receive the best ratings by its participants, through a voting system which requires the knowledge of all the proposals, are anually developed. It has resulted in more and better features and developments for all SPYRO clients, validated and prioritized for clients themselves, as well as improvements in aesthetics and usability of the ERP. 3

4 Approach Describe the current approach within your organisation Describe which elements have been implemented Describe how this approach is linked to your overall strategy Following our Mission (looking for the maximum customers satisfaction), Vision (Be a clear leader in the market, both in terms of IT management solutions, the high level of customer satisfaction, and in terms of overall quality) and Values (we tend towards our customers satisfaction, we are an innovative company), we are constantly analising how we can improve the service we are giving to our customers and their satisfaction. DIAGRAM Annual cycle of the Customer Committee As discussed above, we decided to create the Customers Committee, which consists of 12 customers from different sectors and geographical areas. Annually, 6 are out and 6 new are in, with the objective that they will rotate, giving the opportunity for all customers to participate in it. The new participants will suggest new ideas coming from companies in different sectors and with different needs and points of view when using SPYRO. The residence time in the Committee is maximum 2 years. Each working cycle of the Customers Committee consists of 2 annual meetings: - PROPOSALS PRESENTATION (October): Improvement proposals submitted by members are discussed and analysed. Following this presentation, proposals are voted and they decide which of them will go to manufacturing, in order to improve the standard of SPYRO. - FOLLOW-UP MEETING (July): The fulfillment of the commitments made by CTI is reviewed. However, the objective of this meeting has been extended and now: - New products and services we are working on are presented, so we can receive feedback - Customers exchange knowledge, exposing their SPYRO advanced using experiences, explaining it in detail for the other members - Members share their expectations and needs in the short, medium and long term, proposing the development of new modules, products, services, etc. 4

5 Deployment Describe how this approach was implemented within your organisation What were the major challenges you had to overcome? After analyzing the multiple pros and the few cons appeared in the reflection we made, we immediately launched a process, which responsible was also on the R&D process. He took the reins of the Committee and was responsible for its implementation, with the collaboration of people in the sales and the technical teams. Being such an innovative idea and not being 100% sure of the acceptance among our customers, rather than making public its creation and soliciting volunteers to participate in it, we took care to pre-select a number of candidates, and the account sales manager of every client exposed them the idea, individually. The reception of the proposal was better than we expected, and although initially our idea was to have 8 or 9 clients on the committee, we had to expand the number up to 12. The way we work is the following: Improvement proposals are submitted by each member to the responsible of the committee, with at least 1 month prior to the meeting. The responsible collects and forwards them to all the other members so they can review them before the study session. In this first phase we make a first selection, because some of the proposed improvements are already settled in SPYRO and, it was just that they actually did not know they existed or how to activate them. The provided proposals are presented and analyzed in the October meeting. Each customer is the responsible of presenting and explaining their ideas, trying to 'sell' them to other members for earning their vote. Following this meeting, the Committee members evaluate each proposal with a value of 0-3. The proposals with the best valuations are passed to development by CTI, and improvement plans are reported to the Committee members. The progress with the commitments is made in the follow-up meeting in July. It is important for each member of the Committee to present improvements that can be applicable to any business and in any industry, because if they are very specific improvements for their business, they will not be voted by the other 11 members. The main challenge we have faced has been the paradigm shift that the Committee involves on the company / customer relationships, so we can look at this relationship from a different perspective to the one which has been existing in the market so far, and achieve even better results than expected. Therefore, we had to overcome the initial reluctance of some people asking if we were going to 'get the wolf at home'. And many of the organizations to which we presented this good practice, remain reluctant to implement it for this reason; they still do not see the company - client relationship as a win - win situation in which both organizations can make contributions and be both benefited, or they simply do not dare to implement them because the meeting may become in a complaints exchange, facing all of them against the supplier. Another major challenge, is the fact that we have the commitment to accept the decisions from the Committee, prioritizing some developments rather than others, that, as a company, we could consider more interesting. 5

