Today's Web-based WFM Systems Ideal for Distributed Call Centers

With the advent of the Internet and e-commerce, more and more organizations are going national or even “global” with their operations. Even a small online merchant can go global today, using geo-location, automated currency exchange, secure payment card processing and other advanced Web technologies.

But as companies become more geographically distributed, they naturally have to make sure they are delivering good customer service in all of the regions where they do business. As a result, companies are increasingly spreading their call center operations across multiple regions or time zones, for the purpose delivering round-the-clock or “follow-the-sun” service.

Helping to facilitate the management of dispersed call centers (or even home-based agents) are today’s workforce management solutions. With these powerful, Web-based solutions, companies can accurately forecast call volume at each call center location and schedule agents accordingly. In addition, companies can manage agent schedules across time zones to ensure schedule adherence and reduce shrinkage. In so doing, companies can deliver consistently good customer service, round the clock, regardless of which center is currently handling the volume.

While it’s true that some “all-in-one” Web based call center software platforms offer workforce management as a built-in application, in general you are talking about platforms from major vendors that are expensive to deploy. If you are a smaller business, but you have more than one call center location, you might not necessarily have “graduated” to one of these more expensive systems – or you might be using a less expensive virtual call center solution that doesn’t include workforce management in its solution suite.

It’s also possible that you recently upgraded to an all-in-one system, but you’re not exactly impressed with the capabilities of the workforce management software that was included. It’s not at all unusual for a company to decide on a “best in class” solution when it comes to workforce management software. Workforce management is a science – and pure-play WFM vendors often bring a greater level of expertise to their offerings – and to their customer support. 

What’s more, the solutions offered by pure-play WFM vendors tend to be more full-featured and robust.So even if you’re paying for some flimsy WFM solution that came with your all-in-one platform, that doesn’t mean you can’t adopt a best-in-class Web-based workforce management system and start benefitting from it right away. Because today’s workforce management solutions are increasingly being offered via the software-as-a-service or “cloud”-based model, that means they are fast and affordable to deploy. There is no need to purchase new equipment or software – you simply “lease” the software on a pay-as-you-go basis, typically a flat monthly subscription.

Monet Software’s WFM Live is a fully Web-based workforce management system delivering advanced features and capabilities, including forecasting for accurate scheduling of agents across multiple, geographically-dispersed call centers.To learn more about the company’s WFM solutions, click here.

Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard