Call Center Outsourcing for Disaster Recovery

Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical
cyclone observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $10 billion in real and personal property damage on
the US Gulf Coast in September 2005 and was the 17th named storm, 10th hurricane, fifth major
hurricane, and third Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and the second hurricane
to hit EPA region 6 (TX, LA, NM, OK and AR) in consecutive months.
Rita made landfall on September 24, near the Texas-Louisiana border as a Category 3 hurricane on the
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It continued on through parts of southeast Texas. The storm surge
caused extensive damage along the Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas coasts and completely
destroyed some coastal communities. The storm killed seven people directly; many others died in
evacuations and from indirect effects.
Officials requested residents in storm surge areas to evacuate their homes on Wednesday, September
21. About a third who evacuated heeded the warning then and took to the road. That evening's forecast,
the most ominous of the week, brought a larger response, more than half who evacuated left Thursday.
Technology improvements and sensitivity to the magnitude of the potential danger (spurred by the
previous month's hurricane Katrina) offered a two-day window for disaster planning and implementation.
Unfortunately, most companies had still not prepared for the extended continuance of business
operations. Most disaster planning in small, medium and even some large companies focuses on
recovery, not continuance.
A Case Study: Business Continuity Is More Than Restoring a Back-up Tape
Faced with the potential closure of their corporate headquarters and numerous offices and facilities, as
well as evacuated employees, a regional corporation in retail was faced with logistical issues far
exceeding normal disaster recovery planning and implementations. Data and MIS operations were moved
to another company-owned location; corporate functions, headquarters, and logistics command were
disbursed into multiple locations. Business continuance needed to be implemented. Employees were
being evacuated; no clear recovery date could be planned for; and the business couldn't afford to just
shut down and wait.
While some of the losses could be covered from insurance such as inventory loss and property damage,
other losses, such as opportunity loss and -- in the case of this company -- collections couldn't be easily
recovered or made up at a later date. Past due credit, like fresh fish, goes bad quickly. When managed,
consumer credit adds to a company's sales, and in many cases is a separate profit center for the
company, which can be as profitable as the core business itself. But when mismanaged or uncollected, it
can devastate a company.
On September 21, 2005, two days before Rita reached the shores of Texas, an Austin, TX-based service
provider of call center services, E Communication Advantage (ECA), received a call from the retail
organization, which was in need of immediate call center services. Once Hurricane Rita hit land, the
company's entire call center operations were shut down due to damages from the hurricane, lack of staff
due to evacuations, and lack of support infrastructure such as reliable utilities and telecommunications. In
fact, no reliable public utilities or services were available in the area for at least four to six weeks.
The initial request from the client company to ECA was for 20 to 25 "leased" seats, plus four additional
supervisor seats, and 20 to 25 outsourced call center seats for inbound and outbound collections, for a
total of 40 to 50 seats. While outsourced call center seats are completely outsourced services, seat
"leasing" is a hybrid where everything is provided -- excluding the human caller. Computers, telephony,
Internet connections, cubicles, utilities, rest room facilities, training facilities, parking, etc. would all need
to be provided.
Data exchanges, executive oversight, human resources, payroll and other functions would all be required
to interface with the service provider quickly and efficiently. A host of logistical and human issues needed
to be addressed, including the transportation and lodging of displaced employees, the temporary
replacement of employees to sustain the business, training, supervision, and monitoring. Credit
collections are subject to a myriad of state and federal laws. Typically, the client company's training
procedures required callers to have at least a week of training and pass competency tests. A minimum
core staff of volunteer employees and managers were recruited temporarily to relocate to Austin to
provide a baseline of services and support.
Of the 100-plus employee callers, 25 came to Austin (to cover the leased seats 12 hours per day) with
four supervisors to continue the operations by September 24, 2005. Complementing the employees were
20 ECA employees providing 12 hours of coverage per day. These latter were trained in under a day due
to the circumstances. A few days later this core team was joined by an additional 20 evacuated
employees and an additional supervisor. ECA was requested to increase to 210 outsourced agents
providing two shifts with hours of operation from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to
7 p.m. on Sunday.
With detailed supervision, extensive co-operation between the client company's employees and the
cohabitating outsourced callers, this ramp-up was accomplished in fewer than five days. These
outsourced levels continued until October 14.
Success in Outsourcing Call Center Operations
From September 23 to October 14, ECA collections on behalf of the client company were approximately
$21 million to $25 million. Through the dedication of the displaced workers and supervisors, the service
provider agents, and critical hands-on management, the business continuation program was meeting the
internal collection metrics of the client company.
On October 7, the client company was able to resume partial operations in its headquarters. As a result, it
reduced the number of call center seats to 71 (with the same hours as above), and some of the
employees and supervisors returned home to pick up the pieces of their lives.
On October 14, ECA's management team met with the client company's executive team to discuss the
disaster recovery/business continuation results of ECA and the opportunity to continue the program. From
this meeting the retailer extended the outsourced work until October 31. However, they reduced the call
center seats from 71 to 40, as more of their facilities had become operational and were ramping back up
to original levels.
The disaster recovery project ceased on October 31, as the client company was back to full operations for
its call center collections efforts. The lessons learned from the project were integrated into the client
company's disaster recovery/business continuity program.
The outsourcing costs for the entire period were estimated at $600,000, plus temporary living expenses,
which would be offset by the deferred costs from employees who didn't participate with the temporary
program at alternate locations.
At the same time, the camaraderie among employees, supervisors and service provider agents was
critical to the success of this program. The client also discovered that displaced employees, who were
remaining productive and earning compensation, had become truly dedicated and loyal to the company.