6 Assessment Please describe what benefits have been achieved Thanks to the Customers Committee and a minimum dedication of our staff in the organization, we are able to take advantage of our investment in product improvements, arouse our customers interest in contributing with improvement ideas and increase the knowledge of the whole product by all of the clients. All of that translates into a better use of SPYRO and therefore more satisfaction. In the general customers survey, which is made every 2 years (valuations from at least 100 customers is collected) it has been noticed an increasing improvement in their satisfaction with the different modules that the ERP SPYRO is composed by. At the end of each session of the Customers Committee, we deliver a survey to assistants so that we can know their satisfaction and detect the suggestions or proposals that customers make us to improve future editions. We appreciate the efforts that they do, not just economically, but also in time, as some of them travel over 3,000 kms, arriving the day after and leaving on the next day. Assistant customers are extremely satisfied. Some proof of it are the high ratings on the satisfaction surveys and the requests that the ex-members of the committee are making, calling to rejoin. We can not actually fulfil their requests because we also have requests from new candidates. Derived from our Mission / Vision and Values we define our Social Responsibility into 3 main areas: - Sustainable Development. - Commitment to quality job creation in our environment and equal opportunities between women and men. - Firm and sustained commitment to Total Quality Management and its disclosure in our environment. Following the achievement of Q de Plata in 2006, we decided to transmit to the Society the knowledge in management we had and our good practices. In 2007 we signed an agreement with the Concierge of Industry of the Basque Government for the dissemination of Excellence between Basque industrial SMEs. In line with this third area of action, we have participated as speakers at many events making known to other organizations our model of customer relationships, highlighting the Customers Committee and encouraging them to create their own. 6

7 Some companies have created their own committee, after attending one of these events. For example, Alberdi Machining, located in Vizcaya. We are proud that our best practices are inspiring and encouraging other companies or organizations to be innovative and take its first steps under the EFQM model; as well as putting our two cents in contributing to the development of the business environment in which we operate, as we believe that initiatives like this are good for the development of a region. Refinement What are the lessons learned? Summarise the planned next steps if applicable Thanks to surveys and proposals we have taken, we have been improving the management of the Customer Committee. We highlight the following improvements, amongst the incorporated ones: - Previously, customers brought their proposals directly to the Committee, where they explained them to the rest, and then, proposals were voted. Following a suggestion, now the improvement proposals are sent a few days prior to CTI, who forwards them to the other members, to revise them previously to the meeting of the Committee and may present their questions to the issuer of the proposal. - Creation of a disclosure document with the approved proposals - In the follow-up meeting in July, discussion of future lines, new products / services, technological evolution of the ERP, knowledge management, are now included. - We are now more strict with the agenda of the day, avoiding spots that prevent the compliance with the scheduled timetables. All speakers are awared of the importance of meeting timetables and that is one of the goals that the moderator of the meeting has in mind. At the last committee, the item that assesses the length and exploitation of the day, was assessed with an average of 9,4 out of 10. In general, we could say that although initially the Customers Committee was set up to take into account their opinion in the development and improvement of SPYRO product, with the passage of time and largely thanks to their contributions, today is much more: - It has expanded into collaborative environments where customers exchange experiences and learn from each other. - They tell us their needs and future expectations. - They validate the launch of new products that we later introduce to the market and subsequently to other customers in the SPYRO Annual Congress, where customers themselves 7

8 explain their own experiencies to hundreds of assistants and where a customer said : «More than SPYRO Group, I would define it as SPYRO Family» As a result of the work of the Clients Committee, new activities like the Day of the Client have been organized (on a quarterly basis), in which we invite a customer to come to our facilities, and tell to CTI staff what their business is, what do they do, how do they feel their relationship with SPYRO, what do they consider the best of our product / service and what things do they think we need to improve and what do they expect from us immediately and in the future. That is how we make that some of our staff, which do not usually treat with customers, can get to know them and have a direct feedback of their work. 8