Completion Report

Project Summary:

1.    Background

Clearing 2016 was a high profile project brought about by the decision to accept limited numbers of applicants via student clearing. It was high profile because Edinburgh has never done this before and if it wasn't handled correctly it could damage the Institutions profile.

Approximately 100 places were made available to prospective RUK students. This officially started on 05 July, but real activity commenced on 18 August when “A” level results were sent out.

The current VoIP telephony system was considered capable of doing this and it was desirable to route telephone traffic through the "Call Centre" console (a call management and IVR control system) as this would provide metrics in terms of call volumes for next year.

2.    Summary

As a result of UCAS regulations they University had to allow people to apply for places over the telephone, we therefore needed to:

• Set up a call centre for handling inbound calls;
• Set up telephony to handle these calls;
• Recruit and train a team of call centre agents;
• Devise processes for handling enquiries;
• Operate the call centre for up to two days after 18 August.

A hard deadline was set for the project, which meant that the job had to be done by the above date. Notification of the requirement was communicated to the Project Manager on 05 July which was quite late and left very little time to do the job.

It was very challenging, but it went live on the day it was supposed to and there were no major issues. The call centre operated until 10:30 on Friday 19 August and 110 clearing places were filled.

Technology behaved exactly as was expected, call centre agents worked very well and the processes that were devised were well thought out and thorough.

All the departments involved had quite different ways of getting things done, but were brought together and worked as a team. They worked very hard, a lot of flexibility was demonstrated and all staff avoided being overly dogmatic about things. The new telephony system implemented by ITI as part of CIS001 was also key to making the operation possible. Ultimately this payed off in not only in a successful project, but also in building relationships across the University.

Taking all of this into consideration it is fair to say that the initiative was a complete success.

3.    Call Volumes/Agent Information

On go live there were 30 agents present in Tier 1. MVM, CSE and CHSS deployed 2, 10 and 3 Tier 2 Admissions specialists respectively to handle applicants who met the entry criteria. The 3 CHSS staff members assisted with applications to other Colleges as ultimately they did not take part in Clearing.

Call Traffic/Agent Data for 18 August

Recieved 2573

Call Traffic/Agent Data for 19 August

Recieved

187

4.    Planned Deliverables

The following deliverables were specified in the Project Brief:

5.    Analysis of Resource Usage (IS Applications)

Explanation of Variance:

The Project Manager took a holistic approach in ensuring the success of clearing as a whole and was not solely focused on the technology elements of the intuitive.

Originally SRA/College Admissions intended to operate from their offices, primarily in Buccleuch Place. These premises are very old and the way they are built would have meant small pockets of staff being located in rooms on various floors. This would have led to issues with communication, networking, kit deployment and communication. It was very quickly established that to try to operate in this way would have ultimately led to failure and additional time was spent securing a suitable site to set up a proper contact centre. Establishment of a site with the right kit and network connectivity was key to the success of the project. It is strongly recommended that should the institution do this again it secured such a location as early as possible.

6.     Costs

The following additional costs were incurred during the initiative:

* Fewer licences were required as a number were already purchased as spares for service desk.

Although significantly harder to define, other costs were obviously incurred by areas and departments who do not record time in the same way IS Applications Division does.

Development and Alumni services handled the recruitment of Tier 1 agent resource. The people who would be able to provide any real insight into the activity levels that surrounded this are out of the business until September.

Communications and Marketing handled communications and all updates to the website. Apart from web design the bulk of this activity involved social media updates prior to, during and immediately after clearing.

MVM, CSE and HSS admissions staff were all engaged in the planning, development of processes and with the exception of HSS (who ultimately did not take part in clearing) the actual admission of applicants through clearing on 18 August. MVM had 2 staff assigned to this for the day and CSE had 10. HSS “loaned” MVM an additional 3 staff members to assist as their numbers were so low.

Student Recruitment and Admissions estimate that they have had approximately 3 members of staff from their area working on the initiative for the last 4 weeks. They intend to draft their own analysis of the effort that went into the initiative which will be submitted to the Principles Strategy Group in September.

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 20 days

Staff Usage Actual: 22 days

Staff Usage Variance: 10%

Other Resource Estimate: days

Other Resource Actual: days

Other Resource Variance: 0%

Explanation for variance:

See body of report.

Key Learning Points:

Outstanding issues: