Workforce Management in the Cloud - Better than On-Premise?

As a leader in your call center, you already know you need a workforce management solution to ensure the success of your operation. Now, you must decide if it’s best to implement an in-house solution, or follow the movement to the cloud.

There are a number of benefits workforce management in the cloud can deliver as compared with traditional in-house systems. A recent Monet Software blog highlighted the differences, stressing the benefits associated with the cloud approach and why it offers the most benefit for your environment.

Implementation and Deployment

Implementation and deployment are both critical steps in any change to the network. With the traditional approach to any software solution, whether it is a workforce management system or a scheduling software suite, the installation and configuration can take several months to complete. In the cloud, workforce management is typically faster to deploy as it requires only the creation of a new customer account, the loading of data and the configuration of the system – all of which can be done in just a few days or weeks.

Cost Upfront

The choice of any implementation is often hampered by the substantial upfront costs demanded by an on-premise solution. There is hardware and software to purchase, cost for the installation, configuration and implementation and even incidentals, all of which can quickly add up. With workforce management in the cloud, there is no upfront investment for hardware or software and the solution is offered through a monthly subscription fee that will typically include training, support, maintenance and even upgrades.

Cost of Operation

Any new implementation conducted in-house will generate operating costs over time. There are costs associated with running your own server, which can include maintenance, backups, upgrades and even hardware replacement. These costs are often unaccounted for and can easily add up beyond budgeted amounts. With a cloud-based option, the benefits of workforce management are easily accessible through shared services, which dramatically decrease the cost for each individual company.

Performance and Scalability

The size and demands of the call center can easily evolve over time, but changing the on-premise solution to meet the new demands can be costly, if not impossible. A cloud solution offers high scalability as it is based on a multi-tenant architecture and an elastic cloud computing platform. With maximum scalability of your data-intensive scheduling scenarios, you can easily maximize the investment you’ve made in your workforce management solution, while also enjoying enhanced performance.

The true benefits you can realize from your own workforce management deployment in the cloud will depend greatly on your configuration. One certainty is the benefits are real and measureable.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Chris DiMarco