Buying Workforce Management Software

[dsldefinity]

Our company is looking into workforce management software for a 150 seat call center. We have 2 other sites that may go with a workforcemanagement system if this pilot goes well. All sites are definity G3r, and each site has a stand alone CMS. I have just begun my research and so far I have just begun to look at Blue Pumpkin. Please reply with other vendors that I should look at. If you implimented a system how did it go, and did you see any real gain in effiency. Has the system changed the way you determin staffing- has staffing gone from team leaders to a single person who determines staffing for the whole center?

 

[Phoneman2]

I'm glad to see your company has asked you to be involved with the project. Workforce management was brought in by our call center people. $55,000.00 later they are finding it doesn't do there job for them. We only have 50 people on the phones, its not a big call center. If you use ODBC driver make sure you install the right version in the CMS. (2 days of trouble shooting)

Good Luck Wisdom is Knowledge
that is Shared

Thanks All Phoneman2

 

[G3user]

We also have been in a selection process for WFM-system.
I have not been involved yet, but I know our company selected TotalView from IEX.
We now are waiting for delivery and implementation, so I can't tell you now about the results.
Maybe IEX is an opportunity for your company.

 

[RTMCKEE]

We are currently going thru a selection process.

Based on our needs we narrowed it down to 4 vendors.

Aspect TCS
IEX
Blue Pumpkin
PIPKINS

After reviewing the RFP responses we are now down to three, BP, IEX, and Aspect. Aspect is the front runner in our evaluation so far, with IEX being a close second. BP has a very nice solution, but there pricing came in 5 times higher than the next competitor.

RTMCKEE

 

[BIS]

We have implemented IEX for a 150 seater - took a long time, but it is now working as it should. One thing to look at is the amount of skills (hunts) your selected package can handle - this was the main reason we went the TotalView way.

 

[pbcharlie]

Having used, Qmax, TCS, Blue Pumpkin and Now IEX I would suggest you really have to do your home work. However, there are a couple of new boys on the block. One that I am particularly impressed by is OPENWAVE.

Its forecasting module is good, and it seems to have all the bells and whistles you need.
Thanks in advance
Charlie

 

[FoneFun]

We've got Blue Pumpkin for our 150 seat call center. We're on a G3R r8.3 EAS and CMS too. It does a decent job. I've heard a rumor that it's algorithms are not as great when it comes to multi-skilled agents but we've not noticed this, and many of our agents have 3-6 skills.

The forcasting is fairly correct, but you need a decent workforce manager (or some fairly competent supervisors, if that's who's operating it).

The best part about it is that it is that we set it up on MS SQL, which leaves the tables open to us if we need custom reports, etc. Of course I say this since I'm a developper and like to get my hands dirty with data...

As far as staffing, we originally had each team make their own schedule. Then we went to BP, and got a designated Work Force Manager.

Now we've gone away from having the WFM make all the scheduling decisions. The supervisors enter their agents daily info, and they are trained to look and see if agents vacation requests will be service impacting. As each team knows its people best, we think its better this way, rather than have a single WFM who only deals in numbers and thinks of agents as a number decide who should get vacations and when.

We still have a single individual designated as the administrator for BP, but this person's main tasks is to generate the schedules (based on supervisor inputed data), analyze trends, and help upper management with making decisions.

Does using this save us costs? That's a hard one. I don't think anyone has ever gone back to evaluate if the original cost benefit analysis is valid or if there is an actual savings in today's environment. Our call center has changed so much in the last 2 years since we implemented it that it is very difficult to judge any costs savings.

One thing I can say for sure is that when the forcasted call volumes are correct, and we staff according to the BP schedule, our service objectives are pretty much on the mark. The only time we get really off is due to large numbers of agents not showing up (ie public transportation failures, weather, etc), and abnormal spikes in call volumes due to some unpredictable business specific issues.

Since we have made so many changes in the CC, we use BP alot to predict the impact of changes (ie: merging queues, changing shifts, operating hours, etc.)

So overall, it's a good tool if you can afford it. It depends a lot on your call center operation specifics. At my last call center, we did it all by hand based on CentreVu Supervisor numbers, but most agents had 1 skill, our call volumes were pretty stable, and we did not go through too many changes.

 

[wtdurkin]

I spent a 1 week class on Blue Pumpkin, but never implemented any solution. I remember it was comprehensive and complicated. Also, check out SYMON (of wall board fame). They now have a WFM that feeds their Symon server for data distribution. They now have extensive 'hooks' into all kinds of data bases.