What to look for when buying - workforce management technology
Our regular technology column is dedicated to investigating what you should think about when buying a particular piece of technology. This month, we’ve asked three key vendors - EMAX Consulting, QPC and Witness Systems - for their advice on workforce management systems.
Advanced functionality: what to look for
By Martin Blacher, director of marketing at QPC (www.qpc-eu.com)
With 60 to 70% of operating overheads related to staff salaries, it makes good sense to ensure that these valuable resources are used in the most efficient way. WFM does just that and as such has been one of the ‘must have’ solutions for contact centres for over ten years.
Recent advances in scheduling have seen the introduction of things like ‘agent scheduling’ and ‘agent holiday bidding’, enabling individuals to quickly and easily opt for hours of work and holidays that suit their lifestyle. This type of functionality is particularly interesting because it not only gives staff members more control over their working lives, but also significantly reduces administrative overheads.
Virtualisation - linking centres together to create one large virtual contact centre - has been a key initiative for many organisations over the past five years. With the further reduction in the cost of interlinking sites that voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) promises, the prevalence of such programmes seems likely to increase. Aggregating resource, so that one contact centre does not stand idle while another is overloaded, is one of the main benefits of virtualisation. But to take full advantage of this, multi-site capability within WFM is essential.
Another critical feature of advanced WFM is real time adherence (RTA). RTA improves the accuracy of schedules by examining how an individual’s anticipated call handling capacity, used to calculate a work schedule, compares to their actual performance. Here, the ACD provides up-to-the-minute information on the number and duration of calls that an agent is receiving. If this does not match those anticipated, a manager or team leader can be alerted to find out why an individual is not performing.
Many call centres have now made the move to contact centres, taking on responsibility for handling other types of communication like letters, faxes and, most importantly, e-mail. Although the nature of the contact is different, multimedia WFM systems can still use the same scheduling and forecasting principles to make sure that the resources needed to fulfil these functions are available in sufficient quantities. Using WFM, less time-critical activities like e-mail are easily combined with calls - normally within anticipated low call volume periods - to continue to drive cost efficiency.
Skills-based routing allows calls to be routed to individuals or groups of agents with known skills or competencies so that the most appropriate agent is placed in contact with a calling customer. An example of this type of routing might be within a multilingual contact centre where calls from different countries are routed to one centre but to agents within that centre who have particular language skills.
To account for skills routing, WFM solutions need to have ’skills scheduling’. In essence this functionality allows planners to manage service levels for each skill type, making sure that the right number of agents are available for every contact type handled by the centre.
However, managing skills well is more complex than just accounting for a single skill for each agent. Multiple skills for agents are essential for good utilisation. Without these it would be easy to find a situation where, for example, all agents with sales skills are busy handling calls for the sales contact type, while those with customer service skills stand idly by because there are very few customer service contacts.
Skills routing platforms allow for multiple skills to be assigned to agents, but as this routing logic will affect the ability of a contact centre to handle different call types it needs to be determined in conjunction with workforce management.
Typically a WFM system will run a simulation using an actual set of routing rules to determine what effect the skills assignments have on service levels. These can then be modified within WFM until the best fit is found and training and development put in place to give agents the right skills mix to meet service level requirements.
Finally, WFM is often at the very core of a contact centre and will frequently need to take data from and supply information to other systems such as ACDs, payroll, HR, performance management and quality monitoring, to name but a few. When considering WFM, managers should be aware of the full breadth of integrations that may need to take place in the future and make sure their solution has the ability to integrate quickly and transport information in a timely and robust manner through an open standard interface.
WFM: The questions you should ask
By Rich Ray, senior business consultant at Witness Systems (www.witness.com)
Evaluating WFM software has never been easy, but now with the increased functionality offered by the latest workforce management solutions, there’s even more to think about. In today’s contact centres, customer contact volumes are moving targets. And when you factor in multiple sites, expanded multi-channel options, agent skills and preferences, and customer expectations, the task of forecasting and scheduling becomes difficult to manage without sophisticated analysis.I think it’s essential that you also don’t look at WFM in isolation. It’s a key component of the contact centre software mix, but you should always look at WFM as an important part of your organisation’s overall solution for optimising workforce performance. Increasingly, businesses are realising that how you plan and establish your contact centre goals, how you schedule and deploy your agents, record and measure their performance, and investigate opportunities, trends and areas for improvement, are all interconnected.With this in mind, I’ve put together some questions for organisations to ask their WFM supplier, indicating what sort of responses you should be looking for, and why these areas are important.
