Still using spreadsheets to schedule your call center agents? Looking for new ways to make you call center more efficient and reduce operating costs?

Maybe it’s time to make the switch to a Web-based call center workforce management solution. Thanks to the advent of software-as-a-service, which enables organizations to “lease” software over the Internet on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, a company can quickly, easily and affordably deploy a call center workforce management solution and run it alongside its existing “manual” system, thus allowing managers to make direct comparisons between the two.

Providing the Web-based call center workforce management system is properly integrated with the call center ACD and other key databases – and as long as the organization runs the software for a sufficient period of time – management should see demonstrable and significant cost savings through improved labor efficiency, not to mention rapid return on investment.

The main advantage today’s Web-based call center workforce management systems have over spreadsheets and manual systems is that they sport advanced analytics capabilities that enable call center managers to forecast, with a high degree of accuracy, how many agents will be needed for any given shift. Thus they are becoming an invaluable tool for achieving labor efficiencies – and as most people know, labor is the single biggest cost facing any call center.

These systems help managers address core issues such as schedule adherence and shrinkage – but they also deliver other capabilities that go way beyond basic scheduling. Through integration with the call center ACD and other databases, a call center workforce management system can analyze past call volume and also take into account all internal/external activities that will potentially impact call volume – such as a recently launched marketing campaign, an upcoming series of infomercials, a planned catalog drop or even the demise of a competitor – to arrive at forecasts which can be used to more accurately determine call center staffing levels.

Today’s call center workforce management systems work as both short-term and long-term strategic planning tools: For example, in the “short term” the system’s intra-day forecasting capabilities means call center managers can take into account planned or unplanned changes in staffing levels – such as the introduction of a newly-hired crop of call center agents – the sudden departure of numerous agents – or even a recent “scourge” running through the center, resulting in numerous agents being out sick. These systems enable call center managers to quickly discover the impact these changes will have on call center performance, which in turn enables them to schedule agents accordingly. In the “long term” these systems allow managers to analyze months or years-worth of call volume and other data in order to confirm patterns in business cycles, or customer behavior, thus allowing company management to make strategic long term recruiting and hiring decisions.

Another important advantage today’s call center workforce management systems have over spreadsheets and manual systems is their ability to schedule agents based on skill set. This is particularly beneficial to organizations operating multi-channel customer contact centers, handling email and Web chat in addition to phone calls. Not only do today’s call center workforce management systems allow companies to schedule agents based on the forecasted volume for each of these channels – they also enable them to schedule agents based on their strengths, for example, some agents have better verbal skills, and thus are better suited to working on the phones, whereas other agents have better typing and writing skills, and thus are better suited to email and Web chat. With a call center workforce management solution, call center managers can automatically schedule the appropriate “mix” of call center agents, based on skill set, which in turn allows them to build “leaner,” more efficient call center agent teams for each specific shift. This degree of skills-based scheduling is difficult to achieve using spreadsheets and manual systems -- and it certainly cannot be automated without specialized software.

GMT Corp. is a leading provider of call center workforce management solutions. The company’s GMT OnDemand offering, the SaaS (News - Alert)-based version of its popular GMT Planet solution, helps put “the right people in the right place at the right time performing the right tasks” thus enabling call center managers to reduce operating costs while at the same time delivering improved customer service. The SaaS-based call center workforce management solution supports all of the essential processes, including:

--Long range strategic planning and budgeting

--Accurate forecasting of call volumes

--Determining employee requirements

--Queue- and skills-based scheduling

--Historical and real-time adherence

--Employee self-service and empowerment

--Performance management and analytics

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