Collaboration Drives Customer Implementation Success
Collaboration, transparency and empowerment were the core themes that drove the NASCO team as they began Phase 2 of implementing our customer servicing product, NCompassSM, at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA). The combined customer and NASCO team seized an opportunity to take a more collaborative approach to Phase 2 of replacing the plan’s existing CRM system.
“What is different for Phase 2 of the CRM implementation is really the idea of one team,” said Angie Evans, Senior Director, Implementation Lead for BCBSMA. “Even though we’re two different companies with a lot of moving parts, we really have come together as one team with a sense of mutual accountability and transparency.” (call out quote in the layout, either on side in the text)
Phase 2 kicked off with a solution-planning session, which helped align BCBSMA’s vision to the implementation and provided an opportunity to understand each role and responsibility. The entire team, from the top down, took a strategic approach to understanding the business objectives and creating solutions to meet them. As a result, administrative processes were streamlined to allow the focus to be centered on delivery.
“We gave the team the tools they needed to feel empowered so they could make decisions at the right level,” said Jefferie O’Leary, Executive Director of Implementation Delivery for NASCO. “When people feel empowered to make decisions on their own, they don’t need to escalate decisions. This simple change in behavior allowed us to accelerate our delivery and complete the project many weeks prior to schedule.”
The team successfully launched eight releases, each of which was delivered ahead of schedule and with very minimal defects, which were all remediated quickly.
“Through collaboration and teamwork, everyone knew their role and the value we were trying to deliver to BCBSMA, and, with that focus, we took spin out of the equation,” said Doug Wilson, Sr. Director of Corporate Systems Delivery for BCBSMA. “Without that spin, we gained 15 to 20 percent back in cycle time, which enabled everyone to do the work that they signed up to do. (Callout) And the quality improved because they had the time, and we built momentum — that momentum and teamwork was phenomenal. And the quality — both from testing and delivery — was at a level that I’ve never seen before because of the focus and collaboration of the team.”
