thunderhead centers of excellence white paper

8/18/2019 Thunderhead Centers of Excellence White Paper

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WHITE PAPER NOVEMBER 2012

A BESTPRACTICES APPROACH FOR YOURTHUNDERHEAD.COMDEPLOYMENT


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WHITE PAPER A BESTPRACTICES APPROACH FOR YOURTHUNDERHEAD.COM DEPLOYMENT

01INTRODUCTION

Defining and following best practices areimportant steps to getting the most value fromyour Thunderhead.com implementation.

It’s been shown that companies whodevelop standards and governance asbest practices for their customer ex-perience solutions achieve the followinggoals; they:

• Increase the eectiveness of theirsolution especially related to

enterprise applications – whethermulti-channel NOWimplementations or online SaaSimplementations

• Significantly reduce costs associatedwith disparate systems andredundancy

• Improve the overall customerexperience

But how do you ensure that thestandards and governance proceduresyou’ve developed are implemented,

maintained, and deployed throughoutthe enterprise?

One approach that’s proven successfulin many organizations is creating anenterprise center of excellence (COE)for Thunderhead.com initiatives.

In this paper we’ll talk first about bestpractices with respect to yourThunderhead.com implementation and

then about the benefits of creating aThunderhead.com COE.Thunderhead.com software is designed to enablelarge organizations to leverage itscomponents across multiple channels,business areas, and ultimately customerexperience strategies. At the same time,we all recognize that a unified approachto customer communications is requiredin order to ensure a consistent customerexperience. For these reasons, developinga center of excellence for yourThunderhead.com implementations isan appropriate strategy.

“To turn initiatives intosustainable programsthat continuouslyimprove and transformprocesses, businessprocess professionalsmust establish centers ofexcellence (COEs) asquickly as the organization

can support them.”

– Alexander Peters from

Forrester Research

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Thunderhead.com provides the toolsand capabilities to help you drivecustomer communications and designand deliver a great customerexperience. Working with ourcustomers, we’ve identified five areas ofbest practices that will help you ensuresuccess in your Thunderhead.comimplementation: data models, style andbranding, communication templates,infrastructure and operations, andbusiness process.

Data models: It’s important to have asolid data model for a successfulimplementation. However, it’s alsoimportant to look at how the datamodels for a specific project mightapply beyond that project, includinglonger-term goals. You should thereforeconsider how data will be used incommunications across the enterprise,both to ensure consistency and to allowdata from transactional events andrealtime conversations to be used inmanaging the customer journey.

Style and branding: Developing a

best-practices style library inThunderhead.com for your overallbrand communications can help youensure that new documents andprojects adhere to your brandguidelines. Styles can be defined for allchannels; web, email, SMS, and printand can include commonly usedobjects such as logos, signatures,address information, letterhead, andlegal language, as well as support theapplication of your brand tone of voice,and so on. You can then establishgovernance to make sure that deviationsfrom the style guide and additions to it

are managed appropriately.

Communication templates: In thisarea, it’s important to consider yourlong-term design goals in addition tothe template designs you’re using forcurrent projects. A good best practice isto establish a subject matter expert(SME) for template design. The SME canthen lead workshops and trainingprograms for anyone else in theenterprise who will be using thecommunication templates. For manyorganizations, the ultimate goal is toturn maintenance and control of

templates over to business usersas much as possible.

Infrastructure and operations:Cross-enterprise use of Thunderhead.com infrastructure, APIs, andmultichannel enablement is one wayyou can realize cost savings with yourThunderhead.com implementation.Developing a COE may help to ensurethat all functional units have theexpertise they need to take advantageof the capabilities and efficiencies inThunderhead.com.

Business process: Understanding anddocumenting business processes andrequirements – appropriate sizing,implementation planning, projectmanagement, and testing procedures– is important for businessimprovement and transformation. Thisis where the Professional Services teamat Thunderhead.com can help. We’vedeveloped many dierent projects formany dierent companies, and thatexperience enables us to work with yourteam or COEs to share knowledge andbest practices about how to transformbusiness processes throughout the

enterprise.

025 BEST PRACTICES FOR CUSTOMERCOMMUNICATIONS WITHTHUNDERHEAD.COM

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03CONSTRUCTING A COE TEAM FOR YOUR THUNDERHEAD.COMIMPLEMENTATION

As we alluded to above, it’s one thing todevelop a set of best practices for theorganization to follow. It’s quite anotherthing to make sure those best practicesare followed, maintained, and, whereappropriate, revised or discarded.Centers of excellence can help yourorganization achieve those goals.

For example, companies that committhemselves to delivering a greatcustomer experience know that theymust not only develop best practices

around customer experience but makesure that every person embraces themand every process is aligned to it.Centers of excellence can be used quiteeectively to dene customerexperience strategies, set standards, andpromote best practices.

Technically speaking, centers ofexcellence are usually small, cross-functional teams or groups thatestablish and maintain a set ofprocedures to ensure that the largerorganization can meet its strategicgoals. Connie Moore from CIO

Magazine suggests that to be mosteective, companies should createCOEs that are “small and nimble, andreplicate them throughout theorganization.”1 When building a COEteam, you will likely want to fill anumber of roles. This team must notonly understand best practices for aThunderhead.com implementation,they will also be responsible forunderstanding your organization’s visionwith respect to customercommunications (and customerexperience management).

Typical areas of responsibility we’veseen in successful COEs include thefollowing:

• New project sizing and riskassessments

• Data model and integration bestpractices

• Template best practices and brandgovernance

• Multichannel standards (withresponsibility for output and printvendor management)

• Quality assurance guidelines

Although it’s common for the COE itselfto be managed within IT, members ofthe COE team often come fromdierent areas within the organization,including key business owners andstakeholders in marketing, compliance,support, and customer service. Thisapproach can ensure that the COE isresponsive to the business while helping

to drive standards and governance.Engaging all departments is especiallyimportant when the purpose of the COEis to implement a broad strategic goal,such as delivering a consistent, best-in-class customer experience

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As some enterprises are discovering,COEs are not merely helpful fordeveloping and maintaining standards,these small agile teams can actuallytransform the larger organization.According to Alexander Peters fromForrester Research,

To turn initiatives into sustainable programs that continuously improveand transform processes, business

process professionals must establishcenters of excellence (COEs) as

quickly as the organization can support them.

Continuous improvement is certainly aworthy goal, but sometimes wholesaletransformation is needed. One areawhere that is often true today is the wayin which many organizations handlecustomer communications andultimately the customer experience.Unlike Apple (a company that obsessesabout customer experience in everydetail, at every touch point, in everycommunication), many businessestoday oer their customers a

fragmented or disjointed experience.The web experience is disconnectedfrom the retail experience, onlinesupport is dierent from phone support,email and print communications are notrelated, and so on.

In its report, “The Customer ExperienceIndex, 2012,” Forrester found thatcustomers rated only 37% of thecompanies they do business with asgood or excellent. Nearly two-thirdsreceived a rating of OK, poor, or verypoor. Customers described experiencessuch as “going to a store, only to be sent

to a website, then to interactive chatand a phone call, to end up with a paperform to sign.” Customers, says Forrester,“are tired of it.”

This fragmentation is why manyorganizations have turned to customerexperience management (CEM). Theyrecognize that customer experience isthe responsibility not solely of themarketing department, but of the entireenterprise. They also recognize theimportant role that technology – andthus, the IT department – will play inensuring that every touch point with thecustomer is considered and integrated.

Which brings us back to centers of

excellence and Thunderhead.com.Thunderhead.com oers enterprisesolutions that improve the waybusinesses engage with their customers.These solutions help organizationsmaintain consistent conversations andcommunications across all channels,from print to digital (web, mobile, andsocial) to the call center. Creating a COEaround your Thunderhead.comimplementation then allows you to steerthe entire organization toward one goal:creating a stellar experience for yourcustomers.

Imagine that you had this kind ofpervasive dedication to your customers’needs across your enterprise. With thesupport of a customer-focused COEyou could continuously improve theexperience in every conversation. Youcould deliver exactly what consumerswant, every time. Companies thatdeliver this superior customerexperience outperform the status quoto drive customer loyalty, competitiveadvantage, improved brand health andincreased revenue. Aligning anenterprise around creating aphenomenal customer experience is the

kind of transformation that COEs aredesigned to enable.

04LEVERAGING YOUR INVESTMENT TODEVELOP A GREAT CUSTOMEREXPERIENCE

WE’RE HERE TO HELPSetting up a center ofexcellence may be a newexperience for some ofour customers, and we’rehappy to help with that.Our team at Thunderhead.com is available toconduct a best practices

workshop with yourorganization and thenwork with you to establisha COE tailored to yourbusiness. Please contactus to learn more:

[email protected]

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APPENDIX 1. BEST PRACTICESEXAMPLES

Each of the graphics in this sectionrepresents an example of the types ofbest practices typically governed by aCOE. Detailed guidelines documentedin a standards manual increaseeectiveness while also reducing thelearning curve for new team members.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT ANDRELEASE STRATEGIESBest Practices for project release cyclesshould include a design which modelsthe change cycle of the business. Abusiness change may for example requirechanges to five templates, four pieces ofshared content, and a layout. All of theseitems should be checked-out to the

project to allow the change to be made.The document templates will themselvespoint to released versions of otherresources – for example, a releasedstyleset or a released piece of sharedcontent. These do not need to be part

of the project as they do not form partof this business change.

In the Project A diagram example, someof the resources (with red ticks) are readyfor release before other resources in theproject. Best practices projectmanagement procedures should allowfor separate projects to be created toenable individual resources to be movedforward while leveraging Thunderhead.com’s built-in project management,approval workflow, and security.

SHARED CONTENT, STYLESETS, AND LAYOUTSStandard stylesets and layouts to support

company branding are an importantarea for governance. We recommendpublishing a style guide for allThunderhead.com communication toensure adherence to the corporate brandas well as best practices for maintenance.

One of the hallmarks of Thunderhead.comis the ability to reuse and repurpose asmuch content as possible. Benefits ofreuse include:

• Greater consistency acrosscommunications

• One central location for updates, sothat one change will update allrelated communication.

• Ability to manage and view the

impact of any change made tocontent that is common betweencommunications

In order to maximize the benefit ofshared content, Thunderhead.commakes the following recommendations.

Create shared content only when it isready to be sharedThunderhead.com’s shared contentconcept is a key factor in efficientdocument creation and reducing theoverall cost of maintenance. Sharedcontent should only be created when it

is needed and when all of the data itemsthat need to be populated within it areavailable. While it is tempting to createshared content as soon as the staticcontent is ready, it is best to wait until itis populated with data items or assemblyrules, so that when it is imported into atemplate, the list of data items is createdautomatically. These data items can beset after the shared content is created,but it is much faster to do this after thedata and rules have been created.

Here are some initial questions to answerto help facilitate a best practices review

session where Thunderhead.comProfessional Services will assist yourorganization with standards andgovernance leveraging a COE.

PROJECT 1

TEMPLATE A

TEMPLATE B

TEMPLATE C

TEMPLATE D LAYOUT Z

LAYOUT Y

LAYOUT X

STYLESET

SHARED CONTENT

SHARED CONTENT

BUSINESS OBJECT

SHARED CONTENT

SHARED CONTENT

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Create inline shared content forcommon phrases which vary by abusiness ruleInline shared content is simply sharedcontent that uses the Inherit style toinherit its formatting from the parentdocument template. This can beextremely useful for applications wherethere are common words and phrases

which must be controlled by businessrules. For example, a piece of inlineshared content might be created whichdisplays:

For questions, call Customer Service– Telephone: 1-800-555-1234

This could be utilized in many documents,providing for easy maintenance and asingle point of update.

