Contact center scheduling solutions come in a dizzying array of capabilities and prices. Often referred to as workforce management (WFM) software, these applications are designed to improve efficiency and delivery of labor in a call or contact center environment and related labor driven tasks. This is desirable because it reduces overhead and direct expenses as well as improving adherence to project timelines.
1. Contact Center Scheduling Tool Capabilities and Applications
by Karl Feld, Research Manager
Contact center scheduling solutions come in a dizzying array of capabilities and prices. Often
referred to as workforce management (WFM) software, these applications are designed to
improve efficiency and delivery of labor in a call or contact center environment and related labor
driven tasks. This is desirable because it reduces overhead and direct expenses as well as
improving adherence to project timelines. WFM contributes the greatest improvements to
operations which have any or all of the following characteristics;
• Contact center interviewers in more than one central location or “at home”. This includes
offshore operations spread across widely disparate time zones.
• Widely varied but interdependent mix of work types (eg. inbound calls, outbound calls,
faxing, e-mail response, etc.)
• Sheer volume of studies being managed across staff
The decision to adopt a WFM solution is complicated by the dizzying array of capabilities and
price ranges offered in the marketplace today. Primarily designed for customer care and
telemarketing operations, the descriptive language and capabilities of WFM solutions can also
seem foreign to survey research call center operations managers.
The first step in making a decision about WFM for an organization is to concretely define what
current and future operations look like. Looking into the crystal ball at future growth or
shrinkage projections is important, as WFM solutions for one size or work mix operation will not
necessarily optimally serve what the some company may look like a year from today.
Experience has demonstrated that a clear picture of the organization’s current and future
planning for the following factors needs to be determined before the purchase and selection
process can proceed productively.
1. Is the operation (and will the operation be) less or more than 100 contact center seats?
This tends to be the price and management point at which transition to different sets of
WFM capabilities become beneficial.
2. Does the operation have one site or multiple sites?
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2. 3. Does the operation have, or will it acquire, an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)1? If
yes, should the WFM integrate into the ACD to enable richer productivity and schedule
adherence capabilities?
4. Does the operation have mixed or blended inbound/outbound operations, or is it
either/or?
5. Is the operation a call center (telephone calling only), or is it a contact center
incorporating blended communication modes across projects (telephone, internet, e-mail,
etc.)
6. Does the operation use interviewers tiered into different skill and work groups, or are all
agents on a project considered equivalent?
WFM application features can be roughly broken down into four categories; scheduling,
measurement, forecasting and integration. Each category of features builds on the previous. The
addition of each category also adds to the price.
Scheduling: Scheduling is literally the capability to assign staff to projects in a manner which
meets pre-determined workload needs while respecting training and availability. Most
scheduling software can accommodate management of absence, vacation, holiday , intra-shift
break and non-phone time activities to provide real-time transparency to whether staffing levels
meet production needs. In the more advanced, web-based applications, employees can be
enabled to make requests for future time off or shift assignments and change their current status
by logging into the system and changing various settings. This is particularly important in an at-
home call center environment where schedule adherence is by definition a self-managed and
decentralized process.
In some applications, the scheduling functionality will also automatically prioritize requests by
interviewer skill level, project training and employee status or priority and award changes in
work status appropriately. This is particularly powerful, as it creates a tangible way to reward
interviewer behaviors of value at an individual level without the associated administrative burden
when doing so by hand.
Scheduling functionality creates tremendous cost and timing efficiencies in operations which are
geographically disparate across numerous time zones or by skill group; language for example. In
1
Automatic Call Distributor (ACD): a telephone facility that handles incoming calls and manages them based on a
database of handling instructions. ACD is a service that enables incoming calls directed to the same dialed number,
the pilot number, to be routed to one of multiple interviewers in the ACD group.
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3. these cases labor delivery is automatically recorded within skill group and used to plan the next
location’s work requirements in real-time with limited manpower requirements. This can
eliminate the need for 24 hour workforce management staff, in some cases who speak multiple
languages.
