Workforce Management Product and Market Report Reprint Reprinted for:
Table of Contents 1. Introduction... 1 2. The Challenge of Intra-Day Management... 4 3. Intradiem... 5 About Intradiem... 7 About DMG Consulting LLC... 7 - i - DMG Consulting LLC
1. Introduction Workforce Management Finds a Better Direction 2015 is expected to be a most exciting year for contact center and back-office WFM solutions. After over three decades of slow adoption and even slower innovation, this essential contact center IT sector is finally attracting companies interest and investment dollars, which is driving a desperately needed round of research and development (R&D) and innovation. What makes this wave of R&D investments interesting is that much of it is coming from emerging competitors or is being targeted at the developing back-office WFM sector. Why Contact Center WFM Leaders Make Limited WFM Investments Workforce management is a mission-critical solution for multi-channel contact centers with 50 or more (and some would say 200+) agents. It remains the most important productivity tool in many contact centers because it forecasts staffing requirements and schedules agents. WFM solutions are dependent on mathematical algorithms to forecast interaction (calls, email, fax, chat, SMS, social media, etc.) volumes and to identify optimal work schedules for agents. There are two primary methods of addressing this mathematical challenge: algorithms and simulations. Many of the established WFM vendors developed or acquired their algorithms many years ago. While they have made some changes to incorporate new channels and to address some of the inherent weaknesses of the erlang algorithm, these software companies are not invested in the science of WFM and are not dedicating time and effort to create or enhance the underlying math. (It s more a question of tweaking what they have to address the demands of the market than investing in the future of these solutions.) While there are many reasons for this lack of interest, it is primarily because vendors have a limited amount of R&D dollars, and invest them in solutions for which they anticipate receiving a significant return on their investment. Additionally, leading contact center WFM solutions are now owned by vendors who view WFM as a complementary module in a greater suite, and are not dedicated to the underlying science. As a result, these companies are not employing the PhDs or researchers who are committed to moving this science forward. Role of Simulation in Contact Center WFM Solutions Simulation is a science that is dedicated to replicating a real-world experience. As it relates to contact centers, this means identifying the optimal (or best) allocation of scarce resources (agents) to handle the forecasted volume of interactions, within a service level. Simulators are designed to start the process - 1 - DMG Consulting LLC
by modeling the existing environment. This is where the complication arises for contact centers. It typically requires a significant amount of start-up time, resources (professional services) and cost to develop the initial model, as well as a great deal of time and effort to keep the model up-to-date, as variables inevitably change within the contact center. A second challenge for simulators is knowing where and when to stop the models. Simulators typically go through a process where they modify a variable or two and then re-run the model until an optimal result is obtained. As there are so many variables to control (and change) in a contact center, it can be difficult to know when to stop the process, as a simulation could take hours. If these issues could be addressed practically and cost effectively, many believe that a simulation model would yield better results (and schedules) than many of the algorithm-based solutions. (Some of the WFM vendors have included simulation functionality in their solutions for the purpose of validating the system s primary algorithm-based outputs. However, in most cases, these simulators are limited in the scenarios that they are running and testing.) Given the growing complexity of contact centers, including the increasing number of channels and, more recently, the introduction of adaptive real-time intelligent routing, DMG expects to see simulation play a more important role in the science of contact center WFM. The Omni-Channel Challenge Despite the inherent mathematical limitations of erlang, most of the contact center WFM solutions are pretty good at forecasting and scheduling for phone calls. Many of the packaged WFM solutions address the weaknesses of erlang by modifying the basic model. Some of these solutions also do an adequate job of forecasting for non-call interactions on a stand-alone basis. Generally, a challenge arises when these solutions have to forecast and schedule on a combined basis for various channels with different service levels. Multi-channel contact centers have been discussed in the market since 1997, but companies are finally building them. For years, organizations have handled multiple channels, but typically on a silo ed basis where different groups of agents were assigned to each channel or where agents days were split between channels. Most companies use different servicing systems to handle each of the channels they support, which produces inefficiencies and training challenges. In the past, it did not matter that WFM solutions were not designed to generate schedules for universal agents, as few contact centers employed multi-skilled staff. But this is changing, and it is presenting a challenge for many of the WFM products in the market. When back-office work is added to the mix of interactions handled by a contact center, the challenge grows. Back-office work has different mathematical characteristics from phone calls, which, by definition, do not have a backlog. - 2 - DMG Consulting LLC
Back-office work is often deferred and therefore has a backlog. A back-office work item typically has multiple tasks or components, and an employee is likely to work on multiple items (or have multiple items open) at the same time. The service level for back-office work is also different. Each task in a work item can have its own service level, which may be longer than one year in duration. Erlang was designed for short-duration phone calls that arrive continuously, without disruption. Therefore, the WFM solutions that apply erlang to emails or other types of non-phone activities are not effective. And, despite vendor claims to the contrary, some form of automation is not necessarily better than none. Small Contact Centers Want WFM The cloud is slowly democratizing the world of contact centers, and small organizations with 20 or less seats are increasingly demanding their right to use WFM. This is a wonderful problem for the WFM competitors, particularly for vendors who offer multi-tenant solutions from well-designed and easy-to-use provisioning environments. The challenge is that erlang s inherent limitations become more glaring in small-volume contact centers; the result is a significant amount of overstaffing. However, in this case, the argument that some automation is better than none appears to be valid. The deficiency of erlang in these smaller environments, however, is another challenge that contact center WFM vendors need to address and overcome. Looking Ahead The WFM market has finally woken up. End users want better and more accurate WFM solutions for their contact centers. Since there are more offerings available than at any time in the history of this market, companies are rightfully asking for better solutions with vastly improved user interfaces, and prospects no longer feel tied to their incumbent vendors. Although most of the large contact centers have already been penetrated with a WFM solution, these solutions are not as sticky as they were in the past. DMG estimates that the number of back-office/branch employees is 2.3 times larger than the number of contact center agents. Increasingly, companies are starting to consider the use of WFM in their back-office operating groups, and many are already using WFM to forecast and schedule for branches and retail outlets. The potential of expanding sales to a larger audience is appealing to the WFM contact center market leaders, but it has also attracted vendors from many geographies, as well as new competitors. Prospects of all sizes are encouraged to push vendors to deliver feature-rich and flexible WFM solutions that allow them to do what they want and need for their company, instead of being limited by the capabilities of the existing solutions. - 3 - DMG Consulting LLC
2. The Challenge of Intra-Day Management Most contact center managers will tell you that they spend a good portion of their time putting out fires. Even the most accurate forecasting solution with the most flexible scheduling tools cannot predict the future accurately 100% of the time. When variances from plan occur, contact center managers need a way to quickly identify and respond to the real-time conditions. Conceptually, this is what intraday management applications are designed to do. The problem is that while they are adept at identifying and quantifying the magnitude of the variances, they are ineffective at determining how to fix them. At a basic level, an intra-day management module should provide contact center managers with information on forecasted vs. actual values for volumes and staffing requirements, broken down by interval. Most of the intra-day modules issue alerts and notifications to inform supervisors and managers when a contact center s performance falls outside acceptable ranges. Some of the solutions include graphical displays in their intra-day modules that make it easier to interpret the data. Another core feature of an intra-day management module is the ability to automatically perform re-forecasts for service levels, contact volumes, and staff requirements for the remaining intervals in a day, based on actual data and trends during the past intervals. This information provides insights that can be used to make schedule adjustments to address staffing deficits or overages. These adjustments may be changing breaks or meal periods, canceling/scheduling meetings, shifting resources to other channels, changing agent activities, soliciting overtime, etc. Some of the intra-day management modules also provide an automated ability to determine the optimal time for reordering/re-prioritizing non-customer-related activities. Ideally, once the re-forecast is created, the intra-day module should automatically identify a variety of scenarios that could be applied to the contact center to rectify the staffing issue. Managers should then select the approach that they prefer, or automated rules could be used to make the decision. Once an approach is selected, the WFM application should automate the follow-up actions required to re-optimize staffing. Unfortunately, this is where most intra-day management solutions fall short. Each one works differently and takes a different amount of time to identify and make recommendations for re-optimizing the contact center to address the unplanned variances. Only the two stand-alone intra-day management solutions, Intradiem and WorkFlex, go beyond the recommendation phases and tell managers how to rectify the situation. - 4 - DMG Consulting LLC
3. Intradiem Company Overview Solution Overview Intradiem, a privately held company with 81 employees, is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia. Founded in 1994 as Knowlagent, the company underwent a corporate and product strategy shift in January 2013, and rebranded as Intradiem. Intradiem is a provider of contact center and back-office intra-day automation solutions. Intradiem s workforce management strategy is to provide an intra-day automation engine that allows customers to build real-time workforces, triggering efficiency and extraordinary customer experiences. Intradiem sells primarily on a direct basis, but is also focusing on expanding its partner network. Aspect is a new partner that offers an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) version of Intradiem, which is marketed as Active Assignment and complements Aspect s intra-day module. Intradiem s sweet spot is contact centers with 500 or more seats. Key verticals include: financial services, insurance, cable and