ABOUT THE VENDOR:
Telecorp's CentrEE Solutions Suite provides call center managers with historical reporting to track
management and agent trends, and real-time tools with the ability to implement quality monitoring
and archive interactions with customers for evaluation purposes. Telecorp's workforce management
software, CentrEE Calabrio, allows for comprehensive and flexible scheduling and forecasting for
contact centers. Through strategic partnerships, Telecorp Products also offers a suite of voice
loggers for the North American marketplace, as well as contact center productivity consulting,
center relocation services, and contact center staff training.
ABOUT THE CLIENT:
Armstrong World Industries, Inc. designs and manufactures floors, ceilings, and cabinets. Founded
in 1860 and based in Lancaster, PA, Armstrong has 57 plants in 14 countries and approximately
16,000 employees worldwide.
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY:
CentrEE Calabrio from Telecorp Products Inc. is an integrated suite of workforce management
software. CentrEE Calabrio affords call center and contact center managers the ability to create,
monitor, and evaluate scheduling solutions. The product combines agent preferences and contact
center needs, and takes the guesswork out of workforce optimization. CentrEE Calabrio fits the
needs of single or multiple call centers with queue or skills-based management procedures and
processes.
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When you register, you'll begin receiving targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers on the latest customer relationship management (CRM)and call center technology issues today. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest issues facing this fast-changing industry.
Hannah Smalltree, Editorial Director
In addition, it allows a user to produce proprietary reports based on modifiable
management criteria.Armstrong was pursuing a Six Sigma methodology -- processes that are designed to reduce defects, which can be applied both to manufacturing processes and to customer service. As part of this, they were looking for a CRM solution that would help them staff their call centers more efficiently and better serve their customers. SearchCRM spoke with Jeffrey Fountaine, network administrator for Armstrong, about the project.
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SearchCRM: How did the technology evaluation go?
Fountaine: We looked at several vendors. We looked at the big players like Blue Pumpkin and IEX, and we settled on Calabrio. Cost was a big factor. User ease was another factor. We wanted to get something that was pretty user friendly because they had never used a workforce management program before -- they weren't even using Excel. The other big point that we were looking for was the relationship with the vendor. We needed to have someone that was going to be responsive to our needs.
SearchCRM: Why did you end up choosing the Calabrio solution?
Fountaine: We selected Telecorp over the other players because of the relationship and the cost. They were by far the low cost provider. We also went with them because of their attitude. We had several demos come in from the other vendors, and I think they offer a great package, but it seemed like just another account to them. They said, "Let's get this signed and we'll be outta here."
SearchCRM: What were the challenges of the technology evaluation?
Fountaine: We were going against what's normally done in the call center industry. The consultants were telling other call centers to buy the Blue Pumpkin, buy the IEX, stick with the big providers. To go with the unknown was a risk.
SearchCRM: Did you experience any cultural resistance?
Fountaine: We had to overcome cultural challenges. I'd say that because workforce management was never practiced within the call centers, it was difficult to overcome that at the beginning. We had to overcome the call center leaders saying, "Well, we've never done that before. What we've done is working, so let's continue to do that." But with the Six Sigma coming down the road, it became a fact that it had to come into play.
SearchCRM: What did you do about it?
Fountaine: There was a lot of consulting that went on, and there was benchmarking against some of the other call centers throughout the industry. We did conference calls with some references. I did some basic analysis with Excel sheets and graphs and charts and showed that staffing wasn't where it should be.
SearchCRM: How did the implementation go?
Fountaine: Crystal clear, not a flaw. I would say there were no challenges.
SearchCRM: How do you use the solution in your day-to-day operations?
Fountaine: Say for example you have an inbound customer service center and typically you receive around a thousand calls a day. You might look at your reports and know that you get a thousand calls a day, but you don't know when they're going to come. So what this device does is it tracks when every call is received and builds a history. It says, here's what your typical call patterns look like throughout the day. So you know how many calls come in, when they come, and now you need to know how to apply your staffing to this traffic. The software has a mathematical calculation to tell you that to handle this amount of traffic, you need this number of people. To build further into this equation, you can figure out what you need to do with these people to make them productive. Do you want them just sitting on the phone? If we have 50 people on staff and we only need ten to handle calls, I can take these other ten and put them in a meeting, put another ten in a project, put another ten on a break, and so on.
SearchCRM: How does the solution help you better serve your customers?
Fountaine: There's some precision in the staffing now that wasn't there before. In the past, as an example, if they had to have a staff meeting in the call center, they'd arbitrarily pick a time and shut down the phone line. So people would call in and they'd have to go to a message box. Now they can see what is the best time to have the meeting, and how many people they can take off the phone and still maintain their service level. The goal is to take the internal processes of the call center and make them seamless for the caller.
SearchCRM: Have you seen ROI?
Fountaine: Definitely. On paper, we saw ROI the first day we turned it on. We could see that at certain times there was definite overstaffing. Even if we turned one person loose, maybe redirected that person to another staff where they may have had a shortage, then that one person would have paid for that division's software costs.
There was one staff where two people left. They were able to go into the software and find out that they needed to replace only one, whereas in the past, they would have hired both back. So saving just that one head count paid for that one portion of the software.
SearchCRM: Do you have any stats or success measures?
Fountaine: There was one particular group at the call center that never achieved service level. The day they started distributing schedules to the staff, they met their service level -- and they have since.
SearchCRM: What advice would you give to companies thinking of starting a similar project?
Fountaine: I would say that it has to be a top priority. It has to be backed by the upper levels. A second piece of advice is to look at the dark horses out there. Really consider whether they can meet the requirements. Be willing to break the traditions. We've certainly seen the value of doing it in this project. We took a risk in doing it, but it's paid off so far.
Linda Formichelli's writing has appeared in Woman's Day, Wired, Writer's Digest, Family Circle, Psychology Today. Contact her at linda-eric@lserv.com, or check out her Web site http://www.twowriters.net
This was first published in August 2002
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