Workforce Management Leader Aspect Communications Enables Customers to Increase Workforce Productivity with Aspect eWorkforce Management v6.3
Contact center solution delivers advanced analytics and multi-source data gathering, agent empowerment, outsourced and in-house staffing integration
NASHVILLE, Tenn., SWPP ANNUAL CONFERENCE, Monday, March 14, 2005—Aspect Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: ASPT), a leading provider of enterprise customer contact solutions, today announced Aspect eWorkforce Management version 6.3, the latest release of its workforce management software suite for contact centers, at the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP) Annual Conference. Version 6.3 includes significant new capabilities that drive workforce productivity through increased agent input to scheduling, increased data and customization for analytics and the integration of outsourced and in-house staffing.
eWorkforce Management v6.3 features significant enhancements to the Aspect eWorkforce Management Empower and Aspect Performance Optimization (APO) modules and offers a new module called Aspect eWorkforce Management Encompass for integrating outsourced contact center staffing operations:
1. The Empower module is used to improve overall contact center productivity and give agents more control over their work life by making bidding for schedules easier and reducing the processing time involved.
2. The enhanced version of Performance Optimization lets customers gather and integrate data from external applications, such as quality monitoring, so that they may undertake more comprehensive analyses of their businesses and take informed action.
3. Finally, the brand new Encompass module lets businesses tie together information about their outsourced resources with information about their in-house resources for a better view and control over their overall customer care programs.
Commenting on the impact of the new release, Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst at Saddletree Research, said, “Aspect is once again demonstrating its instinct for understanding customer needs. The Encompass module of this new version improves what has previously been a disjointed and tedious process of creating a unified view of both in-house and outsourced agents, while the improvements to Empower greatly expand the abilities of both agents and supervisors to manage schedule changes. Plus, the powerful enhancements made to APO strongly reinforce Aspect’s view regarding the importance of performance optimization and its close link to the scheduling and forecasting process.”
The new solution has already increased productivity for Aspect customer America West Airlines, a major U.S. carrier based in Phoenix, Ariz., that serves more non-stop destinations with greater frequency than any other carrier.
“Here is one vivid example that illustrates how Aspect has helped us optimize our contact center,” said Joseph Beery, senior vice president and CIO of America West Airlines. “In the past, allocating vacations and floating holidays was a labor-intensive process with each agent filling out bid forms and requests being processed manually. Using Aspect eWorkforce Management v6.3, we reduced the amount of time it takes to process annual vacation requests from 480 man hours to just 20—this is outstanding. We’ve rolled out the new solution to 1,200 agents across two sites, and we like that our employees can manage their own vacations.”
Explaining that the aim of workforce optimization is to improve workforce productivity wherever the workforce is located, Aspect’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Brian Gentile, said, “The rich new features offered by Empower, Encompass and APO herald the replacement of traditional workforce management with the concept of overall workforce productivity, or the active management of processes, people and technologies to achieve not just efficiency, but also business growth.”
Advanced Performance Optimization
eWorkforce Management v6.3 includes a second release of its leading-edge performance optimization solution launched last year. Aspect Performance Optimization (APO) for eWorkforce Management Enhanced Edition powered by AIMCall builds on the advantages of the previous version by adding the ability to collect data from systems other than eWorkforce Management, such as a customer relationship management solution or a quality monitoring application.
In addition, APO for eWorkforce Management Enhanced Edition powered by AIMCall allows users to create new key performance indicators (KPIs), scorecards and dashboards that make use of data collected from disparate sources. The enhanced version of APO also allows administrators to define workflows that automate responses to predictable out-of-range results and have notifications sent automatically to supervisors, alerting them to performance anomalies.
Advanced Shift Bidding & Request Bidding
Aspect’s eWorkforce Management Empower module has been improved in eWorkforce Management v6.3 to simplify the processes of requesting, reviewing and approving schedules and communicating schedule changes to the workforce as they occur. Prior to this release, Empower allowed easy communication of employee schedule requests via the Web or over the telephone via interactive voice response (IVR) input. Now, Empower also enables maximum flexibility for supervisors in prioritizing employee shift bids.
With the new release, Empower allows agents to bid for shift preferences, vacation preferences, overtime, holidays and other events, automatically prioritizing and processing these requests based on criteria defined by a system administrator. The Aspect Notification Server then streamlines the tedious manual task of communicating schedule changes by automatically alerting employees of changes in things such as shift times and breaks with an on-screen notification sent to individual desktops.
Bringing Outsourcers In
A new eWorkforce Management v6.3 module, Aspect eWorkforce Management Encompass is an optional component targeted at the needs of contact centers using outsourcers for offloading call volume during peak times of the year. Rather than relying on the manual process of melding two or more agent schedules and other data together, Encompass facilitates the sharing of data between a contact center manager and one or more outsourcers, making it possible for the disparate facilities to exchange statistics at designated intervals as frequently as every 15 minutes.
Encompass allows managers to make rapid schedule and staffing adjustments as needed and facilitates smooth communications with the outsourcer if adjustments are necessary at that end. As a result, clients of outsourcing arrangements can keep staff reduced to the minimum allowed by their contracts, thereby realizing immediate savings. In addition, outsourcers can offer their clients tangible evidence of their performance by providing metrics that illustrate their abilities to meet service level and quality goals.
Availability
Aspect eWorkforce Management v6.3 is available for immediate delivery.
About Aspect Communications
Aspect Communications Corporation is a leading provider of contact center solutions and services that enable businesses to manage and optimize customer communications. Aspect’s global customer base includes more than two-thirds of the Fortune 50 and leading corporations in a range of industries, including transportation, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail and outsourcing, as well as large government agencies. The company’s leadership is based on two decades of expertise. Aspect is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in countries around the world.
Aspect, the Aspect logo and the phrases and marks relating to other Aspect products and services discussed in this press release constitute one or both of the following: (1) registered trademarks and/or service marks of Aspect Communications Corporation in the United States and/or other countries or (2) intellectual property subject to protection under common law principles. All other names and marks mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners.
Jennifer Stroud
Media & Analyst Relations
Aspect Communications
(615) 221-6842
jennifer.stroud@aspect.com
Carrie Kovac
Investor Relations
Aspect Communications
(408) 325-2437
carrie.kovac@aspect.com
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