What We're Working On
Clients Give Us Feedback on Our Performance
The Need for Speed
At a time when customers are being pressured to produce orders faster and with fewer resources, speed is paramount. When it comes to software applications, speed isn't the only feature, but it's generally at the top of the list in terms of importance.
Understanding the need for speed has driven the company's plant search technology strategy.
Property Insight collects input on technology enhancements and fixes through a number of client touch-points: TitlePoint™ and TitlePoint Xpress™ users provide feedback through product managers, account managers, Client Services and the Help Desk. Product functionality even pops up in executive discussions. Every conversation is documented and recorded in a database from which enhancements, changes and fixes are prioritized and scheduled. In turn, the products are updated three to four times each year.
Quality is fundamental
Not long after Property Insight was launched in 2002, Property Insight commissioned IBM to conduct a survey of customers to identify technology needs. But customers had more than technology on their minds…data quality was, as Nikki calls it, a "pain point."
Improving data quality became a priority and was manifest in strategic initiatives like the Data Discrepancy Program, where customers were incentivized to report plant and image errors to regional plant operations.
Since the 2002 study and thanks to programs like the Data Discrepancy Program, data quality, as rated by Property Insight customers, has improved.
In the 2010 survey, overall scores for data and image quality were very good. Most customers rated it as "good to excellent" and one in three customers say they believe data quality is improving. Still, errors persist; half of those interviewed report periodically finding errors in plant postings.
Participation in the Data Discrepancy Program is growing: approximately half of clients say they participate. Of those, a majority gave the program high marks for its effectiveness.
"Since the program started, we have seen a steady increase in customer participation," said Erik Bauer, who manages the National Discrepancy Program. "We see it as a core element of our data and image quality improvement program, so we're stepping up efforts to make it easier for customers to participate and submit discrepancies. We're also increasing our capacity to handle what we expect will be more volume," he added.