Getting SAS-IIey

I’ve blogged repeatedly about some mistakes we’ve made during the growth surge that has not yet showed any sign of slowing down. Initially, we focused on just keeping things going and fixing things as they broke. Then we fixed things, but new problems came up when folks stopped watching. Eventually, we had to overhaul how we do things and enforce process control at every step.

Say hello to Monkey Enforcer:

This new feature in Shockey Monkey goes a few steps past the requirements set out by our SAS70 Type II audit. Specifically, it forces people to keep their records up to date. If things like addresses, contacts, phone numbers or credit cards are missing, invalid, expired or soon to expire – the system will force the user to update them.

Extending that to the phone support, surveys and process controls – It will be easier to check identity of callers, match up surveys to support requests and engineers, track activities.

So what kind of a problem does this address, other than piss off the deadbeats and people that put in fake credit card numbers? Well, a few:

1. It makes sure that there is a financial agreement in place before any service, complimentary or billable, is rendered.
2. It makes sure that all contact information is up to date.
3. It makes sure that all the financial information is up to date, so it puts the burden of managing credit card expirations and modifications where it belongs – the cardholder.
4. It secures access across all fronts – no email forges, no VoIP tricks, no support unless you can validate your phone password.
5. Surveys tied in with tickets and crumbing..

That last one is pretty important to me because it gives me full audit control over eeeeverything. This is critical. Most of the time when I do get negative feedback I get it over something I am not able to back up with the information in my portal. In those cases, the customer is always right because I really have no concrete data to present…. till now 😉

Looking forward to the business life with a whole lot less mistakes. And yes, this is in SM3.