Tuesday July 28

Innovation

Innovation is definitely one necessity within CaptionCall. We are in constant need of updating our systems and our procedures so as to keep up with the competition, but also to ease the jobs of the employees.

Knowledge is key to this. We have a great operations group that stays informed about updates to not only our computers but also the software that we use to conduct our business. They are aware of our business needs and are educated in the functions and systems that we require to operate and provide the services that we do.

They will calculate the “relative advantage” of the innovation, update, product, or service that they are investigating. This could include an update to a current system that we use or involve a whole new product or service to implement within the company. For example our scheduling system where employees can check their schedule, pick up additional hours, trade shifts, as well as ask for time off. It is important to have this particular system for ease of organizing huge numbers of schedules for our many employees.

“Compatibility” is also important. The systems and new products that we want to adopt need to be aligned with the needs of our employees as well as our customers. The value of the innovation needs to be of value to the increase productivity of the company as well as increase the service for our customers that we serve. For example, updating our voice recognition software needs to improve our services as well as fill the needs of the communications assistants who are providing that service.

I know as anything new is implemented, it can be difficult for some. The “complexity” of these innovations that are being considered for implementation need to fulfill the needs of the company while at the same time, they need to be simple enough to instigate within the employee body. The ease of the changes and adoption depends on the simplicity of the things being introduced. When there is less stress over difficulty, it makes the transition much easier for all involved.

At CaptionCall, when there is an innovation that is on the table for adoption, we almost always have a trial period. This allows the employees to opportunity to work out bugs and report back to operations any necessary changes that may need to be made to help with the “complexity”. I think that “trialability” is vital to the comfort of the employees in performing their job. Experimentation with updates to our voice software allowed us to see any possible trouble areas, but it mainly just allows employees to see how the new programming will work, so when it is implemented they know exactly what they are doing.

Going back to our scheduling system, we can see how “observability” comes into play. Again, there is always a trial period for this as well before implementation. As employees go in and “play around”, make trades, and adjust schedules, those who are involved in observing the results can see if it is working correctly. If the program runs smoothly, we move forward. If there are glitches, we will hold off, solve the problems, and try again. As soon as the issues are managed or fixed, we then move forward with adoption and implementation of the system in question.