Executive summery Background Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or outsourcing of business processes to external service Providers have become

a global phenomenon. Companies in developed countries outsource low Skilled service jobs to developing countries. An educated labour force, high unemployment and Relatively low wage levels make developing countries attractive for outsourcing back office Service work. srilanka has become one of the top back office service provider countries since it Started to provide business services to developed countries like the US, the UK and Australia in The late 1990s. The resultant boom in the service sector in srilanka has been accompanied by Emerging global debates on the loss of service sector jobs in these developed countries.

The Ring Call Center Solutions is an outsourced call center service provider, which cater for consumer related service and food product companies in srilanka. It operates a 24 X 7 on run call center with a staff base of 34. TRCCS is located in central Colombo, in a highly residential area and 2 kilometers from the high-level bus route, and the company building is an old house. TRCCS started its venture in the year of 2010 in the month of august. And due to management failure TRCCS had to terminate the project, and this project is about, building this existing and new business from the failure level to strong. Without just sticking into the same old business plan of this organization, in this project we have implemented new suggestions and changes in order to escalate this organization to the level of success In this project, it provides several informations about common issues faced by other existing call centers and BPO, And finally just without letting this project as a research, we have created an action plan and some other tools to identify the potential growth and to keep the progression of development increased

The Ring Call Center Solutions (TRCCS) Basic description of TRCCS TRCCS is an outsourced call center service provider, which cater for consumer related service and food product companies in srilanka. It operates a 24 X 7 on run call center with a staff base of 34. TRCCS is located in central Colombo, in a highly residential area and 2 kilometers from the high-level bus route, and the company building is an old house. TRCCS started its venture in the year of 2010 in the month of august.
Primary objective is to provide our client companies with highly effective and quality customer relationship management services designed to answer the corporate needs for organizational efficiency, productivity, growth and profitability. We aim to provide our clients with real solutions to help them adapt to the rapidly changing environment of the technology industry. To provide a complete line of total lifecycle support services, designed to complement the needs of technology-driven companies, and add value to their business operations, products and services. Our promise at Experts is not simply to deliver solutions, but to deliver real value -- giving us the ability to offer our clients a true competitive edge, anytime, anywhere, in any language. With our commitment to excellence, flexibility, and integrity, Experts Direct Communications, Inc., up to the last employee, aims not only to protect the brand names of our valued clients through outstanding service but convert their clients from database entries to loyal consumers of their products and therefore expand business opportunities and ensure growth and profitability.

Following are the brands which TRCCS provided its service CAT LAND ROOSTER CAF

TRCCS provided call center solution for the above companies on the following: Customer care Delivery Order

TRCCS staffing plan and structure 34 staffs 23 customer service executive (CSE) 7 supervisors 4 managers 2 process manager 1 general manager Operational hours 24 hours per day 7 days per week Shifts Shift 1 08:00 to 17:00 Shift 2 17:00 to 02:00 Shift 3 02:00 to 11:00

TRCCS uses very effective technology which is not in the current market, and it provides a portfolio effective call techniques in call clarity and number tracker, quick answering tool and much more value added in build techniques. This makes every call and lead a valued and strong, and this is one of the major key factor which gives a strength to this organization in quality terms. Company has 7 well trained supervisors who had the working experience in top rated other similar organizations, TRCCS head hunted these staff in order to bring out the best performance from the operational staff, and this is one of the strong side of the company in the day to day performance.

