Back To Business In Northern Ireland BY ERIK D.
LOUNSBURY, [email protected] CENTER Solutions Magazine
From beneath the rock outcropping known as Napoleon's Nose, at Belfast Castle, one can
look out across the city that is hemmed in by mountains on one side and Belfast Lough on
the other, and trace the growth of the city. Belfast, once called the "Athens of the
North," is undergoing a renaissance. Like many major manufacturing cities in the
world, the Great Depression of the 1930s struck hard, and the road to recovery has been a
long and difficult one. Belfast is a city that was built on industry - first linen and
tobacco, and then shipbuilding - whose wealth is evident from the many fine Victorian and
Edwardian buildings in the city center.
The name of the city comes from Bal Feirste, which is translated into English as
"the mouth of the Farset." But, symbolic of the industrious nature of its
citizens, the city grew to cover it over: the Farset River can now only be found running
beneath Donegall Square North and Chichester Street, its underground passage helping to
undermine the Albert Memorial Clock Tower, giving it a tilt greater than Pisa's campanile.
The leading example of the industrial might of the city's past are the huge Harland
& Wolff shipyards located on the channels that were cut in the area where the Lagan
River empties into Belfast Lough. It was here that, among many other vessels, the great,
luxurious ocean liners of the White Star Line, including the Titanic and her sister ships,
the Olympic and the Britannic, were built.
And now, once again buildings are going up in Belfast. For example, the area along the
Lagan River is now being revitalized through development by the Laganside Corporation.
Doug Garrett, marketing manager at Laganside, told me the Laganside Corporation is
developing the area along the lines of the waterfront area in Baltimore, Maryland,
combining shops, restaurants, markets, public facilities, offices and residential sites.
Following the completion of the beautiful Belfast Waterfront Hall, office buildings are
springing up in the former dockside area; chief among them are the 14-story British
Telecom (BT) corporate headquarters building and the rambling new home of the Prudential,
which, when I saw it, enscaffolded, looked like another great ship being prepared for
launch at nearby Harland & Wolff. Harland & Wolff too, has not stood still: the
great cranes at the shipyard, nicknamed "Samson" and "Goliath," as
well as building ships are now lifting steel to workers constructing giant oil platforms
that will soon be anchored above the great oil fields of the North Sea.
IDB Northern Ireland
Construction and hard work have long been part of the consciousness of the area. One of
the earliest tales of building is the great myth of the giant, Finn McCool. The story goes
that to reach his love, a giantess who lived in Scotland, he labored to construct the
fabulous basalt-column formation on the north coast of County Antrim, now known as the
Giant's Causeway. Unfortunately, this is only legend (the columns were formed by volcanic
activity), but real construction is spreading throughout contemporary Northern Ireland,
fostered in great part by the government's Industrial Development Board (IDB) for Northern
Ireland.
The Call Centre Property Initiative
In 1997, the IDB embarked upon the Northern Ireland Call Centre Property Initiative, a
plan of providing purpose-built facilities for high-tech businesses. These purpose-built
facilities include Louisville House, Network Point, St. George's House, Ulster Science
& Technology Park, Springvale Business Park, Antrim Business Park and Campsie Business
Park.
I visited Springvale Business Park, which is five minutes' drive from Belfast city
center, on an overcast Irish morning, accompanied by Michael Graham, principal valuation
surveyor for the government's Valuation & Lands Agency. The Springvale Call Centre
building is located just uphill from the recently opened facilities of Fujitsu and Emerson
Electric, and commands a sweeping view of Belfast. The design of the building reflects
Belfast's heritage as a seaport, with round support beams, reminiscent of masts holding up
a sail-like roof, and rows of porthole windows that greet visitors at the door. Inside, an
open floor plan maximizes the work area. Large windows and skylights provide light
throughout the building, even on a cloudy day with the lights off. Divided into two
levels, the building has elevated walkways over the central concourse, giving clear views
over the entire work area and adding to the ship-like feeling of the building. The
building has a total area of nearly 30,000 square feet and raised access computer
flooring.
On the short drive northwest of Belfast to the city of Antrim, I was in the pleasant
company of P.R. man extraordinaire and baker's son Paul McErlean. (I mention Paul because
I found him to be typical of the people you will meet in Northern Ireland: well educated,
hard working, easy to strike up a wide-ranging conversation with, and generous in quickly
offering to buy a round when the day's work is done.) Antrim Business Park is indeed
located in a park-like setting, with 20 sites, 12 completed and 6 available, located among
80 acres in a former forest nursery. The park has a range of well-sited, open-plan units
that range from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet that can be extended to 30,000 feet and
beyond. The open-plan layout and large windows are ideal for call center operations,
bringing the peaceful setting outdoors in. Like the other sites in the IDB's Call Centre
Property Initiative, Antrim Business Park offers very competitive lease and purchase
options.
Fostering A Positive Business Climate
Purpose-built locations at competitive rates are only part of the IDB's "one-stop
shopping" package. I was briefed on business development options the IDB offers by
Trevor Killen, director - Network Services, International Marketing Division at the IDB.
By working closely with the other branches of the Department of Economic Development, the
Training & Employment Agency (T&EA) and the Industrial Research & Technology
Unit (IR&T), the IDB offers: full advice and assistance in the planning and
implementation phases of a project; ongoing technical and training support; structured
aftercare; a comprehensive financial support package; and a continuing partnership aimed
at developing businesses.
Among the assistance items offered by the IDB, IR&T and T&EA are: grants of up
to 50 percent of eligible costs toward training; cash grants up to 50 percent for telecom,
IT and other equipment; employment grants related to the number of newly created jobs;
grants of up to 100 percent of rental costs for up to five years. The T&EA can also
provide training needs assessment, free staff recruitment and free pre-employment
training.
Killen stressed the fact that even though Northern Ireland offers among the lowest wage
costs in Europe, the quality of the workers ranks among the highest in Europe. Not only
does Northern Ireland possess the highest level of 17-19 year olds getting two A-level
passes or more (the usual minimum standard for higher education) in the U.K., 35 percent,
but it also can boast of a staff turnover rate of below 5 percent per annum, which is
driven in part by unemployment levels currently between 7 and 8 percent, but also by a
traditionally strong work ethic. There is also a large pool of multilingual speakers in
the workforce, with German, French and Spanish being the most popular, but with most major
European languages represented. Northern Ireland is also a member of the Eures Network,
which is a pan-European network of employment experts that provides a constant exchange of
job opportunities and information. In brief, if a potential employer in Northern Ireland
needs more native-language speakers, they can quickly and easily be recruited and brought
to Northern Ireland.
This solid "humanware" factor has helped fuel the creation of 1,500 call
center jobs during the eight-month period between October 1997 and May 1998. A recent
survey by Coopers & Lybrand found that fully 73 percent of current international
companies now in Northern Ireland plan to reinvest.
Another advantage of Northern Ireland Killen pointed out to me is the
telecommunications infrastructure. For an in-depth explanation of that infrastructure, I
was introduced to the affable, seasoned telecom hand, Jim McCurley.
BTNI
Jim McCurley, general manager operations, British Telecom Northern Ireland (BTNI), an
affable, seasoned telecom hand, provided me "schematic" details of the
state-of-the-art, resilient, digital network of BTNI, some of which are outlined below.
BTNI is part of the BT Plc Group, the national PTT for the U.K. While it has
competition in Northern Ireland from Cable and Wireless, NTL Cabletel, AT&T, Worldcom
and a range of small resellers, BTNI is by far the major telephony provider in Northern
Ireland, delivering telephony services to 94 percent of the market, some 620,000
residential and business customers. BTNI is also the fourth-largest private sector
employer in Northern Ireland, having a turnover of around 300 million and employing some
2,600 people.
BTNI operates a fully digital trunk, junction and exchange switching network. Through a
joint venture with the Electricity Supply Board in the Republic of Ireland, network
solutions can be delivered to the entire island.
