Quality Improvement in Support Processes

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Quality Improvement in Support Processes
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Agenda

• Background on IT at Allegheny Energy
• Quality Philosophies
• Examples on Improvement
• Q A

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Me

• John McCune
• Support Process Coordinator Allegheny Energy
• BS Management University of Pittsburgh
• MBA Duquesne University
• MPM Carnegie Mellon University

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Allegheny Energy

• Allegheny Power
• Delivers electric power 3 million people
• Gas operations 200,000 customers
• Allegheny Energy Supply
• Generation
• Energy Trading

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Recent Growth

• West Virginia Power 60,000 gas electric
  customers
• Mountaineer Gas -- 200,000 gas customers
• Midwest - 1,710 megawatts of generation
• Merrill Lynch Global Energy Markets Energy
  Trading

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Paul J. Evanson, President, CEO, and Chairman of
the Board
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IT at Allegheny Energy

• Infrastructure
• Technology Acquisition
• Security
• Disaster Recovery
• Support
• Applications
• Allegheny Power
• Allegheny Energy Supply
• Finance
• Administration

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IT Support Center

• 17 first-level people
• 24 x 7
• 5,000 diverse internal clients
• ARS Ticket Tracking Tool
• 400,000 tickets

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Quality Philosophies

• W. Edwards Deming Statistical Control to
  Tweak Processes
• Philip Crosby Zero Defects
• Joseph Juran Plan for Quality
• Institutional or Cultural Quality Quality is
  Job 1

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Which one is right?
Theyre ALL right!
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If you can count it, you can improve it!

• Identify a target for improvement
• Count it
• Analyze it
• Tweak your process
• Track your results

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Case 1 Inadequate Information

• Step 1 - Identify Problem
• Second-level Support Feedback not enough
  information in the ticket.
• If you can count it, you can improve it

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Case 1 Inadequate Information

• Step 2 Count the tickets with this problem.

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Case 1 Inadequate Information
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Case 1 Inadequate Information

• Step 3 Analyze results to determine problem
• Time of Day?
• Individual?
• Team?
• Application?
• What else?

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Case 1 Inadequate Information

• Step 4 Tweak process
• Analysis showed problems were mostly specific to
  a few second-level teams
• Support Center reps are prompted in ARS for
  correct info under very specific conditions

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Case 1 Inadequate Information

• Step 5 Track your results!

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Case 1 Inadequate Information
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Case 2 Top Dogs

• Step 1 - Identify Problem
• Does everyone on first-level have the knowledge
  to answer all our top tickets?
• If you can count it, you can improve it

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Case 2 Top Dogs

• Step 2 Count the tickets We identified our
  Top Dogs related to
• Outlook
• Storms
• VPN
• Exchange
• Print Services

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Case 2 Top Dogs

• Step 3 Analyze results to determine problem
• What ones could be handled at first level?

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Case 2 Top Dogs

• Step 4 Tweak process
• Ensured answers to our Top Dogs were in
  KnowledgeBase and made sure every person was
  aware of the answer

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Case 2 Top Dogs

• Step 5 Track your results!

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Case 2 Top Dogs
Outlook
Storms
VPN
Exchange
Print Svcs
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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA

• Step 1 - Identify Problem
• Break/Fix Process had no real method of tracking
  success
• If you can count it, you can improve it

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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA

• Step 2 Count the tickets Which ones made
  the SLA?

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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA
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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA

• Step 3 Analyze results
• EASY!
• All we did was watch

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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA

• Step 4 Tweak process
• All we did was make sure people knew we were
  watching

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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA

• Step 5 Track your results!

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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA
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Case 3 Break/Fix SLA
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If you can count it, you can improve it

• Identify a target for improvement
• Count it
• Analyze it
• Tweak your process
• Track your results

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John R. McCune
Questions?
jmccune_at_alleghenyenergy.com