Pricing
The price for an associate Was based on the average salary and benefits for that associate's salary band within the geographic area where the assignment was located. (At the time, AT&T listed six salary zones, which took into account geographic differences in cost of living.) RL then added estimated overhead and service-delivery expenses, and calculated an hourly rate for that associate. This markup was approximately 15 percent. RL managers acknowledged that their expense estimates were based on limited
experience and data. Small (e.g., 3 percent) cost-of-living price increases were effected in 1992 and 1993.
Exhibit 9 illustrates the l993frange of salary benefit bases and hourly rates for three levels of associates. The comparability of RL s prices to those of its primary competitors (suppliers of managerial
International and Brenner Technology) varied by geography. In some locations (e-g., Chicago) the price of associates with certain technical skills was equal to or less than the outside market price for equivalent contracted talent. In other areas (e.g., most of Florida), the marketplace provided equivalent talent at a substantially lower price - than did RL-as much as $20-$40 less per hour. In some cases, the price of RL associates was higher than some business units were permitted to pay for contract personnel.
Associates submitted their billable hours on a weekly basis. Manual timesheets were used through January 1993. In February, AT&T's Conversant Voice Response . System came on-line and associates were able to dial a specific phone number and punch in the time that they worked on a Touch-Tone phone. The automated system then downloaded their hours into RL s billing system in R-OSS.