Outbound IVR Process

Here is another example from a previous life.  As part of my direct marketing program, we used to use automated outbound calls from a company called Silverlink.  They do a great job with the calls and providing management tools to monitor the calls.  But, a BPM solution could have helped us to automate the process around Silverlink.  The following scenario is how it could be:

• When a new client is enrolled, the set-up form could include a checkbox for participation in the direct marketing program.  The set-up form and process would also capture client approval for co-branding along with a jpg of their logo and other information to personalize the communications.
• That checkbox could initiate a process which pulled in client data from the set-up form, ran a query of their member data (name, address, phone number), and automatically enrolled them in the direct marketing program.
• A rule could exist that would check against any stipulations in their contract to determine whether they were active participants in message approval or whether they had already signed off on the general messaging within the program.
• The existing CRM system could be used to manage the campaigns or a BPM rules-based system could be used.  In either case, the system is looking at each case or process instance and determining which direct marketing path to follow, which letter to use, when to trigger a call, and providing status to the call center agents.
• Any change to the messaging (client, patient, regulatory, research based) could be made and all notifications and approval requests would be triggered by the system and managed by the system.
• Coordination with outside vendors such as Silverlink would be automatic and rules could be used to monitor their call volume versus inbound call capacity to determine automatically how to throttle up or down the number of events.
• Stoplight type triggers could be used by the system to monitor different events and rules written to trigger process changes or initiate problem resolution automatically.

To some people this may seem very basic, but I know I am not alone in managing many of these processes with lots of paper, implicit rules, offline databases, and other tools.  The discipline of BPM as an approach and the technology to automate and manage it can add a lot of value here.