MN1105 Quantitative Methods – Assignment Specification

MN1105 Quantitative Methods – Assignment Specification (70%)
Submission Date: 09th Dec 2022 12 pm
General Instructions
• All tasks are compulsory
• Relevant charts / tables should be pasted as an image
with appropriate quality (use captions and labels and cite
appropriately in the text)
• Refer to the individual word count for the tasks
• The word count excludes tables, charts, references, title
etc
• For each task – indicate the actual word count (at the
beginning)
• Response should be structured task wise and there is no
need for a separate introduction / executive summary /
conclusion
• References should be provided at the end of the report
(Use college referencing style – Harvard) Further
information about referencing can be obtained by visiting
– https://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/Management/Referencing
Task 1: Performance Analysis of call centre agents (Maximum 500 words
applies only to interpretations and analysis section) 35 Marks
Matrix enterprises design, manufactures, sell and support computer network equipment. They
have successfully entered the European market using UK as the headquarters. In the
enterprise network market, it has a network of 40 distributors across UK, Germany, France
and Spain, annually selling 10,000 network switches to business customers. It has also built
up a small business, home use market and is selling 500,000 SOHO routers and repeaters
annually through retail and direct channels in the UK. In the retail channels(similar to Tesco,
PC World), the first line support related to sales and return is managed by the retailers. Matrix
provides support on technical issues. With the direct channels (similar to eBay, Amazon and
own web shop), Matrix provides all the support to customer interactions.
You have been presented with a dataset containing information about the calls handled by call
centre agents in one month. The call centre receives the call from customers who then either
resolve them or divert to sales team or technical support. Each call has been allocated a
specific Issue code and resolution code. Worksheet titled Glossary has further information
about the codes.
a) Your task is to analyse the dataset and make interpretations on the performance of
the call centre agents and develop a summary report to the management highlighting
the conclusions you can draw from the analysis.
Data analysis should be undertaken by calculating the following statistic indicators (at least)
for each agent based on the number of calls they handled.
o Mean
o Standard Error
o Median
o Mode
o Standard Deviation
o Sample Variance
o Kurtosis
o Skewness
o Range
o Minimum
o Maximum
o Sum
o Count
Apart from the above, pivot tables, histograms and other relevant charts should be used.
Analysis of the data should help you to answer questions like…
1. Which call centre agent is the best and least performing and why you think so?
2. Can we see any patterns / trends in the number of calls handled by the call centre?
E.g. Easter
3. What can we understand from the contextual information such as type of calls,
customer number, date, time etc?
4. Are there any problems / issues faced by the organization that can be identified? E.g.
lot of queries around product failures?
The above are just indicative questions for consideration and we welcome further insights
and analysis.
The report can be structured to include the following sections:
Introduction / Situation outline (5%): A very brief introduction that sets the scene and
purpose – just to demonstrate that understanding and knowledge of the context
Key Insights (10%) – Tables, Charts captioned, labelled along with a brief description under
the table / chart.
Interpretations & Analysis (20%) –Interpretations that can derived from the insights along
with the limitations in the analysis. Identification of additional data (if any) required to
evaluate call centre employee and process performance. Use of academic literature to
support the discussion is expected. For e.g. you can read papers related call centre
employee performance management. Google Scholar, Emerald insight, Science direct are
useful portals that can be used for finding academic literature.
Conclusions (5%) – Any concluding remarks on the use of data for evaluating employee
and process performance
Quality of Referencing (5%) – Use of good quality academic references to support the
discussion
Word count applies only to Interpretations and Analysis section and should not exceed 500
words
The report will be assessed along the following lines:
• Capability to analyse data and present them in easy-to-understand manner and the
entire report is well structured and formatted.
• Capability to evaluate the findings and drawing meaningful interpretations
• Capability to discuss whether the provided data is sufficient to judge the performance
of the agents and identify any additional data that would be required to evaluate
them. (Literature can be used to examine the general set of indicators that are used
for measuring call centre employee performance and apply them to the chosen
context)
• Use of references where necessary (For e.g. indicators such as average, median,
mode has some inherent weakness while judging the performance of call centre
agents and literature can be used while discussing the limitations of the identified
indicators)
• Evaluating the results by citing employee performance assessment indicators from
literature
Task 2: Cost implications of new initiative (300 to 400 words excluding the
equations, table, charts etc) (30 Marks)
To comply with quality standards, the management decided to limit the number of calls that
can be handled by an agent to 30 per day. This initiative will have direct cost implications as
the company will end up recruiting additional agents to satisfy this rule. The agents are
currently paid £12.00 per hour. Agents work from 0900 to 0500 PM – Monday to Friday.
