Real-Time Agent Adherence: Cuts Costs by Enabling One-Stop, At-a-Glance Status Checks for All Contact Centers

ST. LOUIS, MO (May 15, 2008) – Pipkins Inc., today released Vantage Point Real-Time Agent Adherence Global, a graphical adherence monitoring system that reduces the time and expense required to track schedule compliance for multi-site contact centers. RTA Global centralizes the monitoring process by displaying adherence levels for each center on a single color-coded map and allowing point-and-click drill down to individual sites, enabling system-wide oversight by a single analyst.

This new add-on to Pipkins’ Vantage Point workforce management software can be used to track multiple in-house contact centers as well as monitor the performance of outsourced call centers. It builds on RTA Plus, the industry-first graphical control panel for real-time agent adherence monitoring that Pipkins introduced for single-site contact centers last year.

RTA Global allows adherence violations at any contact center in the network to be instantly spotted and investigated with a click from a map that portrays each center’s location and its compliance levels graphically instead of through text-heavy reports.

The map represents each center with an icon that changes color to indicate whether the site is in or out of adherence. Icons and sidebars adjacent to the map can be customized with user-defined data such as the percentage of agents conforming to schedule to provide a quick overview of adherence levels. All data and color indicators are dynamically updated with real-time information.

In addition:

• Clicking on the icon for any individual center drills down to a graphic seating chart with each agent’s name, color-coded adherence status and optional data such as non-adhering time displayed in the appropriate seating location.
• The visual seating chart with color-coded agent status makes it possible to see whether non-adhering agents are seated in a cluster, indicating that the adherence problem is being caused by socializing and allowing supervisor intervention.
• A list of agents by name, scheduled activity, and color-coded adherence status is displayed on the same screen, reinforcing as well as enhancing the visual information in the graphical seating chart.

These tools reduce overhead for multi-site contact center operations by enabling a single, centrally located analyst to oversee adherence monitoring for all sites. The designated analyst can monitor all contact center facilities from a single screen and alert local centers to compliance problems, eliminating the need for local monitoring as well as freeing local center supervisors to focus on other activities.

“Like our RTA Plus for single-site contact centers, RTA Global for multi-site operations simplifies real-time agent adherence monitoring by eliminating the need to pore over text-based adherence reports. You can track the vital signs of each center in your in-house or outsourced network with a few visual cues, and you only need one control panel to cover all sites,” said Jim Hogan, Manager of Customer Care for Pipkins. “This reduces expenses, makes adherence easier to manage, and helps increase the productivity of local centers by relieving them of most monitoring responsibilities.”

Pipkins’ new Real-Time Agent Adherence Global module is available immediately in conjunction with Vantage Point workforce management software and Pipkins’ optional spreadsheet reporting module, which is required to populate the data in RTA Global. All colors and adherence data can be configured according to the call center’s preferences. Pricing is based on the number of contact centers and number of users.

RTA Global complements RTA Plus for single-site contact centers. In addition to providing graphical monitoring of real-time agent adherence via color-coded avatars arranged in the same seating pattern as the agents themselves, RTA Plus allows supervisors to modify schedules as well as generate reports from the adherence monitoring screen with a click. Supervisors can log changes such as sick days or early releases, view agent schedules, send popup and email messages, and produce reports without switching screens.

About Pipkins Inc.:

Pipkins Inc., founded in 1983, 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. 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. For more information, visit www.pipkins.com.