Dynamic Workforce Management

Optimise agent usage and balance workloads in real-time without human intervention, across all media channels

At a Glance

Contact center software Dynamic Workforce Management

Automatically blend agents to deal with inbound spikes

Contact center software Dynamic Workforce Management

Balance all workloads, across all contact channels

Contact center software Dynamic Workforce Management

Make best possible use of agent/ supervisor time

What is Dynamic Workforce Management?

Dynamic Workforce Management (WFM) is the automatic management of all agents and workloads to optimise performance across all contact channels in real-time during the working day.

Within Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC), this intraday workforce management is known as Sytel Real-Time Automation (SRA), which:

 

  • reassigns agents automatically, even from outbound work, to where they are most needed during a shift, with no need for supervisor intervention
  • balances service levels automatically across all inbound queues, even with agent shortages, call spikes, etc.
  • assigns inbound contact sessions automatically according to queue service levels and agent skills/capacity.

To see SRA in action, watch these simulation videos >>

Within SRA, the engine that manages this workload balancing in real-time is the Automatic Session Distributor (ASD®).

What is The Automatic Session Distributor (ASD®)?

The ASD® is the multi-channel replacement for the traditional call center ACD.

The ASD automatically assigns contact sessions to agents with the most appropriate skillsets, or even previous interaction with the customer, and capacity within their personal workload to handle them.

For details on how workload balancing is achieved, see How SRA Makes Decisions >>

But doesn’t our WFM already do this?

Workforce Management (WFM) tools are very necessary in planning workloads and agent schedules day by day, but these tools simply cannot manage fluctuations in supply and demand on the day.

They may be able to assist with and advise on intraday agent and queue management but they still require manual intervention, either to take the required action or to monitor automatic actions that have been triggered. SRA does not.

SRA allows agents to come and go as scheduled, taking all fluctuations of supply and demand in its stride.

Revolutionize Your Contact Center Performance

SRA allows you to:

Dynamic Workforce Management - reduce customer wait times

reduce the time any customer has to wait in a queue by automatically moving agents where possible to handle increased demand

Dynamic Workforce Management - minimise agent idle time automatically

minimise agent idle time automatically, with the scope for productivity improvements of 20% or more

Dynamic Workforce Management - balance all SLAs automatically across all queues

balance any and all service level targets/SLAs automatically across all queues, protecting organisational reputation and keeping customers happy by not keeping them waiting

Dynamic Workforce Management - making the best time of Supervisor time and skills

make the best use of supervisor time and skills. The supervisor simply ensures that the system knows what skills agents have, sets appropriate service levels per queue, and can focus on getting the best from their agents, not the technology

Dynamic Workforce Management - making 'best match' decisions automatically

make ‘best-match’ decisions far more efficiently and accurately than any supervisor, so human error is minimised if not eliminated altogether

Dynamic Workforce Management - rethink your legacy WFM systems. SRA provides workforce planning outputs that allow you to plan staffing

rethink your legacy WFM systems. SRA provides workforce planning outputs that allow you to plan staffing, but will also manage the media landscape in real time to ensure 100% occupancy, regardless of peaks and troughs in call, chat and email volumes

Dynamic Workforce Management - be more agile and flexible, adding channels and workflows without worrying about detrimental effects to existing work

be more agile and flexible, adding channels and workflows without worrying about detrimental effects to existing work

To assess the impact of SRA in your own contact center, see The Business Case for SRA >>

Omnichannel Agent Blending

SRA automatically moves agents to cope with any spikes in inbound demand on any media channel, while minimising the impact on other workloads.

But wouldn’t taking agents off an outbound voice campaign cause a spike in abandoned calls?

No, because SCC’s dialing algorithm takes account of all campaign conditions including agent numbers. It automatically and instantaneously adjusts the dialing rate accordingly, so that outbound predictive dialing performance is not compromised.

During slack periods of inbound activity, agents can be kept busy with less time-critical work, e.g. email. At peak times, they can be moved up the value chain in response to demand, and back again when demand allows.

From Call Blending to Channel Blending

Back when ‘contact centers’ were ‘call centers’, and agents handled one voice call at a time, this balance was maintained by automated call blending – having agents do outbound work, moving them over to inbound when demand spiked, and moving them back again when demand decreased.