Reason for selling TRCCS Though the company is well equipped, there were certain reasons for poor performance, and terminating the operation. Following are the identified areas which had the issues and which directed the company to terminate the operations. Quality Though TRCCS had a strong technology and staff base and trainings, Clients of TRCCS has terminated the service from further operation due to lack of quality. Findings for this issue Location of the company Lack of motivation in staff Quality Staff SLA (Service level agreement) Profit

Why location of the company became a reason for quality issue? Since the company is located in a highly residential area, and also since its too far from the high level bus route, staff attendance has interrupted due to this, though the company had a transportation plan for future this issue played a major role in unexpected quality distraction. Company location is a residential area, staff had been restricted to work on one floor with less noise and also since its an residential area staff had de motivation factors in their teams on interaction, In BPO industries staff are the main role players who carry the important work and work load , so all organization do focus on motivation of their teams and team members, and though its not and direct impact of organizational development, it do has a direct impact in performance of the organization. In Human resource side of every organization is totally focused on staff motivation and staff interaction is because, it (human resource department) all about bringing out the best performance of the staff, lack of performance and quality occurs due to three major reasons which are bellow De motivation Reward and recognition Lack of training Lack of transparency in self development

De Motivation findings The location of the company is difficult for the staff to reach the company due to this staff is not on time and the quality of the work decrease drastically And ideally this company location should be changed to a commercial area of the city which could be much easier to the staff to reach as well as this will be a minor reason of enriching the brand of the company , and this will indirectly create a motivation in-between the staff to enjoy their day to day work, Also when its on common commercial areas, staff will be set free on their break times for them to interact with other colleges which will create a friendly environment, and According to BPO resource planers its a must for the staff to be free on their off hours in order to refreshed and motivated to carry on their work further. Since the company located in a highly residential area, and they were restricted to create a silent and calm environment, staff feels not free enough to free their stress and enjoy their day to day work. Staff pay also do effect on their performance, since the staff pay role is only limited and fixed their motivation level decrease in a drastic manner, because since the staff work 8 hours on desk stress and target base job its a mandatory to provide them with an attractive pay package and incentives as well Also to provide them correct tool for self assessments and there should be a daily devotion which should take place every day in the morning to recognize the good performers and find out the difficulties which are the reasons for poor performance of the poor performers

This organization is currently not working on commission based projects, so its difficult to allocate incentives and other benefits for the staff, but as a prior SMART salary package setup, company can provide an attractive salary as well as incentives and rewards, comparison on existing salary package and our suggestion Existing plan Basic salary Incentives Rewards Increment Bonus Suggestion Basic salary Incentives Rewards Increment Bonus

25,000 NIL NIL NIL NIL

15,000 10,000 10,000 50% 50%

Incentives, rewards and all other excluded in the existing plan and included in the suggestion can positively provide to the staff on growth of the business and the business growth depends on the performance of the organization and the performance of the organization is directly impact by staff progression, by motivating and providing best resource to staff the performance of the organization can be enhanced.

Existing Finance plan of TRCCS (basic terms) Annual expenditure Salary allocation amount Other expenditure Premises Rentals Maintenance Annual total expenditure Annual turnover Annual expected profit : 360,000 LKR : 200,000 LKR : 120,000 LKR : 17420000 LKR : 20420000 LKR : 3,000,000 LKR : 16740000 LKR

Salary allocation (monthly) Hierarchy General manager Manager process Manager shift Supervisor CSE Amount 140,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 25,000

Yearly salary calculation Hierarchy General manager Manager process Manager shift Supervisor CSE Amount 140,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 25,000 QTY X1 X2 X4 X7 X 23 Total 140,000 160,000 240,000 280,000 575,000 Annual (x 12) 1680000 1920000 2880000 3360000 6900000

Balancing effectiveness and efficiency

In a sales environment, how do you ensure that the right behaviors are reinforced? It is about having some stick as well as carrot. For example, be prepared to withdraw the incentive scheme payments from those that dont achieve the minimum standards you expect. In the run-up to Christmas, one of our retail clients wanted to maximize the efficiency of their call centre at the same time as incentivizing agents to sell. Good agents could earn an extra 2 per hour through individual orders taken but only if they achieved threshold targets for availability and schedule adherence. The scheme ran cumulatively for a month and each day the scores for each agent were produced. The whole bonus would be paid at the end of the month, but only if the agent achieved their cumulative thresholds. The results for the centre were astonishing. Not Ready time was halved; sickness was negligible and orders per hour were up across the board, and most agents had a nice Christmas as a result!

