Project management Discussion

Case Study Update: Rosa County Public Safety System Upgrade

It was a warm one already at 8:15am as Alex Jensen waited for his vendor project manager, Paul Spires, to pick him up from the Rosa County Police Headquarters for their second meeting with OnCall Systems’ general subcontractor, Superior Construction. Alex, Paul and Dave Witherspoon – Superior’s general manager for the Rosa County emergency call center upgrade – had met a couple of weeks ago to discuss the project in general terms, and today they would meet at a design center to look over different modular furniture options and generate the upgraded call center layout. Alex had his copy of the current call center layout (see attachment 1) and had met previously with the current call taker and dispatch leads to capture their ideas for the new call center. Once at the design center, Alex told Paul and Dave because Rosa County was not only hoping to streamline their existing emergency response process but also plan for future County growth, the upgraded call center needed to accommodate nearly double (if possible) the current number of call takers and dispatchers. There was also the OnCall technical support personnel to think about. This meant adding more workstations in the same amount of space. The upgraded design needed to account for these additional workstations and accompanying equipment and cabling. Dave suggested a “pod” design for the center, instead of the two linear rows the center currently held. “It’ll cost you a bit more”, he said. “Most call centers cost somewhere between $45 and $120 per square foot, and the pods will put you toward the high end of that. But they also give your folks more file space and more privacy. Reduces noise, too. What kind of workspace do they have now?” Alex showed Dave the current desk configuration (at right.) “Oh, we can do that. You’ll need to rip out the existing workstations, of course. The pods use a completely different desk layout. Takes about two weeks for delivery once we place the order.” “We’ll need to install the desks, new system equipment, and the wiring and cabling (including for the phones) to support them. You can save a bit if you put the servers fairly close by, since that’s less distance to cover with cabling. Have you thought about where those might go?”

And so the afternoon went. The group decided the servers would remain in the main call center area – access would be easier and faster if something went wrong. Alex also agreed that the

1

older, large offices in the existing call center could be relocated elsewhere in the department, which freed up considerable floor space. With the new pod layout, the center was able to fit 32 workstations total and still had room for new furniture: two meeting tables, chairs, a break room area (with microwave, sink and refrigerator), and a small seating area, which would definitely improve working conditions for center personnel. Unfortunately, both the conference room and restrooms had to be moved to maximize floor space (and the restrooms were slightly smaller), but with the other center upgrades the team didn’t think the change would have much impact on personnel. The size of the new conference, however, was the same size as the old one, so existing furniture and equipment would be used. The same was true of the copier, printer and fax area: the location (and associated power sources) had moved, but the equipment itself would not be replaced. At the conclusion of the meeting, Alex left with a draft copy of the upgraded layout (see attachment 2.) He felt much better than he had previously: the new center would be expensive, but its planned function really did seem to answer Rosa County’s needs. Dave had also given him some good initial cost estimates to work from, although he wasn’t sure just where they put him with respect to the total project budget. “I’ll have to sit down with those finance guys and really figure out what we can afford this fiscal year – maybe there’s something we can hold off on until October and put together a funding proposal for next year?”

2

Attachment 1: Existing Rosa County Communications Center Layout

3

Attachment 2: Proposed Rosa County Communications Center Layout

4