With the rise in expectation for contact across all media channels – voice, email, chat, social, etc – the software challenge is much more complex. The software must now balance across different media channels with very different performance measurement points.

This means, for example:

  • bringing in chat agents to handle voice sessions during peak periods
  • trade-offs between voice and chat SLAs
  • balancing multiple queues across many different projects
  • multi-disciplinary agents with different skills across lots of workloads
  • some agents will be better than others at handling multiple sessions.

 

Explore more of SCC’s capabilities:

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What We Offer

Sytel Limited develops and supplies Softdial Contact Center® (SCC) – multimedia, multichannel, fully blended cloud contact center solutions.

Available by subscription as CCaaS, fully managed and supported by Sytel, or for quick and easy deployment by partners and enterprise users.

All Sytel cloud components are secure, resilient and scale seamlessly from 10 agents to 10,000+, whether local, mobile or remote.

Flexible Contact Center Software

Softdial Contact Center™ – rich functionality, all-in-one, designed to deliver at scale

  • Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)

    CCaaS for subscribers – global service​, with no upfront costs

  • Contact Center Platform – CCaaS Partners

    Build your own CCaaS business using the power and flexibility of Sytel software

  • Contact Center Platform – Enterprise

    High performance platform to drive contact center productivity – cloud, on-premise or hybrid

Blended Media Desktop

Fully customisable, multi-channel, multi-session workspace

Work Anywhere

Browser-based tools, no software installation required

Customise, Localise, White Label

Design all user interfaces to individual requirements

Integration via APIs

‘Swap out’ components and integrate with 3rd party apps

World Class Development

Continuous evolution pushing technical boundaries

Capabilities

Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) is designed to be flexible, extensible and scalable, integrating with any legacy equipment, and meeting the most complex of requirements.

All Media Channels

Voice, chat, email, social, etc – fully integrated and blended

Agent Multi-Tasking

Work with multiple live contact sessions of any media channel

Dynamic Workforce Management

Optimise agent usage and balance workloads in real-time without human intervention, across all media channels

Predictive Dialing

Best-of-breed performance under compliance

Optimised Inbound Routing

Smart rules and ‘best-available’ decisions to drive great customer service

Agent Scripts

Help agents achieve and maintain excellence

Voice and Screen Recording

See and hear exactly how agents are interacting

Analytics and Data Feeds

Measure and evaluate performance at every level

IVR, Bots & Conversational AI

Design effective automated flows or integrate with 3rd party providers

Customer Journey Tracking

Stored customer contact history, to aid routing and add context to conversations

Modules

Drive operational efficiency, increase customer satisfaction & improve agent performance

Softdial One™

Highly flexible unified web UI for agents, supervisors and administrators

Softdial Scripter™

Create complex process flow scripts for agents, IVR, chatbots and other applications

Sytel AI Dialer™

Maximum predictive dialing performance, under any compliance rules

Softdial Pathfinder™

Precise routing rules for ‘best available’ connection

Softdial Media Server™

Core telephony functions to manage all inbound/outbound SIP calls

Softdial Reporter™ 5

Fully customisable performance stats, charts and reports, across all channels

Softdial Publisher™

Comprehensive data output to build your own reports

Softdial Recording Monitor™

Audio and screen recording of agent activity to ensure the highest standards

Softdial Campaign Manager™

Automation to optimise any outreach strategy

Softdial Repository™

Central storage and configuration of common resources

Sytel Global Compliance™

Flexible ‘no contact’ rules to protect contact center and consumer

Solutions

Performance and efficiency for a wide range of business applications

By Business Type

Enterprise

A full featured contact center software solution, designed for optimum performance at scale

Small/ Medium Business

Options for SMBs to subscribe to our full-featured cloud service managed and hosted by either one of our partners or by Sytel themselves

By Industry

Customer Service

Connect quickly to well equipped agents

Market Research

Best-of-breed predictive dialing with CATI integration

Debt Collection

Automated inbound/ outbound blending integrated with any debt management app

Sales & Telemarketing

Maximise agent productivity with best-of-breed predictive dialing

Healthcare

Secure, highly-configurable multichannel communications for excellence in patient care