Case Study
A Low-Cost, High-Performance Correspondence Management SolutionChallenge
Before its engagement with SSI, the client used a correspondence management and tracking application that had reached the end of its support lifecycle. This legacy application, which had been used for more than a decade, needed to be decomposed and replaced. The legacy application used over six records repository databases which needed to be converted and integrated into a new solution.
A significant paper-based process, which governed the majority of the enterprise’s correspondence management, also needed to be recreated in an electronic format, wrapped into the new solution, and deployed across the enterprise.
Solution
The requirements-gathering process identified undocumented issues with the legacy application as well as client-specific needs for business rules and workflow. These new requirements and unique needs were integrated into a proven correspondence management solution.
The legacy databases were converted and merged into the new solution, and the paper-based process was replaced with an integrated digital online process. The solution was then successfully deployed to the client.
Benefit
While implementing the solution, SSI business analysts identified over three thousand records which should have been processed and “closed” using the legacy application, but were not. Identification of the records incorrectly left open allowed SSI engineers to resolve the legacy process errors in the solution implementation. Identifying these records also provided, for the first time, a true picture of the open workload for the company.
In addition, digitizing enterprise correspondence management provided repeatable and reportable processes. The entire new solution provided a superior GUI, which enabled gains in workflow efficiency. All work was completed within 16 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of user training and support.
Result
SSI’s solution reduced the open caseload from 3,000 to under 300—representing an open workload reduction of over 90%. Conversion of system data from the legacy application into the new solution allowed the enterprise to properly report on over a decade of completed work.
The conversion also allowed the old data to be rolled into new work performed using the new solution. The paper-based correspondence management process used throughout the majority of the enterprise was replaced by the solution produced by SSI, allowing increases in efficiency within the company and decreases in staff workload.