Experience Mapping Identifies Pain Points and Solutions for Services

Shared Services. What does that even mean? It’s what we do and deliver, but what does it really mean? The term was originally coined by the consulting group Gunn Partners when they were working with General Motors to reduce cost and improve the performance of IT within the company. All of the distributed automotive departments had duplicated the very expensive technology that was used for design and production work, and all of these different IT departments and systems were very under-utilized, costing the company a lot of money. So the consultants were looking for ways to deliver IT better, with less cost, and higher quality. They designed a central IT department that would serve all business units to get the most out of the expensive computing equipment. As the consultants thought through this, they realized it would represent a big shift in how the businesses worked. The "shared" part of shared services was not intended to illustrate the fact that multiple clients were "sharing" a common service delivery group, but rather to denote that this new way of operating carried with it "shared accountability" for effective service delivery. The idea was that a company could get better and less expensive services if it centralized certain activities; but to make it work, everyone had to make a serious commitment to change how they operated – and these were not simple changes. As Gunn began to look at how business processes would have to change, it became clear that both client and provider would have to work closely together. As they got into the detail and decomposed the processes, the accountability for performing each part moved back and forth between the client organization and the delivery group. Hence, Shared Services got its name. [eventPDF] I am sharing (pun intended) the background on what shared services really means because this week at Ascension Health was filled with situations that really underscore how critical it is that both parties are really and truly accountable for the pieces of the Service that they provide. Neither party can be successful unless both are. Both must communicate, collaborate, and change. It is not enough to design a service delivery model and then "put it out there". Everyone in the mix has to do their part and all of the clients have to embrace the whole process. We have now reached a point in our evolution (the Shared Services center at Ascension is 3 years into its 6 year implementation) where we have 15 Client Health Ministries and we are beginning to see things that are markedly different across our Clients. We are seeing where some Client groups have fully adopted the new process model, and some have not. As we listen to feedback on overall Service satisfaction, patterns emerge indicating that one major source of frustration is being generated when new processes have not been changed and integrated to work together; when a client is hanging on to an old way of doing business but trying to connect it to a new service delivery process. There is friction and frustration, and sometimes just failure. Our Clients are committed to their Mission. We are likewise committed to our Mission, which is to enable them as they care for people in our communities. We have been given a unique charter and objective, to reduce costs without impacting clinical care. To do that, we and our Clients have to embrace this new operating model fully. What we are beginning to realize is that our shared services model requires a certain level of commonality in how our Clients process their parts of the work. The good news is that this week we launched a cooperatively led effort (involving Symphony [ERP], The Resource Group, and MSC) to discover and resolve these issues. Our Client Relationship Management team is leading a new process to go out to our Clients and measure Service Satisfaction and pain points, and identify opportunities for improvement. It uses something called an Experience Map. This is kind of like a game that takes groups of associates through a part of their job that includes one or more Services we provide. It gathers data about the satisfaction (or not) about the whole process, and then each part of the process. At the same time, it identifies pain points and solution ideas. We will be taking these carefully designed Experience Maps out to multiple Client sites and running facilitated sessions to gather data on how it is going with all of our Clients. We will then analyze the data to determine whether it is consistent across Clients, and create prioritized improvement plans. These plans could be as simple as changes in how we process our work; they could be potential system enhancements; or they could be about the migration of best practices from one Client to another as we optimize how we work together to fulfill our Mission. I am really excited about the potential of this new effort and I am excited about the partnership that all involved (Client and Service Provider) are demonstrating in this cooperative initiative to get the most out of the Services we deliver. Stand by for more on this as we begin to share the output of this new approach to optimizing delivery. NOTE: Lee heads Ascension Health's Ministry Service Center, which is in the third year of a six-year implementation for all healthcare entities in Ascension, the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. By the end of calendar year 2014, the Ministry Service Center will support 150,000 associates as clients across the US. MSC is also in the early stages of supporting other key initiatives within Ascension, such as the creation of a unified travel services division and physician back-office services. The Ministry Service Center was the winner across two categories in SSON's 2014 Shared Services Excellence Awards: once for "Culture Creation", and a second time for "Improvement and Innovation." About Lee: Lee Coulter has had an impressive career, and is broadly considered one of the leading Shared Services practitioners in North America today. Now in his 8th industry, Lee was previously Senior Vice President of Global Shared Services at Kraft Foods and a leader of Kraft’s corporate wide "Organize for Growth" transformation initiative. In this role he implemented shared services in nine global functions, delivering support across more than 70 countries and completing major outsourcing transformation "mega-deals" in IT, HR, and facilities management. He created and led the Shared Services Center of Excellence and the Outsourcing Center of Excellence at Kraft. While there, he also received Chairman Roger Deromedi¹s CEO Award for his efforts. Prior to joining Kraft, Lee served as Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AON Corporation, where he implemented ITIL and shared services, reduced costs by more than 35%, and integrated legacy infrastructure from a long acquisition strategy, finally outsourcing IT to CSC. Lee spent 15 years with GE in a multitude of roles culminating in VP of GE’s outsourcing business. He also spearheaded the Company’s global Y2K initiative and served as a technical and operating executive in its Healthcare Services business, including as an expatriate in China. He received the President¹s Award from GE CEO Jeff Immelt. Lee holds a BS in Electronics Engineering from DeVry University and has completed all course work for a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering at California State University at Long Beach. When not leading MSC, Lee can be found in his workshop, making sculptures out of wood and stone. He will be writing a weekly column for SSON's website in which he will share (nearly) everything that comes across his desk these days. More from Lee next week...

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