A few weeks ago, a close friend approached me with a problem: His company needed to make hundreds of calls. These outbound calls would result in a survey comprised of about 20 questions, with a mix of answer formats.
If he could make the calls -- a big if -- then the company would collate and formalize the data into a reporting structure. My friend was concerned: After all, his company had already scheduled the presentation of the data. In a few short weeks during its annual gala, the data was expected, but so far the information was out of reach.
Breaking this challenge down into consumable chunks presented a challenge in itself. However, the resources needed to pull off this feat, once very difficult to cobble together, are now obtainable and usable because of cloud and big-data.
The first hurdles, finding people to make the calls and a place for the team to make them from, presented the biggest challenge. Managing the information -- who is available, when, and for how long -- traditionally would require a single person to live by a phone and manage an open schedule. Google to the rescue. Problem solved.
First, I rolled out a unique Google email address. Creating a specific and unique address, a visually referenceable name, is important. Due to the number of email addresses out there, using a period in the name helps greatly. We rolled up an address -- "company.project@gmail.com." The company name in the email address combined with the word "project" allowed people on the calling candidate list to identify this previously unknown address as non-spam.
Using the Google services -- such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Calendar -- tied to the email address, enabled real-time sharing of information, a common point of reference for all involved. So far, I hadn't spent a dollar on product.
Using the Google Calendar function to schedule phone-room staffing proved an invaluable tool. Prospective volunteers became part of the Calendar with a simple schedule request, regardless of their email domain or configuration. This allowed the organizer of the phone room to have a high level of confidence in the volunteer staff commitment.
Google Drive is easy to use, empowering our ad hoc calling team to share the script and the related training materials over their four-hour shifts. Though some real-time training happened onsite, all team members were able to review the available documents in advance.
Google Drive also allowed volunteers to share the master spreadsheet, the actual call list driving the project, in real-time. The call list, built in a Google spreadsheet, easily coped with real-time updating, and tracked each respondent to prevent duplicate phone calls. Volunteers accessed the spreadsheet via Google Chrome, then verified each respondent's basic information, creating an accurate and current database of contacts.
The survey itself leveraged SurveyMonkey, an inexpensive or free service, depending on specific survey needs. Data from the survey is easy to work with and readily available, allowing the company to generate survey results in a consumable format.
This project wouldn't have been possible in previous iterations of technology. In fact, the only resources that didn't leverage a Web-based service were the people on the phones and the physical call center itself.
Terms like "cloud" and "big-data" often get lost in the bigger conversation of IT and business. I am quite pleased with the state of the IT union. People and cloud make for success when implemented with careful planning and management. Through the work of a small number of people, our project was a success, exceeding expectations for a fraction of the expected costs.
If he could make the calls -- a big if -- then the company would collate and formalize the data into a reporting structure. My friend was concerned: After all, his company had already scheduled the presentation of the data. In a few short weeks during its annual gala, the data was expected, but so far the information was out of reach.
Breaking this challenge down into consumable chunks presented a challenge in itself. However, the resources needed to pull off this feat, once very difficult to cobble together, are now obtainable and usable because of cloud and big-data.
The first hurdles, finding people to make the calls and a place for the team to make them from, presented the biggest challenge. Managing the information -- who is available, when, and for how long -- traditionally would require a single person to live by a phone and manage an open schedule. Google to the rescue. Problem solved.
First, I rolled out a unique Google email address. Creating a specific and unique address, a visually referenceable name, is important. Due to the number of email addresses out there, using a period in the name helps greatly. We rolled up an address -- "company.project@gmail.com." The company name in the email address combined with the word "project" allowed people on the calling candidate list to identify this previously unknown address as non-spam.
Using the Google services -- such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Calendar -- tied to the email address, enabled real-time sharing of information, a common point of reference for all involved. So far, I hadn't spent a dollar on product.
Using the Google Calendar function to schedule phone-room staffing proved an invaluable tool. Prospective volunteers became part of the Calendar with a simple schedule request, regardless of their email domain or configuration. This allowed the organizer of the phone room to have a high level of confidence in the volunteer staff commitment.
Google Drive is easy to use, empowering our ad hoc calling team to share the script and the related training materials over their four-hour shifts. Though some real-time training happened onsite, all team members were able to review the available documents in advance.
Google Drive also allowed volunteers to share the master spreadsheet, the actual call list driving the project, in real-time. The call list, built in a Google spreadsheet, easily coped with real-time updating, and tracked each respondent to prevent duplicate phone calls. Volunteers accessed the spreadsheet via Google Chrome, then verified each respondent's basic information, creating an accurate and current database of contacts.
The survey itself leveraged SurveyMonkey, an inexpensive or free service, depending on specific survey needs. Data from the survey is easy to work with and readily available, allowing the company to generate survey results in a consumable format.
This project wouldn't have been possible in previous iterations of technology. In fact, the only resources that didn't leverage a Web-based service were the people on the phones and the physical call center itself.
Terms like "cloud" and "big-data" often get lost in the bigger conversation of IT and business. I am quite pleased with the state of the IT union. People and cloud make for success when implemented with careful planning and management. Through the work of a small number of people, our project was a success, exceeding expectations for a fraction of the expected costs.
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