Outsourcing telephonic data collection, a whitepaper

Transcription

1 Outsourcing telephonic data collection, a whitepaper Introduction The last decade has seen the MR environment change rapidly, and the pace of change is increasing every year, leading to this whitepaper: for full service MR firms, the importance to focus on the core activities is becoming more important than ever. These core activities encompass the unique proposition of each firm, and therefore should add value to the proposition. A logical consequence should be to outsource activities which are no longer part of the value add. In reality, within the MR industry, there still is a huge number of firms who still need to take this step. This whitepaper tries to give some pointers and guidelines on which issues to take into account during the decision making process to either keep non-core activities in-house or to outsource them, CATI in particular.

2 Market research and the current market dynamics In the current dynamic of the research industry, a lot has changed compared to 5 years ago. Due to the need to adapt quickly to a continuously changing environment, research companies have been forced to redefine their core competencies, and must be focussed on those core competencies. Activities not being part (anymore) of the added-value string should be reviewed within the scope of a make or buy (outsource) decision. When outsourcing, a company uses third parties to perform the non-core business activities, enabling the company to focus its efforts on its core competencies. Third parties that specialize in one activity are likely to have a lower cost base and operate more effective, given their focus and scale. When outsourcing non-core activities, a company can access best practice methods for all of those activities, without having to master each one internally. In short resources, people, capital and time are being released in order to focus more on the core competencies. When the outsourcing of an activity or activities is on the agenda, take the following steps 1 into account: Determine whether the activity to outsource is a core competency Evaluate the financial impact of outsourcing Assess the non-financial costs and advantages of outsourcing Choose an outsourcing partner and contract the relationship In the next paragraphs, we look in more detail into the steps above, specifically where CATI work is concerned. 1 Daryll K. Rigby, Management tools 2013, An executive s guide, Bain & Company

3 Telephonic data collection in the past Historically, telephonic data collection (CATI) has been one of main data collection methods: the majority of the research companies were supported by premise-based CATI centres. Key benefit of this premise based model was a mature and proven deployment model. Having complete control over the systems and applications (functionality, data integrity, privacy, security, reliability), and often connections with other business systems and applications (from finance on one side, to integrated reporting tools on the other side). Most of the time, the systems run on acquired hardware and software. The alternative of the premise based telephonic CATI unit, is outsourcing this activity to specialized CATI providers. This outsource option was hardly explored in the past years for various reasons, but mostly because; CATI was one of the leading data collection methods A stable price-level, due to lack of (better or cheaper) alternatives The scale of the premise based CATI centres proved a solid margin to the bottom line of the P&L Data collection defined was a competence that should- and must be conducted in-house for various reasons, such as quality, client demand, short communication lines, etc. Operating first generation (CATI) software applications, it was often impossible (or very difficult) to grant access to those systems to external suppliers. Determine whether the activity to outsource is a core competency When zooming in on CATI we see the following developments; A decreasing scale of CATI activities Price erosion Newer generation web-based data collection software easily accessible from any location Telephonic data collection (or data collection in general) is no longer defined as a core activity, but just as a means to support the added value research/consultancy activities Having an in-house CATI facility is not a unique competitive advantage (anymore)

4 Evaluate the financial impact of outsourcing Outsourcing likely offers cost advantages, but in order to calculate the financial impact of outsourcing (make or buy comparison), all cost components of running an in-house CATI facility must be defined and quantified. An approach for defining all financial components is the use of total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis2. This TCO model is designed in order to define the (lifetime) cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining something. In general for a CATI facility the defined costs components can be divided in the following attributable costs components. Direct costs: The following direct costs components can be defined. Costs related to software (licenses) for server operating software, workstation operating software, CATI- and other software, and the costs of service fees. Depreciation costs, related to the investments made in hardware, i.e. servers, workstations, routers, firewalls, back-up facilities and other ITC related equipment. In cases where, due to the age of the systems, accounting wise no depreciations apply (all hardware is already written off) often is overlooked that, in case of malfunctions/breakdowns of this old hardware, replacement investments are needed which were not financial planned for. Supporting staff for CATI unit: staffing capacity is mostly matched with the capacity needed in peak times, which are only 2-3 periods per year when a larger volume of CATI projects is conducted. A cost component often forgotten, concerns the costs of keeping the telephony infrastructure (ISDN lines, subscriptions etc) jn place. Those costs will weigh in more heavily on the monthly costs if the workload for telephonic fieldwork declines. Indirect costs: Renting costs of the CATI facility: in many cases, the CATI unit is located at the same premise as the rest of the organization. Often, the square meter costs (f.e. rent) are not incorporated into the operating costs of the CATI facility. Also, often the common oversight is made that the m2 costs for the CATI unit, due to its location on the same premise as the rest of the organisation, are often very high when compared to other locations where a CATI unit could also be located. Cost of IT personnel in order to maintain, update and replace the hard- and software involved. As a consequence of a decreasing CATI turnover this leads to a relative increase here, because the time spent on (often legacy) systems does not diminish at the same rate. Furthermore there are a number of other financial aspects (advantages) which need to be taken into account in the decision making process, outsourcing: Reduces the operating costs Besides the costs which are direct- indirect attributable to the CATI unit, there is another cost component which is often overlooked. This cost component is directly related to the business, the (ad-hoc) operating cost involved in up-scaling the fieldwork capacity during peak times. This involves; advertisement, recruitment, hiring from temp. agencies, training of the new interviewers, and last but not least the learning curve of the (partly) fresh hired interviewer corps. 2 Lisa M. Ellram, Arnold B. Maltz (1995) The Use of Total Costs of Ownership Concepts to Model the Outsourcing Decision

