Yet beneath the facade of tranquillity flickers an unmistakable current of frenetic energy. At noon, four hours into her shift, analyst Geri Connolly is in the midst of one of the many juggling acts of her day. She chats easily with her current customer, Steve, commenting on the weather and reassuring him that help is on the way. A new account manager, Steve is flustered because he can't find customer information in one of his applications. While Connolly helps him, a coworker stands at her cubicle with an urgent question and her phone beeps with the next waiting call.
Time is of the essence here.
The bank has stringent service level standards for response time, and Connolly doesn't want to be the slow cog in the wheel. Unable to locate the problem, Connolly transfers Steve to a more experienced analyst and logs the case into the help desk system on her screen. Keeping those high service standards is no cakewalk for the bank these days. Tech support is just one of the many BofA units struggling from the 1998 merger with NationsBank. The union brought together two help desks from each bank, each with different processes and technologies.