Vendor As State "Proxy" - Part 3

Unregistered Carriers on 03/15/2009 - 687
Unregistered Carriers on 03/16/2010 - 660

Illinois - 96.96%
Maine - 96.34%
Indiana - 92.17%
Alabama - 91.82%
Kentucky - 89.87%

Today, we'll focus on the actual activities surrounding UCR registration.

The way I see it, our vendor (state "proxy") might consider offering several different types of registration - just like a state would - but they would focus on and encourage registration via the Web as their primary registration preference. Ideally, they would encourage registration on the Indiana site in order to avoid the overhead of creating and maintaining the State's own Web site.

But that is not the vendor's real edge. The vendor's real edge is in the amount of "people power" required to manage the registration side of the program - more specifically, their ability to scale the amount and cost of the personal effort required.

Let's assume that, unlike most states, a vendor can hire talented temporary help in whatever quantities they see fit. These talented temps usually come in at an hourly rate and are provided no benefits. In an economy like this, they are definitely out there - and happy to get the work! And, the vendor can adjust the amount needed as they go.

Now, couple that notion with the Move The Needle (MTN) ratio I've been writing about.

This morning, I asked my people if they thought one person could handle all of the UCR registration work for a state with a low MTN. They said yes. By "handle", I mean they would take care of the mail, the walk-ins, the phone calls, the registration processing and responding to emails. Keep in mind that what I'm really asking is whether one full-time-equivalent (FTE) can handle the work. This could be accomplished by one person working at the job full-time, two people working at the job half-time, etc.

A state might say "no way" to one FTE doing the work, but the vendor has no problem making this the actual "job description" for the temp - one full time equivalent (FTE) for the UCR registration job. With regard to cost, I'm guessing that temps in the area of $12-14 per hour could handle the work with some up-front instruction and ongoing access to someone who can handle the exceptional situations.

Meanwhile, if a state is paying their staff FTE a salary of $20K plus current overhead rates in the neighborhood of, say, 65%, they are paying an overall hourly rate of around $18 per hour. (Many of us are, I believe, paying a lot more than that!) Meanwhile, the full-time help is not really all that scalable. And, they take vacations, sick days and personal days.

Now please understand that I am not knocking full-time state help. I have said many times that I have a remarkable staff and I will tell that to anybody, anytime. And, they deserve the time off to which they are entitled.

Here's what I AM saying: I think a vendor with the right tools and some reasonably-talented temporary help might very well end up "netting" more UCR money for a state than if that state runs their own program with their own full-time people.

Don't think of it as running government "as a business". Think of it as running government in a business-like fashion. There's a difference.

Score
-----
Vendor Proxy - 2
State - 0