by Jessica Otunuya | Jan 31, 2024
About the Engagement
The mayor’s office in one of the largest cities in the nation created a program to support minority and/or women-owned businesses (M/WBE). The program’s goal was to empower and support minority and women-owned businesses to foster economic growth, diversity, and inclusivity within the city’s business landscape.
Business Problem
The mayor’s office identified that there was a significant challenge within the M/WBE certification process. The engagement team’s goal was to identify and alleviate pain points that hindered efficient certification for minority and women-owned businesses. The complexity of the process often discouraged potential applicants and slowed down the growth of M/WBEs in the city.
Challenges
Some of the challenges that the engagement team experienced were administrative bottlenecks, unclear documentation requirements, and delays in the evaluation and approval process. In addition, the engagement team had to create and present the benefits of journey mapping. This process included identifying and defining key customers and services, identifying customer pain points, assessing strengths and areas for growth to improve customer experience and empowering critical experiences and perspectives that were underrepresented or misunderstood.
Project Impacts and Outcomes
The engagement team collaborated with the mayor’s office to build comprehensive journey maps, or data-driven visual representations of what customers experience (e.g., pain and love points) in their interactions with an organization. These maps covered the end-to-end lifecycle of a M/WBE’s experience working in the city, from applying for certification to bidding and winning contracts with the city. As a result of the engagement team’s efforts, the project achieved several notable outcomes:
- Business Participation: The simplified and user-friendly application process attracted a higher number of applicants, reflecting increased interest and engagement in the M/WBE Program.
- Diversity and Inclusivity: By addressing the pain points in the certification process, the M/WBE program fostered greater diversity and inclusivity within the city’s business landscape, aligning with the overarching goals of the mayor’s initiative.
- Stakeholder Satisfaction: Stakeholders, including M/WBE owners, program administrators, and city officials, reported satisfaction with recommendations outlined by the engagement team, communicating that this effort will drive to improved communication, transparency, and efficiency.
by Jessica Otunuya | Dec 21, 2023
About the Engagement
The client is an economic development focused organization, whose mission is to ensure inclusive economic development across the five boroughs of New York City. The agency is responsible for driving the growth of equitable, sustainable neighborhoods, in addition to investing in industries like technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, to diversify the City’s economy and bring good paying jobs to New Yorkers. The engagement team was asked to conduct a comprehensive review of broadband to develop a go-forward strategy for its residential, commercial, and public Wi-Fi markets.
Business Problem
The client was experiencing poor broadband market performance such as high prices, slow speeds, and insufficient coverage in its residential and commercial market.
Challenges
One challenge was the inaccuracy of the maps used. Due to the changes to neighborhoods over time, the maps were not as accurate and reliable. Another challenge was analyzing robust and geographically varied data to inform the New York City market strategy and solution.
Project Impacts and Outcomes
The engagement team conducted a variety of qualitative and quantitative analyses to bring the client new insight into its current broadband market and emerging leading practices. The team developed measurable indicators customized to the city, but anchored in leading practice for appropriate affordability, speed, and reliability. The team queried over 52,000 addresses to create more accurate maps to visualize broadband access. The team surveyed leading models of broadband delivery across the U.S. and the globe to help the client understand how other cities were managing broadband. Benchmarking topics included: speed and affordability offerings, governance of broadband markets including municipal ownership, provisioning of public Wi-Fi, deployment of smart city technology, and use of innovative street furniture including smart light poles. The team created a number of relevant tools to help the city identify the correct interventions in each neighborhood, along with modeling costs and benefits.
The end-result of the engagement is that the client was left with an actionable, capital strategy for its $70million per year budget and the tools to make the case for the additional funds needed. Our work helped the client secure more than $4million in additional funding for a single neighborhood, delivering access to hundreds of residents and businesses, stimulating the economy, and closing the digital divide.
by Jessica Otunuya | Nov 7, 2023
About the Engagement
The client is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in New York City. The engagement team was procured to develop staffing options based on potential future-state considerations such as consolidating call types and changing shifts to optimize for seasonal demands.
Business Problem
The client needed to understand customer service and staffing implications for the potential to consolidate up to seven call centers; and, for how best to optimize staffing shifts throughout the year.
Challenges
One challenge was ensuring consistent data from each source, or call center, to ensure all options were generalizable based upon each center’s context. Another challenge was ensuring up-to-date deliverables as questions arose from the client to always ensure that the assumptions and recommendations were aligned to the state of the data.
Project Impacts and Outcomes
The engagement team worked with the client to gather, analyze, and normalize call center data to develop flexible staffing models. Through this process, the engagement team supported the client in developing multiple options and assumptions based on relevant data, with the goal of assessing the best option(s) for the client. These efforts provided the analyses to determine the best strategy to reduce physical space needs, while providing strong customer service.
by Jessica Otunuya | Nov 7, 2023
About the Engagement
During the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, three co-branded health insurance companies were developed across three states: New Jersey, New York and Oregon. The business model and operating model leveraged by these companies outsourced front-office and back-office vendors – from sales and billing and enrollment, to claims and medical management. The insurance companies required strategic, analytical and facilitation support to help navigate critical issues with their shared business model.
Business Problem
The route of the business problem was the need for a common strategy; however, a strategy that supported differentiated leadership, independent implementation, and oversight for each company.
Challenges
One problem was the lack of a clear customer service strategy and operating model. The next challenge was technology considerations (e.g., Customer Relationship Management (CRM)) and whether this should be shared across vendors between the three companies, and the last challenge was a consideration of the customer life cycle, specifically customer transaction (engagement) and the impact this had to staffing for each company.
Project Impacts and Outcomes
The engagement team led and facilitated the three health insurance companies to develop a shared customer service strategy and operating model, providing clarity on the shared goals and objectives. From there, based on industry standards and enrollment estimates with sensitivity analysis – the team developed a comprehensive staffing model from sales to customer services. The result was that the engagement team launched the three co-branded health insurance companies with 12 outsourced call centers in 9 months, with a daily call volume of 10,000+ and 200,000 total members being served. The outsourced vendors had a shared understanding of the complex operating model for three separate but co-branded companies; the call centers and back office-maintained service levels agreements, and the staffing model estimations were accurate.