Disaster readiness & the contact center

Disaster readiness & the contact centerfor “always on” customer service

TELUS International

2010

TELUS International - Public2 www.telusinternational.com

Mission critical contact centers

For many companies, contact centers are the lifeline to connecting with customers either via phone, email, online chat, and now social media channels like Twitter

As a result, contact centers are becoming mission critical to managing corporate brand and reputation

But what happens when something goes wrong and the contact center goes down? Besides testing for equipment failure, have HR issues, environmental risks and things like social unrest been considered?

Companies need to be prepared for a wide variety of events that could impact customer service – especially when busy tones or long hold times are unacceptable


What defines mission criticality?

Impact on process When disruption of process hampers flow of work When idle time has a negative impact on customers When slow-downs hamper downstream process

Impact on lives When service disruption is life-threatening When idle time or disruption has a negative morale impact When labor relations are damaged When the work environment is compromised When social or environmental issues challenge the business operation

Impact on the bottom line “Each Call is Worth” how much money in lost opportunity? Delays may cause unrecoverable labor loss Disruption causes customers to defect


What could go wrong?

Natural Disasters Ice storms, earthquakes, heat waves,

floods, hurricanes Tornadoes, avalanches, pestilence,

drought, disease

Infrastructure Disasters Regional power loss Water contamination or water main

breaks Gas leaks, traffic grid breakdowns

People-initiated Disasters (intentional or not)

Terrorism, sabotage Political demonstrations, organized

labor strikes

What’s coming? September often marks the

beginning of a season of extreme weather.

In Canada, experts in the Canadian Hurricane Center believe 2010 will be especially active and predict there will be more than five category three or higher hurricanes this season.


Evolution of disaster implications

The scale and scope of disasters is continually expanding over timeBuilding or blockCityRegionNation

Varying impact on: Personnel and their families (immediate and extended) Traffic patterns Interventions by first responders Infrastructure (power generation & transmission, transportation networks) Supply chains and cash flows

Trends in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity


Interdependencies brought about by tighter business relationships and just-in-time supply chains

A single domino takes out many more dominoes than before As a result, firms need to be stronger than before

Regulatory requirements mandate information availability & accessibility. Some examples:

Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404 (SOX 404) – financial reporting controls Personal Information Protection & Electronics Documents Act (PIPEDA) or equivalents Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards

Customer expectations for availability continue to increase

The scale and scope of disasters are affecting wider swaths of employees for longer periods of time

Workplaces are affected Homes are affected Immediate and extended families may be affected

Evolution of disaster implications



Goes from being an infrastructure problem to a people problem Brings its own series of challenges

Human factor reduces flexibility in disaster response efforts Employees are worried about health and safety of immediate and

extended family members Limits ability to move employees around and what can be asked of them

However, it can easily become an infrastructure problem as well Employees who are sick, afraid to come to work, or who are under

pressure at work can mean that essential business and maintenance activities are not performed, leading to future problems

Evolution of responses



The conventional wisdom on temporary facilities has been thrown out the window

What made sense before no longer does For example, with Hurricane Katrina, facilities in the States next door

were affected as well Lights off facilities are expensive and do not make economic sense in

our “better, faster, cheaper, leaner” new economic climate This means a trend towards recovery sites further and further away from

the disaster zone Each new disaster calls the conventional wisdom in to question

Geographical diversity becomes the watchword There is a need to have temporary facilities located on different power

grids, different water sources, etc. Distances from the primary site are affected as well

In light of employees’ willingness (or not) to be away from their families, this brings its own set of problems




Employees working remotely for extended periods of time How do you motivate them and keep them motivated over time? How are tasks assigned; what is critical from one day to the next? Manage them day-to-day over time?

Need to reproduce the dynamic found in the workplace Ability to communicate, collaborate in a timely manner with colleagues

Otherwise productivity will suffer as the ties that bind team members break down

Ability to work on projects together and ensure that outcomes are achieved in spite of modified workflow




Disaster recovery stats? There is not a great deal of public industry stats on disaster recovery due to the

fact that many business interruptions are rarely reported and if they are, they are highly underestimated to the world – Disaster Recovery Journal

But…some interesting claims around DR include: According to leading industry analysts such as Gartner, IDC, and Forrester,

organizations stand to lose between $84,000 and $108,000 for every hour of IT systems downtime

Many firms appear to be over-confident in their ability to manage the business continuity risks facing their organizations leaving them highly vulnerable to physical disruption – Marsh 2010 Business Continuity Benchmark Report

Many companies are unprepared to enable the majority of their employees to effectively telework during workforce disruptions such as transit failures or natural disasters – Cisco, Securing the Mobile Workforce US Survey, 2009

With increased reliance on third parties for mission critical services, how much do businesses know about their outsourced providers?

