Workforce Management Featured Article
Workforce Management in the Cloud - Too Good to be True?
The talk surrounding Apple (News - Alert) and the telecommunications industry since June has been the former’s announcement of the iCloud. This innovation in cloud computing will help take us to the next level whether we’re integrating a device, scaling to unlimited storage or setting up a new call center. It also offers innovation in workforce management as we explore the benefits of this platform in the cloud.
A Monet Software blog focused on this topic, providing considerations regarding call center software – and specifically workforce management software – in the cloud. If your call center has a history long in the use of spreadsheets or other manual processes for forecasting and scheduling, it’s time to take a closer look at workforce management in the cloud and the benefits it has to offer.
First, the increasing complexity of today’s call centers is demanding a new focus on workforce management. This trend has emerged due to the growing difficulty call center managers are having in efficiently managing scheduling, forecasting and adherence through traditional means. If you consider the monthly savings of using cloud-based workforce management solutions are higher than the cost of the selected solution, your call center could save money from the moment of launch.
You also gain the power to improve service levels and other key call center performance indicators as you have the opportunity to rely on a more robust and flexible scheduling solution, as compared with manual spreadsheets. Workforce management in the cloud eliminates many of your manual processes, allowing you to focus more time on quality performance among the agent team.
There are other considerations if your call center uses on-premise workforce management software. Such traditional platforms have been known to be complicated to use and as a result, call center staff tend to avoid leveraging all the potential capabilities. This means you’re not getting all the benefits from your workforce management software that enables you to realize cost savings and improvements in performance.
In your on-premise workforce management environment, calculate what you currently pay annually for maintenance, including the internal costs you incur for the operation and upgrade of your servers. These costs alone can be higher than the monthly fee for an all-inclusive workforce management solution offered in the cloud. Plus, the cloud-based solution will likely have more features you currently cannot access.
The benefits in the cloud are real and extend beyond just the hype. Take a few minutes and evaluate your current environment compared with what we’ve listed here – you just might find a workforce management opportunity you can’t resist.
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