Among the company’s many BPM projects, Keller is particularly proud of SIRVA agent dashboards. “It allows agents to see their performance relative to their peer groups, based on metrics that we measure for them. If they are underperforming in a particular area, we can then provide them information on what they can do to improve their performance in that area.”
Capabilities and Functionality
Despite the many accomplishments, the obstacles have grown, fueled by a battering and battered economy. “There’s high demand for new capabilities and functionality that had to be put on the back burner while we focused on consolidation. There is a lot of that new demand that needs to be addressed now while at the same time there is a lot of pressure to incur cost efficiency and quality, and continuing to build out an architecture that allows us to grow.”
Certainly, SIRVA is not alone in that particular predicament. Many Fortune 500 companies have lagged behind in adding new functionalities and capabilities while they busily worked at consolidation. Now the crunch to add IT, despite shrinking IT budgets, has taken on a renewed sense of urgency. Then there’s the pressure applied by customers demanding new IT services.
“New areas are in demand now, like social networking which we would never have thought was an area that we would need to address, but now we’re talking to clients about it,” he said. “Our clients actually ask if we have those types of sites, almost like Facebook, for some of their transferees.”
Despite the need to hang onto a dwindling customer base, companies cannot always afford to cave to client demand these days. At the end of the day, it comes down to: “is there a strong business case,” explains Keller. “And how effectively can you implement and manage the change.
“I’ve been in technology for 20 years and there’s always new technology, so it’s really about: can you really figure out the right way to apply the new technology to meet a business need?”
Beyond the business need is the human need to retain a good quality of life beyond economic pressures at work. In Keller’s world, sports reigns supreme from spectator sidelines to in-game competition. “I have three athletic sons who are mostly into wrestling and football. I enjoy watching them compete and I’ve coached football for the last 10 years. And, just recently I trained for and completed my first triathlon.”