Wipro Spectramind maps the perfect route

In a fiercely competitive business like call centres, it is vital to rapidly scale up operations but at the same time ensure that processes are efficient and cost-effective. In an effort to use resources efficiently and maintain productivity levels, Wipro Spectramind introduced iBaan's smart route planning system with encouraging results. Chitra Padmanabhan has the details

In late 2001, Wipro Spectramind was in a rapid expansion mode. Cut-throat competition in the ITES-BPO space forced players to virtually go on a hiring spree. In addition to the mass-hiring initiatives, the company also faced the challenge of training new recruits and other quality control issues. On the IT front, Spectramind saw itself scaling up its operations rapidly to cater to the ever-increasing clientele.

The most important and crucial task was to frequently update the database of employees. With the passage of time though most of the problems were successfully addressed, the company faced one peculiar problem: to develop an effective and economical pick-up mechanism. In order to provide employees with a pick-up facility—a policy practised by most call centres—Wipro Spectra-mind too had to constantly alter its transport system to meet the needs of its employees in diverse locations across the city. And with the hiring of every employee, this problem became more acute.

"Spectramind saw a phenomenal influx of new employees into the organisation and our policy was to provide pick-and-drop facility to each and every employee. The biggest problem that we faced was constant change in the to-and-fro movement of vehicles along diverse routes," says Wipro Spectramind’s vice president for Infrastructure, Rakesh Sharma.

Accordingly, vehicles had to constantly divert their routes to accommodate new employees. In addition, manual planning of routes on a frequent basis proved to be a time-consuming process. All this activity revolving around the transport system ultimately led to escalating operational costs and irregular arrival time of employees. The result: the cost-per-employee escalated at a rapid rate.

Vendor scouting

To address this issue, the company decided that the best way to control costs was to automate the whole system to speed -up the process. Accordingly, Wipro Spectramind started scouting for a solution that could address three essential aspects—on-time arrival, route optimisation and vehicle utilisation.

"What we needed was a geographical information systems-based (GIS) program that would enable us to quickly adjust to changes in the route taken by the vehicles," says Dhilip K, business analyst-Technologies, Wipro Spectramind.

After evaluating various solutions from companies like Axon Technologies and Modi Apps, the company settled for Baan’s iBaan RoutePro. "We chose iBaan RoutePro since the solution had a capability to cater to our priorities. The solution promised to enable a bird’s eye view of the entire area where our vehicles would ply, right up to the doorstep of the employee," adds Dhilip.

Apart from this, Spectramind wanted to derive the advantage of low incremental costs, as the software could run on the existing hardware infrastructure. The company decided to first implement this solution in its Delhi centre on an experimental basis before taking it countrywide.

Key benefits

The company was able to realise the benefits of the deployment soon after the deployment. For instance, there were less complications in the day-to-day scheduling of vehicles. Now, the process of bringing about frequent changes in routes is more or less streamlined. Secondly, iBaan RoutePro has enabled Wipro Spectramind to make better utilisation of the vehicles. Earlier, as the routes were manually planned, the vehicles ended up covering more distance than was actually requried.

"Unlike in the past, vehicles now need to travel to predefined areas, eliminating the need to cover huge geographical areas," says Sharma. The software quickly charts out the optimal route mix, which enables maximum number of employee pick-ups and drops, for the vehicle.

Moreover, the solution is designed in such a way that it automatically maintains a balance between ensuring least travel-time and the cost involved.

"The vehicles used for the ‘pick-and-drop’ facility are hired vehicles and the company is charged on the basis of distance travelled. Since iBaan RoutePro calculates the optimal route distance, it has enabled us to forecast our expenses more accurately, eliminating overcharging of vehicle rentals," asserts Dhilip.

With the help of this solution, Wipro Spectramind has divided the entire city into various geographical pockets so that one area is covered by one vehicle. So now, all the employees falling under a particular pocket are picked up in a single round. Moreover, the package provides a digitised map of the entire city with details of house and street names. This enables even the drivers to easily find their way and saves lot of time- and travel-related overheads. It also offers the facility of rescheduling in the event of exigencies.

"On-time arrival has increased the number of call engagements than before, which has ultimately led to an increase in revenues. We have been able to see a return on investment within a short span of three months after the implementation," says Sharma.