Support Center, Inc. (A)IntroductionSCI HistoryStart of DayCSR LogonCollectionsEnd of DayTo end a day, all CSRs log off of their campaigns and the Davox is shut downIT OrganizationIT OperationsCustomer ServiceMarketingAccountingExecutivesContinuity PlanningSUPPORT CENTER, INC. (A)Sue CongerUniversity of DallasAbstractSupport Center, Inc. is a Call Center that conducts collections activity for itsclient companies. SCI has suffered several outages over the last year that worrythe new CIO. The company has many IT issues to be addressed but continuityplanning appears to be one that can be a 'quick win.' What should SCI do forcontinuity planning and how much should it spend? Keywords: ITIL, IT Service Management, Call Center, Business Continuity, DisasterRecovery, Telecomm ManagementIntroductionSupport Center, Inc. (SCI) is a $400 million, 190-person call center that operates two shifts Monday through Friday and half days on Saturday. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the company, Bob Wentworth, is a new employee in charge of technology planning, deployment, and management. Bob's job is to bring SCI's technology up to date and help them learn to better manage the phenomenal growth the company has experienced in the last two years. As Bob delved into the company's problems, he realized that the changes needed would be long term in development but that the company was suffering outages from which it had slow recoveries. Bob decided that continuity planning for both the company and the IT organization were needed, yet the issue of what to do and how much to spend required further analysis SCI HistorySCI is the amalgamation of three call center companies that each had its own area ofexpertise: Somerfield, Inc., Charleston & Associates, and Telecomm Sales, Inc. Somerfield,Inc., the largest of the three and the company founded by Charles Somerfield, the President andChairman of SCI, is a call center in the business of collecting past due accounts for companies inthe telecommunications industry. The Somerfield call center performed what are called 1st Partycollections, during which the Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) act as employees of thetelecomm company and follow scripts to collect the funds owed. CSRs are paid a salary withCopyright 2008, Sue Conger Page 1bonuses as they reach various collection plateaus. The bonuses are considered incentives and toreach plateaus requires constant success in collections efforts.Charleston & Associates is a collections agency that collected 90-day and older accountsof any type. In the SCI environment, the CSRs are referred to as 3rd Party collectors. Third partyCSRs do not follow a script and are allowed to use any legal and ethical means to collect money.However, there is no regulation of this industry and the means are rarely questioned, especiallywhen the amounts collected are substantial. CSRs in this industry tend to be paid completely oncommission that is a percentage of the funds they collect.Telecomm Sales, Inc. was owned by James Ingles before the merger and is the thirdcompany on which SCI is based. Telecomm is a 1st Party selling organization that sold products,such as magazine subscriptions, via sales calls that were guided by scripts. Problems in thissegment of the SCI business forced it to exit this market several months ago. At the time it isdiscontinued, selling accounted for 15% of sales but 30% of Call Center cost.The companies merged two years ago as the owners were all friends who felt thesynergies of the combined companies would be more profitable than the separate companies.However, that expectation has not happened. Operational issues, some of which relate to IT, areperceived as keeping the new company from realizing expected benefits. Bob Wentworth, thenew CIO, had an illustrious Fortune 100 career as Chief Information Officers (CIO) and callcenter manager with over 4000 employees. As CIO, Bob's charge was to help the company betterintegrate its technology to become a strategic asset. The merged SCI organization has had six CIOs in its two-year existence. TheInformation Technology organization (IT) is believed to be out of control because each CIO,upon being hired, had declared serious issues that they would then be unable to improve withinthree months of their hiring thus leading to their subsequent dismissal. Bob's first task is toassess the state of technology, determine the most serious shortcomings, develop a plan to fixthem, and then begin the remediation.OrganizationSCI is a casually run organization with no formal organization chart; the diagram in Figure 1depicts the organization structure as described by Bob Wentworth. In general, the major staffincluded the owner, Charles Summerfield and his partners Jim Charleston and Jim Ingles, GarthPage 2Esterby, the CFO, whomanages corporate financeand oversees accounting andIT. Anne Paige managesaccounting receivables withfour people and payableswith two people. BobWentworth is the CIO withabout 20 people in IT. Gary Jones, the MarketingManager, along with his staffof two and all of the partners, develop business and sell SCI services. Janice Barnes, VP ofHuman Resources, is responsible for a staff of four who hire, fire, and administer benefits.Payroll is outsourced. HR is an important job at SCI because they experience about 180%turnover in the call center annually. Barnes reports to Ingles. James Charleston managed the Call Center and Client Services. Arlette Johnson is the managerof Customer Service. Once a sale is made, it is serviced and monitored by the 20-personCustomer Service staff. Steve McHenry manages the Call Center. Steve manages about 190customer service representatives (CSRs) and supervisors during a 15-hour workday. The Call CenterThe Call Center is organized into two groups for 1st- party and 3rd- party collections(explained below). The day shift is the larger of the two with 140 customer servicerepresentatives (CSRs) working four to eight hours each. Ninety CSRs work the second shift.The 1st party CSRs are grouped into four teams, three teams for each of the major clients'campaigns. All four teams support all other clients. The three largest clients provide about 70%of the billings while the other 1,800 clients provide the remaining 20% of