Answering the olympic call: A.Team helps build Paris 2024’s IVR System in 30 days

The Challenge 

A global sports marketing company won a contract to support the Paris 2024 Olympics. Their mission would require using cutting-edge data modelling and analysis to build out an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call center across the city. The project required 24/7 support for the lead-up to and duration of The Olympics.

The catch? They had only one month to build out all call centers and decision trees. 

The company narrowed down three options for bringing on the talent they needed for the build: hire Salesforce, hire a third-party agency, or work with A.Team. The company quickly ruled out the third-party agency when they expressed doubts about being able to complete the project on time. They then ruled out Salesforce, who were more expensive than A.Team. After the company heard positive reviews about A.Team, they knew they had their choice. 

The project lead said: “We had four weeks, not five. They didn’t have the luxury of a flexible deadline – at all. And then came A.Team, who said they were on top of it.”

“We went with A.Team, and I’m glad we did,” said the project lead. “If we failed, we’d be on the front page of USA Today, so the stakes were high.” 

It’s one thing to take a deadline seriously. But in this case, the entire world would be watching. Mere weeks away from the lighting of the Opening Ceremony torch, A.Team brought on a key lead architect from their expert network.

The Build

Right away, the team faced a dynamic set of challenges. “A.Team came into a stress ball,” said the project lead. They worked under an unconventional scenario, where one specific budget needed to staff the project 24/7. 

But, according to the project lead, A.Team’s flexible model helped the team stay on budget: “A.Team kept our cash flows proper,” he said.

The lead architect had a small dispersed team that he’s worked with for 15+ years. Given their disparate locations and availability, they could provide the requisite 24/7 coverage.

“I suddenly had enabled, full-time headcount,” the head of the Paris 2024 project said. “They had a defined triage cadence and workflow, and that came into place really quickly for them and for the Olympics operations in general.” 

Team members did eight hour shifts, and implemented clear hand-offs and communication: “When one person’s shift ended, they would tag in their replacement,” the project lead said. “Anyone abroad was always paired with a domestic resource.”

“We were 24/7 machines,” he noted. For that month, their inbound cases per month leapt up by 11,000%. 

Any hiccups were clearly communicated and swiftly managed out. The A.Teamers were exceptional at following processes: “The business wouldn’t even ask for things yet and the A.Teamers would already have them ready,” the project lead said. “Sometimes with technical resources, you drop some of the business acumen. But not with this team – they were polished.” 

For instance, the team used semi-automatic test case generation on the IVRs – a practice called Swing testing. The IVR lead was calm and collected throughout the whole process: “She made us all feel lighter,” said the project lead. “Honestly, these are great resources. Kind. Smart. Professional. And for such a high-stress situation, we needed it.” 

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Outcomes 

The team was able to set up a development environment in short order. They “learned by fire” and things that “would have taken a normal resource four months were now crash-coursed in six weeks,” the project lead said. 

They launched three international IVR lines in four weeks for the largest international event in sports – on time. 

The scalability was incredible: “No one anticipated the exact call volume, but we knew it would be bad,” the project lead said. The volume would be akin to what their core business sees on their biggest day of the year – the day after the SuperBowl. But that’s just one day, and this volume sustained every day for six weeks. 

In addition to managing the heavy call volume, they achieved improved customer satisfaction and improved agent efficiency. They also brought on the IVR lead as a full-time hire: “She’s great at phones and SalesCloud. She can pair with a technical resource who’s not ready on phones, and now I have a real tandem across which I can split the work.” 

Regarding A.Team, the project lead for Paris 2024 summed it up: “They get it done.”