Alcatel-Lucent Launches Active Skills-Centric Workforce Optimization Solution

Alcatel-Lucent has released a solution for managing customer service resources across the enterprise, including optimizing employee skills and training in both the front and back offices.

The Genesys Workforce Optimization suite (WFO), which is part of Alcatel-Lucent’s Genesys 8 solution, analyzes employee performance across all channels, including social media, SMS, and Web chat, in real-time. The solution includes significant new capabilities to centrally measure and manage employee skills and work allocation against performance objectives.

“As our workforce grows over time, we see value in driving up employee productivity and performance through better workforce optimization, including workforce management and real-time training,” said Han San Lim, customer contact center director at Shangri-La Hotels. “By accurately understanding skill gaps, targeting training, and quickly assessing the business impact, we can improve employee effectiveness and personalize customer engagement based on the right skills and right staff. This eventually leads to higher customer satisfaction.”

“Today’s customers require support from a broader employee segment in the enterprise who are trained on multiple channels used to interact with a business,” said Jim Davies of Gartner. “The effective integration of traditionally siloed contact center functions, such as training, scheduling, and performance management, with centralized skills management of both front- and back-office resources, is an essential requirement for workforce optimization.”

The Genesys WFO solution is based on a five-step employee effectiveness model that helps companies contain costs and achieve growth objectives while improving employee satisfaction. Genesys WFO includes workforce management, recording and quality management, and skills and performance management. These features enable:

1. Planning and scheduling of staff enterprise wide;
2. Delivery of work using the intelligent routing capabilities of the Genesys platform;
3. Control and adjustments in real time;
4. Analysis of data and correlation of performance gaps; and
5. Development of talent pools based on exact training needs and accurate schedules.

Genesys WFO is part of the Genesys 8 suite of customer service solutions. Genesys 8 software enables a single, coordinated customer conversation across channels and contact points by optimizing customer service processes across the extended enterprise and by providing visibility into business performance. Genesys 8 software helps enterprises integrate every interaction and touch point, so they can engage customers with the ideal service experience at the right time across any channel. This dynamic customer engagement leverages native SIP and multi-channel routing capabilities of Genesys 8 along with unique analytical capabilities tied to customer service requirements and business outcomes.