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Case study

A major auto parts manufacturer

Won President's Award from the client for cutting workload while shifting quickly to working from home

This case study describes how we won the President's Award from the client for cutting its workload during a quick shift to working from home in Vietnam, an early mover in stopping the spread of COVID-19
  • *Altius Link was formed through the merger of Relia, Inc. and KDDI Evolva.
  • *This case study describes the efforts of Relia, Inc. and a major auto parts manufacturer prior to the merger.

Contract details

Location: Vietnam
Staff: 32 operators (all with Japanese language skills)
Desks: Handling back-office functions (process scheduling, totaling results, report preparation, etc.) for auto parts design, development, production, quality, and sales sections in Japanese.

▷ Advance preparations with an eye on government moves enabled shifting to work from home in just one week
▷Realized approximately 20% improvement in work efficiency during COVID-19 by updating the operations structure after the shift

Background

Vietnam moved quickly to announce actions to stop the spread of COVID-19

Vietnam implemented social distancing quickly after confirmation of the first COVID case in the country in late January 2020, and it adopted immigration restrictions in early February. In late March, the country decided to suspend retail services and public transportation. In this time of dramatic change, Altius Link's overseas Group company Altius Link Vietnam Joint Stock Company (hereinafter referred to as "Altius Link Vietnam") urgently needed to consider an operational structure for working from home.

  • About Altius Link Vietnam

Vietnam's first Japanese outsourcing firm, founded in 2009. Centered on call centers and BPO, its broad-ranging services also include image processing. It even edits wedding videos. It provides quality levels unchanged from those in Japan, through assignment of Japanese resident staff and Japanese language education for Vietnamese staff.

・Locations: One each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City
・Employees: Approx. 600
・Languages: Mainly Japanese, English, and Vietnamese
・Main services:
(1) Contact center and BPO services for Vietnam and overseas markets
(2) Video editing and processing for e-commerce sites and Web magazines
(3) AI-related data collection, generation, input, and processing (Japanese, English)
(4) FAQ video production

Website: https://altius-link.vn/

Topics

  • Chat Development of an environment for working from home

In view of the risk that the government could take stricter measures such as stay-at-home orders, there was a need for environmental development including ordering computers and taking security measures. It was also essential to swiftly identify work that could be conducted in a home environment.

  • Chat Responding to potential issues after the shift

It was essential to consider matters such as responses to potential issues like network problems while working from home as well as monitoring operations and sharing information among employees.

Measures

  • Chat Preparing to work from home with limited time

Altius Link Vietnam proposed working from home to clients in late March, in anticipation of the Vietnamese government adopting even stricter measures to stop COVID-19's spread. To be ready for any situation while clients considered adopting work from home, it proceeded with preparations, to the possible extent, such as identifying potential issues and considering responses, renting equipment, and surveying operators about home access.

In fact, on April 1 the government ordered the public to stay at home and recommended use of IT to work from home as much as possible. Since it was expected that under a state of emergency it would be difficult to get the computers needed in working from home, security measures and network connection and connection testing were conducted so that employees could work from home using their own computers. While work needed to be suspended temporarily during this preparatory period, with clients' cooperation we were able to minimize the interruption.

  • Chat Responding to potential issues during work from home

Responding to network problems and sudden issues

In consideration of the potential for work interruption due to problems and other issues, work was conducted in pairs of employees who could help each other by telephone and Skype.

Employee information-sharing and monitoring structure

A Skype group was formed for each team, to maintain the same quality levels as work conducted at the center by making it possible to communicate important notices and share information quickly. Email was used extensively to ensure that all notices were communicated. The operator follow-up structure was enhanced through monitoring by not only managers but sub-managers and leaders too.
Additional efforts were made to enable precise progress reporting and close communication with clients during work from home.

Results

Repeated meetings with the client to prepare in advance for potential COVID-19 orders from the government to stay at home or work from home made it possible to shift to work from home in just one week after the client's decision. The resulting business continuity in an emergency led to Altius Link Vietnam winning the President's Award from the client.

This contract involves handling of 135 processes related to client parts production by Vietnamese staff with Japanese language skills. Operations were also improved through measures such as automation of routine work that does not require individual decisions and efforts to shorten processing time and prevent scheduling errors through making complex deadline management visible. As a result, even while working from home work efficiency improved by about 20%, helping to make operations even more efficient.

Future

Today, work has returned to the office, but measures are in place to be ready for any potential need to work from home again in the future. Specifically, through job rotations the business continuity planning (BCP) expertise accumulated through this case is permeating among even more managers. Progress is being made on development of a structure to enable anybody to work from home while maintaining quality in an emergency.

A quickly changing situation like the COVID-19 pandemic requires enhancement of BCP measures in a short time frame. As this case shows, Altius Link Vietnam has the crisis-management and operation expertise to strengthen BCP quickly when needed. In addition to Vietnam, we operate numerous facilities in markets around the world, making it possible to propose flexible operation structures to meet clients' needs. Feel free to consult with us.

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