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Wipro runs ‘Orbit – The answering center
for Sunsoft Inc. and currently it is in its 10th
year of operations. Orbit is a technical answering
center, providing support to developers, facing
problems during application design and development,
and when porting onto newer versions of the Solaris
operating environment at Sun Soft Inc. Orbit is
owned, operated and staffed by Wipro. Outsourcing
objectives
The peculiar demands of the developer
community, which cannot be addressed by the traditional
product support centers and whose requirements
are not big enough to be classified as consulting
opportunities, were the primary cause of this
outsourcing project. Developer support besides
being complex needs a mix of engineering, troubleshooting
and customer interaction skills.
The other objectives of Sun Soft were :
 |
Freeing
engineering from developer support Interrupts |
|
Infrastructure
limitations and ease of ramping up/down |
|
Improved communication
between ISV developers and engineering |
|
Talent
requirements for running special projects
like early access programs, beta testing,
beta support channels etc. |
Wipro solution
Wipro has built this ‘Orbit’ center
in its premises with an access to Sun’s Wide
Area Network and necessary call management system.
Orbit attends to customer queries in the areas
of Solaris internals, networking, graphics and
Kernel core debugging. Calls are received over
email, fax and through toll free numbers. Calls
are assigned based on expertise/skill requirements
and logged using a call tracking/management system.
Calls are tracked to closure, Call statistics
like call load, call response time, call closure
duration, call distribution, call spread etc are
reported to Sun.
Because of the nature of calls and the involvement
in developing technologies, Orbit interfaces with
engineering and is the single point of contact
for the developer. Problems in customer code/application
are filtered and solutions or workarounds given.
Problems reported on Sun products are entered
in the engineering bug database along with test
cases and information on simulating the problem.
Depending on the severity of the problem, Orbit
assigns priority and follows up with the relevant
groups for fixes/patches. Patches/Fixes/Workarounds
are screened before being passed out to customers
as solutions.
Access to all engineering databases like source
code, design documentation, developer tools etc
are provided to Orbit. Orbit has access to Sun’s
internal documentation on FAQ’s (frequently
asked questions), symptoms and resolution database,
training manuals, white papers on developing technologies
etc. Orbit has access to SWAN (Sun’s Wide
Area Network), making it available all needed
resources over Sun’s intranet.
Benefits to Sun Soft
Wipro provided Sun Soft the following benefits
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Developers
get focused support. |
|
Globalization
of developer support |
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Improved communication
between ISV developers and engineering |
|
Due to a good
job rotation program, a very charged and motivated
team staffs Orbit |
|
Faster ramp
ups and ability to run special projects associated
with campaigns |
|
Specific support
programs for large customers |
|
Increased support
manpower during launches of new products |
|
Customization
needs |
|
Depth of technical
expertise |
In conclusion, the model of “Outsourcing
a call center” was fruitful and resulted
in a healthy partnership between Sun and Wipro.
Nine consecutive years of continuous operations
bear testimony to a successful outsourcing project. |
