|  | Name: Marc Brady
Job Title: Business Support Agent
Nationality: British
What is ROSC?
The Retail Operations Support Centre (ROSC) is a department of Esso Serve Europe, and it’s function is to centrally operate the back office operations of all of Esso’s European company owned and operated service stations. This includes fuel management, inventory management, accounting, ordering and technical support. The reason for having these functions centrally here in Manchester is to become more efficient by specialising in each area, cut costs and to allow store managers to concentrate on running the stores.
Roles and Responsibilities
ROSC is divided into several departments, and I have been a part of two since I have been here – Drystock and the Business Support Group (BSG). The Drystock department manages all issues regarding the stores at service stations. The BSG, which I am currently a part of, was created to look at all processes we have in ROSC and make them more efficient, therefore providing a better service to our customers and cutting costs.
In Drystock, my main responsibilities were reporting on both the department’s performance and ROSC’s performance as a whole. A great emphasis is placed on KPIs – Key Performance Indicators. These are select measures of performance that are used to asses the performance of a team or department. A target is determined and the KPI is measured periodically, hopefully showing improvement over time. KPIs are used by all areas of the company to assess performance and identify areas that need to be worked on.
As part of the BSG, I am continuing to report performance, but now mainly of ROSC as a whole. The different reports I populate are described below.
My other main responsibility is that of Vendor Maintenance. In ROSC we maintain a large database of all of our suppliers across Europe. This is called the Vendor Master. It is my job to co-ordinate both the set up of new vendors in this database and the changing of existing vendors. This is an extremely sensitive task, as it involves monies being paid out. A wrong bank account number in our system, for example, could end in thousands if pounds going to the wrong person. Therefore, we need to take as much care as possible when making changes in the Vendor Master. Furthermore, it is critical that we make changes to the Vendor Master in a timely manner, as we have to pay our vendors in the right place and on time, or suffer consequences including fines.
KPI Reporting
Weekly Replenishment KPIs – These KPIs are extremely important, as they are distributed to all Territory Managers, Area Managers and Country Managers across Europe. The high exposure means that the KPIs have to be as accurate as possible. The RP KPIs are large sheets, one per country, that give a high level view of a site’s performance, week-by-week. The figures reported on include level of sales, negative stocks and stock levels. My job with this report is to input some of the information and co-ordinate the rest of the information. I must also check all figures to ensure accuracy and then distribute to the different countries.
Fortnightly Call Data Report – Our customers are Esso’s employees all across Europe, be it Store Managers or ROC Management. As we are based in Manchester and our customers are based throughout Europe, the quickest way for them to contact us with any issues is by telephone. Therefore, is a priority of ours to be as efficient as possible answering these calls. It is this performance that this reports concentrates on.
The Call Data Report reports on how many calls were missed, how long the caller had to wait and how many calls actually came into ROSC. It is used by management to measure how efficiently we serve our customers, as well as being used to continually improve each department's efficiency in resolving the numerous problems encountered.
Monthly Departmental Scorecards – To assess each department’s performance, a scorecard is used. This is again a list of KPIs, some common to all teams and some team specific. Again, the management of ROSC are able to see who performed the best and also any areas for concern. My job here is to create the scorecard, input some information and co-ordinate the completion of each scorecard.
Quarterly Global Scorecard – This scorecard is used to look at ROSC’s performance by Global CORS Support Organisation – ROSC’s superiors. We, as European ROSC, are compared to the American and Asia-Pacific ROSCs, who have to populate the same scorecard.
The Global Scorecard is an extensive list of KPIs covering all aspects of the company. It also includes information on how much ROSC is costing and a large selection of efficiencies.
Once I am given the template to complete, I liaise with various Team Members, Team Leaders, Power Users and management to retrieve specific information which will be used to populate the scorecard. I also have to liaise with GCSO to solve any problems or answer any questions. Finally, I must review with the ROSC Manager and GCSO to close the scorecard for that quarter. It is then used to calculate the level of bonus for each ROSC employee.
My Experience
My experience here in ROSC has been fantastic. In terms of the work, I have been given huge responsibility from the first day I arrived, with increasing responsibilities as I have progressed. I have been constantly busy and have always been stimulated and challenged with the subject matter.
My time here has been aided immensely by the guidance of my managers. I have been supported with advice and comments and have always had someone to talk to if I needed anything or if the work became too much. I believe this experience would have been the same with any manager here in ROSC.
What amazed me when I first came here is the culture of the business. It is extremely diverse in terms of nationality and background, making every day a learning experience. It also gives a taste of what working in such a multi-national company like ExxonMobil would be like. Also, I was surprised at how much the individual is valued here. There are schemes that aim to provide as many benefits to ROSCERs as possible, including funding for educational courses, a social club, sports clubs, many formal company events and even free eyesight tests! We have monthly awards that recognise both individual and group performance, resulting in me almost winning an MP3 player!
As I said before, I have had an amazing time here and plan to apply for the Graduate Scheme for when I finish University. I would recommend everybody to apply!
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