May 2001

Blue Pumpkin
Software, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA
Ph: 877-257-6756; Fx: 408-830-5411
Web: www.bluepumpkin.com

Price: The base package ranges from approximately $50,000 to $75,000 for a 250-seat center. Time Off Management is an add-on module ranging from $30 to $75 per agent. Training classes are $1,700.

RATINGS (0'5)
Installation: 5
Documentation: 4.75
Features: 5
GUI: 5
Overall: A

Serving such high-profile clients as Apple Computer, Airborne Express, AOL and Verizon Wireless, Blue Pumpkin Software is a long-time player in the field of workforce management. Based upon the model of the company's PrimeTime Enterprise, Blue Pumpkin developed and released Blue Pumpkin Director Enterprise 3.0, a solution that, among other things, figures multimedia -- Web, e-mail, chat, PDA and fax -- into the workforce management equation.

Installation
Installing Blue Pumpkin Director Enterprise (referred to from here on out as "Director") was simple enough in the TMC Labs environment. This was a roughly five- to ten-minute process during which the product was loaded onto a MITAC industrial PC running the requisite SQL server 7.0. Blue Pumpkin requires a visit from their own installers or a third-party when implementing in a typical contact center scenario. After installing Director on a dedicated Pentium II+ NT machine running at least 256 megs of RAM, VARs or Blue Pumpkin technicians integrate the product with an ACD. This is followed by a three-day training period. Having used and tested products of equal complexity for which effective documentation sufficed, a three-day training period does seem a bit over the top, especially at $1,700. Regardless, there are certainly enough features to justify efforts to strengthen user familiarity.

Documentation
As with the former PrimeTime Enterprise, Director's documentation is generally concise, logical and context-sensitive, with appendixes and indexes providing a valued supplement. There were nevertheless a few moments during our experience with the product when we thought the documentation could be taken even a step further, perhaps lessening some of a customer's dependence upon in-house training.

Features And Operational Testing
As part of its core functionality -- translated over from PrimeTime -- Director performs advanced forecasting and scheduling through integration with most ACD systems, making (or allowing you to make) intelligent and proactive scheduling decisions using graphing and reporting. Real-time adherence assists in the evaluation of service goals through dynamic ACD data, and skills-based scheduling integrates agents' skill data to your ACD queues so the appropriate agent can take calls on a particular subject.

New features added to the core functionality through Director demonstrate that the multimedia buzz is more than just a passing fad, even working its way into the "back-end" systems -- such as workforce management products -- that enable a contact center to function. With Director, all forms of communication (e-mail, chat, Web, telephone, etc.) are treated equally, applying the core skills-based scheduling functionality, for example, in order to account for how well agents are versed in various communications channels and allowing e-mail queues to be analyzed for forecasted scheduling. Other significant new features include:

• Staffing profiles that expand current scheduling analysis toward workforce planning and recruitment, allowing the user to predict the types of agent skills that will most likely be required in the future.
• "Insight," the Web-based application for agents, now allows agents to interact with the system (whereas before it only published schedules created by the then PrimeTime app). Modules include Time Off Management, Agent Preferences and Shift Swapping, allowing agents to view and negotiate their schedules without affecting service levels.

In walking through the solution, we followed the same steps an administrator might during setup. Initially, we created what the system calls "organizational" settings, meaning an enterprise's relatively unchanging settings, such as days and hours of operation. Exceptionally simple, most of these systemwide settings are configured through check boxes. "Campaign" settings, on the other hand, provide the flexibility of adapting scheduling needs to weekly and daily needs. All these configurations are accessed through simple icons arranged in the MS Outlook style. We went on to create not only shifts, but work "patterns," a Blue Pumpkin concept that figures shifts, full-time/part-time status and availability into a more holistic view of employees' work behavior -- with all information displayed in a simple, color-coded format.

When we began creating employees, one improvement on the core feature set made to Director since the PrimeTime version became apparent. When we last reviewed the product, then called PrimeTime Enterprise, we noted in the "Room for Improvement" section of the review that users were not able to transfer preexisting employee data into the Employee module. Users can now import employee data from a text file, which saves a significant amount of time and hassle. Along with hours worked and identification of immediate supervisors, crucial skill-set information was also entered during employee data configuration. It is during this process that agents' multimedia skills are determined, information that Director uses in its new multichannel approach to scheduling and forecasting. By "creating" actual agents, we were then able to go log in to Insight as those agents through a Web browser. Insight offers a colorful, uncluttered, "ergonomic" approach to Web interactivity, making it very easy for agents to use the Time Off Management, Agent Preferences and Shift Swapping features.

Room For Improvement
There is very little to suggest by way of improvement. Our only recommendation might be to foster client self-sufficiency -- as opposed to reliance on onsite training -- through online tutorials and more thorough documentation. We noticed that a very logical flow is established during administrative setup, with organizational settings leading to campaign settings and so forth. Blue Pumpkin could, through even more of these Wizard-type utilities, walk users through this process in an automated manner. This would not only assist in initial setup and lessen the role required of hands-on trainers, but would also leave a more substantial legacy of information to ensure continued smooth usage of the product.

Conclusion
Simply put, after a look at this product's exhaustive array of features and their tangible benefits, it is clear that Blue Pumpkin has again defined what true workforce management should be about. As an enterprise product, it takes an extraordinary number of factors into account to define the often overlooked equation between management of "human resources" and real return on investment. Furthermore, we welcome a product that approaches workforce management not only from the enterprise side, but from the perspective of benefits to contact center employees, as well. The Time Off, Shift Swapping and Preference features in particular enable employees to take an active part in the process of determining their schedules, which helps foster more empowered, happier and better-rested agents. We hope users will use these features to help make life in the contact center easier for those agents who have ultimately carried much of the weight of the considerable growth of the contact center industry.