Good morning, and welcome to Backbone IT! I'm Sandra Beck, head of operations. I started here as an apprentice 18 years ago, and today I lead the company together with two managing directors.
Backbone promises every customer help within one hour, even at night, and our technicians pay for this promise with their sleep. Two letters on my desk are about exactly that, and I have to decide what we do. I could really use your help.
Let's start: download your workbook, then go to Step 1. Everything you write goes into your workbook, in the part for Day 1.
Open your workbook for Management and go to Day 1. Keep this page open next to it.
Download your workbook for ManagementThis file is for your internship in Management, with one part for Day 1 and one part for Day 2. Download it once and use it on both days. The file lands in your Downloads folder.
A letter and an email
Read M1: a letter from the works council and an email from Dr. Yilmaz, a family doctor and customer of Backbone. Find out what the works council asks for and what Dr. Yilmaz is worried about. The word bank explains the words you need in Management.
- works council
- Betriebsrat: people elected by the employees to speak for them
- on call
- in Bereitschaft: ready to work at night or at the weekend if someone calls
- decision matrix
- Entscheidungsmatrix, Nutzwertanalyse: a table to compare options with points and weights
- criterion
- Kriterium: one point that matters for a decision (plural: criteria)
- weight
- Gewichtung: how important a criterion is, in percent
- score
- Punktwert: the result of an option in the decision matrix
- voice agent
- KI-Telefonassistent: software that talks on the phone like a person
- responsible
- verantwortlich: the person or company that has to answer for a mistake
Two letters on Sandra's desk
From the works council and from a customerLetter · Works council of Backbone IT
To the management: night work
Dear Sandra, dear managing directors,
in the last three months, the technicians on call were woken up at night more than 350 times. Karim Haddad worked seven nights in a row last month. Three technicians are ill at the moment. We ask the management to find a solution for the night calls before the end of the year.
For the works council (Betriebsrat), Heike Brandt
- From
- Dr. Selin Yilmaz, family doctor
- To
- Sandra Beck
- Subject
- Your new phone service?
- Sent
- Monday, 07:52
Dear Ms Beck,
my colleague told me that Backbone wants to let a computer answer our calls at night. Our servers hold the health data of 4,000 patients. Before any machine gets access to them, I want to know who is responsible when something goes wrong. I chose Backbone because I can always talk to a real person.
Kind regards, Selin Yilmaz
- Write two sentences. Sentence 1: What does the works council ask for, and why? Use a number from the letter. Sentence 2: What does Dr. Yilmaz worry about?Help: “The works council asks ..., because the technicians ... Dr. Yilmaz worries that ...”
A strong answer: The works council asks the management to find a solution for the night calls before the end of the year, because the technicians on call were woken up more than 350 times in three months. Karim worked seven nights in a row, and three technicians are ill. Dr. Yilmaz worries that a machine gets access to the health data of 4,000 patients, and she wants to know who is responsible when something goes wrong.
Check your answer: Did you use a number from the letter?
Use the decision matrix
Sandra prepared three options for the night calls. Read M2 first: how a decision matrix works, with an example. Then calculate the scores in M3 like the example. Round to two decimal places (zwei Nachkommastellen), for example 3.20.
How Management decides
The decision matrixManagement makes the decisions that affect the whole company. For a hard decision with several goals, many companies use a decision matrix. Management lists the criteria and gives each one a weight in percent; all weights add up to 100%. Each option gets points from 1 (bad) to 5 (good) for every criterion. Points times weight, added up, give the score.
| Example | Weight | Points | Points × weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costs | 30% | 4 | 4 × 0.30 = 1.20 |
Three options for the night calls
Prepared by SandraKeep the on-call team
- How
- technicians on call answer every night call, as today
- Cost
- €9,000 a month
CallMate, an AI voice agent
- How
- CallMate answers every night call and solves simple problems; it wakes a smaller on-call team for the rest
- Cost
- €6,000 a month, with the smaller on-call team
A call centre in another city
- How
- trained staff answer, solve simple problems and pass the rest on to the on-call team
- Cost
- €7,000 a month
Sandra's decision matrix. Points from 1 (bad) to 5 (good).
| Criterion | Weight | Option 1 | Option 2 | Option 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costs | 30% | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| One-hour promise | 30% | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Data protection | 25% | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Workload of technicians | 15% | 1 | 4 | 3 |
- a) Option 1: calculate the score with Sandra's weights. Write down your calculation.
- b) Option 2: calculate the score with Sandra's weights. Write down your calculation.
