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Business Continuity for Call-Center Operations: Case Study

3 minutes, 39 seconds read

Coronavirus outbreak has led to prolonged lockdown in several countries, which has crippled many back-office operations. The Government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown (currently 40 days). Because of travel restrictions and health concerns, customer queries are increasing exponentially. Companies dependent on call-centres are struggling to deploy work from home solutions and their business continuity plans. 

Most companies are not prepared for work-from-home arrangements, but there are exceptions. Those with the right strategy and timely action are able to keep their business operationally afloat. Before we delve into the case study, let’s take a quick look at the current situation of call centres.

COVID-19 is testing call-centre businesses. How?

Voice-services are facing a tough time transitioning to a work-from-home model. Companies are not willing to allow access to private and sensitive data outside of the protected office premises. 

Teleperformance, a specialized omnichannel customer experience management company, was able to allow mobility to only 50% of its employees by the first week of April (2nd week of lockdown). The company aims at managing 66% of operations remotely by mid-April. 

This raises a question — why not 100%?

Most of the companies lack the digital infrastructure and a rigid business continuity plan. For instance, the airline business relies heavily on call-centres. After coronavirus outbreaks and resulting lockdowns, most of the call-centres failed to respond to increasing customer queries. To continue communication with customers and support them in whatever ways possible, many airports turned to social media. Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport had over 3.5 million social media engagements during the period.

But, what’s the major limiting factor for adopting virtual call-centre models?

Virtual call-centre adoption challenges

Theoretically, technology can simplify call-centre operations with mobility solutions. But mobility requires an uninterrupted internet connection and developing countries like India struggles for it. Telcos are surely rushing to fill the gaps in customer communications; the fact is— only 2-3% of Indians use wired broadband and the majority of users rely on mobile data. 

The Telcos infrastructure here is designed and built to operate on 75% network capacity utilization. But, due to lockdown, many cities are witnessing 90-100% load capacity and circles like Karnataka are stretching beyond 100% capacity. The country’s inadequate telcos facility is also a limiting factor for setting up virtual call-centres.

Migrating from traditional to virtual operations (ensuring workplace mobility) will require moving the core systems to the cloud. During times like this, the frailed supply-chain defies the thought of procuring devices to achieve 100% mobility.

Despite the aforementioned challenges, some voice-service extensive organizations managed to seamlessly implement mobility at work. 

[Related: Enterprises investing in Workplace Mobility Can Survive Pandemics]

Ensuring call-centre business continuity during a lockdown: a case study

India’s Leading Health Insurer— Religare demonstrated its preparedness against the COVID-19 situation. A major part of the insurer’s customer servicing relies on call-centre based communication, which would have become operationally impossible amidst the ongoing lockdown. To respond to this critical situation and remain operationally afloat, Mantra implemented a call-centre mobility solution with quick turn-around time.

In a typical call centre, the team leader manages and supports callers to handle customer queries. Now that the workforce is operating remotely, the critical question before the company was how to make information available to the callers.

A new virtual call-centre (computer telephony/dialer) system was implemented in the organization’s Lead Management System, which manages the complete customer journey. Through this cloud-based solution, the necessary information is always available to the caller, also eliminating dependencies. 

Companies are sceptical to allow access to private data outside of on-premise systems. To ensure information security and privacy, the new call centre application allowed only required caller IPs, service APIs and Dialer APIs for remote access to the platform.

[Related: The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and insurance]

Merits of the case

40% of businesses do not reopen after a disaster. Of those who do, 25% reopen and fail. The main reason is firms are unprepared to withstand the short and long term effects of severe business disruptions. 

That’s why leaders emphasize on business continuity plans (BCP).
The benefits of BCP abstracts to –

  1. Protecting the safety of employees.
  2. Maintaining customer service by minimizing interruptions of business operations.
  3. Protecting assets and brand.
  4. Preventing environmental contamination.
  5. Protecting the investment and leveraging the chance to survive and thrive post-disaster.

To secure operational continuity, organizations need to proactively invest in digital workplaces that remain virtually uninterrupted even during Pandemics. 

Do you need help in ensuring business continuity? We’re listening to you. Write to us at hello@mantralabsglobal.com.

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Smart Manufacturing Dashboards: A Real-Time Guide for Data-Driven Ops

Smart Manufacturing starts with real-time visibility.

Manufacturing companies today generate data by the second through sensors, machines, ERP systems, and MES platforms. But without real-time insights, even the most advanced production lines are essentially flying blind.

