Through a viable workforce management solution, call center administrators can organize
staff effortlessly so that their business can save money by minimizing excess staff and
take advantage of each worker’s skills. To achieve these advantages, this solution
must provide efficient scheduling and forecasting capabilities. In addition, resourceful
features such as real-time adherence, skills-based routing and attendance preferences are
beneficial. Pipkins’ Maxima Advantage integrates all of these features with the
intention of maximizing a business’ workforce environment.
Installation
Maxima Advantage is normally installed by Pipkins in accordance with the customer’s
needs. Since we only wanted to install the software in a lab environment, we set up the
hardware requirements and watched as a representative from Pipkins installed both the
Oracle database software and their own software onto Windows NT Server 4.0. We used a 333
MHz Mitac industrial computer with 320 megs of RAM to be assured that we had enough memory
to test the product. (For more information about the Mitac industrial computer we used,
check the TMC™ Labs
Mitac review in the September 1999 issue of Internet Telephony�)
When the Pipkins representative attempted to install the Oracle 7.3.4 software (support
for Oracle 8 is not yet provided by Pipkins), the setup wizard would not appear on the
screen. We could not understand the reason for this. We tried to reinstall Windows NT
Server 4.0, and while that was successful, our problem remained. Then we had the idea of
replacing the CD-ROM drive even though it had worked for reinstalling Windows NT Server
4.0. For some reason, the new CD-ROM worked for installing Oracle’s software. We
tossed the old, defective CD-ROM drive, but we were still unsure about the reason for this
strange development. Let wonders never cease!
With all of this fun, we still did not obtain enough real information to reasonably
determine the ease and flexibility of the product’s installation process. However,
installation is usually done by Pipkins, and the CD-ROM difficulty was strictly an
MIS-type of problem, so this should not be a concern.
Documentation
We looked at the latest Acrobat PDF version of the user’s guide for Maxima Advantage.
It consists of much of what we look for in a guide. For the subject matter, it is not
difficult to interpret. It provides an extensive table of contents, a glossary briefly
explaining important terminology and many screen shots that complement much of what the
guide explains. The user’s guide is missing an index, however, which should be
included even though the table of contents is extensive. Also, the report section is
incomplete, but a Pipkins’ representative informed us that the company is considering
devoting a whole manual to reports in the near future. Finally, we could only find a
separate marketing sheet on Pipkins’ new Web Agent Viewing and Empowerment (WAVE)
module. Information about this new module should be included in the user’s guide.
The help files are intuitive and beneficial, providing precise information on the topic
to be researched. With the exception of some screens that do not have associated help
files, each screen is context-sensitive.
Features
The following is a description of the major features of Maxima Advantage:
- SkillSense Scheduling — rules-driven scheduler that attempts to reflect the lowest
cost staffing solution for your call center. With the help of the Oracle database, it uses
a profile of agents’ skills to take advantage of their potential.
- Forecasting — uses Merlang algorithms when calculating staffing levels, even when
using multiple agent skill sets, and correlates marketing activities with projected call
volumes.
- Multiple Application Server — for multisite call centers distributing their
workforce management system to multiple application servers while using a central database
for reporting.
- Attendance Preferences — preferences for agents given by seniority or a point
system (an equal chance based on agents’ past fulfillment of their preferences).
- Real-Time Adherence — an optional module that allows information that reveals the
status of all your agents to be automatically updated in real-time.
- Web Agent Viewing and Empower-ment (WAVE) — for viewing schedules and employee
information over the Internet or corporate network with a Web browser.
Operational Testing
Because of Pipkins’ licensing agreement with Oracle, we had a limited time to test
the capabilities of Maxima Advantage in our labs. However, in that time, we did examine
the GUI and made sure many of the features worked properly. We also dialed into a demo at
Pipkins to look at WAVE and the real-time adherence modules, both of which were not
included in our original installation.
Since the configuration settings are primarily handled by Pipkins, we looked only
briefly at the configuration features, but we found that the settings can be modified
without too much difficulty. Time zone, ACD, service team service (which defines the
percent of time agents spend answering calls and when agents are occupied with other
unscheduled concerns), queue service and schedule-event configurations can all be set. An
array of other features can also be modified, including the level of abandonment rates
allowed, average handling time, whether or not to observe daylight savings, time adherence
tolerance and validation hours. Of course, in a corporate environment, any new
organizations, departments or offices can be added or changed. Special events can also be
considered in order to correlate historical statistics to produce a more accurate
forecast.
