Aspect Unveils Workforce Optimization Platform to Improve Customer Service, Overall Moral

Aspect (News - Alert), a provider of unified communications and collaboration services and software, announced the availability of Aspect Workforce Management version 7.3, a workforce optimization system based on its PerformanceEdge (News - Alert) software platform.

This new workforce management release features better scheduling features besides enhanced productivity via its unified communications-enabled collaboration capabilities. Organizations will be able to leverage this new functionality to derive maximum benefit from enterprise knowledge workers like back office employees to improve customer service and optimize the workforce environment.

Company sources explained that the Aspect Workforce Management solution is tightly integrated with complementary workforce optimization capabilities on the PerformanceEdge platform. This can be delivered as a stand-alone solution or as a part of a synchronized offering.

"Aspect's new enterprise workforce optimization solution demonstrates the company's focus on aligning communications to the fundamental needs of the business," said Hyoun Park, research analyst at the Aberdeen (News - Alert) Group. "By developing new unified communications capabilities within the workforce management solution, this release will help companies to accelerate extended business processes and give hundreds of administration hours back to overburdened contact center and back office personnel."

This new version of Aspect Workforce Management includes features such as back office scheduling with new algorithms to forecast and schedule back office tasks. It helps optimize longer service level times and backlogs. The improved schedule adherence view offers adherence views for users to graphically view time out of adherence.

Also the multidimensional intraday performance uses the pivot table-like view. Analysts will be able to now slice and dice intraday performance data across time on the basis of days, weeks, months and so on besides basing it on staff and types of work, said company sources.,

The UC Enablement feature allows users to collaborate on common contact center business problems besides helping agents and other employees to improve accessibility to schedules.

"This release is focused on using unified communications capabilities to enhance the scheduling of knowledge workers to gain efficiencies and reduce costs," said Andy Bezaitis, senior vice president of product management at Aspect.

Bezaitis added that the Aspect Workforce Management 7.3 streamlines the whole scheduling process, helps increase adherence, and gives supervisors and managers a unified view of staff availability and service level attainment. This results in enhanced customer experience and improves an organizations capability in delivering suitable solutions.

Aspect sources further added that the solution allows contact center agents, back office employees, and knowledge workers to view their schedule in Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange Server to receive Microsoft Outlook appointment reminders which will help improve schedule adherence.