Meaning Based Computing

The last few years have seen explosive growth in the use of unstructured information, which includes documents, emails, telephone conversations and multimedia. More than 85% of all information inside an enterprise is now unstructured and this 'human-friendly' information has traditionally been difficult for computers to understand and use. Meaning-Based Computing solves this problem.

Meaning-Based Computing enables computers to understand the relationships that exist between disparate pieces of information and perform sophisticated analysis operations with real business value, automatically and in real-time.

Meaning-Based Computing extends far beyond traditional methods such as keyword search which simply allow users to find and retrieve data. Keyword search engines for example cannot comprehend the meaning of information; these products were developed simply to find documents in which a word occurs. Unfortunately, this inability to understand information means that other documents that discuss the same idea (i.e. are relevant) but use different words are overlooked. Equally, documents with a meaning entirely different to that which the user searches for are frequently returned, forcing the user to alter their query to accommodate the search engine.

In addition, some of the key functionality of Meaning-Based Computing such as automatic hyperlinking and clustering are simply not available in keyword search engines. For example, automatic hyperlinking which connects users to a range of pertinent documents, services or products that are contextually linked to the original text requires that the meaning of the original document is fully understood. Similarly for computers to automatically collect, analyse and organize information computers have to be able to extract meaning. Only Meaning-Based Computing Systems can do this.

What is workforce management?

At its simplest workforce management (WFM) is the process by which you ensure that you have the right person with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time - whenever your customer contacts you. There are four corner stones which support this process and they are;

Reliable forecasts - based on historical data & business intelligence that help you predict your future staffing requirements.

Optimised Scheduling - an easy-to-use, flexible solution that ensures you always have the right number of people to meet your targets.

Good intraday visibility - you need to know what's happening, right now, to make sure that you are on track and can take remedial action if not.

Accurate reports - follow-up your results to make sure they meet your targets and take action if needed.

It is essential that your WFM solution supports you in delivering these.

Doesn't an Excel spreadsheet do the job just as well?

If you have a very small contact center you will be able to use an Excel spreadsheet. But if you have ever tried to optimise a schedule, you know there are a range of factors to be considered. You have to consider legislation, local agreements, employee contracts, budgets, individual employee capabilities, current performance, employee availability and their preferences. You will also have an amount of data that need to be processed, managed and analyzed. Last but not least, workforce management is about communication and flexibility. There will always be changes such as agents calling in sick and others needing to change their shift. Follow-up, reports and communicating changes cannot be easily done in a spreadsheet.

What are the advantages with workforce management?

Employee cost represent the single biggest area of spend in most contact centres and can be as much as 70-80% of the total investment. It only takes the annual recruitment plan to be a few percentage points out to be making errors which add up to a sizeable overspend. The benefits of WFM are manifold but the main point is that through more accurate planning and scheduling you are able to create more accurate and efficient schedules which will meet customer requirements with the right number of people. Without a WFM tool you are more likely to over-staff to ensure that you meet service level. This is almost always achieved at the cost of high non-productive wait time when advisors are ready to work but there is nothing for them to do.

Let's make it a business case. A yearly salary for an agent with social insurances is approximately 400.000 DKK. A two-hundred agent contact centre with an 80/20 service level target can save 3.200.000 DKK a year by reducing non-productive time by as little as 4%. These sums are difficult to ignore. With an efficient WFM-solution you can expect improvements of 10-20% during the first year, making the case for investment extremely compelling.

By optimizing, standardizing and automating staff planning the award-winning WFM solution Teleopti CCC helps you manage the difficult balancing act between increased profitability, improved customer service and more satisfied staff. It will:

• Improve revenues with optimal resource management
• Involve all levels of the organisation
• Improve you customer service while reducing staff costs
• Boost agent satisfaction and motivation through preferences and self-management tools
• Allow management to focus more on strategy and less on day-to-day tasks