Think of alternatives to cash

Commission payments worked well in this situation as the money had meaning because of the time of year, but how do you sustain this type of performance uplift across an entire period? Think of alternatives to just paying cash. There are many incentives and motivation companies that administer different types of scheme where your agents earn points which then qualify them for prizes. Remember that your agents have different motivations for wanting to work for some younger members of the team it might be about having the latest technical gizmo iPods and Xboxes, etc. For other members that run a house and raise a family then the ability to use the scheme as gift vouchers for certain stores or even a discount off the weekly shopping bill could be important. One of our clients has just passed their entire commission budget over to an incentives company and hopes to see a 10% uplift in performance as a result.

Recognition schemes
One of our clients, Como, is running a scheme that is all about the recognition of staff. Borrowing from the Cadburys Heroes theme they have branded a Thank You board. Each month anyone in the company can post on it a personal thank you to another member of staff the nomination can be for anything, however large or small. At the end of the month a winner is drawn from those people nominated throughout the month. All winners are displayed on the wall next to the board in the rest room, and yes, you guessed it they win a box of Cadburys Heroes. To make this more fun all agents have a super hero alias and all nominations are delivered under these aliases. To get everyones involvement they even had a charity dress down day or more to the point, dress-up day all wearing their super hero costumes!

By looking at the present company structure and after structure analyze, we suggest on making few changes in the company staffing structure and we cut down two structures from it. And the existing finance plan is very strong but due to some inappropriate structure company faces a drastic finance distraction.

Existing structure

Suggested structure

director

manager day process

manager night process

superviser team ROOSTER

supperviser team CAT

supervisor team ROOSTER

superviser team CAT

CSE

CSE

CSE

CSE

Changes and gaining

After structure analysis we made few changes in the company structure and we have removed two structures, and reduced few staff numbers as well and the new staff allocation follows
Total 29 staffs 23 customer service executive (CSE) 4 supervisors 2 process manager We have decreased the number of staff from the following hierarchy Supervisor level As per the suggested structure the team will be working on the following structure Team of 7 to 10 will be working on one team under one supervisors supervision

And each team will work for specified project and shift this will increase the focus on the project and it will automatically create a pool of specialist to perform efficiently Suggested finance plan Annual expenditure Salary allocation amount Other expenditure Premises Rentals Maintenance Annual total expenditure Annual turnover Annual expected profit : 360,000 LKR : 200,000 LKR : 120,000 LKR : 17420000 LKR : 20420000 LKR : 3,000,000 LKR : 13020000 LKR

Salary allocation (monthly) Hierarchy Manager process Supervisor CSE Amount 80,000 40,000 35,000

Yearly salary calculation Hierarchy Manager process Supervisor CSE Amount 60,000 40,000 35,000 QTY X2 X4 X 23 Total 120000 160000 805000 Annual (x 12) 1440000 1920000 9660000

Finance comparison Elements Existing plan Amount Suggested plan amount

Salary

16,740,000 13,020,000

Profit

3,000,000 6,720,000

gaining Reduced the amount allocated for salary annually, and made an attractive salary and incentive package for CSE level staff which will reflect in potential performance of them, also it will motivate them to engage with their profession Amount added to profit : 3720000 LKR After altering the structure of the company the profit has increased in 112% and its a large increase which effected the profit of the organization, and this amount has been gained without any other business development or improvement of the company or the business,

By restructuring the company hierarchy the company can gain two benefits which are follows Creating an environment of motivated employees who earn more than the previous and also, they are motivated and rewarded with a good monetary valued amount, and this will impact on the company performance and it will keep the progression of the company on a flow. Increased amount in profit which could be allocated for further business expanding process which will follow further, and also with this increased amount of 3720000 LKR amount , company staff can enjoy the benefit of bonus and maturity as well as with this amount company can allocate a new business development team to bring new business and develop the business.