BTNI endeavors to meet the needs of its customers in short timescales. It undertakes to
deliver 2, 8, 34mb, etc., networks within 20 working days to any location, with liability
to compensatory payments for failure to meet that deadline. It also undertakes to deliver
SDH within 8 weeks (6 weeks delivery/2 weeks planning) with the added resilience of
add/drop-in multiplexors. In short, BTNI can provide reliable network connections to a
call center operation anywhere in Northern Ireland and back it up with the excellent
quality of service.
Springvale Training Center
Springvale Training Ltd. operates the Springvale Training Center, located in a spot that
was hard hit by the "Troubles" of the last quarter century, an area of high
unemployment, Catholic West Belfast. Phillipa McShane, team leader, Business Services,
showed me about the center. The Springvale Training Center building is a two-level
structure that features a caf for the students, and large, "hands-on"
classrooms for vocational training in various technical and engineering disciplines, but I
was particularly interested in the area of call center training.
There are around 400 students now in the two-year tele-training program. Springvale
tele-training students learn the details of the technology employed in teleservices, such
as dialers, ACDs, etc., as well as how to use computer programs such as Word, Excel and
Quark. The center has five dedicated circuits, ISDN lines and Internet access. The more
advanced students have even progressed to creating their own Web pages. Beyond producing a
competent and technically skilled workforce to supply the needs of companies locating in
Northern Ireland, Springvale Training Center is providing hope for the future for its
students.
Stream International
Derry, scenically located on the banks of the River Foyle in the northwest corner of
Northern Ireland, has a history dating back some 1,400 years. It is a pretty town with
city walls built by master masons from London in the seventeenth century, and since that
time it has also been known as Londonderry. Stream International, a worldwide provider of
outsourced technical support, opened operations in the pleasant surroundings of the IDB's
Ulster Science & Technology Park in Derry in January 1996. The building itself is a
two-story structure with video conferencing facilities, a central breakroom/dining area,
and an advanced telecommunications infrastructure.
Kevin Houston, site director for Stream in Derry, provided me with background on Stream
and its operations in Derry. Stream currently has around 200 employees in three separate
call centers handling technical support for Hewlett-Packard, MSN in the U.K. and a major
American computer manufacturer. On a tour of the facility, it was evident that the call
centers Stream operates there were a hotbed of activity. Stream agents quickly and
efficiently handled even the most difficult technical problems callers were presenting to
them. I was impressed with both their technical expertise and their pleasant manner.
Houston said Stream chose Derry for a number of reasons, chief among them being
location, labor costs, ongoing support from the IDB, a high-quality telecommunications
technical infrastructure and perhaps most important, an excellent workforce. "The
people here value jobs," said Houston. "They are committed, loyal and
enthusiastic," he continued. "To put it simply, they are people with high
education standards who want to work." Backing up his statement are a low turnover
rate and the fact that Stream in Derry has handled well over 1.5 million calls in nearly
1,000 days of uninterrupted service. Houston told me that Stream handles 40,000 calls and
over 3,000 e-mail requests a month for MSN alone. This speaks well for both the workforce
and the telecommunications network in Northern Ireland. Houston said that the
telecommunications network in Northern Ireland is so good that Stream controls its entire
European network from the Derry location.
On the way back to Belfast from Londonderry, I persuaded Trevor Killen to take me along
the beautiful Antrim coastline. On the drive, we passed a Du Pont plant Trevor informed me
had been there for 38 years. In that 38 years, through the worst of the Troubles, it had
only been shut down for half a day, and that was due to a labor dispute. (I must point out
that Trevor Killen is not only a well-versed government official who has spent many years
in the U.S., but also a raconteur who can weave tales of music, the political scene in
Northern Ireland and of the contributions of the Scotch-Irish to American culture,
especially, dear to my heart, Southern culture. If you get the chance to work with him, I
can guarantee it will be a pleasant and enlightening experience.)
BT Apollo Call Centre
I met with David Gracie, PR and Comms for BT at the new BT call center on Apollo Road in
Belfast. This new center, the sixth BT call center, opened on January 19th, a mere 90
working days after groundbreaking.