Apart from the wages, the business will incur additional costs while recruiting new agents:
Training costs:
During induction of new agents, the business use an external training provider who will
provide one to one mandatory training costing £300.
Administrative Overheads
The administrative cost associated with processing payroll, insurance etc comes to £150 a
month per employee. However, it decreases by 20% when the number of employees
exceeds 6.
Team Leader
If the team size exceeds 6, the business should recruit a new team leader who will be paid
£15 per hour.
The management is interested in exploring the cost implications of the new initiative.
Task:
• Provide the equation that can be used to calculate the total costs the
business will incur from the employment of agents for both scenarios (Team
size <6 and Team Size > 6) Ensure that the terminologies and variable
names are displayed clearly (5 Marks)
• Calculate the additional cost the business will incur due to the new initiative
(hiring of agents) for the next two months by using forecasting sheet – (All
three scenarios – Upper Bound, Forecast and Lower Bound) are required. (10
Marks)
• Fit a trend line to the number of calls received by the call centre and display
the equation. (3 Marks)
• Write a short executive summary report of the findings to the management
about the cost implications of the new initiative, potential limitations of your
calculations and whether restricting the maximum number of calls handled by
an agent is right decision or not. Appropriate references should be used while
discussing the limitations. (12 Marks)
The response to this task could be structured as follows:
Section 1. Equation for calculating the total costs
Ensure that the terminologies and variable names are displayed clearly and include all
scenarios.
Section 2 – Cost Estimation
This section should first depict the outcome of the forecasting exercise clearly labelled –
both the chart and table should be included. Forecasting sheet will not work if the date range
is not continuous. This can be fixed by filling it with Zeros for non working days.
The generated forecast should be used to determine the number of agents required which
can be used for calculating the additional costs the business will incur due to the new
initiative.
Section 3 – Trend Line
Fit a trend line to the data, display the equation and briefly explain the interpretations you
can make. For e.g. what type of relationship can be observed?
Section 4 – Summary Report
Using the data and calculations from previous sections, write a short executive summary (No
need for intro, conclusion etc) about the implications of the new initiatives.
Word count apply only for this section
Marking Criteria
The report will be assessed along the following lines:
• Capability to convert a business scenario into a mathematical expression
• Capability to execute forecast function and evaluate the findings
• Calculate the cost implications for all the scenarios
• Discussion on potential limitations by referring to contemporary literature
Task 3 – Data Literacy (500 to 700 words) (35 Marks)
Entrepreneurship is an important element within an economy and this business management
qualification will provide you with necessary knowledge and skills to set up your business. At
this stage, I want you to learn more on how people across different countries perceive
entrepreneurship and the factors that enable entrepreneurial activities.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a non profit organization that undertakes in-depth
research about the perceptions of entrepreneurship across the world. Further information
about this initiative can be accessed via https://www.gemconsortium.org/
Visit https://www.gemconsortium.org/data to get access to the findings of their research.
Explore the dataset and develop at least four charts of your choice (One per option)
Trends over time and difference between economies for ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR
& ATTITUDES and ENTREPRENEURIAL FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS
From the developed charts, write a short summary on what you can observe and the
reasons for the observation and conclude with a set of hypotheses. You need to support
your argument with relevant evidence from literature.
For e.g. you can choose “Fear of Failure Rate” and study the percentage of respondents
from various countries who have rated “Fear of Failure Rate” as a barrier for setting up a
business. You can compare various countries and examine why the rate is different for
different countries?
Marking Criteria
1. Capability to generate interesting charts and make meaningful interpretations of the
same
2. Use of literature to support your point
3. Development of alternate and null hypothesis that links with the discussion
Suggested Report Structure (Maximum word count of 700 words excluding tables,
charts and references)
Introduction / Situation outline (5%): A very brief introduction that sets the scene and
purpose – just to demonstrate that understanding and knowledge of the context
Key Insights (10%) – Tables, Charts captioned, labelled along with a brief description under
the table / chart.
Interpretations & Analysis (20%) –Interpretations that can derived from the insights
supported with relevant references. Literature related to Entrepreneurship can be consulted.
Hypothesis Development (5 Marks)
Propose at least two sets of hypothesis (Null and Alternate) from the analysis and a short
discussion on how the hypothesis can be tested. If it has been tested, the study could be
included.