"[Office Story] "According to plan..."" Topic

Disclaimer: No vampires were involved and no Goth Chicks were harassed, or stalked, etc in any way, although I did share a rid with a sad tired older goth chick in the parking elevator. Older goth chicks just look….sad….

But anyway….

Okay…so as of this past Monday(yesterday), the "Dude!" Company was supposed to start taking 100% of all calls in their new call centers in Panama and Malaysia right?
Wrong…
At 9 am yesterday they contact the higher level and say "oh um…we have a problem see…"

See, every weekend there is a new "push" of upgrades, files, etc, for s piece of software called Facets. Due to Govt. Regulations, tweaking, fixing, adding on new users, and applications, this item is done EVERY Sunday morning automatically. Which on Monday results in a 40% increse in volume in trouble calls due to those wonderful Work At Homes (WAH), that never read the emails that tell them to leave their computer on Sunday night for it to be updated. (Same folks every time…thus the problem is once again with the users)…
So we get told…"Oh yeah…since the facets upgrade has increased the volume of trouble calls that they are handling, it's too much for them, so we are asking you guys to take 10-20% of the calls."

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

So I asked questions such as: "ummmm..so if Friday is our last day, then WHO is going to provide their "backup" next week?"
And most importantly of all. "Why do we need to provide an overflow backup for them when we never had it. We were told simply to deal with the ratio and call metrics….and that was it."

Then our supervisor, who dropped by to clear out his cubicle said simply…"Keep me informed with your phone #'s because I got a feeling that they may be calling us back REAL SOON…"

Yeps..seems like there have been so many customer client complaints already that "the suits" are taking notice of it.
Standard explanations are not being accepted, and things aren't as rosy as the bean counters and the "Dude!" Reps made it out to be.

So at about 3pm "unofficial word" comes up that sometime this week we may have a meeting, and that the "Dude!" company and IT rep here may "request" us to stay an additional 1-2 MORE weeks to help get the other centers "ramped up to speed according to plan."

"According to plan"…

The timeline for this has already been blown out of the water three times…and it's STILL "according to plan…"

I'll keep you informed…This morning I am going in to work and read the latest copy of Wargames Illustrated…
According to plan…

Submitted respectfully;
Murph

Welcome to the down side of outsourcing, Murph. I have talked to dozens of companies who have outsourced overseas, only to learn the hard way that it is not the panecea the bean counters thought it would be. One company moved a plant south of the border, only to then learn that customarily, employers in that area are expected to provide family health care, pay for education, and a host of other things. And since they did not have any bilingual technicians, the cost of competent interpreters ate up more than they saved in labor. The company just barely survived bringing the plant back to the US.

Keep cashing those paychecks, Murph!

Somebody is laughing his big fat bonus all the way to the bank.

At least they're not using Manila. Our company outsourced IT and financial duties from the US to Manila. Now they're slowly pulling the more important aspects back to the US.

We've had several multi-million dollar mistakes with the financial types, so the idea of cost savings via outsourcing is obviously incorrect and folks are beginning to realize it. Finally.

Work at home and update scheduling…when my wife first
started telecommuting, she would habitually turn-off her
equipment on Friday evening.

She missed an update (her company's IT support, external,
pushes the updates on Sunday also), so I suggested she
just leave the equipment powered-up and netted-in on
week-ends.

So she did. Then she got a semi-nastygram from the
IT people about how her equipment was '…using vital
resources during a period of non-business activity',
and telling her to power-down no later than 8 PM
EACH DAY !

Guess y' can't win…

Murphy, I think you should start quoting Skippy as part of your conversations with Management.

Ask if the extension is a re-negociation of yoour contract. I would guess that covering 10-20% of their calls is worth 20% more.

Definitely demand more cheese!

Not just MORE cheese, but BETTER cheese.

Companies that outsource always get the exact service they deserve.

I'm amazed that this failed experiment is still being tried by bean counters everywhere in the name of fiscal efficiencies. Save a nickle up front spend $10 USD on the back end.

Outsourcing is like Geico, sure the rate is great at first. Then they own your data and your systems. Then they start to really price you. Then the developers and helpdesk admins begin to install keystroke loggers and backdoors; because in Crap-o-stan somebody is paying them much much more then the normal salary to do it. (ask the WB [not the TV network] about this one if you think I'm lying) Your staff are ed because they don't get anywhere near the service they got from vested staff and your IT systems go to hell.

Heheheheheh-go ahead-outsource-guess what? the outsource countries have begun to outsource because that's where the real $$$$ is! So your nice outsource company is actually rolling your calls from Crap-o-stan to Big-Pile-o-Steaming-Poosia; the only country in the world that is worse off and more desperate to staff a call center cheaper then they are.

Any CFO's here in TMP thinking about this? You'd be better off just handing out Domain Admin/Root accounts on the street to people casually passing by!

Donald~
in IT-
specifically Net/Data Security-
not a friend to outsourcing!

I've meet plenty of very intelligent people from India. Wonder why the three C's never get outsourced to India? What does your CEO, COO, or CFO do for the company that an Indian can't do? I think some people aren't living up to their fiduciary responsibilities.

Oh, that's right. Fiduciary responsiblities only apply when it comes to screwing the little guy.

"Welcome to the down side of outsourcing, Murph."

There's an UP side?! I'VE never seen it.

"I'VE never seen it."

Buy stock.

What does your CEO, COO, or CFO do for the company that an Indian can't do? I think some people aren't living up to their fiduciary responsibilities.

Exactly ADub74; exactly!

"Buy stock."

After all the stuff that has gone down in the last year you CAN'T be saying that with a straight face!

I'm eyes deep in the outsourcing dream and it just gets better every day. At some point the merger will be completed and I'll be out of work and heading back to school and they can have their "production support".