You've Got Goals, But Are You Meeting Them?

Last Thursday, Symetra Financial's (formerly Safeco) Margaret Harder spoke at GCC. What was particularly interesting was her in-depth description of how their Global 360 BPM Suite has enabled them to process more work, in less time, with fewer human resources.

Based in Bellevue Washington, Symetra has over 2 million customers and 200 employees, managing $20 billion in assets. They saw 14% growth from 2003-04. Incidentally, their initial Global 360 installation was back in 2003 and was designed to move them away from paper. Then in 2005, they expanded the system within the organization and in terms of capabilities. The Customer Service department implemented the process components to achieve true Business Process Management (BPM).

In just 5 months from start to finish the system and associated processes were fully implemented. As part of the implementation, they established measurable goals for 58 different transaction types. They incorporated these goals within the system such that the established parameters and thresholds would be automatically managed. This would mean that as tasks flowed into a queue, based on these parameters, it would be proactively assigned to the optimal resource. Those with permissions can run real-time Goal Management reports to determine efficiency and effectiveness in meeting the established goals. Their next step will be to incorporate Business Optimization into the setup.

Since Margaret's team recognized the importance of this system to the organization, they wanted to ensure a smooth roll-out. This meant smoothing the shock that is often associated with change, especially when tenured employees are affected. So they introduced these changes first with a pilot group of just 8 Customer Service Representatives. After just a couple of days of working through the kinks, they began to see significant benefits. Excitement started to spread within the group, but they were careful to manage the enthusiasm. They continued to roll out the system in ever larger groups, while:

• Sending "benefits" e-mails to the broader organization
• Placing creative posters around the building that described individual benefits
• Collecting and posting testimonials of pilot users
• Establishing a "mentor" program between existing and new users

All this was completed to ensure a positive transition. After a total of 4 stages, they completed the roll-out and instead of "shock and awe," by that time the introduction was barely noticeable... exactly how they wanted it. So how are they doing, and what are the hard and soft benefits? Check back tomorrow for details.