| Questions to ask | What answers you should be looking for | Why is it important? |
| How can your WFM solution help me plan for changes in my business? | Look for solutions with:
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Decision support tools are necessary to manage significant change in customer contact. The cost of human factors in the contact centre is rising; accurately planning for resources can have a significant impact on operational efficiency. |
| How flexible are you with modelling agents, scheduling practices, and skill strategies? | Your solution should offer:
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This kind of solution should enable you to do business the way you want. |
| What is the WFM vendor’s experience with skills-based scheduling environments? | Providers should be able to cite a significant portion of the customer base using skills-based scheduling. | Multi-contact is essentially a complex skills-based scheduling problem. WFM providers should have extensive expertise in deploying and supporting systems in a variety of skills-based scheduling environments. |
| What does the solution offer beyond traditional forecasting and scheduling tools? | Your chosen product should offer ability for multiple levels within organisation to gain insight in to WFM. Reports about staffing, service levels and so on should be available. | WFM has a significant impact on an organisation’s overall customer acquisition and retention initiatives. |
| Does the system offer flexibility to handle a variety of work rules? | Look for solutions with the ability to accommodate a variety of global work rules, including any relevant union requirements. | To be effective and efficient in your environment, your chosen solution must model the way you do business. |
| Can the system help you to understand where the gaps are between the skills/resources you have and the skills/resources you need to reach your goals? | Look for a separate planning utility to help you identify:
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Allows you to create realistic staffing plans for your environment and provides appropriate justification for new resources. |
| What tools are available to help me justify new headcount or training to management? | Look for decision support tools to show service improvements, budget information, FTE counts, and capacity information in intuitive formats. | Enables you to justify the resources you need to be successful. |
| What is the WFM vendor’s overall integration strategy? | Solution should include:
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Integration is a core component of successfully deploying a solution and realising the benefits of WFM. |
Choosing a workforce management system when all products appear the same
By Paul McFarling, director and co-founder of EMAX Consulting (www.emax-consulting.com)If you have a working call centre, you should ensure that the software can mimic exactly your current ways of operation. Introducing a workforce management (WFM) system can be difficult enough without having to change the way the centre operates at the same time. By allowing the WFM software to copy your existing operation it will soon show you where improvements can be made, and these can then be implemented at your own pace. So if you operate rotating shifts, for example, ensure that the software can manage these simply. Talk to your prospective vendors and ask to be shown how this function is accomplished.
WFM is not simple, but the software must neither hinder your objectives or short-change you with lack of features as you develop your expertise. A product that looks enticingly simple on first viewing may be fine, but its simplicity could end up a frustration as you become more expert. Remember that within weeks you will be confident enough to look at advanced techniques.Consider what other features might be useful to you in the running of your operation and be wary of features that might seem useful but are there simply to help market the product. These usually command a separate and high price. Will you still be using these features in six weeks’ time and how will they integrate in to your plans? Also be wary of buying features that will paper over the cracks of poor management. There is still no substitute for good old face-to-face management skills.
As you are dealing with a WFM system, it might well be appropriate that it includes support for, and is compliant with, the Working Time Directive (WTD). As your agents swap shifts and take on overtime you will need to be warned if such changes will make individuals non-compliant with the WTD. You will also need to produce compliance reports for the Health and Safety Executive.
Do not be afraid to ask for the price of the software together with any additional costs. At the very least a budgetary figure should beimmediately available. Is training and documentation included in the price, what additional charges are there for connecting the software to the automatic call distributor (ACD) and which ACDs are supported? If you change ACD, what are the costs? Always ensure your IT people are involved so they can judge the impact on your computer systems and networks.
Once you have got to grips with using the product, you will find it useful to talk and share experiences with other users. The best forum for this will be the user group. Ask when and how often these meet, what items are covered, whether there are additional costs, whether there any regional mini groups and whether potential customers are invited - something to be avoided as the day will be spent on marketing to them, not helping you.
As the call centre grows so will your aspirations and expectations from the WFM software. You will need to be sure that the WFM provider is prepared to continue development of the product. Find out how often the product is upgraded and whether the main developments come from the user group or whether marketing people drive them. Finally, how much will the upgrades cost or are they included as part of an annual maintenance contract?
Think of the whole process like this. You could buy an American Cadillac and you know it would get you from A to B in a certain amount of luxury. But when you come to use it, the steering wheel will be on the wrong side, most streets will be too narrow to let it pass, there will be lots of gadgets that you will play with once and never touch again, servicing will be difficult, and it will use far too much petrol.
In other words, it is not just about getting to your destination, but how you get there.
