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Corporate Profile. MCRB Service Bureau is located in Chatsworth, CA and Elkridge, MD, and has been in business for 50 years. We specialize in literature and premium fulfillment and data processing for multiple clients, some with large customer databases.
Clients. We current have 50 clients, and expect to grow that number by at least ten percent a year. |
The sign out front says: "MCRB Service Bureau, Computer & Fulfillment Services." As we waited in the lobby a call center manager (Bruce Edwards, who we were introduced to later) came out and told the receptionist he would not be able to meet with the folks from Kelley Temps today to talk about call center staffing.
Scott Knight met us and took us first toi a conference room, where he gave us background information (see People and Time Frame below). He explained that MCRB sells fulfillment services and mainframe computer services (IMB 3090) out of this facility. The fulfillment service has Disney, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the Army National Guard as customers, among others. Mostly they do literature fulfillment, though they are sending out CDs for Disney Blast (see press release at http://www1.disney.com/DOL_press_info/Blast/index.html and preview site at http://www.disneyblast.com/preview/index.html).
Next Scott gave us a tour of the facility and introduced us to some key people, as he explained the flow of work through their company.
First we met some folks in IS and heard how bulk data gets into their homegrown system. >>> a bay of cubicles for programmers,
Next we saw the call center with 65 stations...
>>> a floor of mainframe equipment (3090 and peripherals), and
>>> a floor of warehouse space and machines to stuff envelopes, spray ink jet addresses onto CDs, etc. >>>
| name | title | met? |
|---|---|---|
| Scott Knight | ___ | Y |
| Dick Young | Pres. | N |
| Steve Allen | VP Sales - Fulfillment | N |
| Max Schultzie | CFO | N |
| Jim Parker | IS manager | N |
| Sharlene George | IS staff | Y |
| Jack Wright | IS staff | Y |
| Marie Fischer | manager in call center | Y |
| Bruce Edwards | manager in call center | Y |
| ___ | ___ | _ |
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Order Volume. We currently need to be able to process an average of 30,000 orders per day (average 1.2 line items per order), with a peak of 50,000 orders per day. We want to be able to process an average of at least 100,000 orders per day on our new system, with a peak capacity of 150,000. Of the 30,000 orders we currently process daily, we take 1,000 by phone, we key 4,000, and we import 25,000 in batch files from other sources.
Customer Files. All customer files are maintained on behalf of our clients. We currently maintain a total of 20 million names. We want to be able to maintain up to 100,000 million names. SKUs. We maintain inventories for each client separately. Total number of items is about 20,000. Systems. We currently use proprietary software with VSAM databases on an IBM 3090 Series 400E mainframe. Phone Switch. We have an NEC NEAX 2400 IMS ACD in Chatsworth, CA, and a Meridian Option II ACD in Elkridge, MD. Multiple Sets of Business Rules. The system must be able to maintain sets of business rules for each client and automatically apply these to all orders processed for that client. |
Scott Knight MCRB Service Bureau, Computer & Fulfillment Services Dick Young (Pres) Steve Allen (VP Sales - Fulfillment) Max Schultzie (CFO) Jim Parker (IS) 3390 65 time frame: final recommend 12/1 competition: DataMan, OpenOrders, ASTI, OracleS large volumes of data text changes to scripts easy direct data i/f for web 10 PC files/day, naming convention 30 mainframe files/day pull things in from BBS -> PC -> FTP to Mainframe (Army, Marines, ASI) unzip thre Disney FDT bundle in demo email attachment leads -- mainframe FTP's to PC, runs prog. to email 1. name and address sorted by state 2. report by state maintain sources inventory address tables inventory tables Sharlene George Jack Wright may have to send back files sorted changes every hour, including fields "production typing" enter just name, address, phone, script to paste in other fields postage and shipping reports 100 cards/hour on average BRC=bus. reply card "closed loop" sales lead mgt. Julian date Nixdorf & Falcon Marie Fischer Bruce Edwards 95% inbound calling 5% outbound calling 95% orders for lit. 5% orders for product LCD on phone tells co./script 65 stations picking off personalized letter script: branching fileds input change text without programmer incomplete call handling -- continue where left off search by anything separate ship to client gives freight matrix auto calc: quantitiy SKU volume cust. type source dimensions seminars -- time conflict group processing in script: discount? test DBs can't ship candy to some states in some months (13 never) customer may mandate member number want warehouse system to tell you where to look first (staging area, oldest in warehouse) version issues (send July, then August) manual shipping need to go out to different printers need variable text in "pick ticket" (letter) fulfillment has 6 COBOL prog, 2 sysadmin services has 2 COBOL prog, 1 sysadmin (rent access, print) Phase I Feb '99 by end of '99 all new business on new system phone line system (fractional T1) to Elkridge, MD, everything but CPU and programmers >>>
Last update: 20-Oct-1998 by ABS.