IBM - Young Customer Service Professional of the Year

Company: IBM, Armonk, NY
Company Description: IBM is a values-based enterprise of individuals who create & apply technology to make the world work better. Today, more than 400,000 IBM employees around the world invent and integrate hardware, software and services to help forward-thinking enterprises, institutions and people succeed on a smarter planet.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Young Customer Service Professional of the Year - Technology Industries

Nomination Title: Milan Foltin - There is a solution for each and every situation

Milan Foltin is the Devices@IBM Chapter Leader for Logistics and Supply Chain, with five years of experience. Milan joined IBM in 2015 as an intern, providing on-site client support as an IT Specialist in Slovakia. During that same year he received an offer to officially work for IBM as a Workstation Asset Manager, supporting the end-to-end mission for asset provisioning.

Ever since he has developed skills in the Asset Management field, specifically on the supply chain and logistics side. In 2018 he joined the Devices@IBM team as a Product Owner for the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Market. Devices@IBM is a global organization of 260 members that supplies devices to over 500,000 IBM employees and contractors in 97 countries where IBM is.

By May 2020, he accepted the role of Global Supply Chain & Logistics Chapter Leader for Devices@IBM. This chapter is in charge of the global management across squads of the physical activities, supply chain and logistics management for any asset within Devices@IBM Scope, from receiving in warehouse, to the deployment to the end user, or its complete disposal. The scope also covers warehousing activities such as devices analysis, repair management, clean-up, devices preparation to ship, and disposal.

Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2019 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

In-spite of young age, Milan’s expertise in Asset Management has been key to the organization to achieve operational excellence, despite the challenges of each of the countries within Devices@IBM’s scope. With a clear vision of the key metrics, Milan has supported the teams in reducing delivery cycle times, improving efficiency in over 60%, with steady performance for over 10 months.

Due to COVID-19, Devices@IBM in CEE was forced to transform its operational model, and in a matter of days, 50% of the countries enabled shipping laptops to user’s homes. Milan’s focus on problem solving supported the logistics team in these countries, enabling to deploy 4.3K devices in 14 countries within the first three months of the pandemic.

Milan led a project to upgrade assets with 8GB-RAM with additional 8GB dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs), to prolong life cycle of the laptops. Over 4,500 8GB-RAM DIMMs were forecasted for over 25 Countries across Europe and North America. Thus far, 11 countries have been successfully completed in less than a year. Milan’s involvement not only nurtured a smooth deployment but enabled the quick identification of these assets in our Global Inventory Tool.

Devices@IBM started migrating their operation to Service Now in August, and Milan’s leadership has been quintessential in making this process a success in the already-deployed countries. His passion has led the team to easily adapt to this significant change in 54 countries thus far by engaging with global teams for training and problem solving in a short-time deployment.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):

On his first year as a Global Chapter Leader, Milan’s performance has been outstanding. His motto is: “There is a solution for each and every situation”. He always stays positive and is able to transfer this to the teams he collaborates with, as he enjoys sharing happiness around him, always willing to listen and propose solutions where needed.

Below is a list ofhighlights that make his results significant:

-In less than three months, Devices@IBM has reduced delivery cycle times in over 60% during 2020, delivering laptop replacements to employees in less than 1 day, with steady performance for over 10 months

-Service Now has smoothly rolled out in 54 countries thus far, in a short period of time, (starting in August, 2020) and with the highest challenge of deploying 20 countries simultaneously on its second wave. Deployment is easier as every iteration occurs in support of Milan’s leadership, gathering best practices and lessons learned.

-Throughout the year, Devices@IBM has supplied over 130,000 assets, where 17,000 of them have been successfully deployed in Service Now in 43 countries

Devices@IBM Operations has maintained outstanding results in User Experience, achieving an average of 72 Net Promoter Score in Emergency Deployments in the past 10 months.