telecommunications, healthcare, retail, business process outsourcers (BPOs), government, hospitality, manufacturing, automotive and technology. Intradiem is a SaaS-based intra-day automation platform that leverages a rulesbased decision engine to adjust staff activities according to real-time conditions. Rules are constructed based on user-defined triggers, conditions and actions. Integrations to the contact center infrastructure and workforce management systems provide real-time data feeds that enable Intradiem to monitor service channel volumes, agent activities and adherence, agent proficiency and intra-day staffing levels. When event triggers, conditions and/or thresholds are met, Intradiem prompts automated actions in staffing, schedules, agent activities, and/or queue assignments. Intradiem offers six packaged solutions: Task Management, Intraday Staffing, Real- Time Adherence, Channel Balancing, Reskilling, and Alerts and Notifications. The rules based decision engine and Alerts and Notifications are core components of the system. Task Management, Intraday Staffing, Reskilling, Channel Balancing and Real-Time Adherence are optional modules. Intraday Staffing automates the voluntary overtime and time-off request management process to respond to understaffing or overstaffing. Rules-based criteria identify eligible agents based on performance, skills, preferences and other employee attributes. If the conditions of the rule(s) are met, user-defined actions, such as having agents work on back-office tasks or making recommendations for users to go home early, occur automatically. Channel Balancing automatically updates queue and channel assignments when volumes in any queue exceed defined parameters, or service levels are in jeopardy. When this occurs, Intradiem takes into consideration agent skill profiles and proficiencies when automatically re-assigning agents to other channels in order to handle the excess volume. Task Management enables organizations to create, assign and deliver tasks to - 5 - DMG Consulting LLC
agents during idle periods, based on staff performance metrics and work volumes. Intradiem identifies and aggregates agent idle or down time. Based on pre-defined work rules and parameters, it then systemically assigns tasks, such as coaching or elearning courses, non-phone work or back-office activities, during these lowvolume intervals. Complementary to Task Management, Reskilling automatically updates skill and queue assignments when agents complete training and certifications. In addition, performance thresholds on key performance indicators (KPIs) can be used to assign skills to or remove skills from an agent profile. Real-Time Adherence supports the application of automated exception management processes based on user-defined rules. The system can write exceptions to agent schedules as they occur or when events from Intraday Staffing, Channel Balancing or Task Management are triggered, to ensure that agent schedules are synchronized with activity changes. Alerts and Notifications monitors key performance metrics in real- time, and trigger an email, text or screen prompt when user-defined thresholds are exceeded. Alerts and notifications can be defined for contact center KPIs such as service levels, abandon rates, as well as individual agent KPIs for productivity, quality and adherence. Intradiem s reporting environment is based on an OEM version of Birst. Users can create tabular and graphical reports and customizable dashboards based on any data elements collected by the system. Report views can be modified based on user-defined inputs, filters and parameters. Reports can be scheduled to run and can be exported in Excel, PowerPoint and CSV formats. Future Intradiem s next release, version 9.5.4, is planned for April 2015. Planned enhancements include: Mobile application ability to present the current agent console on devices such as an ipad to manage specific employee training and distribute tasks Integration library continued expansion of a library of third-party data integrations Automated agent state changes enhanced ACD integration capabilities to allow Intradiem to automatically evoke agent state changes Reporting enhancements a configurable dashboard with flexible reporting periods to allow users to monitor and analyze KPIs Enhance import capabilities ability to consume data contained in any flat file - 6 - DMG Consulting LLC
About Intradiem Intradiem is the only complete Intraday Automation solution provider for frontline workforces including Contact Center, Back Office, Retail and Mobile. The SaaS-based solution automates intraday management and real-time processes and turns frontline workforces into real-time workforces that can adapt and respond to changing conditions and events throughout the day. The result is a more agile frontline workforce that can adjust in real-time to deliver a dramatically better and more consistent customer experience at reduced cost. Over 300,000 frontline workers use Intradiem's solution every day. About DMG Consulting LLC DMG Consulting LLC is a leading independent research, advisory and consulting firm specializing in contact centers, back-office and real-time analytics. DMG provides insight and strategic guidance and tactical advice to end users, vendors and the financial community. Each year, DMG devotes more than 10,000 hours to producing primary research on IT sectors, including workforce optimization (quality management/liability recording), speech analytics, workforce management, performance management, desktop analytics, surveying/voice of the customer, text analytics, cloud-based contact center infrastructure, dialing, interactive voice response systems and proactive customer care. Our actionable solutions are proven to deliver a lasting competitive advantage, and often pay for themselves in as little as three months. This reprint is excerpted from the 2015 2016 Workforce Management Product and Market Report, which was released in March 2015 with the permission of DMG Consulting LLC. More information about this Report and DMG Consulting is available at www.dmgconsult.com. - 7 - DMG Consulting LLC
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