why is it so hard to do it simply
Hello! My name is Sergey Veshchugin, I am in charge of technical user support and development of the 911 service at Kontur. 911 is the name of the employee support service. And we currently have more than 12 thousand people.
This year, the 911 service turned 10 years old. And this article, written in honor of the anniversary, will tell you about the management and organization of processes in it.
I will tell you about the key organizational changes in 911, reflected in the diagram above: how they acted taking into account the scale of the company and “reassembled” processes “on the fly”, and also why doing something simple sometimes turns out to be difficult and not quick.
Just one email for everyone
Back in 2012, when the company had only 1,500 employees, questions like these already arose: “Where and to whom should I write to be guaranteed help to resolve the issue here and now?” The company was like a big family, where many things were decided on personal connections or because “that’s how it happened historically.”
The main difficulty was the lack of information about who can solve what issues, and who should and can help if the person responsible is not there.
There were many email addresses for receiving support in different services. There was even an idea to make a separate mailbox for each: there is a problem, you look up the service address in the directory, write a request to
This scheme is good for those helping, but it is not transparent for users, and the problem may not be in the service at all.
UIT starts
In 2014, they decided to try a new scheme: one address for all UIT services and problems. But to implement it, it was necessary to organize the first line, which would deal with the rapid distribution of applications. At first, all system administrators did this in turn. To say that they were all “delighted” is to say nothing. They had to quickly find out who could help with mail, with purchasing equipment, with the company portal and other company services… And all this was still at the level of one department.
Within a few months, a separate employee was assigned to distribute and quickly resolve typical tasks. A unified knowledge base began to emerge.
Many processes had to be changed then, the principle of “it’s just the way it is historically” had to be changed, the habits of employees to go directly to specialists had to be changed, the opinion that the user can wait/be patient, after all, he is a colleague.
UOF joins
The experiment with a single address for all questions and problems in UIT quickly gained recognition among the company's employees. Many began to ask: “When will other problems be able to be solved through 911?” The greatest interest was in organizational and everyday issues.
It was time to negotiate with the UOF management about working in the new system and according to the new rules. In the shortest possible time, an initial knowledge base was created: on what issues, to which department of the management it is necessary to send applications. Even the fact that most of the management does not work on computers did not become a critical obstacle, but led to a change in internal processes and the allocation of employees responsible for certain functions.
As it turned out later, this was one of the most loyal units in terms of connecting to 911.
We convince the rest
And then there’s more: we collected statistics on what questions are asked most often, understood who should be involved first, and went to negotiate.
YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, WE HAVE OUR OWN SPECIFICITY, THIS WON'T WORK!
This was roughly the first reaction of most managers to whom we approached with the proposal to start accepting and processing applications through one common address. We had to understand all the processes of each department, find the advantages of the transition.
As a result of such excavations, we found and eliminated duplication of functionality, learned to work with confidential information. It turns out that our employees can easily write in the application the amount of their salary or a neighbor, passport data, rental rate or contract, number and almost PIN code of the card and many other interesting things. All this data must be carefully stored and access to it must be restricted.
But there were also those who had no intention of connecting to 911, as they were already working in other systems for processing applications.
In order to save the applicant from additional problems and not transfer him to another address, we tried at different times:
create requests for the user in the required system, transferring the entire history of the request there;
forward the request to the email of the required technical support, including all available information;
act as a link between technical support and the applicant, monitoring the entire process of resolving the issue;
create a knowledge base on typical questions and solve the problem on your side.
But almost all of this became irrelevant after the transition to a single technical support tool. Although there are still situations when questions in 911 are not resolved and you need to go to another channel.
Let's just pay bonuses to the top students
After the merger of several departments, there was a need for a unified understanding of the quality of solutions to requests, unified criteria for service and customer focus. Any processes can be built with the direct interest and motivation of individual employees. But 911 is not one employee or department, it is a team of specialists from different departments with completely different functions.
