As we outlined in our social network design methodology, step one is to identify business goals that SAP Jam can advance. That may be easy if you have a CEO, CMO or CRO that is excited to leverage social technology but what if that champion does not exist? What can you do if you are in IT or HRIS and cannot readily identify a business problem that Jam can solve?
One idea you might consider is using SAP Jam to deploy an IT or HR help desk. All of the employees in the entire company depend on your services and when they need help, they want it to be easy, fast and effective. A self-service help desk can serve as a one stop shop for employees to find content, ask questions and link to internal systems.
Our first hurdle test for a good group idea is around business alignment. A help desk satisfies our requirements around aligning SAP Jam to advance business goals:
- Objective: Single place for employees to get help with IT or HR related issues
- Executive Owner: CIO or CHRO
- KPIs: Cost per Incident, Resolution Time, Employee Satisfaction
We could build a strong, quantitative business case on reducing operating costs and improving employee satisfaction; business objectives that many CIOs and CHROs are tasked with.
Does a help desk meet our criteria for a habit-forming group? A help desk will definitely move the needle on important business metrics
such as resolution time and employee satisfaction. However, employees will probably only use the group a handful of times during the year. On the flip side, we will get broad exposure for SAP Jam because every employee will have access to the group. So while a help desk is not likely to become habit-forming, if successful, it can become a fantastic success story that you can use to get attention and drive broader usage.
Now, let’s consider how we need to design the help desk for maximum adoption. What will be our users’ primary motivation to use the group? We identified three primary motivators for users to engage in a social collaboration group: Job optimization, management engagement and rewards & recognition. In this case the primary driver for employees to leverage the help desk will be around getting their job done. That may be only motivation they need. If users discover a fast, easy way to get their IT or HR issues resolved, they should quickly adopt the solution The key here will to make sure that we identify the capabilities the group will need to deliver on that vision. For example, we might decide that to make the experience as simple as possible, we will let users do two things (1) ask questions using a forum and (2) access the ticketing system to create a ticket. Security is a key consideration. Given that some HR questions are sensitive, we will want the ability to ask private questions.
If our user experience goal for maximizing adoption is ease of logging issues and speed in getting answers, then ease of use and accessibility will be critical to
our success:
- Immediate Access: Single sign-on will enable users to go from email, to SAP Jam to an internal ticketing system with a seamless and quick experience.
- Embedded: To ensure rapid turnaround, we will want the help desk integrated to the CRM system. This will let the agents quickly convert questions into tickets. It will also allow them to quickly search the knowledgebase for answers or collaborate with other agents to find real time resolution to issues.
- Accessible from Anywhere: It is critical to deploy a help desk group that is on the desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet regardless of browser or OS. Alerts on the mobile application can notify users when tickets are updated or questions are answered.
Success with an HR or IT help desk can create a beachhead to enable us to engage with other parts of the organization. A natural next step would be to engage the VP of Customer Service. SAP Jam has just released a work pattern specifically designed for this use case as shown below:
Service Request Resolution Work Pattern
So if you are struggling to find a home for your social collaboration solution within the business, try starting with an IT or HR helpdesk within your own organization. Demonstrate the business value that SAP Jam can provide, and leverage that win to open new opportunities in customer service, sales and marketing. Please share your thoughts and experiences. Have you had success with a help desk solution? Have you used it to expand SAP Jam into other parts of the organization?
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