Form - Record ownership strategies

1 Overview

In bxp software (bxp) the ability to use the Form structure to store records / tickets / cases means that there are a number of different considerations when approaching management of the processes.

There is often a management approach to how the records should be processed. Should a person be responsible for types of tickets or should everyone be responsible for their managment? Choosing a strategy that best suits your process / improves your process is an important management task and should be considered carefully. Adoption of different types of strategy require bxp to be configured in different ways to suit your needs.

This article explores the different potential approaches for you to decide which ones or parts of one would suit your operation best which can then be built and applied to your process. The important thing is for you to decide on what approach suits you best.

This articles requires different modules to be available for different scenarios, which are detailed by the Applies to: in each section.

2 No Ownership strategy

Applies to: Inbound, Outbound, Case Management
Setup: Simple
Personal responsibility: None
Operational Management: None

The simplest of all the strategies. This requires no configuration just the use of the modules. Records are added by users with no need to own or manage records.

Using callbacks via the outcomes allows for phone calls to be reminded in a timely fashion but there is no management requirement to police this approach.

This approach is ideal for smaller campaigns and operations where an individual is responsible and takes ownership through being the only person working on the data set.

3 Creation Ownership strategy

Applies to: Inbound
Setup: Simple
Personal responsibility: Individual
Operational Management: Some

For sales campaigns predominantly, when a record is added, that record becomes only accessible to the creator of the record, or someone who has a contact history with the record. This strategy allows sales teams to manage their own leads without disturbing others. It still allows managers to see and report on all records.

This is a feature of the Inbound module. In the Forms advanced settings (Main Menu > Form Management > Form - Primary Management > Form - Advanced Settings > Choose your Form > Advanced Options > ) change "Cross User Lookup" from its default of True to False. Now within the Inbound module the "My Data" section will only allow records created by the user to be accessed.

For managerial support within the Inbound module the "My Data - Admin View" allows this setting to be bypassed by the user e.g. allowing an admin search on all records.

4 Predetermined Ownership strategy

Applies to: Inbound
Setup: Simple
Personal responsibility: Individual
Operational Management: Some

This approach is similar in nature to the Creation Ownership strategy except that instead of data records being added they are imported from an existing CRM or sales list. As part of the load they are already allocated to users. This is useful for Business Development management as it allows Bus Dev Managers to only see their own accounts.

The mechanism of set-up is the same as the Creation Ownership strategy. The big difference is that as data is loaded into the system, the Staff Id field is set to the Id of the owning users.(intCDA_X_StaffId)

5 Interim ownership

Applies to: Inbound, Case Management
Setup: Intermediate
Personal responsibility: Group, Individual - Temporarily
Operational Management: Some

This is a temporary locking mechanism to prevent two users from working on the same record at the same time. So, no record is actually assigned to any individual however when an agent is working on a record they can lock it to themselves whilst they work on the record.

The article on implementation can be found at JavaScript_-_Interactive_Record_Locking

6 First Come First Served (FCFS) strategy

Applies to: Outbound
Setup: Simple
Personal responsibility: Group
Operational Management: Some

The Oubound Queue Management process as detailed in Contact_Centre_Training CC-2-3 Outbound contact management, allows a user to "take" a record from a general pot on a first come first served basis. That record is locked to that user until the user chooses an outcome. This choosing and output buts the record back into the general pot. A team leader or equivalent decides which groups / stacks of records to work on.

The setup of this process is very simple. It does not give personal responsibility to any user except for the record they are currently working on. This strategy is ideal for outbound contact campaigns or mass processing exercises. By not preallocating to individuals, as and when users are ready to do work, they can take a record to process.

Keeping allocation fair is done through the Data Profiling module Statistics reports. These statistic reports show how many records are processed with what outcomes by person. Team Leads can see where performance is excelling and lacking.

As within all strategies personally promised call backs are managed on a person by person basis.

