Call Center Management Featured Article
Apple is Taking the Cloud Mainstream - Call Center Management Should Jump on Board
With so much industry focus on the cloud, it can be a challenge for call center management to know if this is the right direction to move, or if focusing efforts in an on-premise environment is more productive. Those offering cloud services continue to promote the benefits and reasons why the change is a must, but perhaps the best argument is Apple’s (News - Alert) iCloud.
This recent Monet Software blog was written specifically for those in call center management and poses the question: “What are call center managers waiting for?” when it comes to the iCloud announcement. The belief is that iCloud will truly help cloud computing to go mainstream and cloud computing in the connected world has a future based in cloud computing.
What does this have to do with call center management? Essentially, cloud computing has been shown to make it easier to integrate any devices and scale operations to nearly unlimited levels. It is also easier to deploy and offers a lower cost in terms of upfront investments. Call centers often must change their size and reach to accommodate specific campaigns and the software leveraged by these organizations can often require considerable investments in hardware and infrastructure.
Taking that software to the cloud, however, opens up a whole new world of opportunity for call center management. For instance, the call center that relies on spreadsheets or any other manual process to forecast and schedule faces increasing complexities that make it difficult to efficiently manage scheduling, forecasting and adherence. Given the costs generated by the call center already, maintaining control and reducing shrinkage is a key focus for call center management.
Workforce management in the cloud can also be embraced by call center management. One of the perks of this approach is the monthly savings associated with its use, which can be measured from deployment. Service levels and call center performance can also be improved with robust and flexible scheduling options that are readily available in cloud computing.
Call center management that relies on on-premise WFM software can also benefit from cloud computing as traditional software is often complicated to use and as a result, many not be used to its full potential. In the end, call center management does not get all of the benefits intended with this solution.
A simple calculation can be completed by comparing yearly maintenance of the WFM software and the internal costs of the infrastructure against the monthly subscription for WFM in the cloud. Call center management is sure to like what the cloud has to offer.
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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell