Experian modernises service delivery and transforms the employee experience

Experian delivers world-class information services

Experian relies on IT infrastructure as the backbone of its operations, supporting delivery of its world-class information services
As the world’s leading global information services company, Experian provides data and analytical tools that help businesses make smarter decisions, lenders lend more responsibly, organisations prevent identity fraud, and individuals take financial control.

The IT infrastructure forms the backbone of Experian’s operation, supporting its employees to deliver world-class expertise and products to organisations and individuals. However, rapid growth, both organically and through acquisition, meant that Experian was running multiple legacy systems.

Experian looks to standardise IT globally and consumerize the employee experience
Faced with disparate processes, disconnected systems, and high costs, Experian needed to transform its IT service delivery. Jonathan Hayes, VP Global IT Service Excellence, Experian IT Services, explains, “Experian had an unnecessarily complex and inflexible IT services set up, with a multitude of disparate technologies and processes. We were in essence putting veneer on veneer to keep up, rather than making inherent and lasting changes to evolve our approach."

Experian’s CA Service Desk was a core area of concern, with a configuration that didn’t align with how the company wanted to serve its customers. “Our service desk tool was no longer fit for purpose. Even some of the basic functions were long and slow, which put an unfair expectation on our agents to effectively manage a situation and deliver a great level of service,” says Jonathan.

As part of its global IT transformation programme, Experian has a three-year vision to modernise IT service management and consumerise the employee experience. Critically, this vision extends beyond IT to transform every business line, on a global basis. 

Experian chooses ServiceNow to power seamless delivery of services for every business function
“Rather than simply finding replacement systems, we knew we had the opportunity to drive service transformation right across the business. Choosing ServiceNow was a conscious decision to move away from standard tools to adopt a single platform that would power the seamless delivery of services for every business function,” said Jonathan. 

Working with Ernst & Young, Experian launched phase one of its ServiceNow deployment, using incident management, problem management, change management, knowledge management, and HR service delivery solutions to power the customer service desk and an employee portal for IT service requests.

ServiceNow delivers significant productivity gains, with some processes moving from minutes to seconds with faster, smarter service delivery
Experian saw notable benefits after moving to the Now Platform^®. In just 12 weeks, approximately 3,000 Experian employees globally were already using ServiceNow to handle cases, service requests, and incidents for a client or employee. More than 12,000 Experian employees have collectively interacted with the new platform, with service requests alone reaching 52,000.

“For many employees, ServiceNow has made interacting with IT a fast, easy, and highly satisfying experience,” said Jonathan.

Productivity gains are significant, with automation and intelligent workflows speeding processes to free agents and employees to focus on more value-added tasks.

“Previously, it would take two to three minutes for managers to approve a simple request, but now it’s a matter of seconds. Likewise, agents would battle through an incident form to log a ticket, yet with ServiceNow this has been reduced by over 50% in many situations,” says Jonathan.

Access to high-quality data through ServiceNow enables Experian managers to analyse service workflow and proactively address issues
“Previously, we had to bring together data from our various tools and spreadsheets to be normalised and sanitised for analysis,” said Jonathan. “Now, we have access to clean, high-quality data that provides a clear picture of everything moving through the service platform. For example, we can quickly identify if a client has called numerous times and flag this to the account manager to proactively speak to them.”

Often, identifying ongoing low-level contact with Experian can be more telling about a customer’s mind-set, and, if dealt with in a timely manner, leads to an overall more positive client experience than just the successful handling of priority one incidents that naturally always get the right exposure and attention.

ServiceNow also enables Experian to change the way service desk tickets are catagorized, to ensure the most appropriate resolution workflows. Previously, all client calls were assigned as an incident, with agents trying to complete fields that weren’t relevant. Now, all incoming calls are logged using the ServiceNow case management capability.

Seamless integration between ServiceNow and Salesforce provides Experian with real-time insights that lead to richer account conversations and higher customer satisfaction
The integration capabilities of ServiceNow were a critical decision-making factor for Jonathan and his team, particularly the ability to bring together silos that may arise between the service and CRM functions.

Before, if a client called the service desk, the agent may only see any service desk-related contact. Likewise, an Experian account manager talking to a client may only be able to access information held in Salesforce.

Following the introduction of ServiceNow, sales and service are now intrinsically linked. If a sales or account manager looks in Salesforce he or she will not only see details on any sales-led or account management interactions, but also have the context of any issues or tickets logged into the Now Platform.

“Through ServiceNow and its seamless integration with Salesforce, we are on the path to unlocking the real power of digital transformation with a single source of reference data that can be leveraged across the organisation. The real-time insights are leading to richer account management conversations and high levels of customer satisfaction,” states Jonathan.

“We pride ourselves on unlocking the possibilities that data holds to empower organisations and individuals, and this is exactly what ServiceNow supports for Experian,’ says Jonathan. “With ServiceNow, we have created a single system of engagement that expands far beyond IT.”