Virtual Customer Care H1N1 and Business Continuity VIPdesk 120309

Confidential - Proprietary VIPdesk Information 1

Cover Slide

Virtual Customer Care: An Essential Component of H1N1 & Business Continuity Planning

Sally Hurley: PresidentDan Fontaine: SVP, Technology

VIPdesk Webinar Series December 3, 2009

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Agenda

• Importance of Business Continuity Planning

• Platform requirements in virtual call center environments

• Finding and preparing the right people in virtual call center environment

• Case Studies• Best Practices


About The Presenters

• 20+ years experience delivering premium customer service

• Passion for customer experience• Committed to building a culture that

supports work-life balance• Proud to be a green company-

supporting thousands of individuals that work from home across North America

• President of Entrepreneurs Organization in D.C.

Sally HurleyPresident, Co-founder

Dan FontaineSVP, Technology

• Leads VIPdesk's Technology Team to develop and integrate technologies relating to VIPdesk's loyalty solution product portfolio

• Manages VIPdesk Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Plan development, execution, testing and maintenance

• Team provides operational support for the technology employed throughout VIPdesk and its programs.


Business Continuity PlanningMore important than ever


2009-10 flu season started early, has

exceeded previous years43 US States reporting widespread flu activity

H1N1 Reaches Pandemic Status

The IMF said a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and cause a 5% drop in global GDP.

--Reuters


Short-Term Response

Sick employees required to stay home or risk disciplinary action

Hand sanitizers installed throughout workplace

Employees allowed to telecommute


Situations that Require Immediate DR/BCP

• Pandemic

• Natural Disaster

• Unnatural Disaster

Worldwide 2009

South Dakota 2009

East Coast 2003


Business Continuity Plan in Action

EventTornado destroys home

office $1 million in hardware, software damage

DRBC Plan

• Within 72 hours, Aeneas was fully operational• Many customers never lost service

Offsite backup systems Employees enabled to work remotely

Actions

Results


Business Continuity Plan in Action

EventHurricane Katrina hits

New Orleans

Duplicate servers across country

• One of only web services companies to remain active

• Able to help local organizations, non-profits and news organizations with coverage, communication

Staff relocated away from New Orleans

Actions

Results


Components of BCP Success

Plan

Platform

People

DR/BCP Success


Building a Plan

• Identify critical call center and business functions and the systems and staff needed to support them

• Prioritize the business functions by what is most critical to the company's survival

• Determine the maximum acceptable outage time for identified business functions

• Prepare step-by-step procedures for recovering disrupted functions or systems

• Include your vendors


PlatformWhat are the components of an effective Business Continuity Platform in a call center environment?


Key Technology Questions

What software

do I need?

Do I need to invest in new hardware?

How do I connect everything during

an emergency?


Assess Technology Risk

• Identify critical call center and business functions and the systems and staff needed to support them

• Prioritize the business functions by what is most critical to the company's survival

• Determine the maximum acceptable outage time for identified business functions


Identify Call Center Requirements

Technology infrastructure hosted at a data center

Mirrored hosted ACD solution

ACD and supporting systems can be accessed and used by home-based users

Auto-failover mirrored systems


Identify Agent Requirements

Proper environment

Workstation or laptop that meets system and security requirements

High speed Internet access

Ability to connect securely to systems

Phone or VoIP headset


PeopleHow can a virtual contact center model effectively recruit and staff to ensure Business Continuity?


Attract Decentralized Applicants

• Flexible scheduling• Reduced expenditures • Elimination of commute• Enhanced work/life balance• Comfort of working from

home• Ability to maintain lifestyle in

addition to career• Work on behalf of the brand

they love

Geographically dispersed agents mitigate risks associated with localized or regional Business Continuity events


Nationwide Recruiting

Pass Basic Qualifications: 24%

Pass Client Specific Qualifications: 59%

Pass Hardware/Software Requirements: 73%

Pass Resume and Phone Screen: 83%

Pass Credit/Criminal Check: 79%

Complete Agreement and Tech Setup: 85%

Complete/PassCertification: 63%

Go Live: 95%

Ability to be Selective

Nationwide recruiting

Highly skilled team

Supports BCP


Provide Effective Communication Tools

MethodsDR ProceduresDR Processes

Instant Communication

Secure IMSwitch capabilities – outbound

voice messaging

Data and ReportsWeb-based Dashboard

ResourcesTechnology platform

Resource portalLMS


Leverage Learning Management System

Web-based LMS- University

• Class schedules and ability to register

• Learning Paths

• Curriculum Library/Searchable database of training modules

• Assessments/tests

• Self-paced modules

• Videos

• Web Conferencing

• Conference calling


Virtualized Operations Make a Difference

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Centralized call center is crippled by local tornado

Virtual operation makes a difference during NE blackout

Virtual call center steps in during frequent blizzards


Putting it All Together


Business Continuity Best Practices

Keys for Success

Identify technology and process touch-points to ensure systems are in place, people are available and people know what to do

Locate people, platform resources in multiple geographic regions, including Leadership Team

Test DRBC Plan regularly

Communicate plan to all team members

Utilize multiple communication tools for “blasts” and urgent updates

Don’t just manage the model, live it!


Additional Resources

• http://www.ready.gov

• http://www.cdc.gov/

• http://www.business-continuity-world.com/

• http://www.disaster-recovery-guide.com/

• http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Business-Continuity-Plan


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Dan FontaineSVP, Technology

[email protected](703) 837-3520

Sally HurleyPresident

[email protected](703) 837-3518

Contact Us

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