IBM - Back-Office Customer Service Team 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 Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Back-Office Customer Service Team of the Year - Business Services Industries

Nomination Title: Bringing efficiency in managing risk

We knew since the beginning of this journey that automation and agile principles could help streamline processes, but we should never forget that compliance will still be the responsibility of people, and people need to have the right skills.

Having a clear understanding of the function's skills gaps and needs, aligned with the overall strategy, we introduced a suite of 3-day seminars dedicated to Controls and Risk-Based Education. We also deployed a One-stop-shop web portal that delivers a collaborative risk management with detailed information related to controls governance.

As part of the transformation we drove a gradual overhaul of our processes, simplifying compliance testing over operational controls and eliminating legacy and redundant checks for the existing financial control points. Our goal was to ensure that every task performed adds real value and helps the organization to better manage and address risk.

A web tool called AIRA (Automation Inventory Risk Assessment) was created, allowing teams to assess automation control requirements and helping to bring/keep it in compliance. The Risk Management Team also created another web-based tool called QCM Dashboard, that provided a personalized way to see real time monitoring efforts and the overall controls posture.

By focusing on teams’ education, simplifying the overall controls framework, and introducing AIRA tool and QCM Dashboard, we transformed the way how we apply controls in the IBM EO&S organization. This transformation delivered us over 12,000 hours in labour savings annually, and tremendously speed-up our risk management processes associated with automation activities and initiatives.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

Short Intro video: https: //ibm.box.com/s/8hte6hm6zupjwhgf6txnpywhzwe4i1ol
QCM Dashboard Overview: https: //ibm.box.com/s/8ei1tiyga5bn8zs95x2fobdzjmgc33lc
AIRA Overview: https: //ibm.box.com/s/k8cgy9oureu5w3iqz3dm2elbno4hjjcd

Briefly describe the nominated team: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):

The Risk Management team works in partnership and collaboration with all business units within the IBM Enterprise Operations and Services (EO&S) organization to assure a structured management system is in place for open and emerging risks, following an effective set of financial and operational controls aligned with the IBM's Risk Management framework.

New regulations and risks evolve with unprecedented speed, and in order to stay ahead of that, our Risk Management function’s focus is shifting from traditional practices of monitoring, surveillance, and testing, to new methods and operating models enabled by technological innovation and agile principles. How will we advance our existing control framework to take us further? How to rethink the way we deliver compliance services and manage risk while keeping the regulatory requirement, the mandate to grow, upskill and do it without additional compliance resources?

To answer these questions and help us transform the way we manage controls and compliance at IBM, a long-term strategy was built focusing on 3 main areas: People, Operating Model, and Technology.

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 team's past performance (up to 250 words):

As the organization continues to focus on automating the workflows and digitizing the work, we deployed a robust management system that allows teams to continue to innovate while respecting the compliance requirements. AIRA (Automation Inventory Risk Assessment) allows teams to assess automation control requirements and help to bring/keep initiatives in compliance. AIRA advises the user on the potential risks, how they relate to a specific IT security guideline, providing recommendations on mitigation actions. In addition, the tool allows risk management professionals and leaders to have a real time customized views of the Automation inventory and its compliance requirements.

QCM Dashboard is built on a premise of having a single source of truth, using a data-lake that centralizes all control related indicators. QCM Dashboard assists the functions at any given time to have real time monitoring efforts of their control posture in a personalized way. The tool also provides the backups needed for the quarterly controls meeting in a structured way avoiding workload to build charts and consolidate the data.

Over 2,000 people attended the Risk Management Assessment Week sessions with NPS of 78. The One-stop-shop website regularly visited by thousands of readers.

By focusing on teams’ education, simplifying the overall controls, and introducing AIRA tool and QCM Dashboard, we transformed the way how we apply controls in the IBM Enterprise Services and Operations organization. This transformation delivered us over 12,000 hours in labour savings annually, and tremendously speed-up our risk management processes associated with automation activities and initiatives.