Case
4 (Affiliate Program Manager)
Sue is an affiliate program manager for a small company of lawyers. She has run the program successfully for about six months and now has reached the point where some improvements are needed. She writes a proposal to the CEO in which she proposes one of the following methods:
-to hire an additional affiliate manager/assistant;
- to outsource some tasks to another company/person;
- to buy software for automation of some tasks.
After discussion with the CEO they decide to buy software.
The objective is: to find a cost-effective way to manage some of affiliate manager's tasks.
Sue starts to make calls to her friends and colleagues for advice on the software. One of her student friends, Lee, recommends a free trial (during the evaluation period) of APM_v4 . Sue follows the advice and uses the software for a month. The results of this trial are summarized in the table below:
|
N |
Day's tasks |
Time spent on the task |
|
|
Before using the software |
With the software |
||
|
1 |
Registration of new affiliates |
1 hour |
1 hour |
|
2 |
Registration of new sales |
1 hour |
10 minutes |
|
3 |
Calculation of earned commissions to the affiliates |
2 hours |
10 minutes |
|
4 |
Communications with the affiliates calls/letters/e-mails |
2 hours |
2 hours |
|
5 |
Registration of communications |
30 minutes |
30 minutes |
|
6 |
Analysis of the promotions' effects |
20 minutes |
30 minutes |
|
7 |
Analysis of the sales |
10 minutes |
30 minutes |
|
8 |
Analysis of the affiliates' needs |
10 minutes |
30 minutes |
|
9 |
Creating the reports |
30 minutes |
10 minutes |
|
10 |
Developing new services for the affiliates |
10 minutes |
1 hour |
|
11 |
Other tasks |
10 minutes |
1 hour 30 minutes |
Due to use of the software, Sue was able to increase the time she could spend on creative tasks and reduce the time she spent on the routine tasks.