Use variable data by value, ratherthan by business object referencePassing variable data by value is the

default and allows multiple documenttemplates to use the same sharedcontent. For example, an address blockmight have input data for AddressLine1through AddressLine6 and be used by

many document templates. If it were setup using business object referencesfrom within the shared content, it wouldonly be reusable in document templateswhich use exactly the same businessobject. If you pass the data asarguments, the shared content can beused with many dierent businessobjects.

USERS, SECURITY, AND APPROVALLEVELSAll elements of the Thunderhead.complatform (modules, tasks, processes,screens, etc.) are securely controlledusing the principle of group-levelaccess. Each time a request is made touse a particular resource, the group-level access attributes are checkedagainst those marked on the resource.Defining standards is key for enterpriseimplementations. In addition, definingbest practices for simple and complexworkflows will ensure consistent

efficiency within the organization.For example, workflows can be simple(taking entire projects directly from astate of development to a state of “readyfor release”) or complex (involving

multiple stages of approval frommultiple groups and/or users), accordingto specifications.

The approval workflow functionality in

Thunderhead.com’s Approve NOWfeatures:

• Multiple workows per project

• Workow design functionality thatenables sophisticated workflowrouting

• Parallel approval

• Group-based approval, in additionto approval by named individuals

• An Inbox showing all items awaiting

approval

• Collaborative annotation

• Target completion indicators, whichshow at a glance which items in aworkflow case require the mosturgent review

• Synchronization with externalthird-party workflow systems, viathe Thunderhead.com NOW API.

• Workow cases are started from theProjects tab and are managed

in Thunderhead.com Admin,via the Approval Workflows taband the Inbox.

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FORMS MANAGEMENT DESIGN ANDMETA DATABest practices for forms managementdesign are important especially whentaking full advantage of the complex

selection criteria.

Typically attachments are selected bymultiple criteria such as line of business,state jurisdiction, eective date,commercial versus personal, etc. However, consider the scenario whereyou have a large repository of forms thathave metadata within resource categoriesthat dene perhaps 20 to 30 dierentmetadata items. You could use anycombination of those metadata fields toretrieve specific sets of templates orenclosures.

You can use resource categories withAPI calls such as searchCMSBy-ResourceCategory. You can also useresource categories from within BusinessContent Studio to retrieve shared content

or to retrieve enclosures.

Standardizing the API calls for multiplebusiness areas to leverage becomes areusable asset best governed by a COE.

RISK MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ASSURANCEA final example of the types of bestpractices recommended for centralgovernance are templates to helpproject managers follow provenmethodologies for risk managementand quality assurance. These templatesare built upon years of experience

implementing complex projects inenterprise architecture environments.The templates include:

• Architecture sizing tools

• New project scope inventory andeort assessments guidelines

• Unit, system, and integration testplan templates

• Project plans for high-quality, lowrisk, iterative development

• Risk management considerationsfor various project types includingmulti-channel batch, real-time, webportal integration, and highlysophisticated interactive documents.

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BUSINESS OBJECTS AND XML SCHEMAS

Ref# Details

APPENDIX 2. CUSTOMER SURVEY:GETTING STARTED WITH A BESTPRACTICES REVIEW

BOXML1

BOXML2

BOXML3

BOXML4

BOXML5

BOXML6

BOXML7

BOXML8

BOXML9

BOXML10

Here are some initial questions to answer to help facilitate a best practices review session whereThunderhead.com Professional Services will assist your organization with standards and governanceleveraging a COE.

How many business objects are being utilized in the Thunderhead.com environment?

What are the main factors for usage of multiple business objects?For example: feeding systems, applications, communication types.

Is there common data across all business objects?For example: an address class, etc.

Is all business object creation and maintenance facilitated through an XML schema(XSD file)?

Does the schema(s) reflect any common domain level data?For example: a recipient schema used to define a commonly used recipient class.

Is data organized into domain level classes and template specific classes?For example: data common to all communications in a set of classes and template-specific data organized into further classes.

Is all data strongly typed?For example: monetary amounts defined as integer data types as opposed to strings.

Is the naming convention of data items “template author” friendly?For example: X101_Dt vs Policy_Modification_Date.

Are enumerations being used where appropriate?(Enumerations should be used, where possible, for all data items that have apredefined list of possible values. This mitigates risk of template authors incorrectlycoding assembly logic.)

In the case of large data models, are views being used?(Views can limit how much of the entire data model is visible to template authors, thusimproving usability.)

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DATA MANIPULATION AND AMALGAMATION

Ref# Details

SAMPLE DATA

Ref# Details

CMS ORGANIZATION

Ref# Details

DATMA1

DATMA2

SMPLD1

SMPLD2

SMPLD3

CMSOR1

CMSOR2

CMSOR3

CMSOR4

CMSOR5

CMSOR6

Are derived properties being populated with SQL queries out to external data sources?If so, approximately how many derived properties are being populated this way?

To what extent are derived properties being used and, in general, for what purpose?Could the data manipulation be handled further upstream – for example, by the extractprogram or existing ETL layer?

Does a library of sample data exist for template authors?

To what extent are derived properties being used and, in general, for what purpose?

Could the data manipulation be handled further upstream – for example, by the extractprogram or existing ETL layer?Do all business object updates, including development of derived properties get testedwith sample data?

Do template authors have the necessary XML skill set to update Thunderhead.comsample data to facilitate unit testing assembly logic?

Are Thunderhead.com resources being organized by type?For example: folders for sample data, folders for shared content, config files, etc.

Is there a client-specific domain structure in place representing application or line ofbusiness?

Does the folder structure lend itself to easily facilitate the propagation of securitypermissions?

Is the naming convention intuitive for folders and the contained resources?

Are keywords or descriptions being assigned to resources to aide locating of resources?

Does the CMS folder structure represent ownership of content?For example: shared content owned by a specific business group organized as such tofacilitate ease of assigning permissions so that only the appropriate group can edit theshared content resources.

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PROJECT USAGE

Ref# Details

STYLESETS

Ref# Details

PROJCT1

PROJCT2

PROJCT3

PROJCT4

PROJCT5

PROJCT6

STYLST1

STYLST2

STYLST3

STYLST4

STYLST5

STYLST6

Are individual projects used by multiple developers for collaboration?

Does project usage reflect an actual project or program of work being conducted?

Does project usage reflect a collection of related items of work that must becompleted on or near the same date?

What are the development processes with regards to project migration into testingand production environments?

What are the development processes with regards to project rollback?

Is the enterprise licensed for Approve NOW? If so, are Approve NOW workflowsbeing used?

Is the styleset naming convention intuitive and a reflection of the style’s use ratherthan its characteristics?For example: Body_Header vs. Arial_14pt_Bold.

Are styles being used appropriately across all channels?For example: Body_Header defined across all channels vs. Body_Header_Print andBody_Header_Email.

Are styles being used to control paragraph related white space?For example: space-after attribute being used vs. carriage returns in the fragments.

Are widow/orphan controls being used to prevent content breaking inappropriatelyacross pages?

Are table styles being used according to best practices?For example: definition of row/cell styles etc., that are then referenced by a parenttable style. Also the design of the styleset should separate the formatting of tablecells into typeface-oriented attributes (font-family, line-height, font-weight) and cellbox attributes (borders, background-color, etc.). For example, you might create astyles tableBody and cellStyle and use tableBody across all of your table cells for thecharacter formatting and use the cellStyle to present lines around the edge orbackground shading. Using this approach allows box formatting to be changedindependently of the character formatting which can save time later when you needto add table heading or totals style.

Is text transformation being handled by an inline style where appropriate?For example: using uppercase attribute to transform a string data value to uppercase.

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DDVS

Ref# Details

SHARED CONTENT

Ref# Details

DDVRV1

DDVRV2

DDVRV3

DDVRV4

SHDCN1

SHDCN2

SHDCN3

SHDCN4

SHDCN5

SHDCN6

SHDCN7

Has rationalization been conducted on the DDVs?

Do DDV “templates” exist?For example: a resource that a copy can be made of to accelerate the developmentprocess. The template contains the defined channel, business object argument,styleset references, etc., as well as any regions of the documents that are alwaysreused, such as the address or header sections.

How extensive is the use of repeated document-level scripting across DDVs? Couldthis be created as functions within a function library?

Are DDVs well organized and structured with regards to the usage of sections andfragments?

Is shared content being used liberally?

Has shared content been created using generic arguments (not tied to specificbusiness object classes) to define its arguments?

In the case of shared content created using anything other than the generic methodof defining arguments mentioned above, is the entire business object being passed tothe shared content? Or a specific class?

Has nested shared content functionality been taken advantage of?For example: Nesting three address-related shared content resources into a single, allencompassing, address-shared content.

Are commonly used business phrases, phone numbers, etc., being created as inline

shared content?

Is all inline shared content style-agnostic?For example: all content set to “Inherit” style.

Has consideration been given to using shared content to provide a template library forcontent too dynamic to qualify as traditional shared content?

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ASSEMBLY LOGIC

Ref# Details

MULTICHANNEL ENABLEMENT

Ref# Details

ASLGC1

ASLGC2

ASLGC3

ASLGC4

ASLGC5

MLTCH1

MLTCH2

MLTCH3

MLTCH4

MLTCH5

Has assembly logic been implemented according to coding best practices?For example: appropriate use of parenthesis, appropriately nested logic, etc.

Has advanced assembly logic been implemented where appropriate?For example: “when” statements vs. repeating “if, else if” statements.

Has advanced content been implemented where equivalent functionality could havebeen achieved with the use of shared content?

Is inline logic being used to mitigate the need for repeating high percentages of textacross fragments?

Could assembly logic around enclosures or shared content links be reconstructed totake advantage of dynamic enclosures and/or dynamic shared content?

Is the enterprise making use of Thunderhead.com’s multichannel capabilities?

If so, are single DDVs being used for multichannel communications?For example: one DDV configured to output content to print and email .

Are fragment editions and content to region mappings being used to appropriatelyvary the content across delivery channels?

Has the shared content library also been configured to reflect the multichannelconfiguration?For example: a single piece of shared content for the company logo, with twochannel-related editions vs. two separate pieces of shared content, each housing aversion of the company logo.

Are channel job properties being used to pass post rendering processing related datato the appropriate channel output?

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ABOUT THUNDERHEAD.COMThunderhead.com is a leading providerof enterprise solutions for customerexperience management. TheThunderhead.com ONE customerengagement platform providespowerful SaaS solutions thatfundamentally change the waybusinesses engage with each other andtheir customers. Some of the world’smost demanding companies trustThunderhead.com to help them buildcustomer engagement and create

enduring relationships. WithThunderhead.com, businesses havemore power to drive revenue, brandstrength, and dierentiation throughsuperior customer experience.Thunderhead.com serves its globalcustomer base from offices located inNorth America, Europe and Asia Pacific.See: www.thunderhead.com

THUNDERHEAD NOWLEADING THE WAY IN CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

[email protected] © Thunderhead 2009. All rights reserved. Version 1.0 (UK). Thunderhead endeavours to

ensure that the information within this document is correct and fairly stated, but does not accept any

liability for any errors or omissions.

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