The large call center, which has a capacity of 750 agents, currently has 312 call
advisors working two five-hour shifts. Its first campaign was calling the 400,000 BT
residential customers in Northern Ireland, but the Apollo Call Centre soon branched out
into working as an outsourcing partner for a variety of other corporations. Among the
clients the BT Apollo Call Centre has are a major financial institution and a leading
player in the travel and logistics sector.
In a typical campaign for BT Business Customers, a direct mail piece with a toll-free
number will be mailed out describing the benefits of mobile phones, pagers or various BT
network services. Incoming calls generated by the mailing piece will be answered in the
center from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Ten days after the mail piece goes out, reps in the Apollo
Road Centre will begin follow-up calling, generally with a penetration rate around 80
percent.
Agents receive an initial two-week training course for specific campaigns. Agents are
then assigned to 12-member teams under a team leader. When on a call, agents are presented
with onscreen scripts that help them with any possible upsells, cross-sells, objections or
possible help requests. If a call escalates to the point an agent cannot handle, it is
transferred to an online support team with a broader skills and applications set.
Real-time statistics on campaigns are available for use by management for coaching or
rewarding the agents, or to provide the clients with up-to-the-minute reports on how a
campaign is faring.
Gracie had nothing but praise for the center's agents, and it was readily apparent why.
Not only is the workforce well educated, but the relatively high unemployment rate has
produced a workforce that is eager to work. Also, studies by BT judged the Northern
Ireland accent to be the most persuasive in the U.K., and the call I listened in on led me
to agree, as an uncertain caller was gently persuaded to add to her BT services by a
friendly agent; she was so convincing, she had me ready to sign up even though I live in
Connecticut. It's little wonder that in one outbound campaign, the center turned in an
amazing performance of a 47 percent success rate in turning cold calls into firm business
for BT.
The Prudential
Adrian Clements, manager, life claims at the Prudential Assurance Company, also praised
the workforce he has hired at Prudential's 50-agent claim center, which is currently
located just a stone's throw across Donegall Square from Belfast City Hall. (Prudential
will be moving to its new location by the Lagan within the year, reaffirming a commitment
to Belfast that has been in place since 1871.) Clements told me the claim center in
Belfast handles claims for the whole of the U.K. The Belfast call center handles on
average 1,600 calls a day from field agents and customers, which works out to around half
a million life claims per year.
The claimants receive faster service through calling in to the call center than they
would if they waited for a representative to call on them in person. The agents at
Prudential must be deft, understanding and patient, as they are often dealing with
grieving and sometimes distraught family members of the deceased. And they receive
excellent treatment from the call center reps if the calls I listened in on are
representative. Clements told me the callers often feel they are getting empathy from the
agents, which helps make a difficult situation easier on all concerned.
To be able to give such good service, the agents are given six weeks of initial
training, but there is continuous, ongoing training. Clements said that it takes a good 10
to 12 months before the agents are considered expert. The center has embarked upon
training so that the agents will spend only part of their days on the phones. The goal is
to eventually have them broaden their capabilities so that they can handle back-office
responsibilities such as the payment of straightforward claims. The goal is to have the
Belfast center take over part of the duties of the national call center that is now based
in Reading, England. Broadening the agents' work skills follows Prudential's plan to help
the agents develop a career, rather that just give them a job. This philosophy is
reflected in the plans for the new building, which will provide space for 500 people, 40
percent of whom will be call-center-enabled. Typical of both the quality of the workforce
in the area as well as the need for jobs in the area is the fact that a recent
advertisement for 40 job positions received over 500 qualified applicants.
Prudential's ease of recruiting qualified workers seems typical of call center
operations in Northern Ireland. The workforce is there. The government incentives are
there. The telecommunications infrastructure is there. It is a land looking hopefully to
the future (the people of Northern Ireland spoke eloquently for the future through the
Good Friday Agreement and the historic "Yes" vote in the referendum that
followed in May). You should look into a future there, too. |