Introduction WSCP 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, WSCP 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 Quebec and eastern Canada. It offers service in English and French William Reilly, Director of Sales & Marketing, puts it this way: "There are a lot of companies out there promising less expensive 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 customer's 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 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 One of WSCP'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 3-4 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCs. Presently, WSCP has enough capacity to handle up to 900,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 650,000 per year A firm located in Senegal, West Africa, has approached WSCP about outsourcing the online support desk. The offer is attractive. The Senegal firm's own personnel would handle the support desk functions. These personnel are fluent in English and French, and some have college degrees or appropriate technical backgrounds. Since they are located in Western Africa, labor costs would be a portion of what they are in Canada. These cost savings would be passed on, in part, to WSCP. And, because the "chat room" exists on the Internet, WSCP customers should be unaware of the switch. WSCP management has put together Figure 1, outlining the yearly costs associated with the current system and the Western African 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 Senegal Proposal Personnel Costs Fixed Cost 40 full-time equivalent (FTE) technical experts $2,500,000 per contract year (covers all @ $70,000 per year (salary and benefits) administrative and IT costs) 2 supervisors @ $ 95,000 per year (salary & benefits) Total: $2,990,000 Equipment Costs 4 servers @ $12,000 each per year 24 PCs @ $550 each per year Total: $48,000 + 13,220 = $61,200 Variable Costs Variable Cost $1.23 per contact (office supplies, fax paper, $1.12 per contact etc.). Use 650,000 contacts per year. Use 650,000 contacts per year. Total: $799,500 Total: $728,000 TOTAL: $3,850,700 Total: $3,228,000 Source: internal records and written proposal from the Senegal company Questions to Answer: 1) Case Analysis, Criteria and Weighted Average Matrix (27 marks) Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your individual 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. With your group you are to select 4 additional criteria in addition to cost based on your industry research results. A) A total cost analysis based on the above chart should be shown to justify costs. Totals and conclusions must be clearly stated for the reader (3 marks). Remember, cost is just one of the five criteria and should be included as such in the write-up. B) 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 marks for each of the 4 additional 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). I D) Assign a ranking to each of the two options (insource or outsource) for EACH of the 5 criteria, explaining the reasoning for each of the rankings from your research (4 marks). Then, utilize the weighted matrix model to evaluate the two choices (4 marks) 2) State your final recommendation (4 marks) Should WSCP continue as is (insourcing) or outsource its Customer Services? Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings in 1) above (4 marks). 3) Benchmarking the Support Desk (8 marks) Regardless of the final recommendation 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 regardless of whether we continue to insource or decide to outsource. You must provide 4 (four) specific quantifiable measurements (think KPis!) that can be used to evaluate 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. You can't manage it if you can't measure it (8 marks - 2 marks for each performance measure). Footer Individual Call Centre Research - Instructions: First off, you need to understand the Call Centre industry. After you're assigned to a group you MUST conduct some independent research on Call Centers and submit your results to your instructor for review. Using Conestoga College LRC databases, research the industry and identify at least one (1) criterion/dimension, other than cost, that WSCP should be considering. Each student must research, cite and annotate at least one (1) article. Other student papers from any source are not considered articles. We don't need copies of the articles but ensure they are fully referenced using Conestoga PA guidelines. *Please refer to the Individual Call Centre Research Instructions for further information **Research Note-WSCP is NOT a real company, so please do not try to find information on it as it does not exist. ** Additional Marks for: (21 marks) A) Formatting (3 marks) Utilize what you've learned in Communications and Computer classes to lend a professional appearance to the report. See the Marking Guide for specific requirements. Introduction WSCP 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, WSCP 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 Quebec and eastern Canada. It offers service in English and French William Reilly, Director of Sales & Marketing, puts it this way: "There are a lot of companies out there promising less expensive 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 customer's 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 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 One of WSCP'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 3-4 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCs. Presently, WSCP has enough capacity to handle up to 900,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 650,000 per year A firm located in Senegal, West Africa, has approached WSCP about outsourcing the online support desk. The offer is attractive. The Senegal firm's own personnel would handle the support desk functions. These personnel are fluent in English and French, and some have college degrees or appropriate technical backgrounds. Since they are located in Western Africa, labor costs would be a portion of what they are in Canada. These cost savings would be passed on, in part, to WSCP. And, because the "chat room" exists on the Internet, WSCP customers should be unaware of the switch. WSCP management has put together Figure 1, outlining the yearly costs associated with the current system and the Western African 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 Senegal Proposal Personnel Costs Fixed Cost 40 full-time equivalent (FTE) technical experts $2,500,000 per contract year (covers all @ $70,000 per year (salary and benefits) administrative and IT costs) 2 supervisors @ $ 95,000 per year (salary & benefits) Total: $2,990,000 Equipment Costs 4 servers @ $12,000 each per year 24 PCs @ $550 each per year Total: $48,000 + 13,220 = $61,200 Variable Costs Variable Cost $1.23 per contact (office supplies, fax paper, $1.12 per contact etc.). Use 650,000 contacts per year. Use 650,000 contacts per year. Total: $799,500 Total: $728,000 TOTAL: $3,850,700 Total: $3,228,000 Source: internal records and written proposal from the Senegal company Questions to Answer: 1) Case Analysis, Criteria and Weighted Average Matrix (27 marks) Based on your total cost analysis of Figure 1 and the findings from your individual 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. With your group you are to select 4 additional criteria in addition to cost based on your industry research results. A) A total cost analysis based on the above chart should be shown to justify costs. Totals and conclusions must be clearly stated for the reader (3 marks). Remember, cost is just one of the five criteria and should be included as such in the write-up. B) 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 marks for each of the 4 additional 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). I D) Assign a ranking to each of the two options (insource or outsource) for EACH of the 5 criteria, explaining the reasoning for each of the rankings from your research (4 marks). Then, utilize the weighted matrix model to evaluate the two choices (4 marks) 2) State your final recommendation (4 marks) Should WSCP continue as is (insourcing) or outsource its Customer Services? Be sure to justify your answer based on your numeric and researched findings in 1) above (4 marks). 3) Benchmarking the Support Desk (8 marks) Regardless of the final recommendation 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 regardless of whether we continue to insource or decide to outsource. You must provide 4 (four) specific quantifiable measurements (think KPis!) that can be used to evaluate 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. You can't manage it if you can't measure it (8 marks - 2 marks for each performance measure). Footer Individual Call Centre Research - Instructions: First off, you need to understand the Call Centre industry. After you're assigned to a group you MUST conduct some independent research on Call Centers and submit your results to your instructor for review. Using Conestoga College LRC databases, research the industry and identify at least one (1) criterion/dimension, other than cost, that WSCP should be considering. Each student must research, cite and annotate at least one (1) article. Other student papers from any source are not considered articles. We don't need copies of the articles but ensure they are fully referenced using Conestoga PA guidelines. *Please refer to the Individual Call Centre Research Instructions for further information **Research Note-WSCP is NOT a real company, so please do not try to find information on it as it does not exist. ** Additional Marks for: (21 marks) A) Formatting (3 marks) Utilize what you've learned in Communications and Computer classes to lend a professional appearance to the report. See the Marking Guide for specific requirements