Management failure Its much visible that the management has not made right decision in order to achieve the company set target; this is visible when comparing the company mission and vision statement with the progression of the company. According to the company mission vision statement , company set target should be on professional and co-operate range call center solution, and while putting all above suggestions and changes in order, we now focused on our vision and mission, And to reach the exact target on the right time, its mandatory to work on scheduled business process, Following are the suggested business changes and new implementations. Business process is divided into 4 different areas which are Client and operation Brand Staff Profit

Client First quarter of the year will totally focused on client based activity to provide a quality service and meeting the set target of the SLA, and to provide the client with an effective service and enriching the brand.

Brand Second quarter will be focused on enriching the TRCCS brand in the market, carrying out some CCR activity and staff outing will escalate the brand value initially.

Staff Third quarter will totally focused on staff development and training also it will be focused on staff motivational tour and other interactive activities, this is to ensure that all the staff is motivated and converted into a company loving environment. And this will directly impact on the productivity of every staff, because of the brand value and job demand. Profit And final quarter will totally focused on profit based activity such as new business implementation and business development and some other and new technology implementation to bring down the competition weight, and also it will make TRCCS to compete easier with other similar organizations

Implementing an action plan to the business in order to track the performance and add more improvement plan and suggestions.

Action Plan for Starting a Call Center

As the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. Here is a basic, yet sound and reasonable action plan that will fit all types of call centers and situations: Examine your motives: Why are you doing this? Is it for the right reason? Do you have practical expectations? Research the industry: Join call center associations; read industry literature; but be careful about advice you find on the Internet. Some Internet information about call centers is out-of-date and some is just plain wrong. Make sure that any Internet information is provided by a reputable person who is currently involved in the industry. Make a working business plan: Having a simple, yet effective business plan is essential in keeping you on track and focused. Your business plan should include objectives, a cost analysis, a profitability preformed (if you will be a profit center), equipment, telephone and Internet needs, planning for funding, obtaining the requisite licenses, permits, and insurances, and a time table. Evaluate and select equipment: This is a critical step. Call center equipment and software can be expensive. The features available on the equipment and software you buy will dictate the types of services you can offer and how efficient and effective you will be. Determine your launch date: This is the date that you will go live and begin processing calls. By then you will need your equipment installed, the phone lines in and working, your staff hired and trained, and most importantly work to do. Buy and install equipment: Once you buy the equipment and software, your vendor will install it and provide some training. They will also be able to tell you when you need to place your order with them to have the system installed and staff trained for your launch date. Order phone and Internet service: Many vendors can order your phone service for you. At the very least, they will tell you what to order. Most call center equipment requires special phone service, which all too many phone company reps do not fully understand, so dont try to do order phone service (except for one standard business line) on your own. Hire and train staff: Hire and train more staff than you project you will need for your launch. Why? For two reasons. First, not all of the people you hire will be retained. Despite your best screening and hiring efforts, some will quit before they finish training, while others will quickly conclude that it is not the job for them, and still others will find a better job. The other reason is that when you go live there will undoubtedly be unanticipated problems, which extra staff can

help resolve. Also, expect your staff to be tentative and a bit slow during those initial days of operation. Therefore, extra staff will be a blessing. Begin operation: Now that everything is in place, you can begin processing calls! At this point you will have successfully launched a call center, congratulations! The next goal is to grow it, fine-tune it, improve it, and expand it.

An assessment will done every quarter to check the performance compared with the performance, and this assessment will dynamically will work on providing informations of the performance, And the action plan will be on the format of below This action plan contains four different criteria those follows Finance Staff Quality brand

Each criteria will be assessed by considering the final output of every productive project submission, and will be analyzed with each other criteria and this will be presented to the company director on MBR (Monthly Business Report). This is to ensure that all the implemented changes and suggested and improved areas are working on the exact expected flow and process. And this information gathered from the action plan will be monitored by the company director and every implemented areas should ensure meet the expected outcome , and depending on the information, staff who are responsible for certain objective will be given a feedback, and failure and other risk areas will be considered and will be given further advise and feedback.