Workforce management software is helping organizations everywhere reduce operating costs and improve customer service. Companies in a wide range of “workforce oriented” industries including banking, manufacturing, warehouse and fulfillment, retail, restaurant and call center are discovering the many advantages today’s workforce management systems have over spreadsheets and other “traditional” scheduling systems.

Workforce management software in particular is proving its worth in the call center. Due to the dynamic nature of call volume, call center managers need advanced software tools that can help them predict volume and staff accordingly, if they are to achieve new labor efficiencies. What’s more, due to the downturn in the economy, many companies have cut staffing in their call centers and thus are looking for ways to get greater productivity out of the remaining agents.

Helping them to achieve this are today’s workforce management solutions. These systems – which are increasingly being offered via the software-as-a-service model – sport advanced analytics capabilities which can help call center managers forecast how many agents will be needed for any given shift. This is achieved through integration with the call center ACD and other databases.

This ACD integration capability is part of what makes today’s call center workforce management solutions distinct from other “general,” “universal” or “one-size fits-all” offerings. While some software vendors offer all-encompassing workforce management software “suites” that can be used for scheduling employees for a wide range of positions across different departments, divisions and subsidiaries, others gear their solutions for specific job functions. The workforce management needs of a call center are unique because – as mentioned previously – call volume can fluctuate wildly, yet there is a requirement to always have adequate resources on hand so that customer service levels are maintained.

One industry where call center volume can fluctuate wildly is telecom. TDS Telecom is an RLEC serving 1.2 million residential and business customers in 29 states. On the residential side of the business, it provides more than 450,000 subscribers with phone service; more than 150,000 homes with high speed broadband Internet service; and more than 230 channels of television. On the business side its services include Centrex, Managed Data Services, Virtual Private Networks, and PBX (News - Alert) and Key phone systems.

A few years ago the company decided to ditch its Excel spreadsheets for scheduling agents and deployed GMT Corp.’s GMT Planet workforce management software in its call center. As a result the telco was able to reduce its call center operating costs while at the same time improving customer service.

One key challenge TDS Telecom faced was managing its approximately 800 agents across multiple locations (it had acquired several other carriers over the years). This was difficult and time consuming when the company was using spreadsheets for agent scheduling -- but with GMT Planet’s Web-based administration the company’s call center managers can manage agent schedules across all locations as a cohesive whole.

Another key challenge was the fact that certain agents are also responsible for servicing “walk in” customers, and thus needed to have this activity scheduled separately, creating scheduling complexity. But with GMT Planet’s ability to segregate agents into distinct groups, based on employee “type” (i.e. full time, part time, by skill set, etc.), scheduling these agents for “counter-time” could be automated, thus greatly simplifying the task of creating schedules and saving time for the managers.

“GMT’s Planet was attractive to us because one side of our business functions a lot like a bank: we have walk-in traffic as well as telephone calls that we have to service,” said Larry Silver, associate manager, workforce management and reporting at TDS Telecom, in a customer case study posted on GMT’ Corp.’s website. “GMT’s solution, which had been widely used in retail banking, as well as contact centers, fits well with our business model because it enables us to schedule a portion of our call center agents for phone duties while leaving others to assist our walk-in traffic.”

According to the case study, the GMT Planet solution is saving TDS Telecom about $250,000 a year by reducing the amount of time it takes to schedule agents by half. And this is just the cost savings achieved through the reduction of manager scheduling time – the company is saving even more through 'smarter' and more accurate scheduling of its agents, as well as improved schedule adherence and reduced shrinkage.

To download a copy of the free customer case study, click here.

For more information about GMT Corp.’s advanced call center workforce management software, click here.