Technology and innovation twine with human resources

In the Salt Lake City valley, the Wasatch and Oquirrih (O'ker) Mountains spreading on the horizons to the east and west like two giant arms embracing the city, lies the communications hub of Unibase Direct, Inc., an integrated database services company and a firm out of the ordinary in the telemarketing industry. Parsippany, New Jersey-based Unibase Direct is a technology-intensive firm specializing in inbound and outbound telemarketing, data entry and database services including merge/purge processing, database management and opportunities management software. It acts as the sales, marketing and project management arm for the telemarketing and data entry operation of Unibase.

Database Services

Unibase Direct believes in what it calls Database Telemarketing. Unibase Direct's proposition is that too many firms using telemarketing don't begin with database marketing to first help select lists for telemarketing and don't capture the results of every call made to drive future telemarketing list selections.

A core instrument that Unibase Direct offers the Database Telemarketer is PC-Navigator(TM), a powerful, Windows-based, database management tool. PC-Navigator is a self-contained desktop system that gives marketers the ability to select from almost unlimited fields, generate counts on millions of records in seconds or less, and easily create telemarketing lists, mailings, reports and labels--all without programming. It allows marketers to record communications and response history (telemarketing and direct mail) on every customer and prospect. Using historical data stored in PCNavigator, Unibase Direct clients can select prospects ripe for telemarketing based on previous conversations with the prospects.

Unibase Direct also sells and markets its Strategic Partner(TM) sales force automation software, which is a closed-loop lead-tracking system. Using Strategic Partner, field sales people in a virtual office environment can receive leads and communications from colleagues every day when they synchronize their database with a headquarters database on a server. After sales calls, the salesperson updates client information, which is sent back daily to the server, allowing management to have instant access to sales statistics and other pertinent information.

Database Service is just one of three lines of business for Unibase Direct. It considers itself a one-stop-shopping source for its clients, providing an integrated approach to direct marketing.

Unibase's Unique Workforce

More than half of Unibase's employees work in their homes, a unique idea that started with Unibase in 1968. It is one of the essential characteristics that has helped Unibase grow to 2,500 employees today. Unibase is a firm believer in using at-home telecommuters for several reasons:

* First, it eliminates office overhead. Unibase Direct would require about 300 percent more office space if all its telecommuters worked in office.

* Second, general studies report telecommuting improves productivity by around 15 to 20 percent.

* Third, it reduces employee turnover. Unibase Direct's at-homers have a 7 percent turnover rate, which is outstanding when compared to the 30, 40 and 50 percent or more turnover rates some call centers experience.

* Fourth, it decreases automobile air pollution, something that has been mandated by The Federal Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 and will affect all companies with 100 or more employees.

* And fifth, it increases flexibility.

The flexibility of the workforce is analogous to a rubber band. Unibase has the ability to stretch when the workload is heavy, and then contract if it is temporarily light. This flexible capacity gives Unibase Direct the ability to respond to changing parameters in a campaign almost instantaneously. Unibase's at-home workforce provides the company with an immediate resource of higher quality people.

Unibase Telemarketing

With 75 percent of its activities being business-to-business, most of Unibase Direct's telemarketing work is sales lead generation.

About half of the TSRs in telemarketing are at-home employees who, along with the in-office TSRs, provide outbound business-to-business and business-to-consumer calling. These same TSRs are also capable of handling inbound calls. Overall, Unibase makes more than 5 million outbound calls annually and receives 8 million inbound and outbound calls annually.

In addition to traditional inbound and outbound telemarketing services, high-tech services such as interactive voice response (IVR) and voice response units (VRUs) are offered. In excess of 2,000 lines are so equipped. Unibase Direct provides fulfillment services using its in-house staff or strategic partners around the country. Clients can also elect to send customized faxes via fax-on-demand, as it did more than 18,000 times last year.

With a history of database experience, Unibase Direct has vertical capability in processing and acting upon the results of the transactions as its clients desire. For example, one of its lead-generation clients requires Unibase Direct to parse out a percentage of leads to the client's 65 branches proportionately for different parts of the country, and thus keep an even workflow coming to each branch, regardless of its location.

Data Entry

While telemarketing is a high growth segment, Unibase's genesis was as a data entry company in 1968. Data entry operations are done 24 hours a day by 2,000 in-office and at-home employees. The at-home employees have two ways to receive their work to be keyed. They can either drive to the office in the morning (usually carpooling with other, nearby operators) or receive digital images of the documents to be keyed via telephone lines.

This image-based data-entry process is capable of handling very large volumes. In fact, one client scans on average 600,000 documents every night from 18 sites across the U.S. and receives the keyed data files at its site by 6 a.m.

Although Unibase receives and transmits more than 1.5 million records daily, there is a constant emphasis on quality and security. There are regular quality checks from the quality department and the staff takes pride in the fact that its major skill set is collecting data accurately.

Security

Initially, many clients are worried about security when sending work into the operators' homes. It's a bit of a paradox, but a major benefit from this kind of telecommuting is that security is increased dramatically. Source documents never have to leave the client's site with image-based data entry. Furthermore, source documents with sensitive information (such as that found on credit card applications) can be electronically split so that each operator receives only a segment of the form. For instance, suppose credit card applications are being keyed by operators in their homes. One operator will be given only names and addresses to key while another operator will be given only social security numbers and financial history. No one person sees the entire document. When the keyed files are transmitted back to the operations hub, Unibase integrates the two files to create one output record per application. The encoded information is brought back together after each part of it is completed.

Security is maintained in several other ways. The building itself has a solid seismic structure that should be able to withstand any seismic shock that is currently expected in the region. Dual fiber tunnels lead into the building, assuring transmission and reception redundancy. Every employee has an electronic badge to gain entrance to the building, and once inside, to their individual work room.

As Unibase Direct has proven, the virtual company, one that exists only through electronic interchange without offices, may be just around the corner.

Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation Sep 1995
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