7 Grouped FCFS strategy

Applies to: Outbound
Setup: Simple
Personal responsibility: Group
Operational Management: Intermediate

Using the FCFS strategy above all the records are loaded into the central stacks. From within these records Custom Contact Groups can be created Outbound_-_Queue_Management. These groups can be for specific groups, e.g. All Ireland, England and American records could be grouped from a global listing of companies. These custom groups are then queued up as standard in the FCFS strategy.

Now however, the users access the system via Main Menu > Outbound Contact > My Data - Tools > Make an outbound contact - Select a Group. This allows the users to choose which group to work on and the system will process just records from that group in the same manner as the general FCFS approach is used.

This allows for very centralised reporting and easier comparative reporting for diverse programs. If this is too complicated to manage within a single form, then default back to separate FCFS strategies.

This strategy also allows for temporary isolation of records for processing whilst not removing records to a separate working form. It can be used in conjunction with users working on the base FCFS strategy

8 FCFS with Ownership on Contact strategy

Applies to: Blended (Inbound with Outbound)
Setup: Advanced
Personal responsibility: Group moving to Individual
Operational Management: Involved

This approach is used for sales / lead generation teams and technical support teams where all new items are put into the central stacks as per the FCFS strategy. As the user takes a record to process, if there is follow on / further processing to be done, a drop down list question within the form is set to their name. This simple listing can then be identified by a Worklist to provide the user with two primary functions.

Request a new work item
Examine my existing work items

This requires the user to be more aware of their operational duties. i.e. If you're not working on a work item, then you should be requesting the next work item available.

The setup of this approach is a lot more involved than other processes as it requires a dual allocation solution. The temporary FCFS setup is easily set up. Creating a drop down list within the form is relatively straight forward. Creating a worklist to view those personally owned items takes about 30 minutes. There is also the creation of a set of customised buttons to make the primary user interface far easier to operate from a user perspective.

This approach causes a lot more management and information gathering as keeping an eye on time spent on new request acceptance and also on working on existing work items is a complicated blend with ebbs and flows.

9 FCFS with Elected / Escalated Ownership strategy

Applies to: Outbound
Setup: Intermediate
Personal responsibility: Group moving to Individual
Operational Management: Involved

Sometimes it can be easier to split the "FCFS with Ownership on Contact strategy " into two processes for two teams. i.e. Use a FCFS strategy to perform front line support. If this fails to resolve the issue then there is an escalation. The escalation can be performed using a number of approaches.

Using a outcome "assigned to"
Using a record field with the person to allocate to
Cross Form linking and pushing the record into a separate form that is separately managed

The outcome "assigned to" field is used predominantly for creating call back reminders. This engine does work for "transferring" ownership of work to do, to someone else but does not provide as effective reporting as other strategies. This is ideal for organising out of hours call backs to be done by someone else, quickly and easily.

A simple flagging exercise, combined with a worklist looking for this flag can be very easily constructed. Like the second half of the "FCFS with Ownership on Contact strategy" using a work list, the work list is simply set to be for other people, rather than personal ownership.

The last is probably the most robust solution allowing for maximum operational strategy and flexibility. This linking is done through outcomes section called "Instant Transfer - Campaign". This allows for independent processes and opens the possibility of chaining solutions / departments.

10 Ownership by Flag / Status strategy

Applies to: Inbound, Case Management
Setup: Intermediate
Personal responsibility: Group
Operational Management: Intermediate

Worklists can be used to inspect any field and generate a work list from them. This simplistic method allows for any field to be used as the basis for a Worklist or for more advance record management a CrossLinked report.

Knowledge and setup of worklists can be very involved when creating complicated combinations.

It is possible to complete customise the Main Menu experience by user to display work lists to optimise process delivery.

11 Form Transfer approach

Applies to: Inbound, Outbound, Case Management
Setup: Intermediate
Personal responsibility: Group
Operational Management: Involved

As mentioned in "FCFS with Elected / Escalated Ownership strategy" this process allows a record to be transferred in whole or part into another form, to allow the second form have completely different processes applied to the record.