This FTS100 multinational had the ambition to implement a new Target Operating Model that would significantly reduce operational and servicing costs. The objective was to migrate all stand-alone European Customer Service centres in the UK where it would be part of a Centre of Excellence to offer outstanding service to their customers. After recently joining the EMEA Six Sigma Business Transformation team as a Business Analyst, I was asked to assist Programme Managers in migrating 3 of those centres – Finland, Sweden and Belgium. These initiatives would impact 200+ employees and generate cost savings of $8MM on Year 1.

This specific example will talk of Phase 1 (as-is) of Finland Customer Service centre to be completed in 2 months in line with Human Resources consultations deadline impacting 50 employees.

I was asked to document the as-is processes virtually and face to face under aggressive deadlines and outline recommendations to Management to migrate processes and highlight potential risks.

I familiarised myself with the project objectives, timelines and my responsibilities so that I would deliver what was asked of me.

I planned for work to be done onsite 4 weeks ahead by designing an excel tracker covering 6 functional areas and 250 processes covering information from existing process maps, training materials, volumes, FTE, process complexity, systems used, inputs/outputs, voice/language dependency, risks and dependencies to other projects.

I organised conference calls with the Team Leaders and users to introduce myself, the aim of the project (a straight forward as-is exercise) and start gathering the above information focusing on validating existing process lists and establishing which materials were available for review.

I continued with this exercise once onsite and also submitted weekly resource schedule plans to be approved by my Programme Manager and Finland Head of Customer Service. This would ensure that we could meet aggressive deadlines.

I emailed the users with the schedule and an agenda with topics to cover in each session. I asked them to sign off the process list, review and validate existing materials and made notes of potential amendments needed.

I prepared for daily status update calls with my UK colleagues to recap on what was achieved, highlighted any issues encountered and potential solutions.

Due to the famous volcanic ash and Finland employees sickness/resignations increasing, I had to continuously review and amend the daily resource schedule to concentrate on working with the expert users before they left the company.

I monitored and supported the users daily to ensure the as-is materials were updated to quality to meet our deadlines. I designed 40+ process maps and 20+ Standard Operating Procedures in line with the EMEA Central Training Team standards.

I worked with a Project Manager to document PowerPoint slides which would indicate which teams/processes were at risk or no risk at being migrated.

After multiple delays, I delivered Phase 1 2 weeks ahead and received positive feedback from my Programme Manager.