Call Center Operational In Five DaysCall Center Operational In Five Days

Joe Brezinski had settled in for the weekend at his Florida home when the phone rang about 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 21. It was Tim Sullivan, senior manager of implementation services for Rockwell Electronic Commerce, a division of Rockwell Automation.

"He said he had an opportunity for me," recalls Brezinski, a Rockwell project manager. Sullivan was eager to help the American Red Cross create a new call center to handle inquiries from those affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But this wouldn't be a routine installation. Sullivan needed to build the system, move equipment and people from Chicago and Florida to Falls Church, Va., and get the 600-agent call center up and running in less than five days.

"We didn't have a phone system, a building, people to staff the call center, computer desks, or chairs," says Martin Franke, senior director of Chapter Services Information Systems for the American Red Cross. During an executive meeting late that Friday, Franke's CEO gave him the mandate to create a call center to support the entire nation for any kind of assistance that was needed from the Red Cross.

Collaboration was key to the success of the project. "We got out the really big Post-Its to write out what we'd have to do," Franke says. A team from various Red Cross divisions, including the IT department and disaster services, spent the next 40 minutes devising a business plan. About a quarter of a mile away from the American Red Cross headquarters in Falls Church sat an empty building. Once a furniture store, the building still contained cabling from the previous tenant, Broadband Office Inc. By Saturday morning, Franke had rented the building to house the call center.

After the planning session, Franke learned that a representative from Verizon Communications Inc. was helping the Red Cross on an unrelated matter. He tracked down the rep, explained the project, and learned that Verizon could run cable from the new call center to its facility across the street. The rep then called suppliers, searching for someone to provide a phone system.

Rockwell answered the call. The vendor had just built a system for a company that was located in Seven World Trade Center. The customer was going to use the system in a new New Jersey call center but needed that center for other operations after the attacks. Mark Nelson, director of business operations for Rockwell, told Verizon that Rockwell could customize that system, sell it for a reduced price, and deliver it by Sunday.

Conference calls among the three providers on Saturday laid the ground-work for the system requirements. By noon, Brezinski had booked a flight to Washington--his first since the attacks--to coordinate the project. He jumped on an 8:40 a.m. flight Sunday.

By the time he arrived, the Rockwell call-center system had already been delivered by Mayflower Trucking Co. Technicians worked around-the-clock to install the equipment. The Red Cross created an online application that stored information on how volunteers should answer questions. It also started recruiting call-center volunteers.

By Tuesday night, the entire system was operational. A team of Rockwell employees trained the staff in a day and provided them with online training applications for future use. The center went live as scheduled at noon on Sept. 26 and will remain open indefinitely to cope with any future terrorist attacks.