3fifteen helps Edcon stay in touch with casual workers

What is the cost of communicating with a casual workforce of thousands - informing them of their work schedules, confirming that they will be available when required, and following up with them?

For an organisation like Edcon - which makes extensive use of casual workers (most of whom are contactable only on their cellphones) over weekends, on public holidays and over particularly busy periods like December - the time and cost involved is enormous.

Yet, in the interests of delivering high levels of customer service, this communications process is essential.

Which is why Edcon turned to 3fifteen - Dimension Data`s Microsoft applications solutions development division and Edcon`s e-business solutions partner - to develop a cost-effective solution to the group`s communication requirements.

"In the past, every casual worker had to be contacted individually by the HR department. This was not only time-consuming - it could take several calls to reach the right individual and then the conversation - or even just leaving a message - could take several minutes. Our goal is to streamline the process of communicating with casuals, boosting productivity across the group - and eventually cut Edcon`s phone bill significantly," says 3fifteen development director, Jimi Lutz.

3fifteen expects this to be achieved through the development of a Web-based SMS solution and its integration with Edcon`s existing HR system. The solution, which was piloted during December 2004, builds on the capabilities of Edcon`s e-commerce platform - in order to automate the entire communications process.

Effectively, every casual worker receives a SMS with his or her individual work schedule. The SMSes are sent out from a central Edcon HR server. These details contained in the individual SMS are extracted from the HR system and the requirements of each store. The worker can then respond to the SMS with an indication of whether or not he or she can accept the work assignment.

"A major productivity enhancement associated with the systems is that it allows all responses to be tracked," says Henri Slabbert, CIO at Edcon.

"This allows the HR people to see who has responded and follow up with those who did not; and make alternative arrangement for workers who can`t meet their schedule requirements. This means we are able to ensure each store has the right number of casual workers to deliver the quality of service our customers expect."