We have learned to form simple, clear expectations in users by setting criteria for resolving requests for those who process them. For example, that within 2 working hours you will definitely receive a response from the employee who will be resolving the request. Or that the time for the decision is limited and if it changes, you will be informed of a new deadline.
Speed first
Thus, in 2016, the 911 rating appeared, for the implementation of which a bonus is still paid from the general budget of the DOS. The composition and calculation of the rating has constantly changed throughout its existence, depending on what bottlenecks needed to be improved at the current moment. First of all, it was necessary to learn how to quickly identify the problem, find who should solve it, solve it or report the deadlines for the solution. Therefore, the speed or rating of delay is still under control.
Globally, the rating is intended to motivate an increase in the speed of application processing and the quality of the proposed solution.
Then quality
Last year, the criteria changed again: as always, we look at the delay and user ratings, to this we added two currently important criteria – solving the issue the first time without reopening and the fact of linking knowledge for setting new deadlines for the solution and further detailed analysis.
For those who love numbers and specifics, here are some graphs showing how the main indicators changed:
Let's just change the 911 tracker
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin
Suspicion
At the end of 2020, we had strong suspicions that MS SCSM, the core of our system, would not evolve. Only critical updates were released, several development teams changed, and we also noticed other indirect signs. We started looking for a solution that suited our functionality and budget.
We considered more than 20 different technical support platforms, and tested the most suitable ones for compatibility with the existing infrastructure: self-service portals, employee account, reporting, etc. Along with products from global companies, we considered the product used by our UKS — WIC.
The final point in the question of choice was put by the events of February 2022, when the use of all foreign options ended before they even began. And if you choose among your own, then you need to choose the closest ones.
We've made our choice, but what next?
There were 3 conditions for a successful transition that were reinforced concrete:
Users should not notice the changes.
The quality of support should not deteriorate
Established support processes in departments must not break down
Throughout 2022, we have been preparing for the transition:
We analyzed and updated all 911 processes, from the submission of an application to the resolution of a complex application by several departments.
We wrote, rewrote, and tested the API for interaction with existing portals and the employee account.
We restructured the work of front-line employees, training them to work in a new tool and create the necessary knowledge base.
We wrote several articles about the new tool, collected feedback and the first requirements for improvements.
We created a role model to exclude access to commercial, personal or other secrets that could be reflected in the application.
They pestered the WIC developers with questions:
Why is that? Do we need it like this, is that possible? What if we really need it?
Let's go!
Since January 2023, we have begun a smooth transition to the new platform. The first requests began to be registered in the new system, BUT neither users nor support specialists noticed this, since only the numbering of incidents changed for them – only numbers remained. All the usual tools continued to work. And we checked whether everything worked correctly: registration of requests, comments on the request, the solution process, assessments and other technical nuances.
For 4 months, we gradually increased the number of applications registered in the new system. On April 28, we technically transferred work with applications to WIC. All that remained was to transfer all technical support specialists to the new tool and train them in all the intricacies and life hacks of working in it.
For another 4 months, we trained all specialists (more than 400 people), showed instructions, created knowledge for the knowledge base, collected feedback and requests. We checked whether internal processes in departments would break down. If they broke down somewhere, we looked for solutions together.
On October 1, the ability to process applications in the old portal was disabled. Now all work with applications had to be done in WIC.
Are we there yet? And now?
Over the next 5 months, from October 2023 to February 2024, we restored and rebuilt non-critical processes. We realized that even at the hottest moment of the transition, the delay, processing speed, and other indicators remained virtually unchanged.
Where to next?
For the next year and a half, we have set ourselves the following tasks in chronological order:
Create Bi reports for 911 specialists – for prompt tracking of the speed and quality of requests resolution
Improve WIC – application processing should be done entirely on the web
Continue to develop knowledge of WIC as a key assistant in application resolution and decision time monitoring
Improve the service assessment using AI and UKS developments
Update 911 Regulations
Taking this opportunity, I would like to say a big thank you to those who stood at the origins of 911 and played their role in the development of a single internal technical support service. And about how interfaces have evolved over these 10 years, you can read in the article Evolution of the employee support service: interfaces.
