How bswift® put an end to manual case assignment & got real-time visibility.

Problem.

A large team, growing need for greater visibility, & more efficient routing.

bswift, a leading benefits administration and HR tech company based in Chicago, runs a complex operation with multiple teams sharing workload across clients and cases. Work needed to be distributed efficiently and consistently across team members.

As the organization continued to scale, bswift identified an opportunity to enhance visibility into team capacity and workload distribution.  Managers relied on strong instincts, but additional real-time insights would enable faster, more informed decisions about resource allocation.

We caught up with Angela from Sabel Business Solutions who worked with bswift on their implementation to find out more.

“We had a large team that was going to need to be sharing resources. We wanted to ensure team members were consistently focused on the right work and client needs.”

In addition, their routing model involved ongoing administrative support within Salesforce. Adding or removing reps from the queue for planned or last-minute absences, shifting team members between groups, and managing day-to-day routing changes created an opportunity to streamline processes and improve agility.

Initially, bswift evaluated building a custom Salesforce solution but instead prioritized a solution that would be faster, flexible, and proven.

Solution.

Automation that gives managers control & removes the manual grind.

Instead of building from scratch, bswift turned to the Salesforce AppExchange to see how other organisations solved routing. That’s where they discovered NC Squared’s Distribution Engine.

After a focused demo and some sandbox testing the team quickly validated the fit. Distribution Engine was going to  solve their core problems and unlock efficiencies  they hadn’t initially scoped.

“We were able to test it in our sandbox and quickly proved that this was a solution that was going to solve a majority of our problems and then some.”

How bswift uses Distribution Engine day-to-day.

bswift uses Salesforce Cases in a bespoke way to administer benefits within their workflow. Distribution Engine sits right in the middle, automatically routing new cases to the correct team or queue.

Cases can be created manually, via email-to-case, or through automated Salesforce jobs. Distribution Engine then applies preset rules based on record type and team criteria, sending the right work to the right people, without stacking up layers of bespoke Apex code.

Distribution teams help bswift route cases for specific client sets, while capacity and availability checks make sure work lands with someone who is able to pick it up. Out-of-office status is factored in, so cases are not routed to employees on vacation.

And when customers have complex requirements across a range of services, matching the case to the right skillset matters.

With distribution tags, bswift can route cases to reps with specific training or system access, so customers are connected to the right experts from the start. The result is a built-in specialist model, where individuals can act as subject matter experts within their teams, without creating extra queues or manual handoffs.

Less manual intervention, more streamline operations.

Distribution Engine also gave Angela’s Salesforce admin team a simple, configurable way to hand over case routing logic to the business teams that own the workflows. This allowed the admin team to stay focused on higher-value initiatives.

“The ease of importing and exporting teams and tags has been so easy… It allows us to hand over the reins to any of the team managers so that the Salesforce admin does not have to worry about managing those individual team members.”

The testing tools were another win. Admins like Angela can troubleshoot and simulate routing logic, and export logs to compare expected behaviour with real-world outcomes. This enables more confident decision-making before go-live.

“I can take a case ID, drop it in the tested distributor and see if it passes or fails. Being able to export the logs this way is just so easy to work with.”

Speedy setup with standout support.

Angela recalls the setup was fast and painless. The implementation aligned well with bswift’s existing environment, requiring minimal lift from both admins and developers.

“Distribution Engine was fantastic and easy to set up… we never heard admins or dev complain about this going to be a lengthy process.”

Support has been a major highlight too, with a focus on empowering and enabling bswift’s team to operate more independently.

“The Distribution Engine support team has been absolutely phenomenal. They're actually teaching us to fish, not just feeding us.”

Outcome.

“Life-changing” routing that saves hours every week & opens the door to new ways of working.

Since rolling out Distribution Engine, bswift has changed how work is assigned, monitored, and managed, with real-time visibility into workload and routing can confidently rely on.

And the time savings are real. Between two different teams, managers reported saving at least  20 hours per week by no longer managing work assignments manually. 

There was also a speed advantage during rollout. Compared to building a custom assignment solution for their requirements, they could go live with Distribution Engine in a fraction of the time.

Managers can now instantly see who is working on what, who has capacity, and how the workload is trending throughout the day. That visibility extends to leadership too.

“We now have greater real-time visibility into team activity, case routing, and assignments, giving both our team and leadership a clearer view of how work is managed.”

Teams can plan more accurately, and  work is distributed consistently based on defined rules and capacity, ensuring balance across the team.

Distribution Engine has allowed managers to get back to higher-value work, and  introduced a highly reliable, low-maintenance framework for the Salesforce admin team. Once managers took over their own distribution logic, they started coming up with new routing ideas and optimisations.

“They have started dreaming up new ways to manage their team… adding new distributors that we never thought were possible.”

Distribution Engine has proved a popular upgrade across the company. Users find it intuitive; managers like the control; leadership appreciates the visibility. And the Salesforce team gets the credit.

“We have gotten so many compliments on how easy it is to use. Distribution Engine makes my Salesforce team look good!”

For Angela, the impact is simple to summarise:“It’s been life-changing and we couldn't be happier with the product.”

Curious how you can speed up your Case response times?  Learn more here→

How did they build it?

bswift uses Distribution Engine as the central brain for sharing work across a large, shared team in Salesforce. Manager-owned capacity control and real time visibility into workloads are key.

Here’s some of the top product features behind their success.

1. Capacity Weights & Caps for fairer sharing.

What is it?: Distribution Engine lets you set active caps and weights on each rep, to prevent overload and spread work fairly. You can cap how much active work each rep carries at once (e.g. only one hot lead or priority case at a time), set hourly/daily limits, or weight reps differently based on experience.

Result: Teams stay responsive because Distribution Engine never sends work to someone already at capacity. This keeps consistency in follow-ups and protects SLAs.

Learn more→

2. Availability & out-of-office toggles.

What is it?: Every rep gets an online/offline toggle in the Distribution Engine widget. If they’re in a meeting, off sick, or stepping away, they flip themselves offline, automatically removing them from routing. Distribution Engine can also sync with Salesforce calendars to read rep availability.

Result: A rep being unavailable to respond can create a poor customer experience. This ensures work always reaches someone who’s online right now.

Learn more→

3. Tags.

What is it? Tags are flexible labels you can apply to users and teams to route work based on skills, product expertise, language, territory, seniority - or anything else that helps! They can be layered together (e.g., Spanish + Key Account + Product X) and used in combination with team filters, distributor rules, or weighting.

Result: You get pinpoint accuracy without creating dozens of separate distribution teams or complex branching logic. And your customers get routed to someone with the exact skills needed to help them.

Learn more→

4. Distribution teams.

What is it?: A single user can belong to multiple teams, with different weights, caps, and tag-based skill filters in each. Team membership can be adjusted in seconds by business users, not gatekept by your busy Salesforce admin team.

Result: Create a flexible resource pool instead of fixed queues. Ideal for handling spikes in demand and seasonality.

Learn more→

5. Built-in testing & debugging.

What is it?: Test routing logic before you ship it. Check your configuration with real data to preview your logic and ensure records are routed just the way you want.

Result: Get a transparent system where rules can be validated safely before go-live. This is a core reason teams trust Distribution Engine above opaque out-of-the box tooling from Salesforce.

Learn more→