Making the Argument for the Unified Desktop

The contact center agent is a coveted individual in the business world, as he or she has very little to do within a given shift, relying on the whiles of bored coworkers to pass the time – right? If this were really the case, wouldn’t we all want the job? The truth is, agents have more to juggle in less time than most of us, and they have to do it while keeping countless customers happy.

For those individuals responsible for keeping agents on task, workforce optimization solutions are important tools. They can be used to ensure that the right number of agents with the right skill sets are on hand to handle the projected volume of calls. It sounds basic enough, but the same workforce also has to use as many as 15 different systems to do their job, which is a lot of switching between screens if desktop technology isn’t unified.

According to a research report issued jointly by Cisco (News - Alert) and the Customer Contact Association (CCA), only 15 percent of contact center agents are able to easily track customers across multiple channels. Plus, in one third of the contact centers surveyed, the board doesn’t participate in the contact center, making it difficult for managers to demonstrate the importance of their operations. This lack of visibility hurts their efforts to justify investment in workforce optimization, unified solutions and other technology advancements.

While there appears to be a clear gap between availability and need for unified desktop tools, the survey also found that the majority of agents recognize the importance of the single view. Of those surveyed, 90 percent understand the value a unified view can deliver and 98 percent believe the technology exists to make it happen. Among decision makers, however, 72 percent indicate that legacy systems continue to be the main barrier to achieving the unified desktop. As such, getting executives to approve such an investment is a challenge.

The key to overcoming this challenge is to demonstrate how this technology can enhance an agent’s productivity and success rate. Doing so will take a diligent approach to measuring current activities and accurately projecting the change likely to come from a unified desktop solution. For instance, measuring the number of applications required to manage the average interaction and the amount of time it adds to the call is necessary. Proven documentation on the potential time saved is also critical.

Workforce optimization tools are designed to enhance an agent’s performance, ensuring he or she can produce more in less time. When complex solutions and unnecessary steps are part of the daily grind, resources are wasted. For decision makers, however, such shortfalls need to be demonstrated with hard numbers and a solution recommended with hard data to support a change. Even then, the value of the investment will have to be demonstrated after deployment.

Given the promises made by such technology, delivering on this point should be easy.