In this case study, P3 partnered with a disaster management consultancy company that works with agencies of the federal government (like FEMA) after disasters strike. This organization assists in its efforts to allocate funds and manage calls for people impacted by an event or crisis. During national crises, it bids for government contracts to be included as part of the response process. Before reaching out to P3’s team of consultants, their company relied on external resources to meet its demands. However, its leadership wanted to expand its call center operations so it could bid on larger contracts and handle greater call volumes.
Challenges
The company had initially reached out to P3 because it was a small call center without the resources it needed to grow. Although their people are experts in what they do, their new staff was unprepared to handle these challenges and had little experience in the outsourcing call center space.
In the past, the company had utilized partners with the infrastructure and operations in place to perform the work. However, these services are expensive, and it wanted to handle more of the operations internally. Therefore, P3 adopted a hybrid strategy incorporating the external partners and new internal operations to help them meet their goals and continue doing business through the transition.
Since we had to essentially set up the call center from ground zero, we needed a comprehensive business plan to guide them through the process, from start to finish. Furthermore, we had to meet an aggressive timeline (30 days) with financial penalties for each day that deliverables were not received on time. In addition to the limited technology, the initial plan had to be turned around in 15 days.
Actions
The first step was to write a comprehensive business plan that included the site selection, a financial plan with recommendations, and a detailed operational plan for all functional areas. This also meant creating new processes and SOPs, building out the space, and adopting new operating systems since it had relied on its former partners for most of its technology.
Our consultants used their existing relationships to reach out to players in the tech industry to host demos, perform due diligence sessions, and choose the right partner to move forward with. The leadership on both sides collaborated on the contract and establishment of the legal partnership. Since everyone was in alignment during the decision-making process and the new contractor had their own deployment partners, the entire plan was completed efficiently and successfully, with minimal disruption to their operations.
Once the new systems were in place, P3 also implemented a continuity plan and trained their staff on the new technology. With the internal resources in place, the company now has all the tools it needs to expand.
Results
This case study presented an unusual situation in which our client started with nothing and built its facility and operations from the ground up. Within 30 days, P3 successfully implemented and deployed the plan and trained their staff, achieving every deliverable according to the strict timeline. And, we actually delivered the completed business plan 24 hours ahead of schedule.
A great part of the success stems from the relationship with our partner. The company and its leadership embraced the consultant/advisory role and allowed P3 to do what we do best.
With the new call center, the company has the proper environment to function more efficiently and at a greater capacity. And, it has more range in what it can offer its clients. Going forward, it will be less reliant on external partners and require less outsourcing of the work. Although it will continue to work with former partners while leveraging internal resources, the company now has the ability to go after larger contracts and generate more revenue. And, it will be ready to jump in at a moment’s notice when a disaster or crisis hits.
The project was so successful that our team looks forward to consulting on future projects as well. We are pleased its leadership has decided to keep us in an advisory role and appreciate the bode of confidence they have in our services.