Systems Analysis Implementation Stage
In a call center business process reengineering project, redeveloped software is not always necessary. Sometimes just redesigning workflows and utilizing better off-the-shelf software resolves all of the problem issues. However, most commercial call center software tends to be either technically inadequate, less robust than the company needs, or too generic to use given the companyÆs specific business. In the case of a company that wants to develop its own call center software, a full-scale system development project will follow the systems analysis phase, and software will be developed to dovetail with the redesigned workflows and procedures.
The call center needs software that can facilitate the following functions: logging calls, searching for calls, reporting on calls, tying calls together with the customer and business profiles of the customers who make them, tracking calls, tracking solutions, passing calls to other technicians, enabling remote expert users to access the system, and attaching relevant word processor files to the call.
Once the software has been designed and brought through the specification stage, the implementation stage can begin. Implementation is ôan iterative process of designing, building, and testing code that implements progressively larger subsets of the project requirementsàö (Sosnoski). Six specific activities occur during implementation: coding, testing, installation, documentation, training, and support.
The coding for the help desk project will be done from system specifications accomplished in the previous stage of the project; these would be specifications for a top-down, modularly designed system. The modular design facilitates modifications without having to make wholesale changes to the entire system. This makes modifications faster and easier and also helps to guard against the errors that can be introduced when changes are made.