HP Japan to Market Aspect eWorkforce Management Software to Contact Center Market

By Susan J. Campbell

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

A business alliance has been announced between Aspect Software and Hewlett-Packard Japan. This alliance is focused on targeting a localized version of the workforce management software for contact centers, Aspect eWorkforce Management to the Japan market.

 

Released in 1980 in the US, the Aspect product today operates in more than 3,000 customer sites around the world. According to a recent report by industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, Aspect eWorkforce Management maintains a 30 percent share of the market in contact centers worldwide, proving it is the number 1 choice for all contact centers. 

 

Pramod Ratwani, vice president of Asia Pacific and Middle East for Aspect Software (News - Alert), noted that 60 to 70 percent of the contact center operation’s total cost is personnel expenses. In Japan it is especially challenging to maximize agent productivity while also managing costs due to the various types of agent employment including contractors, part timers and regular employees.

 

Ratwani added that with Aspect eWorkforce Management, the contact center can forecast calls from customers and create plans for appropriate agent scheduling. As a result, costs can be reduced and customer satisfaction will ultimately be enhanced.

 

HP Japan intends to leverage its extensive experience in selling contact center solutions in order to support contact center operation optimization by offering Aspect eWorkforce Management to the Japanese contact center market.

 

The Aspect eWorkforce Management software is based on TCS technology to enable contact centers to accurately plan, efficiently manage and optimize the performance of multi-skilled, multi-channel, multi-site and outsourced staffing resources. The Aspect solution will be positioned such that customers will be able to maximize profits and customer satisfaction, reduce staffing costs and turnover and improve overall performance to better meet the goals of the business.  

 

Designed to be a scalable solution, the Aspect eWorkforce Management utilizes industry standard hardware and software while also integrating with all leading ACDs and predictive dialers in order to reduce complexity and operational costs. The solution is planned so that its users have the right number of agents with the right skills across all locations.

 

The Aspect eWorkforce Management solution includes a main component that provides for forecasting, scheduling and tracking; a perform component that enables the tracking and management of agent adherence to productivity; an empower piece to streamline change requests and notifications; an allocation component to forecast and schedule multi-site environments; an encompass piece to control quality with outsourced agents; and the analyze component which is designed to optimize workforce performance.

 

Aspect has done well in its eWorkforce Management solution to address all the issues that the contact center faces in order to effectively deliver a high level of customer service without draining all company resources. Properly predicting and scheduling agents for maximum productivity can be the greatest challenge for the contact center, especially if agents operate outside of the center’s main location.

 

The contact center industry in Japan offers a ‘mixed bag’ of employment profiles, making consistency among the centers and the agents difficult to achieve. What the Aspect solution will help to provide, beyond the benefits already mentioned, is a solution that will do most of the tasks handled by contact center managers, at a fraction of the time.

 

This will enable these center leaders to spend more time monitoring and coaching their agents to achieve a higher level of performance and less time worrying about proper scheduling. In the end, this can also help to drive high attrition down while increasing customer service as agents will receive better focused coaching for job improvement leading to more confident and satisfied agents that deliver a better experience for the customer overall.