Technical Support

Pilot wave 1 (M5). Impact: medium. See the hub.

Current state (assumptions to validate)

Technical support answers product and application questions across Prime Products’ most specification-heavy lines: safety equipment and PPE (standards like EN/ISO conformity, sizing, certification classes), CBRN/hazmat equipment (filter compatibility, shelf life, protection levels), marine coatings (application specs, coverage, compatibility), and life-saving/fire-fighting equipment servicing questions. It supports sales (pre-sales spec questions, tender technical sections), customers directly, and the OHS training arm with technical content.

Assumptions — to validate in discovery: small team ~2–4, expertise concentrated in individuals; knowledge lives in supplier PDFs, datasheets, certificates scattered on file shares and mailboxes; recurring questions re-answered from scratch; standards knowledge (which certification a tender requires) is memory-based. Pain points: single-person dependency, slow answers when the expert is unavailable, no searchable technical library.

Target AI-first operating model

By M12 a curated technical library (datasheets, manuals, certificates, standards summaries) is the grounded source for a Q&A assistant used by technical support, sales, and customer service alike. Routine questions (“which filter fits mask X”, “what EN standard covers this glove”) are answered by the assistant with document citations; the expert verifies edge cases and owns anything safety-critical. Tender technical sections start from AI-drafted spec responses. The experts’ role shifts from answering machine to library curator and validator.

AI use cases

Use case	Pain addressed	Data needed	Complexity	Impact	Pilot
Technical Q&A over manuals, datasheets, certificates (RAG with citations)	Expert bottleneck, repeated questions	Curated PDF library, product catalog	M	H	Y
Product compatibility/accessory lookup (e.g. CBRN filters, coating systems)	Error-prone memory-based answers	Supplier compatibility tables, datasheets	M	M	Y
Tender technical-section drafting (spec compliance answers)	Slow, expert-dependent tender support	Tender specs, product certs, datasheets	M	H	N
Standards/certification summary briefs (EN/ISO applicability per product class)	Standards knowledge trapped in heads	Standards references, certification docs	M	M	N
Draft technical replies to customer emails	Response latency	Support mailbox, technical library	L	M	N

Process transformation opportunities

• Technical library: from scattered PDFs to a governed SharePoint library with metadata — the single grounding corpus (also serving sales and CS assistants).
• Question intake: route technical questions through the assistant first; only unanswered ones reach the expert, who feeds the answer back into the library.
• Tender technical support: standing library of spec-response blocks per product family instead of per-tender rework.

Required data sources

• Supplier datasheets, manuals, certificates (file shares, mailboxes, paper → scan).
• SoftOne item master (linking documents to SKUs); e-commerce product content.
• Past tender technical sections (SharePoint); standards reference summaries.

Potential AI agents

• Technical Q&A Agent — cited answers from the technical library; expert validates safety-critical answers before external use.
• Datasheet Ingestion Agent — extracts metadata from new supplier documents into the library; expert approves classification.

Automation opportunities

• n8n: supplier-document mailbox → ingestion → library filing proposal.
• Certificate-expiry alerts for product certifications (shared flow with procurement).

Required integrations

• SharePoint technical library, Outlook support mailbox — see integrations; SoftOne item master read.

KPIs

KPI	Baseline	M12 target
Median technical-question response time	TBD (M2)	−50%
Questions resolved by assistant without expert	0	≥60%
SKUs (top lines) with linked datasheets in library	TBD	≥90%
Tender technical sections drafted with AI support	0	≥70%

Risks

• Wrong safety-critical answer (PPE/CBRN protection levels) → citations mandatory; safety-critical categories always human-validated before leaving the company.
• Library staleness (superseded datasheets) → ingestion agent + versioning discipline, quarterly review.
• Expert disengagement (“my knowledge, my value”) → position experts as curators/validators; credit them in the library.

Training needs

• Technical staff: library curation, validating cited answers (M4–M5).
• Sales & CS: how to use (and not over-trust) the Technical Q&A Agent (M6).

Deliverables

• Governed technical library (structure + initial corpus of top product families).
• Technical Q&A pilot (M5), production agent (M9).
• Spec-response block library for tenders.

12-month execution milestones

Month	Milestone
M1–M2	Discovery: question-type inventory, document-source audit
M3–M4	Library structure built; top-product-family corpus ingested; training
M5	Wave-1 pilot: Technical Q&A over the initial corpus
M6	Pilot evaluation; corpus expansion; open to sales/CS
M9	Q&A Agent in production; ingestion agent live
M12	KPI review; curation routine handed to the team