Around-the-clock business
“Around-the-clock business” (or around-the-globe activities/ operations/ companies and etc- they are plenty of ways the term could be used) was our presentation’s topic for a course named “Time-based management”. Actually I had quite different view of what the course would look like - I hoped that the focus would be rather on the personal time management instead of focusing on companies using such model of management (look at the bottom of the text) but it was still OK though . Honestly, in the beginning, I wasn’t familiar with the term, but later on I found some quite interesting articles related to the topic. Hope it would be interesting for you as well.
In brief:
As I said, there are several ways of describing “Around-the-clock-operations” (ATCO), but they all include certain key elements as the ability of an operating unit to work in 24h/permanently, thanks to the usage of different time zones along with new information technology.
The term “Around-the-clock-operations” is generally used in the service sector and deals mostly with two major economic issues:
- Offshoring as a part of cost reduction (through cheap labor cost, due to economies of scale and price differences for similar products in two different economies for ex.)
- Time-management
One of the most important activities, related to the topic, is the phenomena of private tutoring (or at least we focussed on that one) and India as rising hub of the on-line education. More you could read here. If I should offer a kind of summary- the process works quite easy: you have an Indian teacher waking up early in the morning (3-4 am), turning on his computer and starting to teach his Americans students (mostly) who has just came back home after school. There is a large number of subjects that the tutoring companies offer. You’re using a virtual white board, web cameras and some special softwares. One of the greatest advantages is first, that the sessions are relatively much more cheaper than a face-to-face lesson in the USA and second, you don’t need to go out of home (on that way you also save your time and your parents don’t worry if you need to go at a home of a teacher you don’t know so well 
) Why India? Two crucial factors- the language (English) and the large numbers of teachers, not really satisfied with what their salary is and to whom the on-line tutoring is a source of higher income.
Another example of around-the-clock operations are the call centers. There is a new trend among them- call centers offering personal assistance services. There is quite funny example how and what for you could use your personal secretary in this article.
The last one I’m going to mention is the outsourcing of IT projects. You could find more information here. I was quite amazed how these “knowledge factories” work, especially concerning how they are “passing” the knowledge among the different shifts (you have 16 minutes to make yourself familiar with what your colleagues have made before you and what has taken them 16 hours).
Here comes the question about the advantages and disadvantages and is it worthy?
Some of the advantages (in general, with no focus on a specific sector )are:
1. Great opportunities for development of the sector ( 100-150% growth rate estimated in 2007)
2. Time difference once seen as a drawback now seen as an advantage
3. Companies can build their strength on the multinational teams, different background of members and diversity of perspectives. In this way the services and products are more appealing to the global economy and more universal.
4. General cost saving (better positioning on the market)
5. Very short response time.
6. Access to expertise that is not available in the home country for two reasons: too expensive or general lack of it etc.
Some of the disadvantages (again in general) are:
1. Not convenient time schedule for employees in developing countries. People have to work in 3 shifts system or be able to work when there is a demand.
2. The quality of services can be lower than expected, as the ‘quality’ term is understood differently all over the world
3. Time zones differences makes everyone deregulate their biological clock as it requires:
Managers to travel to the ‘outsourcing centers’ frequently
People to be able to work in an unnatural times of the day
People who are managing the overseas operations to be able to work according to the time of the other country (compare US and India – 7 p.m. in US it is 7 a.m. in Bangalore)
4. Communication, cultural differences and language difference (the latter is a barrier, but not a gap). See this.
5. Lack of human contact can result in lack of motivation, misunderstandings; lack of team coherence… etc
Some of the main (positive) conclusions we made concerning ATCO are:
- It enhances the interdependence of the countries
- It build bridges among cultures
- It brings investment and development to developing countries
- It brings new technologies to developing countries and supports them in their development
- It makes people more flexible
At the same time there are many negative outcomes to be faced:
- People are being exploited and have to work against their biological clock
- Workers in developing countries are being underpaid (according to e.g. U.S. standards)
- The expertise is being drained form developing countries
In the end - that`s how our agenda was structured:
1. Introduction: Definition and Historical background.
2. The offshoring process. Inventions & Offshoring. Global time management & service offshoring
3. Example of activities: on-line tutoring, call centers, IT projects overseas
4. Advantages, Disadvantages and Challenges.
5. Conclusion.
Here are some more links, if you are interested in. Now the question is: Would you like to be one of them?
ProactiveNet E-Business Around-the-Clock, Rapid Response e-Transaction Management
U.S. firms move IT overseas
Yes, you can outsource your homework to India
India and the United States: An Emerging Global Partnership
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We were discussing Harvard Business School case studies as “People Express”, “Zara” (as ex. of fast fashion) “Honda today”, “Toyota”, as well as time based strategies (zero time: a conceptual architecture for 21st century enterprises), time management in supply chain, time in R&D area
