Körber ensures great user experience

Technology and consulting excellence
Körber is an international technology group with approximately 10,000 employees, more than 100 locations worldwide, and a common goal: turn entrepreneurial thinking into customer success and shape the technological change.

In the Business Areas Digital, Pharma, Supply Chain, Tissue, and Tobacco, Körber offers products, solutions, and services that inspire. The Körber Business Area Pharma is delivering the difference along the entire pharma value chain with its unique portfolio of integrated solutions.

With Körber software solutions, drug manufacturers can digitize their pharma, biotech, and cell and gene factories. The software product Werum PAS-X MES is recognized as the world’s leading Manufacturing Execution System for the pharma and biotech industry. Körber’s data analytics and AI solutions accelerate product commercialization and uncover hidden business value.

The medications produced by Körber’s pharma customers improve the quality of life for millions of people, and are often life-changing, even lifesaving.

The company operates in a highly regulated and complex industry, in which quality, safety, coordination, and speed are essential throughout all production and delivery processes.

Game-changing interventions
Manufacturing problems can cost millions of euros and risk late delivery of medications. So, Körber must maintain close relationships and respond with skill and speed when customers need technical support with their Pharma software products.

“Around 60% of requests for support from customers are for complex or time sensitive problems with significant risks attached,” explains Marcus Schulz, Head of Application Support Software at Körber Business Area Pharma. “Many of these are big organizations with complex corporate structures and a large global footprint, so even a minor problem on a high value, high volume production run could cost up to €1,000,000 in lost sales.

“A major problem could cost our pharma, biotech, or cell and gene customers a lot of money, so we know that the demands on us to perform well are always significant and we’re often facing unique challenges requiring us to make game-changing interventions.”

The existing legacy ticketing system could no longer cope with the volume and complexity of today’s customer service environment. With multiple KPIs and service level agreements in place, often within the same organization, making prioritization decisions was increasingly difficult.

With multiple participants in complex production processes, a much more powerful customer service ecosystem was required.

The software experts of Körber Business Area Pharma decided to move to a cloud-based service provider business model, delivering its solutions on a SaaS basis, and began the search for a comprehensive customer service management solution that could transform its relationships with its customers.

Orchestrated and prioritized actions
With ServiceNow already an established partner—of both Körber Business Area Pharma and many of its established customers, too—the company decided to replace its legacy ticketing system with the comprehensive and capability-rich Customer Service Management solution.

“When we assessed ServiceNow Customer Service Management, we had a ‘wow’ effect,” recalls Marcus Schulz. “My team thought that this was exactly what we were looking for.”

“ServiceNow can deliver 100% of our needs and we were able to go live in just a few months,” says Torsten Larsen, ServiceNow Platform Owner Software at Körber Business Area Pharma.

Featuring a bespoke, user-friendly customer portal, online case management, internal and external knowledge base, and Service Catalog Customer Service Management also includes instant, dynamic translation of all content to support Körber’s diverse, global customer base. The portal has transformed the company’s ability to collaborate with customers—and other participants in the service delivery process, too—in an efficient, orchestrated, and prioritized response to incidents, problems, and service requests.

Reducing workflows from hours to minutes
Now, the software experts at Körber Business Area Pharma are rolling out Customer Service Management to their entire customer base—featuring some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical, biotech, and cell and gene companies, as well as smaller, niche specialist businesses at the cutting edge of medical research and development.

The flexibility offered by Körber’s cloud-based SaaS offerings are particularly valuable for these organizations with smaller IT infrastructures, wishing to focus on their core business.

“ServiceNow Flow Designer has reduced customer onboarding from hours to just minutes, while extensive data modelling, analytics, and segregation enable us to identify key customers’ requirements so that they can be prioritized, ensuring that every customer’s needs are met accurately,” says Torsten Larsen.

Single collaborative ecosystem
More than 2,400 internal knowledge articles are now available for the global support team via an integrated search engine; knowledge gaps can be easily reported, and trends can be identified.

“ServiceNow Customer Service Management improves the quality of our customer relationships,” says Marcus Schulz. “They have real confidence in the platform, our constantly growing Service Catalog, and our support expertise powered by our extensive knowledge base.

“It drives efficiencies, provides a great user experience, and delivers a real sense of control because customers are guided through the case creation process and the platform helps our global application support team to decide which case needs to be worked on next to be SLA compliant. The data within the platform is reshaping the way we work by providing priceless business intelligence, trends, and actionable insights.”

With Customer Service Management, there is also potential for additional services and support. Körber Business Area Pharma can bring every customer-facing process and all contributors together in a single, transparent, easy-to-understand ecosystem, where it is possible to track the status and progress of every incident or request for support.

“For example, we’re looking at migrating our complete user group community onto the portal and making that vast experience and expertise available to all members. ServiceNow Customer Service Management provides us with a long-term formula to deliver holistic, world-class customer service, shaped around the needs and contributions of every single stakeholder,” concludes Marcus Schulz.

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