Story update 11/23/2010: A paragraph was added to the end of this case study to reflect the current state of the company's quality initiatives.

Acme Technology Services (not their real name) is a privately-held provider of technology-enabled business solutions. Acme’s retail software division provides software that enables merchants to better manage their supply chain from the suppliers through to the customers. ARS provides customization, sometimes extensive, to satisfy individual company needs. Due to a large sales team, the client list had steadily grown.

The software support structure has many nice features, including a web-based ticket capture system. Customers complete a data-capture screen for incidents and requests-for-service. Tickets are automatically routed to the support team queue via e-mail and are dispersed by a queue coordinator. ARS has some bright, resourceful individuals who extract and report on operations data.

Over time, sales began to slow and become increasingly difficult. The software development cycle time slowed down while customer complaints increased. Profitability continued to fall. There was also a growing trouble-ticket backlog.

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