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RSA ARCHER TECHNICAL SUPPORT

PROPOSAL TO REDUCE DEPENDENCY AND
DRIVE CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE

OVERVIEW
As a team lead engineer for the RSA Archer North America support team, I am pleased to submit this proposal to
Customer Support Management and the RSA Total Customer Experience team in supporting the combined goals of
improving the start-to-finish experience of customer interaction and resolution of support requests in a professional,
responsive, and timely manner. Over the whole of my career at RSA, I have demonstrated the ability to meet
customer needs through various limitations of clients themselves as well as support deficiencies.

The Objective

Prevent the creation of unnecessary support cases through building customer knowledge
Reduction of support caseload to improve overall responsiveness
Develop an interactive ecosystem wherein client development is expected

The Solution

Quick Start PDF developed and provided to new clients, Administrators, and support representatives
RSA Link Home Page landing tutorial explaining Documentation, Downloads, and Knowledge Base Access
Troubleshooting videos for common issues
Layered access to the support portal for case creation

PROPOSAL
RSA is a well-known brand in IT security but has recently suffered from increases in negative ratings in all areas of
customer support. Through the past year, uncertainty due to the recent Dell-EMC merger, managerial turnover, and a
talent shortage while promoting and selling a growth product during a major product revision (6.x) has caused perfect
storm of issues that appear on the surface to be insurmountable. As more and more clients deal with the frustration of
an imperfect support model, increased market competition due to more and more businesses requirement for a
method to adhere to Governance, Risk, and Compliance will certainly cut into the projected revenue of the leading
market product.

Change comes from within and the support team has identified the need for basic training in the usage of the tools,
documentation, and videos which are readily available in the RSA Link Community for all new clients, while ensuring
quick reference for returning clients can easily be accessed.

Rationale

Research into case closures

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Mission alignment for Total Customer Experience

Current resources/technology readily available

Description
The development of a Quick Start PDF for provision and reference for new users is a cost effective method of
explaining the scope and limitation of support. Several key areas have been identified through analysis of case
closure results and recent case creation trends. The PDF will describe service level objectives (SLOs), differentiation
between development and defects, Professional Service engagements, and Community (RSA Link) access. It will be
treated as a Knowledge Base Article for provision by support and be a living, breathing document that must be
regularly reviewed and approved per current Article standards.

The second component will be a video tutorial, placed directly on the RSA Link Home landing page. This video,
produced internally by the support team, will provide a basic explanation for the location of various items useful in the
reduction of support cases - specifically: Everything pages containing all documentation, Download links for platform
installations and upgrades, and accessing the Knowledge Base to assist with issues which have been solved
previously. A written draft will be reviewed by Support Management, and upon acceptance of a final draft, recruitment
of a member of the support team through receipt of a Silver award ($1000 cash) to participate in the recording and
creation of the final video will take place. This video will be submitted to the RSA Link team for review to ensure all
company standards are adhered to.

Third, troubleshooting videos for common issues ranging between three to seven minutes long will be developed over
the first quarter of 2017 members of the support team. These videos will be created through WebEx recording
technology and will be submitting in similar fashion to Knowledge Base Articles for review. Upon final approval in the
regular Knowledge Base Article process, a Bronze award ($500 cash) will be provided to the creator of the video.
These videos will be version specific and any exceptions will be noted in the Community page hosting it.

Finally, layered access in the creation of cases will require a modification to the support portal. Rather than allowing
clients to navigate directly to the case creation page for the fastest possible method of opening a case, clients will be
redirected first to the Knowledge Base to investigate common solutions and view the newly created troubleshooting
videos relevant to their version. Similar to that of the Microsoft Knowledge portal, a search for Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs) must occur before the ability to submit a support case is made available. This is a simple request
of the RSA Community team to modify the redirection of the case creation page as well as setting an IF conditions on
whether a Search has been performed.

Resources
The time of knowledgeable support staff will be leveraged even though it is limited due to recent increased volume.
As direct managers are unable to submit various levels of Awards (Cause for Applause, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and
Platinum), the Total Customer Experience Manager will be required to submit rewards after verification of task
completion.

Timeline

The period for these modifications will be Q2 2017 as it the number of support cases in previous history is lower in
this time period. Management also has the opportunity to include portions of this project into MBO Goals for the
quarter.
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Description Start Date End Date Duration

<Project Start> April 1, 2017 June 30, 2017 Q2 FULL

<Recruit for Quick Start and Rough Draft> April 1, 2017 April 14, 2017 14 days

<Final Draft Review > May 1, 2017 May 31, 2017 31 days

<Phase 1 Complete/Award Submission> June 1, 2017 June 30, 2017 30 days

<Recruit for Landing Video> April 1, 2017 April 14, 2017 14 days

<Rough Draft Submission> April 17, 2017 April 30, 2017 14 days

<Team Review> May 1, 2017 May 31, 2017 31 days

<Page Modification/Award Submission> June 1, 2017 June 30, 2017 30 days

<Ten Topics for Troubleshooting> April 1, 2017 April 14, 2017 14 days

<Recruit per Topic> April 17, 2017 April 30, 2017 14 days

<Rough Video Submissions> May 1, 2017 May 31, 2017 31 days

<Review & Approval for Bronze> June 1, 2017 June 30, 2017 30 days

<Case Submission Modification> April 1, 2017 June 30, 2017 Q2 FULL

EXPECTED RESULTS
Expected is the reduction of support cases, resulting in increased metrics on Time to Resolution and Customer
Satisfaction. A tertiary benefit will be increased training resources for newly hired support staff.

Financial Benefits
Customer Satisfaction/Client Retention
Cost-effective and long term benefits

Technical Benefits
Reduced Time to Resolution
Increased focus on higher severity issues

Other Benefits
Reduced on-boarding time for new staff
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COST
The following table provides a concise of the possible total allotment for disbursed award recommendations.

Awards Price

Bronze - Quick Start PDF $500

Silver RSA Community Landing Video $1000

Bronze One Award Per Completed Video $0-5000

Total Range $1500-6500

Total

Disclaimer: The range for the cost is dependent on the initiative of current support staff. Up to ten troubleshooting
videos will be considered for submission.

CONCLUSION
In my time as a lead engineer, I have determined that the necessary components for enhancing customer knowledge
and driving support staff motivation is the convergence of a well-planned quarterly initiative with financial motivation.It
is my belief that the steps taken here will provide both clients and representatives a more successful path into the
resolution of support cases. The framework set forth here provides the framework for future-proofing the product as
new features are implemented, while providing new clients and support staff with educational benefits.

The unseen benefit is the personal involvement of support in developing a more intimate relationship with the product
and clients before a support case is ever submitted.

Thank you for your consideration,

Christopher Root
Utah Team Lead Engineer