Customer Success
| Abtran | | Print | |
Abtran is a strategic business partner for corporate and government clients in Ireland and worldwide. Based in Cork, Ireland, the company provides business process outsourcing services with specialized skills in customer contact management through their 250 multiskilled and multilingual agents. Abtran also offer assistance in producing effective resource plans for its customers, accurately matching work demand with available personnel. The company realized that an advanced workforce management system was critical to effective outsourcing and resource planning.Meeting demanding requirementsFrom the outset, Abtran had a clear idea of what the company needed from a workforce management system and went through an exhaustive process to review and identify a solution that would meet their requirements precisely. Although key needs for forecasting, scheduling, real-time management and reporting could be met by most suppliers, Abtran found that added value and method of delivery made IEX® TotalView® from QPC and Sentient a clear winner.Added ValueAbtran wanted an advanced solution with a long established track record that could be enhanced to meet their specific business needs. “Abtran’s approach to solutions is to identify the best-of-breed, and if possible, improve on them,” said Resource Planning Manager Darren Leahy. “IEX TotalView is a leader in its market, and our style was to make it even more user friendly for our business.”By re-branding the TotalView WebStation Plus module as Abtran myVista®, Abtran directly addressed the ‘people’ aspect of the change management process that was necessary to ensure the solutions success. “The re-branding and new look meant that agents were able to get a better feeling for what was in store for them, and understand that this was a tool for the entire company to improve performance, service and their time at work,” commented Leahy. “The Abtran myVista® approach is about empowering agents to take control of their work / life balance and the brand helps get across the message that this is about liberating them from fixed schedules and allowing dynamic planning that meets both their needs and the needs of the business.” Hosted SolutionWorking closely with QPC and Sentient who supply hosted contact center solutions, consulting and professional services to the Irish market, Abtran decided that a hosted system with a per user fee would be an ideal solution. They were conscious of the time necessary for an internal deployment of a new workforce management system as well as the costs in terms of ongoing IT resources. The hosted TotalView Workforce Management system eliminates the costs associated with additional IT needed to support customer premises equipment (CPE) and enabled rapid deployment.The solution means that Abtran simply pays a monthly per agent licence fee to Sentient, who host the TotalView system in their state of the art managed service facility in Dublin. This innovative model gives Abtran a great deal of flexibility coupled with the business agility needed to remain competitive and responsive to market demands. Operational visibilityThe hosted solution gives Abtran’s Resource Planning department access to all the features they need to build forecasts, schedules and manage the day-to-day activities of the operation. Abtran’s supervisors and agents also have online access to schedules and performance statistics via Abtran myVista® - the re-branded TotalView WebStation Plus feature.Before putting TotalView in place, being able to see into the contact center operation was a major challenge for Abtran. “The biggest thing we’ve achieved with TotalView is much needed visibility. That’s what’s making a real difference,” said Darren Leahy. “Before, it was really hard to predict exactly what was going to happen. Now we can plan in advance. But we can also easily make changes during the day to meet fluctuations in contact volume.” With TotalView, Abtran has improved the efficiency and effectiveness of its staff plans. The Abtran operation now consistently meets its service level objectives and has significantly improved agent adherence while improving morale and reducing the administrative workload. Improved agent productivity and moraleAbtran is using TotalView to improve schedule adherence and streamline its time off management processes. Using the TotalView Real-Time Adherence module, Abtran is able to track agent conformance to set schedules and reduce ‘wasted’ time while improving performance. As a result, Abtran has increased schedule adherence by 25 percent while significantly reducing agents’ average handle time (AHT).With TotalView WebStation Plus, Abtran has eliminated paper based time off management processes, releasing supervisors of unnecessary administrative work while giving agents more control over and insight into their set schedules. In fact, Abtran credits the Abtran myVista® with cutting back schedule change e-mail requests by approximately 75 percent. “People see Abtran myVista® as a window into their world where they can see and manage their lives. Giving TotalView a strong local identity helped us get buy-in from the most important element in the process,” said Darren Leahy. “The flexibility that TotalView provides has enabled us to create a custom solution made just for Abtran, which helped convince everyone of the benefits.” A wealth of informationAbtran is also taking advantage of the wealth of information available in the TotalView database through SmartSync. By connecting TotalView with Abtran’s payroll system, the company has reduced the time it takes to process payroll by 86 percent. Not only has SmartSync enabled Abtran to significantly reduce administrative work but it has also improved data accuracy while eliminating paper based processes and redundant data entry.Client Profile:Company: AbtranSector: Outsourcer Location of Contact Centres: 4 locations across Ireland Total Number of Agents: approximately 250 Number of WFM Staff: 5 (1 scheduling analyst, 1 reporting analyst, 2 real-time analysts, 1 manager) Types of Contacts Handled: telephone, e-mails, SMS and postal mail Primary Type of Business: Outsourcing Corporate Website: http://www.abtran.com Benefits
“We wouldn’t be seeing such consistent service levels or the significant increase in schedule adherence without the hosted TotalView workforce management system.” |