Cenitex is a Victorian Government State Owned Enterprise that provides ICT services and technology solutions for government customers. They support the Victorian public sector to deliver vital services for all Victorians.
Now, you might be forgiven for thinking the organisation that provides ICT services and technology solutions for more than 63,000 public service employees would be totally focused on securing IT technicians across their workforce. Whilst this is a theme, what you might not know is that Cenitex has a very strong people culture, and their technical experts have great people skills. As an organisation, they look to build the skills in their technical experts to enable them to foster meaningful connections with their customers.
Like most service focused organisations, Cenitex is committed to keep their customers at the heart of everything they do which is both refreshing and effective and has seen the organisation build a strong reputation as a service provider with a difference that is having a positive impact within the Victorian public sector.
We caught up with Arun Vijay, Director Customer Support and Solutions in Service Management, to learn more about Cenitex, their culture, and plans for the future.
Tell us more about Cenitex, your customers and the channels you support.
Cenitex was established as a State body in July 2008, and is responsible for delivering defined customer ICT service efficiently and cost effectively to Victorian Government department and agencies. Cenitex is a key delivery partner in support of the Victorian Government Digital Strategy 2021-26.
The Cenitex Service Centre provides ICT service management to a large and diverse customer base comprising of 45 government customers in Victoria, including most major Departments. We operate an omnichannel model, supporting telephony, self service portal requests, chats, and face to face services through set ups such as tech bars.
Our service centre staffing sits at just shy of 100, and in 2022-2023 we handled 148,000 calls, 89,000 portal requests, 60,000 chats, and approximately 3,000 face to face support interactions. Additionally, our service management support resolved 127,000 requests, 94,000 incidents, and just over 4,000 tech changes.
Tell us what you focus on when you recruit staff into your service centre, what are the key things you look for when building your team?
We place a premium on cultivating a team of dynamic members. Recruitment is focused towards attracting applicants with a strong sense of curiosity, demonstrated ability to learn, and a deep understanding of customer empathy. These qualities form the bedrock of a team that not only provides technical expertise but also fosters meaningful connections with customers.
Can you describe the leadership style and management approach used in the service centre?
Our Service Centre leadership style is characterised by collaboration. We have a disciplined commitment to quality assurance, with regular one-on-one sessions providing specific and measurable feedback. Calibration sessions further ensure consistency and best practices, fostering a dynamic but values-driven work environment.
What sort of attrition rates are you seeing in the environment?
Our attrition rate is around 18% with 10% of agents moving outside the organisation and 8% internally within the organisation. We actively promote experience and career growth within Cenitex. Opportunities in technology and customer management are encouraged, with team members supported in pursuing development pathways and short-term and long-term roles that align with their skills and interests.
We run short-term improvement projects across the Service Centre, given employees the opportunity to build capability. We engage with the broader business on ‘tiger team’ type opportunities that grow knowledge, capability and expertise for our team members and deliver tangible benefits for our business areas. A recent example of this was using a tiger team to conduct a review of our Total Experience (Customer Experience and User Experience). Using a Six Sigma methodology the team have reached out to hear the Voice of the Customer. We’re making demonstrable improvements by deliberately incorporating the Customers Voice into Improvement considerations.
Are there strong opportunities for career pathway / career growth within Cenitex?
We love retaining our people in Cenitex. While, of course, we see people leave us for other opportunities, we have had many team members grow their careers in Cenitex. Recently three of our team members have been promoted to senior Service Delivery Manager roles that leverage the empathy and depth of knowledge they have developed in their Service Desk activities. Technical curiosity, and a continuous learning culture, has also led other team members into more specialised engineering activities, but sees them always retain a deep understanding of the customer.
Can you tell us about the Key Performance Indicators, targets, and measures of success that you have in place within Cenitex?
Our success is measured by factors that go beyond mere numbers. While Average Call Handling time is considered for workforce planning, the organisation places greater emphasis on Customer Satisfaction, consistently exceeding 90%.
Employee Engagement serves as a leading indicator, with a 90% satisfaction rate. Additionally, the percentage of incidents resolved at the first contact is a crucial measure of both customer satisfaction and employee expertise.
What technology solutions are currently in place?
Cenitex leverages advanced technologies, including Cloud and Multi-Cloud services, cutting-edge security tools and high availability networks. Within the Service Centre, Genesys PureCloud telephony, ServiceNow service management and Workforce planning systems facilitate a flexible and balanced work environment at home, and in the office.
Have you adopted any new or emerging technology to support your operation?
Our Service Centre team members are represented within Cenitex’s Innovation and Improvement Team and have been key participants in ingenuity activities like Hackathons and Cenitex Connect. We actively explore emerging technologies such as AI in isolated sandbox environments. This participation informs our adoption of new features as they are released from our mature and globally recognised ServiceNow application. Particularly as it relates to Process Optimisation for better understanding of bottlenecks and sentiment changes.
How would you describe the culture of your organisation?
In everything we do, we are guided by our values of Accountability, Collaboration, Initiative, Respect and Courage. Our culture is visible through our culture traits of Performance, Positivity, Ingenuity, Inclusiveness and Customer Commitment.
The human experience of our people is critical to our culture, and we focus on the employee value proposition through the Cenitex People Promise -which is based on the following components: Inclusive environment, Flexibility, Shared Purpose, Deeper Connections, Interesting Work and Personal Growth.
The focus on uplifting culture and employee experience over the last four years has seen significant uplifts across employee sentiment, and industry recognition including IPAA Leading Employer Award, AHRI Talent Management Award and Great Place to Work certification.
Any plans to expand in the future?
We are looking to expand Level 0 and Level 1 services for application support. Along with this, the organisation is looking to increase the customer base which would require the service centre to grow accordingly.
Cenitex will continue to collaborate with customers and maintain a strong delivery focus. This will ensure Cenitex can retain, attract, and meet the needs of our customers through the continued delivery of secure, reliable and value driven outcomes for the Victorian Public Sector and the people of Victoria.
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