Teaching Case: The Customer Support Crisis at Ultimate Manufacturing Software, LTD. -- A Diagrammatic Analysis

Customer Service is important for a myriad of reasons, such as retaining customers, building customer loyalty, getting customer referrals, improving employee happiness, and remaining competitive. However, as a company grows, the focus may be on sales and production, with customer service efficiency and effectiveness being seen as an overhead expense, not a top priority. This case examines the issues found with a legacy customer service system and is based on an Academic Community Engagement class project (Carnegie Foundation -- The Elective Classification for Community Engagement) using a real client. The case can be used in an undergraduate systems analysis & design or database class through requirements determination and/or analysis through modeling. The case focus is on identifying the current issues with the company customer service process and system, analyzing the issues, and creating a new customer service process workflow to address those issues. Assignment options for both data flow diagramming and business process modeling are provided, giving instructors the ability to choose which technical documentation approach fits best with their course material. Teaching notes, including Data Flow Diagrams and Business Object-Oriented Process Models (a variation of Business Process Models) for both as-is and a solution for to-be, as well as discussion questions, are available through the JISE website.