Call Center Management Featured Article
March 05, 2010
Free Webinar to Cover 'The Five Advantages of Cloud-based Workforce Management'
If you operate a small to medium sized call center and you’re still using spreadsheets to schedule your agents, you’re probably wondering about the many advantages a workforce management solution might bring to your operations.
Today’s workforce management solutions sport advanced analytics capabilities that enable call center managers to forecast with a higher degree of accuracy how many agents will be needed for any given shift. This is important because balancing the number of agents with call volume is the main way of holding down call center operating costs.
One of the biggest advantages today’s workforce management systems have over spreadsheets is that they can be readily integrated with the call center ACD. Using the historical call volume data captured from the ACD, the WFM system can apply algorithms to arrive at accurate forecasts for call volume. Call center managers in turn can use these forecasts to schedule appropriately.
Increasingly, workforce management software vendors are offering their solutions via the software-as-a-service or cloud model of delivery. This is where the software is delivered via the Internet on a subscription basis. This makes it many times faster and simpler for organizations to deploy workforce management solutions for their call centers. All that is really needed are the computers and high speed Internet connection. Therefore companies save on up-front equipment purchase and implementation costs. What’s more, having the software delivered as a managed service greatly reduces the strain on internal IT departments: With the cloud model of delivery, the vendor takes on responsibility for application performance, including maintenance and troubleshooting of hardware and network infrastructure.
Today’s workforce management solutions sport advanced analytics capabilities that enable call center managers to forecast with a higher degree of accuracy how many agents will be needed for any given shift. This is important because balancing the number of agents with call volume is the main way of holding down call center operating costs.
One of the biggest advantages today’s workforce management systems have over spreadsheets is that they can be readily integrated with the call center ACD. Using the historical call volume data captured from the ACD, the WFM system can apply algorithms to arrive at accurate forecasts for call volume. Call center managers in turn can use these forecasts to schedule appropriately.
Increasingly, workforce management software vendors are offering their solutions via the software-as-a-service or cloud model of delivery. This is where the software is delivered via the Internet on a subscription basis. This makes it many times faster and simpler for organizations to deploy workforce management solutions for their call centers. All that is really needed are the computers and high speed Internet connection. Therefore companies save on up-front equipment purchase and implementation costs. What’s more, having the software delivered as a managed service greatly reduces the strain on internal IT departments: With the cloud model of delivery, the vendor takes on responsibility for application performance, including maintenance and troubleshooting of hardware and network infrastructure.
There are many other advantages to having workforce management software delivered via the cloud model as well. For example, pricing is greatly simplified; the system can be readily expanded or “scaled” to accommodate additional agents; and all software updates and upgrades are delivered to customers automatically, giving them instant access to the latest features and functionality without having to pay for new on-premises software licenses.
To learn more about the advantages today’s SaaS (News - Alert)- or “cloud”-based workforce management solutions have over spreadsheets and other, on-premises WFM systems, be sure to check out the upcoming free webinar, “The Five Advantages of Cloud-based Workforce Management,” sponsored by Monet Software. During the webinar, scheduled to be held from 9 a.m. PT (12 noon ET) to 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), Wednesday, March 17, Chuck Ciarlo, and industry expert who has run multiple call centers, will discuss how cloud computing makes workforce management easier and more affordable.
Specifically, Ciarlo will discuss:
--What is 'cloud computing' based workforce management?
--How is it different from traditional WFM software?
--What are key advantages of 'cloud' based WFM?
To register for this free informative webinar, click here.
To learn more about the advantages today’s SaaS (News - Alert)- or “cloud”-based workforce management solutions have over spreadsheets and other, on-premises WFM systems, be sure to check out the upcoming free webinar, “The Five Advantages of Cloud-based Workforce Management,” sponsored by Monet Software. During the webinar, scheduled to be held from 9 a.m. PT (12 noon ET) to 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), Wednesday, March 17, Chuck Ciarlo, and industry expert who has run multiple call centers, will discuss how cloud computing makes workforce management easier and more affordable.
Specifically, Ciarlo will discuss:
--What is 'cloud computing' based workforce management?
--How is it different from traditional WFM software?
--What are key advantages of 'cloud' based WFM?
To register for this free informative webinar, click here.
Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard