1. WHEN IT BROUGHT
RELIEF TO A RETAIL
GIANT
Bigger transitions often bring in many challenges to the transition manager.
More so when the client is not very matured in terms of IT. Handling these
challenges in effective manner shows requires a combination of project
management and soft skills for the project manager.
Transition
challenges of big
transitions

2. The client– A Fortune 500 US retail giant with …………………………..employees and headquartered in
Texas was looking for a partnership to manage their technical service desk.
The Project – Company wanted to set up a 70 member service desk in India to service and resolve
their corporate employees’ technical issues and queries. This included transition of processes following
globally standard procedures, transition of knowledge base and also transition of backend system.
The Team–The team was hired 80% from the market while the remaining 20% was taken through
internal changes. Some resources were arranged from the central resource pool as shared resources.
Project Challenges–Project challenges were many. A few of them are listed below –
1. Inadequate experience on client’s part with regards to IT and management of different IT
systems imposed difficulty in managing the transition of technical processes and especially the
backend systems.
2. Involvement of third party managed applications and their refusal to work in harmony with our
team posed challenges in delay in schedule and increase in project cost.
3. The knowledge base was maintained by a third party and due to the design issues of the same
transition of knowledge base was an issue.
4. Local political issues and for a few vital days natural disaster issue crippled the project with
delay in transition.
5. Sudden regulatory changes in India have made importing some lab equipment impossible for
India team. This caused difficulty in project management.
6. Unavailability of client’s technical SME has caused delay in knowledge transfer.
7. Setting up SLA clocks in the client side tool was a major challenge for the team as the tool was
managed by a third party vendor whose tool design was inflexible to incorporate the changes
suggested. This required a few extended brainstorming sessions to resolve.
The Final Delivery
- The final delivery of support using voice, email and chat for client’s global
workforce was done in time bringing relief to the client’s and internal management. Knowledge base
transfer was delayed and continued support from the third party vendor was arranged in the meantime.