Lexmark International, Inc., a global technology leader, has been recognised for ‘Best Process Improvement and Innovation’ at the SSON Shared Services & Outsourcing Excellence Awards. The awards identify shared service centres and service delivery teams who have exceeded industry standards in their shared service and outsourcing initiatives. Lexmark was presented the award last month at a gala during Shared Services & Outsourcing Week in Dublin, Ireland.             

 The accolade comes after Lexmark solicited guidance from customers on how the company could significantly improve its own customer service efforts. Feedback pointed to the customer setup process as a top organisational priority for gaining early traction in establishing favourable customer relationships.                                                                                                    

This back office-based setup process is crucial for ordering products, providing services and billing. Tackling the issue head on, Lexmark conducted extensive research across its entire workflow to define the current process, determine cycle time, and identify potential issues as well as key causes of delays and inefficiencies.

Lexmark then executed necessary changes to the design and rollout of its global workflow and content management tools. Targeting its Shared Services Centre, Lexmark used its own capture solution alongside an integrated SAP solution for automated sales order processing to surpass customer expectations.

By developing a workflow and content repository solution, Lexmark reduced end-to-end customer setup lead time, greatly improving the customer experience and delivering increased efficiencies. These technological changes were also supported by organisational changes in the form of new staff roles and responsibilities, with all teams working together toward the common goal of streamlining complex processes into lean practices.

• Lexmark has seen key improvements from its new workflow solution including:
  • Customer setup lead time reduced from 68 days to two
  • 40-day cash flow improvement
  • An 18 percent improvement in quality
  • Global streamlining of processes
  • Automation of workflow, reducing human errors
  • 87 percent reduction in time spent on reporting
  • Transformation of global customer setup processes in 166 countries

“This award is a testament to the hard work put in by the Lexmark team in Budapest and beyond, company-wide, to improve our internal systems and provide a vastly improved customer experience,” said Péter Csucska, general manager, Budapest Competence Centre, Lexmark. “We are encouraged by the level of efficiency we have reached; the team has set a fine example to all companies – when it comes to perfecting customer interaction and service, leave no stone unturned.”