Siemens Enterprise Communications manages change more effectively and reduces costs
Siemens Enterprise Communications Background :
Siemens Enterprise Communications is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Unified Communications technologies. The company provides software, solutions and services to enterprises of all sizes. With total revenues of €3.1 billion in fiscal year 2007, Siemens Enterprise Communications has more than 15,000 highly qualified employees in 80 countries.
In South Africa the business has headquarters in Johannesburg, with branches distributed across the country. It has been active in the South African Telecommunications market for over 110 years and boasts a customer base in excess of 12,000 enterprises, which include most of South Africa’s leading corporate companies. |
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The Challenge Siemens Enterprise Communications is evolving from its roots in PBX product sales to providing comprehensive unified communications solutions and services. Ron Glazer, Quality Manager in the South African operation, explains that the continuing development of the organisation requires constant change in processes. At the same time, the entire company is certified to ISO 9001 and also ISO 14000, requiring that it demonstrates its compliance with these key standards.
In the mid 90s the business had been updating its quality systems manually, an experience Ron describes as “a nightmare”. Even when an intranet was introduced, the problem was still not resolved. Says Ron: “These were the triggers that made us think there had to be a way of automating how we manage ongoing changes of our processes and the relevant documentation.”
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The Solution At this time the Medical division of Siemens had begun to use Achiever Plus to manage documents more effectively. Ron Glazer was impressed by the benefits that the Medical division was achieving, and saw potential for the use of Achiever Plus in the Enterprise Communications unit. “Achiever Plus really was the answer. It enabled us to get ownership where it belonged,” says Ron. What then followed soon after was the rollout of Achiever Plus across all Business Units of Siemens Ltd in South Africa - at head office and in all the branches.
The Enterprise Communications unit began using Achiever Plus around ten years ago, and has recently moved to the Enterprise version with a licence for 1000 users, enabling every employee in the company to access the solution across the company intranet. “We wanted to drive quality at the source and for everyone to take responsibility for their own area,” says Glazer.
Achiever Plus was supplied to the company by SCS, a partner of UK-based Achiever Business Solutions. Siemens purchases support units from SCS in advance, which, says Glazer, works very well as it avoids having to raise purchase orders whenever support is required. He adds that “Today we rarely need to call on SCS, but if we do they will resolve our issue over the phone or make a site visit. If necessary they will escalate the issue to Achiever Business Solutions in the UK. The backup support from everyone is very good.”
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The Benefits
The greatest use of Achiever Plus is in document control, where all procedures and controlled documents can now be maintained. Every single document has an identified owner who can easily carry out any necessary review themselves. Owners are automatically notified by email when a document is due for review, and this works extremely well, says Glazer.
“Previously every change meant printing out the document for all users, getting it signed for, and ensuring it was filed correctly. It was very time-consuming and deterred users from making changes.” Not only does Achiever Plus make document control more timely and efficient, but it ensures consistency and transparency across the organization. “No way could anyone use the wrong version of a document,” says Glazer.
As a result of implementing document control with Achiever Plus, the company was able to reduce the number of staff assigned to the task almost immediately, and place them in valuable roles elsewhere in the company. Where once there was an entire department focused on document control, now all aspects of Quality Management are handled solely by Glazer, who also has responsibility for Environmental Management as well as process improvements. “Without Achiever Plus we would have to be running a much larger department just to manage ISO 9001 and ISO 14000,” explains Ron.
Siemens Enterprise Communications also successfully uses the Achiever Plus Audit, Contact and Issues modules to track issues across the company, from customer complaints to health and safety and environmental issues. “If a customer makes a complaint, for example, we can track its progress to resolution,” says Glazer, commenting that “An issue never goes away in Achiever Plus until it is resolved!”
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The Future
Siemens AG has recently entered into a joint venture with their Enterprise Communications business and US investor The Gores Group. This partnership will see the two organisations combine their strengths to becoming the world leader and preferred partner for organisations and partners seeking to integrate communications into business processes within the enterprise space.
The new venture will entail many more changes within the company, reflected in the processes and procedures of the business. Achiever Plus will help to smooth the transition.
Ron Glazer is convinced of the benefits of Achiever Plus. He advises that “All medium to large companies need to think about automating their systems. Doing it manually just doesn’t make business sense.”
Not only does Achiever Plus make document control more timely and efficient, but it ensures consistency and transparency across the organization
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