Knowledge Management Systems are very good at retrieving “best known solutions”. However, these are solutions that are known best (because they were documented by service agents or experts) but are not necessarily the best or optimal solutions. Further, they are typically not good at providing the single right solution for a particular problem, instead providing a list of close matches for similar problems. To make things worse, these close matches are ranked by frequency of occurrence, implying a difficult but rare problem where the service agent needs most help is invariably at the bottom of the list, and the most common solutions that every service agent is familiar with is ranked at the top. They tend to promote solving problems by trial and error, and may increase cost of service over the long run.
QSI TEAMS applies logic to solve troubleshooting problems. QSI TEAMS does not past service history or documented cases. It excels when an error or symptom has many causes or faults manifest into many symptoms. It can be deployed at the machine level, the call center, the field or automatically from machine to machine (M2M).
To understand how TEAMS works, think of your GPS navigation system. It is great for visiting places you never been before! And it is also great at finding the optimal route for that day, given the road and traffic conditions. The GPS and TEAMS solution share two important attributes: it applies algorithms or logic to solve new problems (instead of trying to utilize past experience or solutions), and it recognizes yesterday’s solution might not be the best solution today.
Taking the analogy further, think of the GPS software as the TEAMS reasoner, and the maps are the cause-effect relationships – i.e., which faults trigger with error code or test failure – in your system. The TEAMS reasoner applies logic and optimization algorithms to rule-in and rule-out possible causes and guides the technician through additional information gathering, until it determines the root cause. It then guides the service agent through the corrective action and the verification steps, all the while logging each of the steps automatically, and learning from it. Just like the GPS can route you through various options (e.g., avoid toll roads or ferries), the TEAMS reasoner can guide service agents with different levels of skills, certifications, support equipment — generating a different troubleshooting path based in his or her ability.
Simply put, it is the kind of technology that helps a 19 year old kid fix a F16!