Lessons Learned in Outsourcing Call Center Operations for Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery is not business continuance.
Computer back-ups restore data -- not businesses. Critical business functions need to be classified and
documented with regard to their effect on the business short and long term. Recovery times, requirements
for staffing, skill set and technology support requirements should be part of the business continuation
program.
Acting early, even a few days earlier than the general populous, in the face of a potential disaster can
sustain your business.
Staff Will Need Housing
One of the biggest challenges companies have had after a disaster is finding lodging for relocated
employees. Since the United States has had numerous disasters over the last five years, many
companies are trying to plan ahead by negotiating the reservations of hotel rooms or extended stay
lodging. Some hotels chains are charging a minimum of $250,000 to reserve groups of rooms in advance.
Hotels compare these reservation plans to insurance policies since the rooms will be there if and when a
company and its employees need it.
Reserve Your Seats Today!
Call center space can be reserved for disasters also. The reserved space can come in several flavors
with various levels of coverage, guarantees and cost. The first level is usually a "shared agent group."
These agents are a shared resource, since they train on several client programs and are capable of
handling numerous types of calls and processes. This coverage guarantees that you'll have a reserve call
center available to answer the company's inbound calls from its customers. Once a disaster hits, all calls
are seamlessly routed to the service provider call center. The service provider's shared agents are trained
in advance to answer these calls in a specific manner. Usually these calls are general in nature, and most
often messages are taken and forwarded back to the client company for future follow up.
Reserving call center space requires a monthly minimum that can range from $2,500 to $5,000 for
standard business hours. This charge is similar to the hotel reservation charge and ensures that the
service provider will have agents standing by to answer the client's customer calls. A per-minute charge is
activated once the inbound calls start after a disaster. A per-minute charge covers any expense above
and beyond the monthly minimum charge. Included in the monthly minimum are the shared agents, call
routing, automatic call distributor (ACD) call requirements, daily ACD reporting, project management and
agent management.
The second level of call center outsourcing is provided through dedicated agents. These agents would be
trained specifically to handle only calls for a single client. They'd have shared access to the client
company's internal system via a Web application or virtual private network (VPN). Prior to a disaster all of
the internal systems, telephony, call routing, and ACD messaging would be tested and secured for future
use. After a disaster hits, all systems would be activated and agents would be deployed.
For this service there's a scale of monthly minimum charges to ensure that seats and space are available.
These charges are based on the complexity and design of the entire outsourcing plan and how much
equipment and planning is needed in advance of the disaster. In addition, there would be a per-minute or
per-hourly charge for the dedicated agents. This will depend on what level of experience the agents will
need to handle these calls. Included in the monthly minimum are the dedicated agents, call routing, ACD
call requirements and programming, daily ACD reporting, project management, IT support and agent
management.
What To Know about "Leased Seats"
The third level of support deployed by call centers is the "leased seat" service. This service allows a
company to move its entire call center management and staff to the service provider's call center. This is
a true "plug-and-play" solution. Below is a breakdown of the entire service, as you might see in a call
center agreement.
1. A "leased seat" is defined as a dedicated workstation including computer, monitor, telephone
headsets, Internet bandwidth at T-1 speed and PSTN provisioning, telephony and other
necessary hardware and software required for a service provider's clients to operate effectively
and efficiently in the performance of their live and interactive inbound and outbound call center
solutions. The service provider is responsible for providing and maintaining the leased seats. For
each leased seat, the call center will make available the use of the ACD, using computer
telephony integration (CTI) if appropriate or predictive and preview dialing. Application
development for the ACD and IVR is included with the leased seat; however, any modification that
requires an outside consultant will be passed on to client at cost.
2. The service provider provides programming resources for scripting and report design.
3. The service provider provides technical and desktop support for its own computer networking,
hardware and telephony.
4. On request, the service provider provides supervisor stations, including all items listed in the first
item above. The supervisor stations will also include enhanced telesets (an IP phone). CMS
software will be provided to the client's supervisors on a one-to-15 workstation ratio of
supervisors to agents.
5. The client will have access to real-time review of agent statistics, project status, monitoring and
whisper coaching functionality.
 6. The service provider provides a client adequate training space and the technical ability to conduct
remote monitoring. The service provider provides training for the client on the ACD and interactive
voice response (IVR) systems.
7. The service provider will make available to the client project management and call center
expertise within their current staff.
8. The client will have access to all common areas, including the training room, conference room,
library, and kitchen areas.
9. The service provider will make the leased seats available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
10. The client will provide its own supervisors and agents for projects where the service provider is
providing a leased seat.
Similar to the other services mentioned, you may get hit with a monthly charge to reserve these seats in
the event of a disaster. It ranges based on the number of seats that are leased. The more seats leased,
the smaller the monthly rate.
In the event of a disaster, your organization's ability to continue operations can make the difference
between keeping its doors open and finding them shuttered permanently. Although call-center operations
are only one aspect of a comprehensive disaster recovery program, it is a crucial one that will allow you to
stay in touch with customers and clients until normalcy returns. Smart outsourcing can play a major role in
that part of the plan.
Useful Links
ECA, E Communication Advantage
http://www.eca.com/
Diagrams showing the call center IT infrastructure for ECA, encompassing both outsourced seats and
"leased seats."
http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/c061016b.asp
About the Author:
Michael Romanies works for Fuel Marketing and Sales, comprised of entrepreneurial executives with
generations of experience driving marketing, branding, sales, operations, development, IR, PR and
fundraising for public and private companies ranging from start-ups and turn-around situations to divisions
of multi-billion dollar, multi-national entities. Contact Michael Romanies at MikeR (at)
FuelMarketingandSales.com.