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Situation
The Microsoft Regional Operations Platform to Manage Business
Processes
Centers provide incident management
service to four key Microsoft lines of
business using inefficient, highly manual
processes for handling cases. The Published: December 2012
existing system did not support the kind
of seamless, centralized incident
management that Microsoft requires for
Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) oversaw the
providing service to its customers and development of Microsoft Incident Management Operations System
partners. (MIMOS), an integrated operations management solution based on
Solution Microsoft Dynamics CRM andOpenTextMBPM.
As part of the Fada operations
outsourcing initiative, Microsoft Introduction
contracted with arvato Systems, the
This case study describes MIMOS, a solution developed forMicrosoft ITto improve incident
Fada consolidation vendor, to develop
MIMOS, a new workflow and incident management efficiencies in the Microsoft Regional Operations Centers (ROCs) and to enable
management platform that also enables workflow management and business process automationfor the following incident
business process automation.
management activities:
Benefits
Orders, adjustments, and agreements for Microsoft software and services
$22 million in projected savings over
five years. Maintenance and amendments related to orders, adjustments, and agreements
Automation capabilities for business Queries about an order, adjustment, or agreement
processes.
Reduced incident resolution times. For all but a few of its Microsoft Operations users, MIMOS replaced a previous tool, Microsoft
Improved customer and partner Service Enterprise (MSE), which had provided only incident management capabilities.
experience. Another tool, Voice Support Application (VSA), was similarly replaced by MIMOS for one line
Better collaboration among operations of business (Microsoft Business Solutions, or MBS).
agents and teams.
Improved reporting, monitoring, and The success of MIMOS is instrumental to the success of Fada, a larger operations
end-to-end performance outsourcing initiative. The primary Fada technology goal, as demonstrated by MIMOS, is to
measurement capabilities. modernize Microsoft Operations by providing "a simple and human-centric transaction
More holistic collaboration among
platform that supports one perpetual relationship with the customer."1
business groups.
Rapid time-to-value: Full replacement This document includes the following topics:
of the previous system in under one
year. A description of the ROC environments prior to MIMOS
Products & Technologies An overview of the Fada initiative, which outlines the need for MIMOS
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 A detailed description of MIMOS and the engineering it entailed
OpenText MBPM
A list of the benefits derived from MIMOS following its deployment
MBS
Microsoft Volume Licensing
Microsoft Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
Microsoft Services (including Microsoft Consulting Services and Premier)
Each of these lines of business has ROCs in four geographic areasthe Americas, Europe,
Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Key to the financial success of Fada is the automation of
existing ROC processes, both by implementing new technologies and by making better use
of technologies already in place. Through automation, Fada seeks to improve ROC
operations by providing a flexible way to analyze and improve ROC processes on a single
operations-focused technology platform. The primary users of such a platform are service
agents in the ROCs who triage and respond to incidents that have been opened in response
to customer or partner requests for information, along with processing license agreements,
amendments, and orders.
The need to enable workflow automation was determined through observation of the
following inefficienciesthat the Fada business groups previously experienced:
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 2
Figure 1.Incident management before and after MIMOS implementation
The four business groups that were represented in the Fada program became the primary
customers for MIMOS. arvato, the vendor that Microsoft contracted to oversee Fada, worked
with these customer groups to gather requirements for a solution that would help the Fada
program meet its functional and financial goals. This phase would later be expanded to
include detailed reviews of current operations, and use case discovery workshops that the
MIMOS team conducted with agents from all ROCs across all four Fada lines of business.
Solution
Microsoft ITand arvato worked closely with the Fada lines of business to design and
implement MIMOS, a new workflow and incident management platform that also enabled
modeling and real-time control of ROC processes through both user and administrative
interfaces.
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 3
The key technologies that MIMOS comprises are Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and
OpenTextMetastormBPM (since rebranded as MBPM). Workflow management and incident
management were achieved by adapting built-in functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
and by developing custom web services. MBPM provides business process automationbased
on workflows derived from those workflow management and incident management functions.
This automation is a core capabilityof business process management (BPM), a technology
approach using business rules and a graphical workflow design user interface.
The strategic decision to use this blended platform resulted from extensive requirements
analysis by the MIMOS team, who determined that native Microsoft Dynamics CRM was an
optimal platform for delivering workflow and incident management when used in conjunction
with MBPM. The key advantage of using native Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the simplified
development overhead that resulted from configuring built-in components. These
components could serve the functional needs of workflow and incident management while
interacting easily with MBPM for business process automation.
