Global IT Team For Oil & Gas Company Achieves ZERO Severity 1 Incidents

Client

Even though the problem-solving machine was performing well, this IT desktop support team reached beyond the status quo to reach record performance levels. There is always room for improvement!

You’ve heard the phrase, “If it isn’t broken, why fix it?” For the team responsible for supporting the technology needs of a major oil & gas company’s 150,000 desktop users in 130 countries, resting on their laurels wasn’t an option. While the group consistently scored high for performance, having “crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘i’ in the process books”, CP Leong, Operations Manager, believed his global IT support team of 400+ could do better.

CP also knew that the company’s rapidly evolving IT infrastructure meant higher severity incidences would likely increase. Should the organization be hit with a number of Priority 1 incidences, the potential business loss could amount to millions. That wasn’t a chance that CP was willing to take.

Challenge

The team needed an improved approach to analyze incidents with rational thinking, resolve issues faster, increase user base satisfaction, and carry the organization into the future.

CP Leong, Operations Manager said:

KT helped us to define and create a company-wide critical thinking culture that gave us the ability to move an entire organization in the same direction.

To begin the program the company engaged Kepner-Tregoe to analyze the team’s processes and make recommendations for performance improvement.

While the Desktop Scorecard indicated that the desktop support team was performing well, there were issues in the incident-handling processes that impeded higher performance. At the core, the right questions were not being asked, which led to repeated occurrences of avoidable unsuccessful changes and problems that took longer to fix than necessary.

During the analysis phase, the main barriers to performance that surfaced were:

• Significant ticket reassignments (escalations) that directly impacted ticket aging
• Lack of consistency in the quality of information in incident tickets and problem tickets
• Lack of visibility in ticket information of “could be, but is not” data required for troubleshooting
• Unclear ownership and focus on proactive incident tickets and problem tickets
• Inconsistent assessment of change impact
• Poor quality of back-out plans
• Inconsistent handovers in the management of potential situations

The Scope of the Plan

Following the analysis phase, Kepner-Tregoe and the oil & gas company collaborated on a global Rapid Process Integration Plan (RPI) comprised of four pillars.

1. Incident Management – to reduce the number of incident tickets that exceed 10 days, Change Management – to improve change ticket quality, Problem Management – to increase the quality of ticket information thereby reducing problem ticket aging, and Situation Management – to increase visibility of situation resolution.
2. Appoint and train ten Process Drivers on in-depth rational process understanding. These individuals would serve as the process champions for the entire organization ensuring the sustainability of the rational thinking culture for the future.
3. Conduct on-the-job coaching in PSDM (Problem Solving Decision Making) concepts and application for key third-party contractors.
4. Prepare the global team to deal with issues related to the Windows Operating System migration andinfrastructure upgrade.

We achieved ZERO Severity 1 incidents in October, which was never heard of in the operations history of the Desktop Service. – CP Leong, Operations Manager:

KT Training Paves the Way for Dramatic Results

It wasn’t long before the results of the global Rapid Process Integration plan began to surface.

The plan was executed in July and August. By October, the team achieved 0 Severity 1 incidents – an achievement never before reached in desktop service!

CP reported that the RPI plan significantly reduced incident rates, improved productivity, decreased loss time and exceeded customer satisfaction levels.

CP and his team of managers were committed to the project at the get-go. They role-modelled the use of KT processes, provided visible support and made resources available to drive the change that was needed to achieve sustainable results. – Albert Chan, SVP Global Growth – Kepner-Tregoe

The total estimated cost of savings from the initiative alone was approximately

60 million USD within six months.

Specifically, the following quantifiable results were achieved:

• Increase of 10.8% of incident tickets closed within ten days
• Improvement of up to 66.5% in the quality of information in escalated incident tickets
• Reduction of 7.6% in number of change tickets without back-out plans
• Improvement of 22.5% in the performance environment of engineers

The desktop team was rated Top Quartile by an independent audit body and received the Best Team Award. Yearly employee feedback results also led to the team winning the VP ITS plaque for Best Team within the Group.

History With KT

This assignment wasn’t the first or the last collaboration between the international oil & gas company and Kepner-Tregoe. KT was engaged to provide critical thinking training for 180 full-time employees.
The successful implementation of the Rapid Process Integration Plan (RPI) was followed by several similar engagements with the organization.

I would say that involving KT has been my most significant and rewarding decision in my entire successful career. – CP Leong, Operations Manager