Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Case Study: A Web-based Forecasting Solution for Sizeable Contact Centers

October 24, 2014
By ContactCenterSolutionsWorld Special Guest
John Vanderpool, Senior Vice President, Global Operations, Shinetech Software Inc. -

Technological advances over the past decade have led to an explosion of data. Companies across all industries are working hard to learn how to harness this data to improve their business operations and run more efficiently. This is the same story for the contact center solutions community - using data effectively can help with workload management and staffing optimization. The case study below demonstrates how two companies, Fourworkx and Shinetech Software, worked together to move workforce management solutions to the cloud and optimize workload forecasting.


The Situation

Fourworkx, a Netherlands-based software company established by four industry leaders in the workforce management space, wanted to develop forecasting solutions available to global partners in the cloud to target the customer service industry. Fourworkx forecasting solutions were already proven to be impactful to its existing customers, so the company began to explore the option of implementing their knowledge as a cloud-based workforce management solution provider.

Fourworkx set out to create a web-based forecasting solution that utilizes big data to optimize the workload forecast by applying advanced statistical methods specifically for customer service. As a result, Fourworkx designed a data management system to be used by contact centers of all sizes. Based on the findings of a world-renowned Australian researcher, the algorithms were proven, but were never before available in a cloud-based solution or made accessible globally as the practical knowledge is limited to some chosen few experts in the sector. Fourworkx called upon Shinetech Software to help bring the design from the drawing table to the cloud.

How it was developed

Once Shinetech was engaged, the team educated Fourworkx about Agile and Scrum methodologies. Agile methodologies are particularly important in the customer service industry because requirements are a moving target and can be highly unpredictable, depending on market moves or competitor activities. Scrum is the most popular way of introducing Agility due to its simplicity and flexibility, and Shinetech believed this would be the best way to execute the goals of this project. The teams chose behavior-driven development (BDD) as the Agile approach, which allows near-natural language specification and test automation. The experience of scoping went well, under the moderation of an internationally renowned BDD expert, Bernd Blume.

The two companies came together to create roadmaps of the products and a scheduled timeline to release different versions of the product. As part of the project, Shinetech ensured that appropriate programming languages and platforms were selected, helped set up the hosting services and managed the software development process. The team selected a highly specialized development language for statistical and data mining purposes. Generating smart results from pools of big data requires smooth interactions with end users, so the goal is to produce results that can be monetized.

Result

The new web-based forecasting software’s highly sophisticated algorithms enable its users to generate forecasts with a high percentage of accuracy in minutes instead of hours. The solution, now on Version 1.2, utilizes data to optimize the workload forecast by applying advanced statistical methods specifically for customer service organizations. The new system is simple to use, efficient and saves each client approximately €100,000 per year. It is now available to many organizations that were previously relying on expensive external resources or departmental support without scientific background, and efficiently optimizes the high cost of labor in contact-centers and customer service.




Edited by Maurice Nagle



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