Previously, MSE tracked incidents as Incident Tracking Requests (ITRs), and used groups
and subgroups for organizing and handling those ITRs as part of its system. Groups and
subgroups usually mapped to the Microsoft internal organizational structure, reflecting which
teams would work on which cases at what time. In MIMOS, cases replace ITRs, and queues
replace groups and subgroups. Queues are CRM entities that allow for the logical
assignment of a case to its associated work area, which is usually a team of people. MIMOS
uses queues to segregate individual cases and the work that is associated with those cases.
When a case is created in the system, it is placed automatically into a queue, and agents can
work on each case based on the queue it is in. The agents can also move cases from one
queue to another, or the MBPM component of MIMOS can be configured to do this
programmatically, using business logic and workflows that have been imported to MIMOS.
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 4
The resultof this case and queue management design in MIMOS is that it enables a more
efficient handling of cases based on each agent's interactions. Before, an agent needed to
know where to send a case each time he or she reviewed it. Now, based on metadata
attached to the case, agents receive cases that are targeted to their expertise, and when they
complete their work on a case, MIMOS can automatically route the case to its next workflow
step.
MIMOS workflows can span multiple agents in multiple roles, and often agents working in
different groups. Agents are usually within Microsoft Operations but are sometimes outside
that group as well.
Likewise, License Information Repository (LIR), the reporting tool used by MSE and the
primary data warehouse for the Volume LicensingFada business line, was a practical
necessity to maintain for use with MIMOS. To allow LIR to continue to operate with the new
system, the MIMOS team developed an outbound MIMOS/LIR integration interface.
Together, these interfaces with key existing external tools allowed MIMOS to deploy on
schedule with a minimal disruption of service to the Fada business units.
Another critical technology introduced in the initial release of MIMOS was the Online Call
Logging (OCL) web form for MBS PartnerSource and MBS CustomerSource. OCL replaced
previous web forms for MBS partners and customers, allowingthem to submit cases and
track their status in a similar way to the previousMSE and VSA methods.
Successive releases of MIMOS have delivered integration with a variety of other Microsoft
ITcomponents, including:
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 5
existing MIMOS cases that are linked to Order Central orders (for example, if an order
requires agent intervention before it can be processed).
Figure 3 shows the custom technology components that make up the MIMOS integration
layer. The order of development for these integration efforts was driven by the needs of the
business groups who were part of the Fada initiative.
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 6
Figure 4. Microsoft Dynamics CRM-based MIMOS development steps
As shown in Figure 4, the MIMOS team conducted this engineering in four main steps:
1. Case definitions. First, the team converted the MSE case type, called an ITR in MSE,
into an xRM entity capable of holding metadata about the case. Then, based on input
from the Fada business customers about the kinds of metadata they wanted to store with
each casefor example, the geographic region where the person creating the case is
locatedthe team added fields to the MIMOS case definition. This allowed MIMOS to
automate workflows and generate reporting based on each case's individual
characteristics.
2. Queue definitions. Next, working from the array of groups and subgroups that were
previously used to categorize and manage cases in MSE, the team worked with the
Fada businesses to define the MIMOS queues necessary for their business processes.
Some of the businesses simplified their existing groups and subgroups into a list of
queues, while others took the opportunity to examine their processes and simplify the
queue list by consolidating groups and subgroups together. Group and subgroup data
are still tracked for both intake and reporting purposes, and MIMOS uses this data to
route cases into queues.
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 7
4. Workflow development for BPM. Finally, using the outputs of both the case definition
and the queue definition phases, the team configured the MIMOS xRM components to
provide basic workflow abilities: creating cases, editing cases, re-routing or re-assigning
cases, and closing/reactivating cases. These abilities made it possible for MBPM to
programmatically handle the cases and allow for business processes to be automated
and managed using the new workflows.
In addition to the development work done in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, the MIMOS team also
worked on MBPM functionality to meet the solution requirements. This work included
designing process definitions to be deployed in MIMOSand developing the code and
business rules necessary for automating those processes. With iterative releases, the team
continues to use MBPM to automate workflow and business processes in MIMOS.
In February 2011, the 1.0 pilot release was deployed. The goals of this deployment were
to test the xRM development work in a real environment and gain customer acceptance
from all users in MBS and a subset of users in Microsoft Services, together representing
roughly 15 percent of the total expected Fada user base. A key part of this release was
OCL, the MIMOS integration layer that enables the new web-based user interface for
MBS customers and partners.
The 1.1 release, deployed from May to July 2011, delivered the 1.0 functionality to the
remaining three Fada business groups, including the integration requirement for CLT.
This release coincided with the shutdown of MSE.
The 2.0 release in November 2011 delivered basic BPM capabilities.
Starting with the 3.0 release in May 2012, successive releases have delivered the following:
Integrationswith new and existing systems that the Fada business groups required.
New MIMOS functionality and enhancements, including new incident and workflow
management processes.
