Just as the Trojans were taken by surprise by the Greeks hiding inside the wooden horse, many companies have accepted free gifts from vendors, only to later find that the gift was more of an albatross. It is imperative for buyers to do their due diligence in order to avoid finding themselves locked into a contract for a software solution that doesn’t meet their needs or expectations. The ongoing trend of mergers and acquisitions in the workforce optimization (WFO) market creates new marketing opportunities for companies to offer free software as part of a bundled package that is promoted as end-to-end solutions. While this appears to be an optimal solution, buyers need to understand the genesis of workforce management or WFM Software, and how an accurate forecasting tool is designed.

Moving from Chaos to Order

There is a chaos theory in physics and mathematics that has been formulated after a great struggle by scientists (Newtonian Physics and Euclidean Geometry). It had long been believed that “Order” was permanent and universal….this was later challenged by the undeniable reality of chaos, i.e. clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones and lightning doesn’t travel in a straight line. With the advent of modern computer scientists discovered that if they examined the numbers long and hard enough a pattern emerges…a constant pattern. Thus, order out of chaos.

The truth is that “Random Call Arrival” is chaos, and a “Weighted Moving Average” cannot deal with chaos. You need a forecasting tool that not only understands chaos but is designed with code and algorithms that can take advantage of the modern computer and evolve with technology and contact center management over the years.

If you find yourself in the market for a hosted WFM software for forecasting, scheduling and managing your modern contact center because you have been using Excel, then you know a thing or two about chaos. Just as we know mountains are not cones we know that the market is flooded with dozens of companies that offer cloud-based WFM solutions. In an extremely competitive marketplace, all claim to be the market leader. What is painted is a pretty cloudy picture replete with spherical graphs, presentations, and claims.

There are four significant caveats to be aware of before making a purchasing decision that could be career-limiting:

1. Longevity

There are only a few companies in the WFM software business that have offered a Hosted (SaaS) model for more than three years in this country. The three behemoth WFM vendors that have been acquired by ACD/ Quality/ Suite companies that try to monopolize your call center purchases are now claiming to be cloud vendors offering Hosted WFM. When companies take this approach it prevents you from getting the “Best of Breed” solutions.

These companies designed their solutions for the Fortune 500, and in a premise-based environment, offered a workable solution. They are now ten years behind the legitimate SaaS providers and in their efforts to be a “Total” contact center solution, they have lost their focus on the science of WFM software in an effort to catch up.

These companies are more focused on their shareholders and the next quarterly financials than workforce management solutions. Their focus is on the bottom line. Just ask the sales rep how long they have been with the company. Most will say less than two years because these mega-companies churn the sales force every twenty-four months. Do not fall for slick marketing. Go back to basics and demand references, statistics, and facts that prove it’s right for your business. Ask for SaaS specific references that have used the hosted solution for more than three years.

2. Comfort and Security

Some of the smaller WFM software vendors do the hosting in their own data centers which offer insufficient cybersecurity. Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 and 3 Reports (formerly SAS70) are designed to provide comfort over the following principles: security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, and privacy of a system. A system is comprised of the infrastructure: software, people, procedures, and data used to complete the services provided.

If your center requires PCI-DSS-HIPPA Compliance it would be unwise to consider a vendor that is not SOC 2 certified. When talking to vendors you must ask the following question. “How is your company addressing AET’s?” Advanced Evasion Techniques (AET’s) are typically used to counter network-based intrusion detection and prevention systems. They can also be used to bypass firewalls. A further target of evasions can be to crash a network security device, rendering it ineffective to subsequent targeted attacks. Attacks can happen right under the nose of the network and service administrators. Your Data Needs to be Protected. If they do not understand the question, attempt to avoid the question, or ask you a question to change the subject, then you should end the meeting.