Pipkins' Vantage Point Adds Support For VoIP Call Centers, Enabling Call Data To Be Used In Workforce Management Forecasts
Integrates with Avaya, Cisco & Other IP-Based Call Management Systems
Pipkins Inc. announced today that its Vantage Point workforce management software for scheduling call center agents is now integrated with major VoIP call management systems, including Avaya IP Office as well as Cisco IPCC Express and ICM/IP. The integration enables Vantage Point to retrieve historical VoIP-based call data for use in creating the call volume forecasts necessary to predict contact center staffing needs.
The VoIP call data collected by Vantage Point can be used both with in-house deployments of Pipkins software and by WorkforceScheduling.com, Pipkins' hosted subscription service. This supports the migration of contact centers of all sizes to Internet telephony, including large enterprise operations as well as smaller centers that use Pipkins' hosted service to avoid the expense of installing and maintaining a workforce management system internally.
"Forecasting is the cornerstone of call center scheduling. If you don't know the inbound calling patterns from the past, it is impossible to accurately predict call volumes in the future. But without an ACD from which to import the data, some VoIP-based contact centers have been forced to enter it into their workforce management system by hand," said Jim Hogan, Pipkins Manager of Customer Care. "By interfacing with products from the leading VoIP vendors, Vantage Point now automates that process and provides full workforce management functions for call centers with any kind of phone infrastructure."
Vantage Point and WorkforceScheduling.com forecast workload and schedule staff in single or multi-site call centers using a proprietary optimization algorithm, advanced skill-based modeling, and exclusive historical trend analysis that fine-tunes call volume forecasts for special events such as mail drops. Optional modules are available for Web-based agent access, Web-based time and attendance, IVR scheduling support, real-time adherence monitoring, and on-screen agent notification of intra-day schedule adjustments and schedule non-adherence.
Vantage Point integrates with leading ACDs, VoIP phone systems, and e-mail response systems and other multimedia queuing devices for data collection across multiple sites and time zones. It also provides a full complement of default and custom reports, with an open system design that allows managers to access call center data using any third party SQL reporting package.
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. Vantage Point is also available to smaller call centers through WorkforceScheduling.com, Pipkins' Web-based subscription service. Pipkins' systems forecast and schedule more than 100,000 agents in over 300 locations across all industries worldwide. For more information, visit www.pipkins.com.