Case study: Setting up support team on a BW4HANA solution

Introduction

In project management, the spotlight often shines on procedures and best practices for implementing new data and analytics (D&A) solutions, as well as the challenges these entail. However, an often overlooked yet critical phase is the subsequent support of these solutions. We recently faced such a challenge when a client recruited us to set up a support team on their BW4HANA solution.

In this blog post, we will dive deeper into the required steps to set up and maintain a support organization, the challenges and lessons learned.

Define your support model

As a first step, it is crucial to define your support model. During this phase, we employed the ITIL framework and tailored it to the client’s context where relevant.

Scope: Identifying the relevant processes

In the ITIL framework, the IT service lifecycle is identified by five phases: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation & continual service improvement. For a support team, the processes described under service operation are the most applicable.

Figure: ITIL processes related to Service Operation

We reviewed these processes and applied them to the client’s organization to determine the scope of the future support organization.

Figure: ITIL processes related to Service Operation applied to the client’s case

Tool: Setting up your service desk

The service desk is essential for a support organization. With many service desk tools available, it can be a cumbersome process to choose the most fitting one. However, most organizations often have a centralized service desk already in place for all IT support. In this case, the client was already using ServiceNow for the majority of their support services, so it was logical to integrate with it.

We also examined the communication channels available to end users. Besides the service desk tool, it is best practice to offer users various contact channels. The central service desk at this client already provided support via chat and phone as first-line support for end users.

Finally, the tool should also allow for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to be captured and tracked. SLAs should be defined based on priority, as a combination of impact and urgency. Tickets should then be correctly prioritized to adhere to those SLAs.

People: Defining your support teams

Support organizations are usually a collection of different support teams, each with their own roles and responsibilities. In this case, the client had multiple teams working on the same BW4HANA platform. To avoid any conflict, the support teams had to be clearly defined.

The client already had a central service desk for first line support, which is the end-user’s first contact point. Their responsibilities include logging the incidents, performing first-level troubleshooting and routing to the correct second-level support team if required.

Since this first-level support team supports all IT processes and is not specialized in the BW4HANA solution, most incidents are routed to the D&A support teams. These teams are divided by their specialization, leading to the establishment of a central BW4HANA support team as second-level support. Third-level support teams were defined based on their respective specialties

This resulted into a three-tier leveled support model:

Figure: Three-tier leveled support model

Report on your performance

Once your support team is up and running, continuous improvement is crucial. To identify areas of improvement, it is important to track and report your team’s performance using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as response time, resolution time, SLA adherence, user satisfaction, and ticket volumes.

In this project, the BW4HANA system was already equipped to load and process data coming from our service desk tool, ServiceNow. This data was then modelled into a Power BI report, tracking the relevant KPIs for our support team.

Figure: Power BI report tracking the support’s KPIs such as SLA resolution, CSAT … (based on simulated data)

The KPIs are also tracked against their target (e.g., aiming for a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) of 3.75 out of a maximum of 4). This highlights areas where we are falling short and need improvement. For example, we noticed that our SLA resolution was at 49%, far below the target of 95%. This triggered an investigation that revealed incorrectly set-up SLAs in the system.

We also created a dashboard for daily follow-up, allowing the team to identify open tickets, escalated tickets, and tickets without updates for seven days or longer. This helps prioritize and take actions accordingly.

Figure: Power BI report providing a daily view on open tickets, escalated tickets, and tickets without updates for seven days or longer (based on simulated data)

Lessons Learned

Finally, here are some key lessons learned from this case study:

1. User training: Many incidents were basic user questions about data access, software installations, and login issues. These can be mitigated by training users and providing them with guides and useful links when a new user is created in the system. This reduces the support team’s workload and helps users resolve issues more quickly.
   
2. Dedicated support team: Initially, the development team handled most incidents, which proved difficult to balance with planned developments. This resulted in late responses, high resolution times, and dissatisfied customers. A dedicated support team is essential to ensure timely resolution and proper follow-up.
   
3. Continuous improvement: Even if support operations are running smoothly, it is important to continuously look for improvement opportunities to reduce pressure on the support team and enhance customer satisfaction. For example, we are currently working on automating access management in the BW4HANA system. The approval flow will be automated within the service desk tool to reduce manual work, increase delivery times, and provide an audit trail. Additionally, a Fiori app is being developed to automate the assignment of roles and analysis authorizations in BW4HANA. Our long-term vision is to achieve full automation from start to finish.

By focusing on these areas, we can ensure a more efficient and effective support organization that meets the needs of both the users and the business.

Conclusion

Setting up and maintaining a support organization for data and analytics solutions like BW4HANA requires careful planning, the right tools, and a dedicated team. By defining a clear support model, utilizing appropriate service desk tools, and establishing specialized support teams, organizations can effectively manage incidents and ensure continuous improvement. Our experience underscores the importance of user training, having a dedicated support team, and continuous improvement. Investing in the support phase is crucial for the long-term success of any D&A solution, driving better outcomes and maintaining high user satisfaction.

If you need a support team for your D&A systems or assistance in setting up one, Intellus can provide a tailored support solution to meet your needs. Contact us for a consultation!