Verint Launches Fully Web-Enabled Enterprise WFM Solution

Verint Systems this week unveiled a fully Web-enabled enterprise workforce management (WFM) solution that builds on its Impact 360 Workforce Management solution and follows its recent acquisition of WFM provider Global Management Technologies (GMT), which closed earlier this month.

Verint Enterprise Workforce Management brings unified visibility into key workforce optimization (WFO) dynamics across customer touch points and communications channels. It can combine the contact center, back office, and branch location in one solution. Web-enabling this application "democratizes it in that it now becomes available to anyone in the organization," says Bill Durr, principal global solutions consultant at Verint. "With Web-enablement, we have the core of an expanded, more broadly based solution to problems faced by enterprises today."

Verint Enterprise Workforce Management provides a single view into all employees, their respective skills, and availability to handle workloads, with special attention to the unique requirements for back-office and branch location personnel as well as those employed in the contact center. For example, a back office does not really need a scheduling tool since most employees have fixed start, stop, and lunch times, so there, the tool can be customized to match employees with scheduled project completion times. In a branch office, it's more about making sure enough people are available for the foot traffic that comes in throughout the day. The WFM also allows companies to pull resources from one area to handle increased staffing needs in other areas throughout the day.

"We wanted to draw these three unique environments together and give enterprises a holistic view into all three of them," Durr explains.

Advanced functionality of the solution includes the following:

• Data Capture and Work Item Tracking, capturing workload information, like volume by time interval and individual employee productivity, from such existing sources as ERP and CRM systems, reducing the risk and penalties associated with missing service level agreements (SLAs).
• Strategic Planning/Modeling, modeling the customer service delivery chain, along with average cycle time, skills, proficiencies, cost, and availability of resources throughout the enterprise; maximizing the solution's robust simulation engine that calculates headcount requirements and service level projections based on existing staff; and creating optimized hiring plans.
• Resource Utilization, providing tools that enable users to create work-demand forecasts for any unit within the organization, and make adjustments as needed, using resources from across departments to deliver better customer experiences.
• Intra-Day Management, offering visibility and tracking of individual work and employee performance enterprise-wide.
• Operational and Performance Analytics, providing organization and employee scorecards that reflect work groups, sites, departments, virtual units, and teams stand-alone or on a roll-up, broad-level basis for a complete view of operational performance, excellence, and areas for improvement.
• Desktop and Process Analytics, enabling insight into application use and navigation paths that employees follow to identify efficiencies, compliance, bottlenecks, and/or process flaws, and areas to advance resource proficiencies and training.
• Employee Portal, providing employees with a view into current schedules and personal scorecards, along with access to shift swap boards and more.
• Employee Development and Engagement, delivering tools to advance learning, skill advancement, and the application of proficiencies gained.

To further advance access to and intelligence from these critical resources and functions, the Verint solution now also includes the following:

• More accurate insight into actual production standards across the enterprise;
• Greater labor deployment efficiencies; and a reduced need for overtime;
• Avoidance of compliance issues/penalties; and better risk management;
• Identification of process breakdowns and focused supplemental training;
• Visibility into workflows to identify assignment errors and other needed adjustments; and
• Powerful new insight and a broad-scale view into people, departments, processes, workload, and SLAs.

"You don't just install this, walk away, and everyone's happy," Durr notes. "We're talking about changing processes and creating new organizational support structures. This gets into processes and procedures too."

According to Durr, the WFM solution is perfect for large retail and financial services organizations with many locations.

One of the earliest scheduled adopters is Coast Capital Savings. "As an existing user of Verint's recording software, the additional investment in the company's enterprise workforce management solution is the next step for us to optimize contact center service levels," said Mahesh Pillay, contact center director at Coast Capital Savings, in a statement. "With the new Web-enabled solution, we're focused on enhancing efficiencies and reducing costs as we continue to work towards improving both customer and employee satisfaction."

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