Vol. 39, No. 4, July–August 2009, pp. 346–352 issn 0092-2102  eissn 1526-551X  09  3904  0346 inf orms ® doi 10.1287/inte.1090.0432 © 2009 INFORMS OR Process Skills Transform an Out-of-Control Call Center into a Strategic Asset Vijay Mehrotra, Thomas A. Grossman Department of Finance and Quantitative Analytics, School of Business and Management, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94117 {drvijay@sbcglobal.net, tagrossman@usfca.edu} A large consumer-software company was struggling to manage a seemingly unmanageable, high-cost technical- support call center. The company used “OR process skills” to transform the call center into a strategic asset. By focusing on executive priorities, personally observing business processes, engaging with frontline workers, and directly examining the sources of important data, we discovered the central problem amidst a contentious, dis- organized situation. We used a pilot program to test simple analytical tools, such as Pareto charts and sampling, to bring actionable information to the right parts of the organization. Following the processes we developed, the company analyzed customer feedback to improve the product and customer self-support mechanisms, thereby reducing both current and future call volumes. By empowering client staff and leading process change across functional boundaries, the company reduced its call-center costs and achieved higher product quality. In addi- tion, we demonstrate that OR process skills can be an essential element in sustaining long-term consultant-client relationships. Key words : OR/MS implementation; data analysis; philosophy of modeling; quality management applications. History : Published online in Articles in Advance April 22, 2009. T his paper describes an engagement from a long consultant-client relationship. This project utilized only a few basic analytic techniques, such as statistical sampling and Pareto charts, adapted to the services context. Despite its modest mathematical content, this project is noteworthy because it highlights OR process skills that are often essential in satisfying client needs and uncovering opportunities to apply traditional OR. We describe in context the OR process skills that we applied and place them into a larger framework of OR practice. The client organization is a large consumer-software company with three product lines. The company had achieved rapid growth by adding new features to its products and marketing aggressively; it released new product versions annually. However, technical- support call-center expenses were excessive. Senior management lacked confidence in the call-center man- agers and felt that the call center was not being man- aged well. We used OR process skills to change how the call center did business and to reestablish senior management confidence in its operations. The main benefits to the client were (1) conversion of the call center into a strategic asset that enabled improved product quality and customer service, (2) elimina- tion of a source of aggravation and distraction, and (3) reduction of call volumes. The benefits to us were credibility and goodwill, which led directly to extensive follow-on work performing traditional OR, including the project described in Saltzman and Mehrotra (2001). OR Process Skills OR process skills address the real-world factors that are “assumed away” in mathematical models. These skills, which are essential for enabling organizations to effectively use analytic models, are part of every consultant-client engagement. This engagement relied heavily on seven OR process skills (Table 1). None of these skills is new, and research literature exists on many of them. The contribution of this paper is to describe their role in the context of an engage- ment that cemented an important long-term client relationship. 346