Years of Experience with Microsoft Tools
In an era where outstanding customer service is a critical competitive advantage, but cost pressure also affects the service department, companies are increasingly faced with the challenge of efficiently organizing and providing documents, information, and knowledge to their employees. Many organizations rely on Microsoft tools like Outlook, Office, OneDrive, or SharePoint for email communication or internal document and data management. These applications have been firmly established in the IT landscape of companies for decades and provide a solid foundation for many use cases. However, in complex customer service environments, they quickly reach their limits.
Outlook, one of the most popular tools for email communication or as a calendar, allows for quick connections to customers and internal communication, but it suffers from limited transparency, a lack of collaboration features for large customer service teams, and poor integration capabilities for end-to-end workflows with other IT tools. SharePoint, on the other hand, offers features for data and document storage, knowledge management, and collaboration. However, without automatic delivery of the right content, at the right time, in the right place, access to mission-critical information is often cumbersome and time-consuming.
According to a study by McKinsey, employees spend an average of 20% of their work time searching for information. In customer service, where response time is one of the most important KPIs and makes a critical contribution to customer satisfaction, every second counts.
This article highlights how existing IT tools like Outlook and SharePoint can be integrated into a central customer service hub with the help of lytra. Particularly in industries like mechanical engineering or energy, where service cases are highly complex or large volumes of inquiries arise, real-time delivery of data, knowledge, and information creates critical leverage.
Outlook and SharePoint: Useful but Not a Ticketing System
Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint have been established as standard tools in many companies for years. Outlook allows for fast communication via email, while SharePoint supports the storage and exchange of documents. Both systems offer a variety of customization options for specific use cases, but their native features often fall short of meeting the requirements of modern customer service. This is due to several reasons:
- Fragmented Data Sources: Important information is scattered across multiple platforms—from SharePoint to CRM and ERP systems to personal email inboxes in Outlook.
- Lack of Automation: Standard workflows cannot be or can only be partially automated.
- Limited Integration: While SharePoint and Outlook are compatible with each other and within the Microsoft environment, there is a lack of overarching connection and seamless workflows with other relevant IT tools.
- Poor Knowledge Management: Information is stored but difficult to access and often not presented in a user-friendly manner.
- Time-Consuming Communication: Communication between different teams or when searching for specific documents.
This is where lytra comes in: as a specialized third-party system that consolidates information, documents, and data from various IT tools onto a single platform.
How lytra Transforms Customer Service
lytra is much more than just an addition to existing tools. It is a central data platform that links all relevant data sources and systems together. This turns a fragmented IT landscape into a unified whole. lytra is 100% modular and supports customer service teams with various features exactly where they need it most.
- Centralized Data Consolidation: lytra seamlessly integrates Outlook and SharePoint with CRM, ERP, and other IT systems. This gives your service employees access to all relevant information at any time—without hours of searching. This saves time and reduces errors.
- Agent Copilot: Agent Copilot assists service employees with summaries, context-based knowledge elements, and documents with source references, offering answer suggestions based on company knowledge and similar past service cases. This enables even complex problems to be solved in real time.
- Automated Workflows: Routine tasks like handling returns, scheduling service technicians, changing master data, or routing tickets to the right expert are automated by lytra. Your service employees can focus on more complex issues and customer contact that require human expertise.
- Scalability and Flexibility: lytra is specifically tailored to the needs of manufacturing companies and energy providers. The 100% modular approach allows it to integrate into existing systems, and the platform adapts to your individual requirements.
Conclusion: More Efficiency, Higher Customer Satisfaction, Better Competitiveness
The current challenges of providing excellent customer service require more than standard tools like Outlook and SharePoint. While these tools are indispensable for basic tasks, the workflows they create often lack transparency and efficiency. With centralized data consolidation, AI-powered assistance, and automated workflows, lytra not only makes service teams more efficient but also improves the customer experience—an essential advantage in a competitive world.