Updated platform to match the current Microsoft Dynamics CRM update rollup (UR),
ensuring that MIMOS always runs on the latest product platform.
Along the way, other groups at Microsoft have also adopted MIMOS as a replacement for
MSE in their own environments. These groups, while not part of Fada, were interested in
retiring their own incident management tools, and many had specific integration requirements
that matched the integrations that each MIMOS release provided.
All MIMOS deployments are conducted by various members of a diverse, international virtual
team comprising MIMOS solution management, project management, engineering,
operations, readiness, change management, and support personnel. Deploying 1.0 and 1.1
required the involvement of roughlysixty personnel, only a few of which werelocated in the
United States. Subsequent deployments have required fewer than half this number on the
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 8
MIMOS team, working in collaboration with other Microsoft ITteams who were the customers
or integration partners for each release.
Benefits
The Fada program is expected to deliver $55 million of cost savings over five years with $22
million attributed to the adoption of more standard and efficient workflow and BPM systems
and processes. The MIMOS case load represents the third-highest volume of incidents at
Microsoft, and its datacases, reports, and attachmentsmakes up one of the largest CRM
databases of any enterprise in the world. Given these savings, MIMOS provides a significant
improvement in the operational efficiencies of managing this data and the business
relationships it represents.
With the implementation of MIMOS, the ROCs and the MIMOS team have seen the following
benefits:
Consistent, flexible case definition. MIMOS unifies the data representation for cases
across all of the Fada lines of business, rather than relying on nonsimilar case structures
and unstructured data (such as comments made in a cases Notes field).
Automation and simplification of business processes.The ROC processes that use
MIMOS now allowcases to be moved into and within a set of queues, either manually or
using BPM. This ability is instrumental in driving new efficiencies in ROC incident
response quality, and the intelligence for moving cases between queues is based on
metadata that MIMOS tracks on a case-by-case basis.
Intelligent case sorting.By using metadata attached to cases, the MIMOS MBPM
component can be used to move cases into queues automatically, and from there to
other queues, without the need for manual intervention. This saves agents time,
dramatically reduces delays in case processing by reducing inaccuracy and the reliance
on user decisions, and provides the ability to refine the queue selection based on the
characteristics of a case. As a result, more agents view cases at the time their expertise
is needed, rather than having to review a case and immediately send it elsewhere.
Improved workflow transparency. MIMOS enables supervisors to view case
workloads and agent performance in real time. They can then use this information
together with other case data, such as complexity, required skills, revenue amount, and
incident priorityto manage case assignments manually. For reporting purposes,
MIMOS also creates an audit trail for each incident, which trackschanges made to the
case, who made the change, and when the change was made.
Improved user experience, including for customers and partners.For agents using
the system, MIMOS delivers a more satisfying work experience.Better targetingof cases
to agents' abilities and easier linking between tools result in less time spent reworking
cases and improved coordination with other agents. For customers and partners,
MIMOS provides a faster and more seamless response to their incidents, as well as a
more intuitive web-based user interface for MBS customers and partners that is focused
on data about the incident rather than onteam names within Microsoft.
Extensibility to new feature sets.Modernizing the incident management platform from
MSE to MIMOS enabled extensibility on a level that was not previously available. The
configurable Microsoft Dynamics CRM components allowed the MIMOS team to flexibly
develop new features at the request of individual Fada business units, such as LP Chat
ability and online agent preparedness checklists. Because of this flexibility, the MIMOS
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 9
team was able to design, develop and implement a full replacement of MSE in only ten
months, and is better positioned than ever before to provide future system
improvements.
Improved cross-enterprise collaboration and awareness.MIMOS acts as a unifying
element for business groups (both Fada and non-Fada) to learn about each other's
business processes, including where they might benefit from aligning with one another.
Rather than disparate individual customers who happen to use a single repository for
incident tracking, they now feel like part of a cohesive organization that benefits from
each group's awareness of the others' processes and workflow designs.
Retention ofexisting reporting systems.Rather than replacing all existing reports,
MIMOS ensures continuity in the data previously transmitted from MSE to LIR for
reporting purposes, as shown in Figure 5.
Conclusion
MIMOS provides an example of how the extensible architecture of Microsoft Dynamics CRM
can form the foundation of a business-critical, xRM-based operations management system.
By coupling Microsoft Dynamics CRM with MBPM, MIMOS provides an integrated incident
management, workflow management, and business process automation solution, designed to
meet a long list of requirements from key business groups at the company and resulting in a
better user and customer experience. This successful integration has led to efficiency gains
Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 10
and new tool sets for its business customers, all while supporting the "one perpetual
relationship" user experience that was key to the Fada mission.
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IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual
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Enabling Business Process Management Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and OpenText MBPMPage 11