ST. LOUIS, MO (Feb 12, 2002) – Pipkins, Inc., innovator and leading supplier of workforce management solutions, has announced a partnership with Iontas, Ltd., advanced developers of people and enterprise management software solutions. The partnership will allow both companies to provide Iontas’ call center productivity and performance monitoring software Agent Focus™ in conjunction with Pipkins’ premier forecasting and scheduling product, Vantage Point™ (Maxima Advantage 7.0).
“Iontas’ business development strategy is to align itself with proven business partners, like Pipkins Inc., that have the knowledge, experience and technology to provide innovative tools to the growing needs of mid to large sized call centers,” said Iontas CEO Martin McCreesh. “Our partnership with Pipkins provides Iontas with the opportunity to serve a greater number of call center customers in the U.S. market.”
Agent Focus’ key strength is its ability to analyze all agent PC activity and report this in a similar way to existing telephony based reporting systems. This makes Agent Focus an ideal “must-have” for contact centers because of the increasing amount of desktop PC usage as well as new PC based communication channels including e-mail, Internet and chat. The software reports on how time is spent on the PC to both agents and managers which helps improve agent productivity and, when used in conjunction with Vantage Point, enables effective forecast and scheduling of all agent activity.
“Pipkins’ strategy has been and continues to be to lead the industry in the advancement of workforce management technology. We are interested in strategic alliances that further that objective by adding complementary functionality to Vantage Point,” said Tim Venturella, Pipkins’ Vice President of Operations. “Traditionally, workforce management products have focused exclusively on call-related activity and statistics. Iontas’ Agent Focus product gives call center managers information with respect to non-call-related work – specifically PC application productivity statistics. When used in parallel with Vantage Point [which provides call-related agent productivity statistics], the user has visibility into total agent productivity.”
Both Iontas (Booth 349) and Pipkins (Booth 1721) are exhibiting at the Call Center and CRM show in Las Vegas on Feb 12-13. Representatives from each company will be available to discuss how their solutions work together to give call centers detailed reports on improving efficiency, increasing productivity and reducing costs with the added capabilities of accurate forecasting and scheduling.
About Iontas, Ltd. (http://www.iontas.com)
Iontas Limited is an innovative provider of people and enterprise management software solutions for today’s technology-driven age. Through its comprehensive development program and partner alliances, Iontas delivers a suite of integrated management tools that monitor call center activity and the use and deployment of PC systems, Internet and e-mail. Based in Donegal, Ireland with U.S. headquarters in Boston, Iontas management products have been widely adopted by leading clients including Esat Telecom (British Telecom subsidiary), Conduit Europe, and Stream International.
About Pipkins Inc.
Pipkins, Inc. (PIPKINS), founded in 1984, is the leading supplier of workforce management software and services to the call center industry. Its Vantage Point product enables managers to solve the complicated operational issues in today’s multi-faceted call center environment. It offers a rich and robust feature set, as well as an open design that allows for the complete integration of emerging CRM technology. PIPKINS’ systems forecast and schedule more than 100,000 agents in over 300 locations across all industries worldwide. The company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.