Upon completion of the first Planning stage in the beginning of 2005, the Project entered the second stage, the Preparation stage, from March to May 2005. The main tasks in the second stage were to set up the project execution Deployment Taskforces, to develop processes and regulations, and to build up support resources. The key activities in this stage are described below:
Deployment Taskforce Recruitment
Deployment Taskforce units are the core forces who actually go into the digitally disadvanrtageous areas to visit, install products, and deliver services to the micro business owners.Qualified Deployment Taskforces must meet the following criteria:
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Must operate a nationwide or regional business channel network that reaches most of the digital divideareas.
Must effectively control channels in terms of salesmanship and service quality tailored to micro businesses.
Must be able to source a full spectrum of products and services to meet the demands of most micro businesses.
Through a nationwide open bid system, the CISA recruited 6 Deployment Taskforces in 2005, and gained another 6 Deployment Taskforces in 2006. Among these 12 Deployment Taskforces, there were 7 corporations including two ISPs. The other 5 were regional IT associations. The 12 Deployment Taskforces are:
Table 5: List of Project Deployment Taskforces & Their Participating Agents
In the Participating Agents column shown above, there are two figures; the one on the left of the slash is the number of agents originally registered. After realizing the difficulties involved in serving micro businesses, two thirds of the registered agents dropped out. The figures shown at the right of the slash are those who stayed throughout the entire Project period.
Incentives & KPI
There was a set of incentive systems and KPIs designed to motivate the Deployment Taskforces and their participating agents in meeting the objectives and goals of the Project.The most critical incentive for this Project is how to encourage the Deployment Taskforces and 1,000-plus agents to leave the cities and the suburbs, and set foot into the digitally underprivileged rural areas.The Point-based Incentive System worked as follows: first, the entire island of Taiwan and its offshore islands were divided into three zones: red, yellow, and green, depending on the degree of digital divide.The map below shows the digital divide zone demarcation.
Second, a point-based scoring system was introduced to reward the Deployment Taskforces and their agents who were willing to place more emphasis on the micro businesses in the red and yellow zones.
Table 6: Project Incentive Program
If any deployment taskforce decided to focus 100% of their energy on micro businesses located in the green zones, the maximum points they could earn would be 840 + 1667 = 2,507 points, or only 41.78% of the 6,000 points required. If this occurred, this taskforce would be considered “failure,” and would be eliminated from the Project for the next year.Therefore, each taskforce must balance their choices of prospective micro businesses located in different zones to achieve the required quantitative goals both in number of entities and total points earned.In addition to meeting the quantitative goals, there is also a KPI Plan that ensures the delivery quality of the 12 deployment taskforces.
Product Certification
All the ICT products and services offered to the micro businesses are subject to the CISA’s certification. All certified products and services are listed on the official Project website. No score will be counted for the sale and delivery of non-certified products or services. CISA established a committee organized by experienced experts to review and certify the ICT products and services offered by the 12 Taskforces. There were a total of 356 products certified in 2005/2006. Among them, 210 were for back-office operations, and 146 for the internet. Taskforces who provide subscription-based ASP services were especially encouraged, because the ASP approach reduces the upfront server investment for micro businesses and continuous services relieve business owners from the burdens of system maintenance. The following table gives the types and quantity of the ICT products offered in this Project.
Table 7: ICT Solutions Sourcing - by Product Type
Table 8: ICT Solutions Sourcing - by Price Range