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By Anna Frazzetto
Because of the complexities of recovering a telecommunications
network, it is important to have a prior plan in place that ensures
you are protected if and when a disaster occurs. When beginning
the planning process for a response in the event of a disaster,
an understanding of the organization's critical business functions
is necessary.
Senior management often underestimates the complexities
of recovering call centers. As with most recovery efforts, it is
important that key members of the organization understand a call
center's critical functions & needs to ensure they have planned
appropriately from a budgeting and recovery time perspective.
Traditionally, call centers have looked at several
types of recovery options to re-establish communications with their
customer base. Organizations with multiple call centers may have
re-distributed the calls, allocating them across the organization.
Hotsite services also provided an answer, generally offering the
capability to re-route the calls to a fixed facility where the agents
could reside and begin taking calls. At a hotsite facility, a customer
could utilize the services of either their own agents or could "hire"
the resource of the hotsite vendor.
However, changes in both the importance and scope
of call center operations has mandated a change in views. Consider
the following:
- Contact centers are often in operation 24 hours a day, handling
far more calls and utilizing three or four shifts of personnel.
- Regardless of hours of operation, the economy and business
climate has dictated that many organizations streamline their
operations; as such, many companies have centralized call centers
into one facility. This situation has resulted in less opportunity
to farm out the calls.
- Specialization of agent expertise (i.e. Dial 1 for Sales, Dial
2 for Technical Support) has resulted in agents not being able
to "cover " for each other as before. Fewer people have the required
skill sets to answer all calls.
- Today's competitive, 24 hour a day environment dictates that
downtime is inexcusable and very costly; this has driven organizations
to include more agents in their recovery plans. As these plans
have become more personnel heavy, it becomes increasingly difficult
to plan for recovery at a remote facility.
A recent poll of over 100 Fortune 1000 companies conducted
by Agility Recovery Solutions indicates that 76% of respondents
felt Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) recovery was critical, and
64% felt that onsite, local recovery was preferable. These numbers
reflect the growing awareness that when recovering people, and not
only technology, the logistics of moving the entire operation to
a remote site can be unwieldy, costly and impractical.
Recovery plans for call centers need to take into
account the number of agents needed, their appropriate skill sets,
and the most cost effective way to get them back on the phone, talking
to the customers of the organization.
The Three R's of a Recovery
Plan
A large number of organizations have developed plans for not only
their business but also their call centers. However, there are a
large number of firms who still require an effective recovery plan
for their business and more importantly their call/contact center.
Step A - Realization - Business
Impact Analysis
Very often, if an organization does not reside in an area "likely"
to have a disaster (the southeastern United States for hurricanes,
the west coast for earthquakes) they underestimate the risk of an
event occurring. However, as dependencies on data, infrastructure
and telecommunication networks have increased, so has the likelihood
of one part of the equation being compromised. An organization can
become aware of just how vulnerable they may be by conducting a
business impact analysis. A BIA, as it is called, will help identify
critical business functions such as computer/ back office operations,
data, communications and utilities. Additionally, it will help identify
risk implications such as lost sales, potential fines, lawsuits,
and lost market share.
Once an organization has a clear understanding of
what the company's critical needs are, the extent of possible financial
losses that could be incurred, and recovery time frames, many of
the necessary inputs can be put in place to assist in deciding on
an effective strategy.
However, as we are focusing on recovery planning for
Call Centers, it is important to take into consideration specific
requirements to validate your recovery needs. For instance, "Call
Volume Handling" looks at the volume of calls and the difficulty
factors of handling those calls. Analyzing the call volume of your
organization will help management decide what type of recovery solution
they will need for a call center, based on the volume and type of
calls they receive.
These possible recovery solutions for call volume
handling include:
- Interim Call Handling (ICH) with scripting is a system whereby
the outsourced vendor would take a large number of relatively
simple calls and process them. An ICH facility would handle sales
call volumes where a Customer Service Representative would take
the information and input it into a common database.
- Real Time Minimum Overflow (RTMO) is an outsourced facility
that can handle the overflow of more difficult calls from a recovery
alternative, as well as day to day operating function of your
business.
Additionally, a business impact analysis will help
identify how many "agent seats" are required, which calls you should
be planning for, and what potential recovery solutions are available.
This all feeds into your telecommunication requirments at time of
disaster.
Step B - Rationalization -
Planning
By conducting a BIA as outlined above, an organization will have
knowledge of their specific requirements for call handling. In the
planning phase, documentation of a number of measurements is paramount
- including identification of call frequency, volume and type, difficulty
and priority in the queue. Furthermore, organizations should be
able to determine how calls will be deployed and handled, using
such tools as ICH and RTMO.
Development of any recovery plan, whether an overall
business plan or a telecommunications plan, should include many
of the same critical pieces, including:
- Recovery teams (Senior management, team leaders, and the overall
team)
- Key internal and external contacts
- Recovery processes
- Emergency call list
- Escalation procedures
- Salvage lists (resources that you will try to retrieve from
the disaster site)
- Recovery location In a call center environment, organi- zations
will also need to identify:
- Call center recovery teams (supervisors/agents)
- Immediate and interim call handling processes, including call
forwarding, routing and emergency messaging
- Skill sets required
- Recovery strategy (hotsite, internal site, mobile recovery
site)
- Functionality Required (i.e. call forwarding, hold, conferencing)
It is important to note that regardless of your recovery
plans and parameters, your local phone service will likely play
a role in your recovery. An understanding of the call forwarding
and messaging capability they provide is important, as well as an
understanding of possible time frames and costs involved with such
services.
It is critical in the planning process that once organizations
identify the personnel involved in the recovery, routing tables
are properly built, saved and accessible. Routing tables ensure
that a call coming into the queue is routed to the correct agent
when in recovery mode. In addition to routing tables, emergency
messages should be recorded.
Step C - Recoverability -
Testing
For any plan to be viable it must be properly tested. Testing is
vital, especially for a call center recovery plan. Because of the
volume and complexities of incoming calls, and their importance
to the survival of the business, call center recovery testing should
be an integral part of the overall planning process.
When preparing for a test you need to clearly identify:
A) Where you will test - does your recovery
plan dictate local or hotsite recovery? Should you perform a test
at your location, or remotely, based upon your plans?
B) What will you test - very often testing a small subset
of your actual recovery capability will prove the viability of the
solution while keeping your costs in check.
C) Who will be part of the test - are there key/critical
personnel that should be involved? Can those people then carry the
knowledge back to their groups?
D) What type of test - i.e. Passive or Active
E) Post-test actions - Steps to follow after completing a
test, i.e., updating the plan, auditing the test results, conducting
a follow-up test
Passive tests are mainly internal walkthroughs
to educate all key members of the recovery teams as to their responsibilities.
Active tests, by contrast, will provide information
on the capabilities of not only your external contacts, vendors
and relocation facilities, but also identify how efficient or inefficient
your plan is. This type of information would otherwise not be discovered
in a passive test. Each test you perform should include a number
of standard deliverables, including the following activities.
By following this format, senior management and the
recovery team will be able to identify any problems with the plan
and incorporate any improvements to the organization's plan.
About the Author
Anna Frazzetto, Vice President, Professional
Services Anna has worked on over 200 Disaster Recovery/Business
Continuity Programs in her career. Her specialty is Crisis Management
and Business Impact Analysis. She is a renowned public speaker,
and regularly presents at National Conferences as well as at many
industry sponsored luncheon and dinner forums. She can be contacted
at (905) 403-3443 or anna.frazzetto@agilityrecovery.com
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