A customized integrated business planning tool for Advance Call (Pty) Ltd

Abstract

Advance Call (Pty) Ltd, a boutique call centre company, records enormous amounts of data regarding their day-to-day operations. The valuable potential contained within this data to assist them in not only their daily operational decisions, but also long-term strategic planning decisions were recognized by Advance Call. From the comprehensive literature review conducted, a conclusion was drawn that a customized integrated business planning (IBP) tool would satisfy the needs of Advance Call. The objective of this tool can be translated to the imitation of the high-level interdependencies within the company in order to assist in planning activities. For this reason it was found that a system dynamics simulation methodology, utilizing AnyLogic simulation software, would be the most appropriate approach for developing the tool. The development process is set out in the proposed framework for the tool, a conducted data analysis and the conceptual design of the solution. The report concludes with the final solution design and recommendations for the future.