Similarly, it has tremendous benefits in blended operations with large numbers of projects and
skills groups. Some WFM solutions allow for the use of the application for non-call tasks as
well as call activities. The author has used a WFM application to manage an environment which
coordinated face-to-face interviewing, fax and e-mail recruiting, skip tracing and mail survey
labor with inbound/outbound call center labor and data entry activities across 20+ projects and
multiple geographic locations simultaneously. At these levels of complexity, not having a WFM
solution roughly triples administrative burden and introduces numerous inefficiencies into the
project coordination and schedule adherence processes.
Measurement: Building on any given system’s scheduling capabilities, some WFM solutions
have the capability to measure and report productivity at the interviewer and at the aggregated
project level in real-time. This is accomplished by marrying outbound unit production numbers
with elapsed time on project, time usually being drawn from the ACD. By introducing the
reporting of time, measurement capabilities also usually enable observation real-time schedule
adherence at the interviewer level. This allows for adjustment of staffing levels against project
needs within a shift at a moment’s notice, as opposed to once an hour or even less often intervals
used in many of today’s research call centers. This in turn allows for better management of
deliverable timelines.
Interestingly enough, WFM’s which are integrated into ACD’s and which are web-based have
started to add other floor management tools. Some of the more advanced applications have
integrated Instant Messaging interfaces to allow management and floor staff to communicate
virtually, again especially important to the at home environment. Many also have libraries of
emoticons and messages which management staff and drag and drop into communications to
increase speed and efficiency, as well as the ability to record the IM processes as employment
records.
Forecasting: Once a system has captured individual agent and project average productivity
scores and schedule adherence, and can link and sequence various skill group tasks, it has the
foundation for effective forecasting. The most advanced WFM solutions contain the predictive
analytics to forecast project timelines and staffing needs based on interviewer metrics aggregated
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4. within project against the available of particular interviewers working within assigned skill
groups based on their individual productivity and scheduled availability. The same analytics will
then continuously re-project timelines and staffing needs and resort production staff as necessary
to accomplish project goals of productivity and time. In most cases, the systems will also
accommodate for capacity limitations.
By implication, control of efficiencies at this level also allows for project budget and costing
forecasting, capacity usage forecasting, predictive forecasting for other tasks driven by call
center performance (eg. skip tracing, mail outs, data prep, etc.) and use of historical performance
data for future project planning. Most advanced WFM systems provide these features as well.
Integration: In the fewest and most expensive solutions, the power of the forecasting data and its
associated inputs is integrated into company payroll and billing process, human resources
databases for performance measurement and improvement and sample management and
availability, which drives labor requirements in survey research. Few solutions provided these
options as standard, though many will accommodate with custom programming to enable these
capabilities.
Prices range widely in WFM solutions, mostly driven by the mix of capabilities required. This
author’s experience in the marketplace suggests solutions usually start at a floor of $5,000. Price
structures are generally tied to the number of stations to be serviced, ranging from @$196 per for
self-contained software solutions to $1000 per station for high end product with all the
capabilities described above. Of course, there are associated consulting and installation fees as
well as annual licensing or maintenance fees. Discounts on per station expenses are usually
offered for large numbers of stations.
For those to whom software acquisition is a new experience, the following general guidelines are
suggested.
1. As with any software purchased, the vendor’s customer support and annual maintenance
contract are as important as the functionality itself. Be sure you are satisfied with the
guarantees of service.
2. The degree of existing market penetration and age of company may reflect the longevity
of the product and its associated report. Explore this carefully.
3. Not all applications match all ACDs. Figure out what matches yours, if your company
has one and you hope to enable these capabilities.
8000 Towers Crescent Dr. Suite 1350 Vienna, Virginia 22182 USA Ph.703.255.0884 Fx.703.255.6465
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5. 4. Remember that a scheduling software usually requires a scheduling planners to go with it.
Some applications seem like they need PhDs to figure out. Others do not.
For other resources to use in gaining deeper understanding of WFM solutions, turn to the Society
of Workforce Planning Professionals at www.swpp.org. (Yes, those PhDs actually have an
association.) Their “Links” page highlights most of the major vendors in the workforce
management space. Also useful is the cataloging of products in different price ranges available
at www.callcentermagazine.com. Their “Buyer’s” link at the top of the home page leads to links
including discussions of WFM solutions.
8000 Towers Crescent Dr. Suite 1350 Vienna, Virginia 22182 USA Ph.703.255.0884 Fx.703.255.6465
www.D3systems.com