- c) Option 3: calculate the score with Sandra's weights. Write down your calculation. Which option wins?
- Dr. Yilmaz and other doctors would weight the criteria differently: Costs 15%, One-hour promise 30%, Data protection 40%, Workload of technicians 15%. The points stay the same. Tip: the weights for the One-hour promise and the Workload stay the same too, so you can copy these two results from a) to c).
- d) Calculate the scores of all three options with the doctors' weights. Which option wins now?
- e) Compare the winners in c) and d). Explain in two sentences what this shows about a decision matrix.Help for e): “The points are the same, but ... So the real decision is ...”
a) 1 × 0.30 + 5 × 0.30 + 5 × 0.25 + 1 × 0.15 = 0.30 + 1.50 + 1.25 + 0.15 = 3.20.
b) 4 × 0.30 + 4 × 0.30 + 2 × 0.25 + 4 × 0.15 = 1.20 + 1.20 + 0.50 + 0.60 = 3.50.
c) 3 × 0.30 + 3 × 0.30 + 3 × 0.25 + 3 × 0.15 = 0.90 + 0.90 + 0.75 + 0.45 = 3.00. Option 2 (CallMate) wins.
d) Option 1: 0.15 + 1.50 + 2.00 + 0.15 = 3.80. Option 2: 0.60 + 1.20 + 0.80 + 0.60 = 3.20. Option 3: 0.45 + 0.90 + 1.20 + 0.45 = 3.00. Now Option 1 wins.
e) The weights decide the result: whoever sets the weights sets the winner. A decision matrix makes a decision clear and easy to follow, but it does not make it neutral.
CallMate and a real case
Option 2 is CallMate, an AI voice agent. Read M4: how an AI voice agent works. Then read the real case of Air Canada in M5.
How an AI voice agent works
What CallMate doesAn AI voice agent answers the phone, understands what the caller says and speaks like a person. It can look up customer data, create a ticket and solve simple problems, for example reset a password. It works day and night and never puts anyone on hold. But it can misunderstand callers or promise things the company cannot deliver, and it needs access to customer data.
A real case: Air Canada
Who is responsible for a chatbot?In 2022, a man asked Air Canada's chatbot about cheaper tickets after a death in his family. The chatbot said he could ask for the discount up to 90 days after buying. That was wrong. Air Canada argued: the chatbot is responsible for its own words. In February 2024, a Canadian tribunal (Gericht) decided against Air Canada: it had to pay about 800 Canadian dollars.
Source: decision of the Civil Resolution Tribunal, British Columbia, 14 February 2024
- a) Use M4 and what you know from your IT work. Name two problems a doctors' practice could call about at night that CallMate could solve on its own. Then name one call it should always pass on to a technician, and give a reason.
- b) Use M5. At 3 a.m., CallMate tells a doctor: “A technician will be with you within the hour.” But no technician is free. Explain in two sentences what the Air Canada case means for Backbone.
- Sandra says: “If CallMate makes a mistake, the company that sells it is responsible, not us.”
- c) Use M1 and M5. Is Sandra right? Judge in two or three sentences.Help for c): “In the Air Canada case, the tribunal said ... Dr. Yilmaz has a contract with ..., so ...”
a) For example: reset a password, restart a printer, or create a ticket for the morning. Always to a person: a server of a practice is down, a possible hacker attack, or anything with patient data, because expert knowledge, responsibility and data protection count there.
b) Like Air Canada, Backbone is responsible for what its voice agent says. The promise counts as if an employee had given it, and that costs money and trust.
c) Probably not: the tribunal made the company that uses the chatbot responsible, and Dr. Yilmaz has her contract with Backbone. Backbone can at most try to get money back from the company that sells CallMate, if their contract says so.
What I learned today
Write three sentences, one for each important thing you learned today, in your own words. For example: how a decision matrix works, and who is responsible for what an AI voice agent says.
Check your workbook
- Save your workbook.
- Choose the file here.
- Does the page name a step? Then an answer is still missing or very short. Fill in that box, save the file and choose it here again.
- When all answers are there, Sandra answers you and the solutions appear under every step.
- Compare the solutions with your answers. Is a number or a fact in your answer wrong? Write “Correction:” and the right answer in the same box, under your answer.
- Is the answer your own opinion or your own rule? Then more than one answer can be good. Write “Also:” and one idea from the solution that you did not have.
- Save your workbook again.
Thank you! I didn't expect the doctors' weights to change the winner. That's something I have to think about.
See you next time in Management!