Case Study - Concol Customer Services - Introduction Concol Customer Services (CCS) is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that caters to individual consumers and small businesses who require a high level of service and are willing to pay a premium for it. Specifically, CCS offers state-of- the-art office applications and web-building software and design, as well as plenty of secure storage space and fast access via its high-speed servers. The territory it serves is Ontario and east. It offers its service in English and French. Meaghan Lafolte, Vice President-Marketing, puts it this way: "There are a lot of companies out there promising the cheapest Internet access. But what do you get for your money? Limited service, slow or no-access, a mailbox full of spam, and an endless stream of system crashes. And I won't even mention the lack of support if you have a technical question. Our support desk quickly determines where the customers' problem lies and gets it fixed fast! For a few dollars more a month, we give our customers the environment they need to be productive--without having to think about whether or not they can retrieve their documents, or whether their web site has crashed. Our focus is on providing an "exceptional customer experience with each interaction. It's no surprise that we have the highest customer satisfaction and retention rates in Canada." The Online Support Desk I One of CCS's services is its support desk. The online support works as follows: Customers who are experiencing technical problems, or who simply have questions enter a one-on-one online chat room" where they can interact directly with an expert. Problems are usually resolved within 10 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCS. Presently, ccs has enough capacity to handle up to 800,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 700,000 per year The Online Support Desk One of CCS's services is its support desk. The online support works as follows: Customers who are experiencing technical problems, or who simply have questions enter a one-on-one online chat room", where they can interact directly with an expert. Problems are usually resolved within 10 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCs. Presently, Cos has enough capacity to handle up to 800,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 700,000 per year. A firm located in Mumbai, India, has approached cos about outsourcing the online support desk. The offer is attractive. The Mumbai firm's own personnel would handle the support desk functions. These personnel are fluent in English, some have limited French and have college degrees or appropriate technical backgrounds. Since they are located in India, labour costs would be a fraction of what they are in Canada. (Ontario), a saving that would be passed on, in part, to CCS. And, because the "chat room" exists on the Internet, CCS customers should be unaware of the switch CCS management has put together Figure 1, outlining the yearly costs associated with the current system and the Indian proposal. As a team, you have been given the job of preparing answers to a set of questions. They are to be prepared as a written report for your manager (instructor). Figure 1: Yearly costs of the Present and Proposed Contact (Call) Centre Alternatives Current Online Support Centre Mumbai Proposal Personnel Costs Fixed Cost 60 full-time equivalent (FTE) technical experts $3,600,000 per contract year (covers all $60,000 per year (salary and benefits) administrative and IT costs) 3 supervisors @ $ 75,000 per year (salary & benefits) Equipment Costs Variable Cost 3 servers @ $6,000 each per year $1.25 per contact 25 PCS @ $900 each per year Use 700,000 contacts per year. Variable costs $1.40 per contact (office supplies, fax paper, etc.). Use 700,000 contacts per year. Source: Internal records and written proposal from the Mumbal company I Questions to Answer 1) Analysis for the Case (27 marks) Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your research on the industry, list and explain your choices for the five performance dimensions or criteria, then utilize a weighted point evaluation matrix to evaluate the two options Questions to Answer: 1) Analysis for the Case (27 marks) Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your research on the industry, list and explain your choices for the five performance dimensions or criteria, then utilize a weighted-point evaluation matrix to evaluate the two options. a) Select five criteria for choosing between the two alternatives (insource or outsource). Cost should be one of the criteria. A total cost analysis chart should be shown to justify costs. Totals and conclusions should be clearly stated for the reader (3 marks). But, cost is just one of the five criteria and should be included as such in the writeup-not as a standalone section b) Then list and explain why you selected the four additional criteria that were researched. Explain why each is important to consider when making this sourcing decision. Ensure that these dimensions assist in differentiating between the 2 options. Be careful to avoid overlap between them. Each one should be independent of the others. (12 marks - 3 x 4 criteria) c) Assign and explain a relative weighting for each of the five criteria. Explain why you chose to weight them like you did? (4 marks) d) Assign a ranking to each of the two options (insource or outsource) for each of the 5 criteria. Explain the reasoning for each of the rankings. Then, utilize the weighted matrix model to evaluate the two choices. (8 marks) 1 2) State your final recommendation (4 marks) Should Concol continue on as is or outsource its Customer Services? Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings pertaining to advantages/disadvantages of insourcing or outsourcing (4 marks) 2) State your final recommendation (4 marks) Should Concol continue on as is or outsource its Customer Services? Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings pertaining to advantages/disadvantages of insourcing or outsourcing. (4 marks) OPER1160 Team Group Project Page 2 3) Benchmarking the Support Desk (8 marks) Regardless of the outcome from your analysis, management is looking for ways to benchmark or evaluate their Support Desk Your manager wants to know how we are going to specifically measure performance of the online assistance whether we continue to insource or outsource it. You must provide four specific measurements (preferably quantifiable) for different metrics to measure the performance of your Support Desk. Your measures must contain reasoning on why these are important, how each measure could be evaluated and how the measurement is to be done. Be specific You can't manage it if you can't measure it. (marks- 2 marks for each performance measure) **Research Note CCS is NOT a real company, so please do not try to find information on it as it does not exist. Case Study - Concol Customer Services - Introduction Concol Customer Services (CCS) is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that caters to individual consumers and small businesses who require a high level of service and are willing to pay a premium for it. Specifically, CCS offers state-of- the-art office applications and web-building software and design, as well as plenty of secure storage space and fast access via its high-speed servers. The territory it serves is Ontario and east. It offers its service in English and French. Meaghan Lafolte, Vice President-Marketing, puts it this way: "There are a lot of companies out there promising the cheapest Internet access. But what do you get for your money? Limited service, slow or no-access, a mailbox full of spam, and an endless stream of system crashes. And I won't even mention the lack of support if you have a technical question. Our support desk quickly determines where the customers' problem lies and gets it fixed fast! For a few dollars more a month, we give our customers the environment they need to be productive--without having to think about whether or not they can retrieve their documents, or whether their web site has crashed. Our focus is on providing an "exceptional customer experience with each interaction. It's no surprise that we have the highest customer satisfaction and retention rates in Canada." The Online Support Desk I One of CCS's services is its support desk. The online support works as follows: Customers who are experiencing technical problems, or who simply have questions enter a one-on-one online chat room" where they can interact directly with an expert. Problems are usually resolved within 10 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCS. Presently, ccs has enough capacity to handle up to 800,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 700,000 per year The Online Support Desk One of CCS's services is its support desk. The online support works as follows: Customers who are experiencing technical problems, or who simply have questions enter a one-on-one online chat room", where they can interact directly with an expert. Problems are usually resolved within 10 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCs. Presently, Cos has enough capacity to handle up to 800,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 700,000 per year. A firm located in Mumbai, India, has approached cos about outsourcing the online support desk. The offer is attractive. The Mumbai firm's own personnel would handle the support desk functions. These personnel are fluent in English, some have limited French and have college degrees or appropriate technical backgrounds. Since they are located in India, labour costs would be a fraction of what they are in Canada. (Ontario), a saving that would be passed on, in part, to CCS. And, because the "chat room" exists on the Internet, CCS customers should be unaware of the switch CCS management has put together Figure 1, outlining the yearly costs associated with the current system and the Indian proposal. As a team, you have been given the job of preparing answers to a set of questions. They are to be prepared as a written report for your manager (instructor). Figure 1: Yearly costs of the Present and Proposed Contact (Call) Centre Alternatives Current Online Support Centre Mumbai Proposal Personnel Costs Fixed Cost 60 full-time equivalent (FTE) technical experts $3,600,000 per contract year (covers all $60,000 per year (salary and benefits) administrative and IT costs) 3 supervisors @ $ 75,000 per year (salary & benefits) Equipment Costs Variable Cost 3 servers @ $6,000 each per year $1.25 per contact 25 PCS @ $900 each per year Use 700,000 contacts per year. Variable costs $1.40 per contact (office supplies, fax paper, etc.). Use 700,000 contacts per year. Source: Internal records and written proposal from the Mumbal company I Questions to Answer 1) Analysis for the Case (27 marks) Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your research on the industry, list and explain your choices for the five performance dimensions or criteria, then utilize a weighted point evaluation matrix to evaluate the two options Questions to Answer: 1) Analysis for the Case (27 marks) Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your research on the industry, list and explain your choices for the five performance dimensions or criteria, then utilize a weighted-point evaluation matrix to evaluate the two options. a) Select five criteria for choosing between the two alternatives (insource or outsource). Cost should be one of the criteria. A total cost analysis chart should be shown to justify costs. Totals and conclusions should be clearly stated for the reader (3 marks). But, cost is just one of the five criteria and should be included as such in the writeup-not as a standalone section b) Then list and explain why you selected the four additional criteria that were researched. Explain why each is important to consider when making this sourcing decision. Ensure that these dimensions assist in differentiating between the 2 options. Be careful to avoid overlap between them. Each one should be independent of the others. (12 marks - 3 x 4 criteria) c) Assign and explain a relative weighting for each of the five criteria. Explain why you chose to weight them like you did? (4 marks) d) Assign a ranking to each of the two options (insource or outsource) for each of the 5 criteria. Explain the reasoning for each of the rankings. Then, utilize the weighted matrix model to evaluate the two choices. (8 marks) 1 2) State your final recommendation (4 marks) Should Concol continue on as is or outsource its Customer Services? Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings pertaining to advantages/disadvantages of insourcing or outsourcing (4 marks) 2) State your final recommendation (4 marks) Should Concol continue on as is or outsource its Customer Services? Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings pertaining to advantages/disadvantages of insourcing or outsourcing. (4 marks) OPER1160 Team Group Project Page 2 3) Benchmarking the Support Desk (8 marks) Regardless of the outcome from your analysis, management is looking for ways to benchmark or evaluate their Support Desk Your manager wants to know how we are going to specifically measure performance of the online assistance whether we continue to insource or outsource it. You must provide four specific measurements (preferably quantifiable) for different metrics to measure the performance of your Support Desk. Your measures must contain reasoning on why these are important, how each measure could be evaluated and how the measurement is to be done. Be specific You can't manage it if you can't measure it. (marks- 2 marks for each performance measure) **Research Note CCS is NOT a real company, so please do not try to find information on it as it does not exist