By Patrick Barnard, Group Managing Editor, Call Center Management

Scheduling the proper number of agents based on call volume has, and always will be, one of the biggest call center management challenges – and this is where workforce management solutions are playing an increasingly important role.

With their advanced analytics capabilities, today’s workforce management solutions are able to forecast, with a surprising degree of accuracy, how many agents will be needed for any given shift. Not only can they help call center managers more accurately schedule the correct number of agents, they also help improve schedule adherence; reduce shrinkage; increase service levels and, in turn, boost customer and agent satisfaction.


Considering their ability to improve call center efficiency and boost agent productivity, it’s no wonder that businesses in a wide range of industries are ditching their spreadsheets and other manual systems for scheduling agents and are adopting WFM solutions.

Increasingly, workforce management software vendors are offering their solutions via the software-as-a-service or “cloud”-based model. This brings even more advantages to companies that make the switch to workforce management, including lower up front cost, faster deployment and improved ease-of-use.

With SaaS (News - Alert)- or "cloud"-based call center solutions, companies can avoid the need to purchase expensive hardware, software licenses and network infrastructure – all they need are the computers and a high speed connection. In addition, the software is delivered as a managed service, which means the vendor is responsible for maintaining all equipment, architecture and software – thus reducing the burden on a company’s IT department.

To learn more about how cloud-based WFM solutions simplify call center management, be sure to check out the upcoming free webinar, “Cloud Computing for Easier and More Affordable Call Center Scheduling,” presented by Monet Software, from 10 to 11 a.m. PDT (7 to 8 a.m. ET), Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009.

 

Attendees will learn:

 

--What is "cloud computing"-based workforce management?
--How is it different from traditional WFM software?
--How scalable and secure is "cloud"-based WFM?
--How does "cloud”-based WFM work?
--What are the costs of "cloud"-based WFM?

To register for this free webinar, click here.

To find out about more upcoming webinars being presented by Monet Software, click here.