Building a more effective KMS from scratch

OPEX® sought a knowledge management solution that could be easily set up and managed by their tech support team as well as provide an easy-to-use, easy-to-search content resource center to help support over 400 field technicians and ensure faster turnaround of answers and documentation.

The Result

• Thanks to Shelf’s modern technology stack OPEX could easily implement the solution and continue to effectively manage it without employing additional manpower and dev resources.
• Within 6 months of use OPEX doubled the number of licenses and plans to add approximately 500 new users as well as introduce company-wide.

• With Shelf’s multi-language content support, OPEX has been able to leverage documentation in 3 languages, and will soon add a dozen more.

• Shelf’s ability to index any type of content enabled a smooth transition from their previous solution, and decision trees enabled OPEX to turn complex manuals and repair documentation into user-friendly guided workflows.

The Story

Founded in 1973 OPEX Corporation has now grown into a recognized global technology leader in high-speed mail and warehouse automation, document imaging and order picking systems. Retailers, eComm giants, manufacturers, distributors, hospitals, and financial institutions trust OPEX to improve their workflow for greater efficiency and profitability, and since a lot of decisions are made at customer sites—effective support of field technicians is critical to the company’s overall success.

The tech support team of 30 stands at the heart of the company’s service, as they are responsible for assisting over 400 field technicians by navigating and guiding them through manuals, blueprints and repair documentations.

The Solution

HelloFresh knew it was time for a knowledge management system that agents could quickly adopt to boost productivity and better serve customers. They chose Shelf because it’s an easy-to-use platform that can actually serve as a single source of truth for such a complex business. Shelf removes the gap between questions and answers by helping knowledge managers understand exactly what customers are looking for.

Since Shelf seamlessly integrates with Genesys, agents now don’t have to switch tabs to manually search the knowledge base. Shelf also uses data from each customer-agent interaction to create a continuous feedback loop for content creators—essential to keep knowledge fresh.

However, with the company entering new markets and the increasing capacity of support required, the tech support team couldn’t afford to be slowed down, and they quickly recognized the knowledge management solution they had in place was far from effective.

The team at OPEX needed a solution to turnaround answers fast as well as a user-friendly means to search and comb through documentation. A solution like this would help ensure that OPEX’s customers were satisfied with their product and improve overall CX.

Knowledge Management anew

After signing on with Shelf, the tech support team was able to set up the system on their own. “Since Shelf is running outside of our current ERP, it mitigated our worries about running into bandwidth issues or someone needing to restart servers in the middle of our process. We had enough time to do what we needed and make it a successful transition,” shared Brian.

As for documentation, OPEX managed all sorts of content. “OPEX supports products that have been in the field for 30 – 40 years. Some of the documentation for that equipment is from a dot matrix printer. ” Thanks to Shelf’s AI-built platform, even a simple scan of a blueprint is transformed into a fully searchable digital document. The new solution has also enabled OPEX to host and leverage quick how-to videos as a new content format in their knowledge management solution.

Guided workflow made for better service

OPEX not only works with cutting edge technology every day—they build and repair it. “Right now our on-site technicians use heavy blueprints, manuals and books whenever they work on site. We wanted to change that by creating more user-friendly documentation,” said Brian.

With Shelf’s powerful search and intelligent content guidance, OPEX was able to turn heavy manuals into user-friendly guided workflows featuring decision tree logic. As a result, tech support can quickly pinpoint answers and help field technicians resolve issues faster and easier. Today, 85% of tech support is actively leveraging Shelf 100% of the time.

From support initiative to company-wide solution

Usability has been a major factor of success for OPEX. Building and deploying a knowledge management system is no easy task, let alone getting every team member to actually use it. “Building anew and transforming how people work inevitably has its challenges no matter where you work, but Shelf is so easy and effective, it’s getting a lot of attention across our company”.

Eventually, OPEX will add another 500 users, and make Shelf available to all field technicians.