5 Avoids (future) capital investment in non-core activities No more investments required in CATI related infrastructure with a long an often uncertain ROI time. Reduces of operating financial risk If a fixed hourly fee is negotiated, all personnel (financial) risks are covered. If however a fixed price per interview can be negotiated, the risk is even further reduced and we enter the field of activity based costing. Ex-ante you can already define what the margin will be on this part of the activities/services. possibility to improve cash flow If negotiated properly, the regular monthly wage payments (staff + interviewers), can be converted to a purchase (of fieldwork) invoice payable after finishing a project. However the outsourcing process also implicates (one time) costs: the selection of possible partners The selection of a short list, and the ultimate choice for one or more partners needs to be a well thought out process. disinvestment and/or relocating from staff When opting for the buy decision, this will probably lead to changes in the organization. Functions/jobs need to be either allocated differently, or will be made redundant. In both cases this will lead to one-time costs. maintaining a relationships with the partner(s)3. The outsourcing per-se will, certainly in the initial phase, lead to an increased internal effort during which 2 entities grow into an efficient process of cooperation: after some time the time spent on information exchange should be back to acceptable levels (due to the learning curve on both sides). In order to get a clear view on the actual costs of maintaining a CATI facility, all costs components mentioned above have to be taken into account. A realistic costing mark-up per hour can be calculated based on the number of interviewer hours produced per year. So having clear insight in the actual costs must be the basis of a like-for-like comparison of the financial impact in regards the make or buy option. Assess the nonfinancial costs and advantages of outsourcing Assess the advantages and risks of outsourcing in a high quality manner. What are the benefits and are there any risks involved when executing this step? 3 Khurrum S. Bhutta (2002), supplier selection problem: a comparison of the total costs of ownership and analytical hierarchy process

6 Advantages include; leverage expertise and innovation of the specialized partner(s) For example economies of scale, speed, more efficiency in production, in-depth knowledge of the service provided, benchmark figures, leverage of purchasing power of related services (translations, sample, etc). increasing flexibility As touched upon earlier, up- or downscaling of capacity is no longer an issue: it is the responsiblity of the partner to make sure there is always sufficient capacity available. freeing up of resources, no longer occupied with non-core business activities (key) Management no longer needs to focus on or pay attention to the logistics surrounding the CATI unit itself or peripheral business units (operations, HR, Finance). Risks include; Is the partner capable to allocate sufficient capacity on short notice. Make sure the partner is of sufficient size and scale to increase capacity on short notice, and put a Service Level Agreement in place with clear agreements on timelines/parameters for scaling up capacity. Is the partner financially stable? Outsourcing high volumes will have an impact on the partners cashflow, verify if the partner is capable to prefinance high volumes of work if needed. Recap The key aspects to be considered during in the decision making process to either keep CATI work in-house, or to outsource this activity to a specialized company are costing and resources. Try to quantify all cost-components in order to make a well informed decision on solid financial parameters to either continue with CATI work in-house or opting for the outsource choice. Try to determine how much resources you are able to relocate to your core-activities when choosing for the outsourcing option. When a decision is being made to outsource the next step is finding a suitable candidate or candidates. Choose an outsourcing partner and contract the relationship A candidate should be qualified and selected according to both their demonstrated effectiveness and their ability to work collaboratively. So;

7 Look for a partner with industry knowledge. Lack of market research experience at the partner side will lead to inefficiency, and a huge effort will be needed to guide the partner through the learning curve which is needed to grasp the intricacies for CATI work. Look for a partner with sufficient scale, outsourcing means a growing dependency on a partner, thus limiting future flexibility. If a partner is chosen with limited capacity/scale, the inheritant risk is that in busy quarters there is not enough capacity available for you, forcing you to use ad-hoc solutions such as third parties Try to realize a partnership, as opposed to a client-vendor relationship where price is the only factor: yes price is important, but if price is the only factor, this could lead to a short lived relationship. Find a partner who can cover multiple languages if required: this enables a true one-stop-shop model, a single point of contact and uniformity of all processes/procedures across markets covered, leading to savings in time and effort on your side. Success factors and pitfalls: Make sure there is internal commitment to the outsourcing process: involve all departments, even if they are only marginally involved in your CATI work. Invite the (potential) outsource partner, and have them meet with all the internal stakeholders: this will create a sense of involvement with all stakeholders, and can form the basis for a constructive collaboration. Together with internal stakeholders and the external company, start with defining how the processes would work in an ideal (for both) scenario: use this set of parameters as a start to define the working relationship. Visit the location of the (potential) outsource partner, together with the internal stakeholders. Make sure the outsource partner is as transparent as possible on how they work.