Case Study: Hermes

Just like it never happened

Hermes offers a business-to-consumer (and consumer-to-consumer) home delivery service specifically for the European retail, mail order and online shopping market. The service is facilitated in the UK via a network of approximately 7,500 locally-based, self-employed couriers; one of the largest networks of its kind in Europe. Its client base, numbering around eighty major merchants, includes well-known names such as Next Directory, QVC and Lands' End.

Previously known as Parcelnet, Hermes demerged from Otto Home Shopping during 2008. This process involved a new office and depot facilities and, most critically of all, a brand new communications infrastructure. Therein lay the challenge.

When the separation took place, service continuity was critical. There could be no drop in service levels either to the company’s impressive blue-chip client list, or to the home-shopping customers who consider efficient delivery an integral element of the shopping experience, such was the nature of this sensitive project. The change had to happen almost as if it had never happened. 

Simon Townley says: This was one of the tensest moments of the whole re-location. We had moved the head office in its entirety, including the IT infrastructure and the contact centre. In the event, we were taking calls within thirty minutes of arriving at our new site. Minimum call abandonment, minimum disruption. Business, thanks to Kcom, continued as usual.

The transition from one organisational set-up to another needed to be effected in real-time. The client required a partner who could assimilate the specific needs arising from a detailed logistics-based business and offer precise competencies from Day One. Prior to the establishment of the new operation, Hermes, in its previous guise, was adequately served by an existing corporate ICT infrastructure.

At the time of the change-over, however, it had re-entered the ‘entrepreneurial phase’, seeking to replicate the facilities it had previously enjoyed, whilst exploring possibilities, through technology, that would strengthen its competitive abilities and serve as a platform for future growth.The setting up of the LAN, as well as the back-office IPT and the IPCC contact centre all had to be achieved by a reduced IT department, with a significantly increased workload. 

Total customer focus

The new technical capabilities provided by the new systems have created a springboard for Hermes; making it possible to train staff more efficiently and more cost-effectively. This has enabled Hermes to be pro-active, operating in a slicker style, working smarter.For example, the new telephony enables Hermes to use caller-i.d and call-routing to replicate a dedicated team feel for its clients. This approach has also reduced training costs, and training time, since fewer staff need to be trained in individual client cultures and nuances now that they can take the call at any point in the contact centre; call routing means the call will always be delivered to one of the operatives specifically trained to deal with the client company making the call.

These were capabilities that Hermes had not had before; available from Day One of the new operation. The plan is to deploy new functionality gradually in the future, giving the company total control over the pace at which it moves into each new phase; ensuring total adoption through effective training, at every stage, and enabling Hermes to match the technology of its clients for an anticipated five years, at least.

The organisation is extremely client-centric. Customer service sits over all areas of the business. Dawn Redman, Head of Customer Services, acts as the customer champion internally, identifying the factors that drive clients’ requirements, the values perceived within their brands, and how they want their own customers handled. Dawn perceives that the availability of detailed management information, stemming directly from the new system, forms the basis of a far-reaching cost-saving initiative impacting training, staff deployment and, ultimately, cost-per-call. 

Total visibility

"Production has doubled. We were at 5-6 enquiries an hour and we are now at 9.5 to 10.5. I know this because we get better management information via the new systems; total visibility, by operative, by day, by brand. This means we can allocate staff skills better, putting our more effective resource on the more complex accounts; we can now target individual people to brands and volumes. Before, we simply couldn’t." Dawn Redman, Head of Customer Services

In setting up a new business, Hermes was going through a process of separating its entire infrastructure.Outsourcing enabled the company to gain capability in a specific area so that it could channel its in-house resources in complementary core areas. With budgets under pressure; the implementation of a managed services contract facilitates the deployment of expert input only as and when needed, reducing operational expenditure. Cross-industry experience also meant that Kcom could place Hermes requirements in context, knowing how to strike the optimum balance between tried and tested solutions and bespoke modifications.

"We had the right corporate fit with Kcom. At 1600 full-time employees, we’re not huge; Kcom is excellent at working within such parameters. They took the task beyond a ‘quick fix’ and gave truly insightful ‘thought-leadership’ guidance on where we could take the systems capabilities in the future. They’ve helped make our growth possible." Simon Townley, Head of Infrastructure