Increase in BPO services spending: Worldwide CAGR of 9.1% and US CAGR of 8.8% from 2008-2013 across key horizontal services (customer care, finance, human resources, procurement and training) – IDC Worldwide and US BPO Services Forecast, 2009



What to look for in your contact center partner There are many benefits to working with an external partner specializing in

contact centers and customer service.

Not only are these providers experts in call center operations, but also, a good provider will have robust, always evolving DR /BCP plans that are tested on a regular basis.

When considering a BPO / contact center outsourcing provider, a sample of what to look for:

A provider that has located in sites with DR / BCP in mind E.g. Locations with low incidence of natural disasters, or in metro areas for improved

infrastructure robustness and labor access DR / BCP plans that address physical infrastructure, technology, and HR issues A proven track record when something does go wrong Highly redundant, self-healing networks A contractual uptime guarantee with a definition of what this actually measures Global reach for geographic diversity to re-route calls if needed Audited by a globally recognized risk management firm Complies with recognized organization guidelines like Disaster Recovery International Is able to leverage relationships with local service providers for telecommunications, power, etc.

in the affected area


Case study - example

In Sept. 2009, Typhoon Ketsana swept through the Philippines affecting more than 1,000 TELUS team members. Flood waters wiped out the homes of almost 400,000 Filipinos and displaced some 2 million residents.

For TELUS International, the key focus in this disaster situation revolved around employees and ensuring that employees could get to work to continue to answer customer calls.

Innovative methods were used, including: Contacting employees: TELUS International was one of the first

organizations to broadcast using text messaging and local radio plugs with a 24/7 emergency hotline for employees to verify their safety

This included a PABX backup plan to ensure the hotline would remain operational even with power outages

Getting people to work: developing an enhanced transportation system (nicknamed Noah’s Ark) where agents could be picked up and transported directly to work

Extended family support: making sure families were okay, so that agents could have peace of mind while they continued to work through the disaster

Cash payouts: offering employees in distress cash and hotel accommodations

View from front door of TELUS House, Manila


Case study – example continued

Results:

Our business continuity and disaster recovery planning efforts successfully ensured that none of our 4 Manila-based facilities experienced any power or connectivity outages

We were able to seamlessly re-route call volumes to our Canadian, Nevada and Guatemala-based facilities to address agent shortages

Less than 1 week after the calamity was announced, our operations were back to normal Team members and family members

wading through water to get to work


Case study – example continued

Takeaways:

How much do you really know about the robustness of your provider? Have you asked the right questions?

When evaluating a contact center provider, ask for examples of worst case scenarios. This would include questions like:

How is staffing planned for unusual situations Can calls be seamlessly re-routed to other locations, including other sites and/or

geographies? Will the voice and data network allow for global, next-available-agent call routing? Can agents in other locations still take calls in the languages required? How do you test your environment? Do you actually take real world scenarios into

account, not just equipment failures? How much notice is needed to put alternatives into action?


About TELUS International

Our contact center and disaster readiness expertise:

TELUS International delivers contact center programs in the Philippines, Latin America, the UK, South Korea, Canada and the US for global clients

BPO / Contact center locations were carefully selected with DR / BCP in mind

It maintains the only OC12 network into the Philippines, with two high bandwidth cable connections that make TELUS International’s contact center operations 100% redundant and self healing, including dual E300 failover redundant circuits

IT infrastructure operated at a 99.97 uptime level in 2009 and is expected to operate at 99.99 for 2010

Its parent company, TELUS, is one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies. TELUS is a founding member and Chair of the Canadian Telecommunications Emergency Preparedness Association (CTEPA).

Complies with Disaster Recovery International and UN White Hat Disaster organization guidelines

Audited by Marsh, a globally recognized Risk Management firm


Resources (a select list)*

Organizations:

Disaster Recovery International – http://www.drii.org

Business Continuity Institute - http://www.thebci.org/

Marsh – http://global.marsh.com/

Article:

High availability vs. uptime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability

Publications:

Disaster Recovery Journal – http://www.drj.com

Continuity Central – http://www.continuitycentral.com

* Select resource list is for reference purposes only and does not reflect any endorsements of TELUS or TELUS International.


Connect with us:

For further information on our contact center and business process outsourcing (BPO) programs, please contact TELUS International:

Web: http://www.telusinternational.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TELUSint

Email: [email protected]

1.800.306.1586 (toll free North America)

1.780.392.0160 (global)

Copyright 2010 TELUS. Other company and brand, product and service names are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.