November 1999
Extra, Extra: HEALTH CARE COMPANY WEBIFIES CALL CENTER!
BY ROGER WILLCOCKS
One of the largest health care companies in the mid-Atlantic region was seeking a quick
and simple solution to a problem that had plagued the company for years — how to more
effectively utilize the desktop PCs of more than 150 customer service representatives
(CSRs). The company wanted to enhance workflow by developing a system that would be easier
for CSRs to use, thereby increasing their productivity and accuracy.
With the call center fast becoming the central communication and knowledge hub, many
businesses are striving to build systems that provide quick, easy access to information.
The Web is becoming a key component of this process, allowing organizations to access data
stored away in legacy databases.
The health care company in question turned to Intelligent Environments' ScreenSurfer,
an integration tool that quickly and easily "Webified" their applications.
ScreenSurfer provides developers with a gateway that uses HTML and JavaScript to deliver
CICS 3270-based applications and information to clients via any standard Web browser.
With ScreenSurfer, the health care company can bring legacy data from its 3270 screens
to a Web browser through dynamic HTML code, based on templates within the product. The
back-end data is accessed via CICS screens, and the resulting host 3270 screen data is
presented on the browser in any format the designer prefers.
According to the company's Internet consultant, the most important characteristic of
ScreenSurfer is that it is user-configurable at both the server and the client level. In
addition, all of the software resides in a central location on the server. There is no
need to maintain the software on the clients, or worry about the sorts of problems that
might arise at individual workstations, that is, problems related to the incompatible
software.
Now, employees use a Web browser and pop-up menus to access any of the 300 customized
screens that were created through this project, as well as any of the other 700 plus
transactions that were not customized. CSRs can now view and select input choices in
English text instead of the countless codes they had to memorize previously. Most of the
screens are automated, so that navigation is done via simple point-and-click, and much of
the data input is eliminated altogether.
Since ScreenSurfer has been operational for less than a year, the company has not yet
calculated its return on investment in terms of training and employee retention. But the
CSRs report that ScreenSurfer makes it easier to maneuver and navigate through the system.
Since the amount of information they have to key in has decreased dramatically, accuracy
rates have improved. In addition, since they can more easily navigate through the screens,
CSRs can service customers more quickly.
It is not only the CSRs who are reporting gains: the benefits are notable from a
development standpoint as well. ScreenSurfer makes it easier for developers to create new
applications or to change existing ones. Application changes can frequently be made by
simply changing or adding a one-line function call. Such ease is possible because much of
the application was designed around reusable JavaScript functions. Another benefit is
provided by the Web-based administrative tools, which help developers and help desk
personnel to service user problems.
Although the project currently runs purely in-house, there is a high probability that
as the health care company rolls out e-business applications to the Internet, they will
reuse much of the infrastructure code for new applications that tie directly to the live
back-end systems. As for future challenges, the company sees the need for a
message-oriented middleware approach to bridge the gap between the 24 x 7 nature of the
Web and the operational business hours of the back-end online systems. To that end, the
company has begun preliminary architectural discussions with Intelligent Environments to
see how best to utilize the existing product in that scenario.
Roger Willcocks is chief executive officer of Intelligent Environments. Intelligent
Environments specializes in the deployment and management of high performance, scaleable,
and server-centric business applications which integrate legacy systems — especially
mainframes and mid-range computers — both with the Web and with new distributed
object services. For more information, please visit their Web site at www.ieinc.com. |
