Workforce Management Featured Article
March 04, 2010
Five Reasons Why Cloud Workforce Management Software Might Work for You
If you haven't considered workforce management software in the cloud you might want to do so. Five reasons why it might work for you as well as it seems to be working for lots of others.
It's faster to implement, obviously, than traditional on-site software. Usually all that's required to get such systems up and running is to create an account, load users and configure your system, and boom, there you go – managing, in the process, to avoid large software and hardware installations.
It's easier to set up and use. Since all users can securely access the tool through a standard Web browser you figure they already know how to operate one of those. Automated upgrade procedures ensure you are always on the latest version, as with such systems upgrades and new features are made available on an on-going basis. The Web-based user interface of SaaS (News - Alert) tools are almost always focused strongly on usability, ensuring an easy to use and learn software. 'This helps to drive the adoption of WFM software within your organization,' say officials of Monet Software, a vendor of such systems.
There's a lower cost for the initial investment. The overwhelming majority of ongoing call center expenses are related to staffing, say officials at Monet Software: 'Optimizing personnel resources is critical. Having the optimum number of agents at the right time with the right skills, in the right place is essential to call center success and profitability.'
Monet, like other workforce management software in the cloud vendors, 'solves contact centers' two biggest business issues: meeting service levels and controlling payroll costs.' As such products, Monet's is 100 percent Web-based and delivered as a service 'avoiding a large upfront investment and painful hardware and software implementation.'
And generally you get lower operating costs as well. With the SaaS provider managing the IT infrastructure, costs are lowered by avoiding IT participation time for hardware and software issues as well as the personnel resources required for IT management. These 'hidden costs' for hardware replacements, upgrades, and IT operation resources are typical for premise-based software.
With a multi-tenant architecture, Monet officials say, the 'elastic cloud computing' platform allows for maximum scalability as well. Instant scaling of capacity is accomplished with virtual servers and 'background processing' of data-intensive scheduling scenarios. Much easier and lower cost than having to perform all the upgrades yourself.
You get distributed call center support. Generally a distributed call center model, where workers are not all collected together in one building but working remotely, is a good way to help reduce overhead expenses, recruit from a larger talent pool and retain top talent.
And there's lower risk. If you are not satisfied with it you can cancel the agreement. Different companies have different terms, and there are questions you should ask about whether your data's completely portable, how long the terms lock you in for. Make sure you know what you're getting into before you sign, make sure it fits with your company's goals and budget.
It's faster to implement, obviously, than traditional on-site software. Usually all that's required to get such systems up and running is to create an account, load users and configure your system, and boom, there you go – managing, in the process, to avoid large software and hardware installations.
It's easier to set up and use. Since all users can securely access the tool through a standard Web browser you figure they already know how to operate one of those. Automated upgrade procedures ensure you are always on the latest version, as with such systems upgrades and new features are made available on an on-going basis. The Web-based user interface of SaaS (News - Alert) tools are almost always focused strongly on usability, ensuring an easy to use and learn software. 'This helps to drive the adoption of WFM software within your organization,' say officials of Monet Software, a vendor of such systems.
There's a lower cost for the initial investment. The overwhelming majority of ongoing call center expenses are related to staffing, say officials at Monet Software: 'Optimizing personnel resources is critical. Having the optimum number of agents at the right time with the right skills, in the right place is essential to call center success and profitability.'
Monet, like other workforce management software in the cloud vendors, 'solves contact centers' two biggest business issues: meeting service levels and controlling payroll costs.' As such products, Monet's is 100 percent Web-based and delivered as a service 'avoiding a large upfront investment and painful hardware and software implementation.'
And generally you get lower operating costs as well. With the SaaS provider managing the IT infrastructure, costs are lowered by avoiding IT participation time for hardware and software issues as well as the personnel resources required for IT management. These 'hidden costs' for hardware replacements, upgrades, and IT operation resources are typical for premise-based software.
With a multi-tenant architecture, Monet officials say, the 'elastic cloud computing' platform allows for maximum scalability as well. Instant scaling of capacity is accomplished with virtual servers and 'background processing' of data-intensive scheduling scenarios. Much easier and lower cost than having to perform all the upgrades yourself.
You get distributed call center support. Generally a distributed call center model, where workers are not all collected together in one building but working remotely, is a good way to help reduce overhead expenses, recruit from a larger talent pool and retain top talent.
And there's lower risk. If you are not satisfied with it you can cancel the agreement. Different companies have different terms, and there are questions you should ask about whether your data's completely portable, how long the terms lock you in for. Make sure you know what you're getting into before you sign, make sure it fits with your company's goals and budget.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Patrick Barnard