The Challenge
In 2009, legislation was passed and REAA urgently needed an agents’ registry in place by April 2010. As a one-off assignment, REAA came to Datacom seeking – as a leader in providing business process outsourcing (BPO) expertise – price certainty and preparedness to meet the difficult deadline delivery.
Datacom’s proven BPO expertise enabled the company to rise to the challenge, by deploying its people, processes and technology to meet the 10-week deadline. The company’s approach was guided by Linder’s transformational outsourcing practices, which entail designing a good business model and driving a dynamic transformation.
The Solution
Around 17,000 applications were expected from when the initial application forms and invoices were sent to potential agents in January 2010, with the first arriving at Datacom’s processing centre a few days later. The deadline for registration was 31 March 2010.
To manage the project within the timeframe, Datacom’s professional services business unit wasted no time in providing project managers to set up the unit and guide its daily activities. Client service officer (CSO) processing staff were recruited and a team established, including two team leaders with senior IT management experience.
The initial proposal, based on a brief work study of new applications, suggested that a well motivated, trained and supervised CSO might complete 10 applications per day. We committed to that forecast. Datacom was able to resource and accommodate this rapidly growing workforce of 35 people with ease thanks to its committed people, processes and technology. Connections to the REAA and Datacom networks were arranged by Datacom IT management and engineering teams.
The fundamental uncertainty of this assignment arose from it being a one-off assignment with no prior history. This meant Datacom had to demonstrate agility to rapidly change to meet new and unexpected demands. It was able to do so due to the company’s high level project management skills, process engineering and an established methodology.
“Datacom gave us a way to process 15,000 applications that arrived over a 10-week period. They gave us certainty of price, brought logistical expertise and a real talent for anticipating the next bottleneck. Datacom is agile in operations and easy to contract with.”
Dean Winter - Operation Manager, REAA