What we've done
The following are some examples of recent projects completed by TIG2
Accounting
The FD was concerned that checking supplier invoices against issued quotations was wasteful ofstaff time and effort. However, the related data was contained on various different systems that
were not designed to inter-communicate. TIG
2 developed special communications with each of the separate systems and then automated the checking process for 95% invoices. Savings of 3 FTE achieved.
Company Mergers
Several occasions after a merger it has proved difficult or impossible to move all staff or function onto a single system. A strategy to move to single system may take many months / years. In the meantime providing a composite view for management is almost impossible - manual workarounds can have significant errors. On such occasions it has proven worthwhile for TIG
2 to provide, deliver and maintain, a bespoke tactical solution till the formal strategic approach available.
Personnel
The manual internal process for staff appraisals was estimated to demand 4% of available resources (ie 280 FTE for the 7,000 staff in the UK). A complete secure Web-based system was developed and delivered by TIG
2 staff. This improved the quality of information for management and reduced the staff time commitment to about 50% of the previous process.
Service Management
Service directors need to know if the service for which they are responsible is meeting its service levels. A RAG (Red Amber Green) reporting service was developed by TIG
2 showing key indicators on each of 500 active customers. The web based report enabled every service director to see daily performance at a glance and drill down to view any issue.
Procurement
The Director of Procurement was concerned that a proportion of the £12m spend on software licences in particular could be avoided if un-used licences could be reclaimed and re-used. TIG
2 provided all processes to recognise idle software, and encourage owners to recycle them.
Theft
All new staff were provided with a laptop and mobile phone. The manual spreadsheet records showing initial deployment soon became out of date and ineffective when kit was passed on or replaced with new. Staff leaving the company often retained their laptop. Shrinkage was a significant problem. Unfortunately the ability to track ownership and use of equipment relied on interoperating with several different and disparate systems within the company. TIG
2 designed, built and maintained a equipment service that tracked 98% of all such equipment - reducing "shrinkage" to known and acceptable levels.
Customer reporting
Part of the service offered to all service customers includes reporting. This shows quantities, the quality of service that they are receiving, and may, in some cases, be the basis of charging. The manual work associated this reporting grew significantly with the increase in customer base and the complexity of service reporting. TIG
2 staff identified the issue and developed a bespoke 'high reliability' automated service that ensures that the several hundred customer reports are all generated and distributed correctly daily.
Mobile engineers
With a mobile workforce and service commitments it may be essential to ensure that the latest information is available to the engineer responsible for service provision. The support help desk system could not be configured to provide text messaging in a structured single message format. TIG
2 designed and provided an improved service that ensured text data was correctly structured for sensible use. Additionally the TIG
2 service could be configured to make normal phone calls and speak the message.
Subcontractor handling
When a service desk subcontracts part of its service then measuring the performance delivered by a sub-contractor is important for the service director. Limitations of the current help desk prevented this reporting. TIG
2 designed an interface to extract relevant data, compile and report it to service directors regularly.
Similarly when subcontracted to another service the source of information is normally held in another help desk system. For service efficiency automatic communication between different help desk systems is essential. To improve service efficiency TIG
2 designed, delivered and maintained a communication service operating between the different Help Desks.
Secure Remote Tokens
Prior to a merger, a manual process that could distribute and enable fifteen tokens per day met the ongoing service demands. After the merger 2,000 token were required to be delivered in a month. TIG
2 automated and maintained the entire Secure Remote distribution process - improving the typical delivery time from 14 days to 1 day and cost per item from £62 to £1.
Customer Requests
Help Desk staff were accepting requests from customers without obtaining sufficient information to enable fulfilment. Engineering staff were then left to chase the customer for necessary data - wasting time / effort. To meet this complex area TIG
2 created and maintained a website that ensured all information was obtained from the requestor before the order was accepted. The TIG
2 website was then used used by either help desk staff or customer staff directly (self service). This website was extended to support several customers and many service request types. After its introduction customer perception of the delivered service went from 'poor' to 'extemporary' without engaging any additional engineering staff.