There are many more intricacies about Maxima Advantage that makes it a strong workforce
management tool, such as how it uses skills-based routing (as Pipkins calls SkillSense),
staff schedule preferences, forecasting and a large number of reports. The selection of
charts, graphs and other aids to help with forecasting and reports is quite impressive, as
is the ability to view many of the reports or graphs simultaneously on a single screen.
One last intricacy worth mentioning is Maxima Advantage’s ability to filter staff
information, which allows for subset lists of the overall group. A simple example of this
would be separating staff members by their office or department.
We also liked the schedule rules definitions, which consist of information that Maxima
Advantage needs to schedule your staff. They are divided into eight tabs for each selected
staff member: first/last assignments, week to week, attendance, hours of availability,
attendance cycle hours, team eligibilities, cycle parameters, and intraday assignments
(defines information about breaks and lunches as well as any other daily assignments).
Setting these rules is relatively straightforward, but there is a lot to learn about all
of the rule sets before it can be done correctly. Also, this particular screen of the GUI
appears cluttered, and therefore, is a bit confusing. Nevertheless, once the learning
curve is overcome, it is an effective scheduling technique.
Employee information and scheduling information can be viewed over the Internet or a
corporate network by using WAVE. All you have to do is log into the system with your staff
I.D. and PIN number. Then, you can pick the report type (daily, weekly and monthly) and
the dates of the calendar you would like to view. This module’s interface is
straightforward and very simple to use. While this GUI is somewhat plain looking, it is
still an effective method for users to look at their schedules or employee information
remotely. The modification feature, which is scheduled for the next release, allows you to
edit your schedule so that your manager can consider these edit requests.
The real-time adherence module provides up-to-the-minute information received from your
ACD. It determines whether or not agents are adhering to their scheduled activities. The
interface shows that an agent is out of adherence by marking that time in red. If agents
are in their grace period (where they are not where their schedule indicates but are
within the specified tolerance level), the interface shows this marked in blue. This
feature also takes positive and negative impacts on a call center into account. An example
of a positive impact would be if an agent were helping a customer even after his
designated lunch break had started. A negative impact would be if an agent arrived late
for work.
Room For Improvement
We have a few suggestions that would likely make Maxima Advantage an even better
product. For instance, while the main GUI follows most Windows conventions, uses buttons
for nearly every feature and is intuitive for the most part, we would like the ability for
right-click functionality on any part of the screen. As it stands, you can only
right-click in certain instances (to select graphs or chart designs and to select the
buttons you want to appear on screen). At times, the GUI appears complex and cluttered, so
it takes a little while for the user to become accustomed to the interface, especially the
schedule rules definition screen.
The Find features of Maxima Advantage consist of either pressing the binocular button
in the toolbar or just typing what you are searching for on the lower end of the screen.
There is room for improvement here because it is difficult to notice these features, and
the binocular button is not useful and should be eliminated from the GUI.
We would like to see a calendar where you can just click-and-drag scheduled intraday
assignment blocks (lunches, breaks, meetings, etc.) to a new time. This type of calendar
is referred to as a Gantt chart. It is very helpful and easy to use when changing
scheduled events. A Pipkins’ representative claimed to have a feature like this ready
for some time in 2000. It would also be nice for Pipkins to upgrade their database
compatibility to Oracle 8 before another major version of Oracle is released.
Conclusion
Pipkins’ Maxima Advantage could be of immense use in any call center. The forecasting
and preferences features are excellent, and the SkillSense scheduling functionality helps
lower costs while improving the organization of call centers. The real-time adherence and
Web-based schedule GUI (WAVE) modules are welcome additions to the system, and the
technology they offer should be considered when making your purchasing decision. |
Internet Telephony Magazine
Click here to read latest issue
CUSTOMER 
Cloud Computing Magazine
Click here to read latest issue
IoT EVOLUTION MAGAZINE