Manufacturers are implementing real-time dashboards that serve as control towers for their daily operations, enabling them to shift from reactive to proactive decision-making. These tools are essential to the evolution of Smart Manufacturing, where connected systems, automation, and intelligent analytics come together to drive measurable impact.

Data is available, but what’s missing is timely action.

For many plant leaders and COOs, one challenge persists: operational data is dispersed throughout systems, delayed, or hidden in spreadsheets. And this delay turns into a liability.

Real-time dashboards help uncover critical answers:

  • What caused downtime during last night’s shift?
  • Was there a delay in maintenance response?
  • Did a specific inventory threshold trigger a quality issue?

By converting raw inputs into real-time manufacturing analytics, dashboards make operational intelligence accessible to operators, supervisors, and leadership alike, enabling teams to anticipate problems rather than react to them.

1. Why Static Reports Fall Short

  • Reports often arrive late—after downtime, delays, or defects have occurred.
  • Disconnected data across ERP, MES, and sensors limits cross-functional insights.
  • Static formats lack embedded logic for proactive decision support.

2. What Real-Time Dashboards Enable

Line performance and downtime trends
Track OEE in real time and identify underperforming lines.

Predictive maintenance alerts
Utilize historical and sensor data to identify potential part failures in advance.

Inventory heat maps & reorder thresholds
Anticipate stockouts or overstocks based on dynamic reorder points.

Quality metrics linked to operator actions
Isolate shifts or procedures correlated with spikes in defects or rework.

These insights allow production teams to drive day-to-day operations in line with Smart Manufacturing principles.

3. Dashboards That Drive Action

Role-based dashboards
Dashboards can be configured for machine operators, shift supervisors, and plant managers, each with a tailored view of KPIs.

Embedded alerts and nudges
Real-time prompts, like “Line 4 below efficiency threshold for 15+ minutes,” reduce response times and minimize disruptions.

Cross-functional drill-downs
Teams can identify root causes more quickly because users can move from plant-wide overviews to detailed machine-level data in seconds.

4. What Powers These Dashboards

Data lakehouse integration
Unified access to ERP, MES, IoT sensor, and QA systems—ensuring reliable and timely manufacturing analytics.

ETL pipelines
Real-time data ingestion from high-frequency sources with minimal latency.

Visualization tools
Custom builds using Power BI, or customized solutions designed for frontline usability and operational impact.

Smart Manufacturing in Action: Reducing Market Response Time from 48 Hours to 30 Minutes

Mantra Labs partnered with a North American die-casting manufacturer to unify its operational data into a real-time dashboard. Fragmented data, manual reporting, delayed pricing decisions, and inconsistent data quality hindered operational efficiency and strategic decision-making.

Tech Enablement:

  • Centralized Data Hub with real-time access to critical business insights.
  • Automated report generation with data ingestion and processing.
  • Accurate price modeling with real-time visibility into metal price trends, cost impacts, and customer-specific pricing scenarios. 
  • Proactive market analysis with intuitive Power BI dashboards and reports.

Business Outcomes:

  • Faster response to machine alerts
  • Quality incidents traced to specific operator workflows
  • 4X faster access to insights led to improved inventory optimization.

As this case shows, real-time dashboards are not just operational tools—they’re strategic enablers. 

(Learn More: Powering the Future of Metal Manufacturing with Data Engineering)

Key Takeaways: Smart Manufacturing Dashboards at a Glance

AspectWhat You Should Know
1. Why Static Reports Fall ShortDelayed insights after issues occur
Disconnected systems (ERP, MES, sensors)
No real-time alerts or embedded decision logic
2. What Real-Time Dashboards EnableTrack OEE and downtime in real-time
Predictive maintenance using sensor data
Dynamic inventory heat maps
Quality linked to operators
3. Dashboards That Drive ActionRole-based views (operator to CEO)
Embedded alerts like “Line 4 down for 15+ mins”
Drilldowns from plant-level to machine-level
4. What Powers These DashboardsUnified Data Lakehouse (ERP + IoT + MES)
Real-time ETL pipelines
Power BI or custom dashboards built for frontline usability

Conclusion

Smart Manufacturing dashboards aren’t just analytics tools—they’re productivity engines. Dashboards that deliver real-time insight empower frontline teams to make faster, better decisions—whether it’s adjusting production schedules, triggering preventive maintenance, or responding to inventory fluctuations.

Explore how Mantra Labs can help you unlock operations intelligence that’s actually usable.

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