6 Reasons

to Consider Workforce Management in the Cloud

To Cloud... Or Not to Cloud?

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

“No Intention of Ever Moving to the Cloud”

2012 2014 2016 2018

57%

24%18%

34%

If you work in the contact center industry,

you know that migration to the cloud is a

common topic of discussion. Should we,

or shouldn’t we? Many contact centers are

wrestling with that very issue. Saddletree

Research reports that at the end of 2012,

57% of contact centers had no intention

of ever moving to the cloud. In 2014,

that number had dropped to 34%. And in

2016, that number decreased to 24%. That

change over time is a pretty significant

statement about how contact centers are

rapidly embracing the cloud. If we do a

little extrapolation, we could expect that by

2018, only about 18% of contact centers will

have no intention of moving to the could.

That’s a small minority that will probably be

wondering, “Do we have this right?” No

matter where you turn, all roads lead to the

cloud.

© 2017 Aspect Software 2

Source: Saddletree Research 2017

The increasing interest in cloud contact

centers is a natural consequence of advances

in cloud technology and the collective

movement toward Software as a Service

(SaaS) offerings of ACDs, CRM, WFO, HRIS

and other contact center-related software.

How could it be any other way? We’re

completely comfortable with MS-Office,

Salesforce and our own music collections

existing and operating somewhere far away

from our personal premises. And the benefits

of a cloud contact center are increasingly

obvious, even to those who have been

historically skeptical.

Benefits of a Cloud Contact Center The internet is virtually everywhere. With a SaaS model, you can have

centralized agents, work-at-home agents, supervisors, workforce planners and administrators anywhere you like.

Most contact centers have significant swings in the number of agents required to service customers. Why purchase and maintain hardware sized to support your peak staffing? Let your cloud provider do the scaling for you.

Hardware, IT staffing, facilities, disaster recovery and other data center charges can be converted from fixed costs to variable costs with the cloud provider passing along savings they get from operating with economies of scale. Also, on-premises software upgrades usually require a significant amount of work for the software provider and the cost is passed on directly to the customer as a professional service charge or is embedded in the license fee.

Ubiquity

High Scalability

Lowest Total Cost of Use

© 2017 Aspect Software 3

IT departments as cost centers are almost universally understaffed, at least in the eyes of the business unit. Virtually eliminate the need for IT with SaaS software.

The cost of Workforce Management (WFM) software and options may be expensive in an on-premises licensed delivery mode. In the cloud, the software provider can amortize the cost of software over many customers using multi-tenancy, effectively lowering the price for the end-user.

Many contact centers see the value in software enhancements provided on a regular basis, without any professional services costs. Read on to understand why continuous upgrades are critically important.

Reduced IT Dependency

Affordability

Continuous Upgrades

© 2017 Aspect Software 4

Contact centers are constantly striving to deliver higher customer satisfaction at a lower cost, while maintaining a happy work environment for employees. WFM software is the essential WFO tool that ensures the proper balance among these three important objectives.

But technology and customer demands are continuously changing. Your WFM software must evolve to continue to give you the best results.

Consider these seismic changes that will necessitate regular software enhancements.

Continuous Updates Enable the Latest in Contact Center Advancements

Just in the past few years, contact centers have come to realize the importance of creating an environment that ensures agents are fully engaged in their work. New features such as the graphical user interface, remote scheduling via smartphone app and gamification are changing the life of the typical agent.

Agent Engagement

The historically disparate components of WFO need to be integrated into process workflows that span multiple components such as automatically scheduling coaching sessions in WFM when the need is identified in QM.

WFO Integration

The growth in digital channels is unprecedented, but traditional WFM models can’t accurately schedule agents in a non-voice world. WFM forecasting and scheduling features and models must evolve to optimally schedule labor across voice and digital channels.

Omni-channel

Analytic tools are already providing many valuable insights into contact center operations, and AI/machine learning will help guide agents and supervisors to take the next best action.

WFO Intelligence

© 2017 Aspect Software 5

For those seriously entertaining a move to the

cloud for WFM, there are really two options:

public cloud or hosted (aka private cloud) delivery.

WFM software delivered through the public cloud

such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) enables true

Software as a Service available to anyone with a

web browser. Hosted WFM software, on the other

hand, is quite similar to on-premises delivery,

except additional telecom lines are required to

transport workstation and ACD data to remotely

located WFM servers. The table on the right

highlights some of the similarities and differences

between these two delivery mechanisms.

For the vast majority of contact centers, public

cloud delivery is the most desirable option. Larger

and more complex implementations may require a

private cloud implementation.

Which Cloud is the Right Fit?

Public Cloud Hosted(Private Cloud)

Price Less expensive than hosted

Lower TCO than on-premise

Environment AWS, Azure, etc. Rackspace, Cloudreach, etc.

Customization Limited customization Fully customizable

Scalability High Unlimited users

Control of Upgrades Software Provider Customer

Upgrade Price Free Professional Service Charge

Level of IT Control Limited Moderate

© 2017 Aspect Software 6

For those on-premises contact centers being

tempted by all the advantages of the cloud,

workforce management software could be the best

way to begin your journey.

Many contact centers currently operate WFM

systems that are provided by software vendors

different from their Quality Management/Recording

systems. WFM is fairly autonomous because the

data integration with the ACD and other systems

is not real-time nor complex, and the data is not

confidential, so security is a minor concern. These

relaxed constraints dramatically lower the barriers to

moving WFM up into the public cloud.

If you could get all the benefits of the cloud that we

have highlighted above, with all the capabilities of

a rich on-premises workforce management solution,

with minimal additional risk, that’s a best-of-all-

worlds scenario that deserves serious consideration.

Where to Start with Cloud

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%

Applications Moving to the Cloud in 2018

16.7%

15.3%

13.4%

13.3%

11.9%

Workforce Management

Agent Desktop

Survey Software

Quality Management

Interactive Voice Response

© 2017 Aspect Software 7

Source: Saddletree Research 2017

Aspect has recently released a major new addition to its WFO

portfolio: Aspect Via Workforce Management. The SaaS version

of its #1 rated workforce management solution is now available

in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. Aspect Via WFM is

the latest addition to Aspect’s growing collection of AWS public

cloud offerings, including Aspect Via customer engagement

solutions with native contact center, WFO and self-service

capabilities.

Not only does Aspect Via WFM include all of the rich features

and options enjoyed by our many on-premises customers, it

is a natural migration path from Aspect’s on-premises offering

as well as the on-premises offerings of other WFM software

vendors. Aspect Via WFM is also a stepping stone to other

Aspect Via WFO cloud solutions as well as to Aspect Via itself,

using tools that make product migrations seamless.

Introducing, Aspect Via™ Workforce Management™… The Premier WFM Cloud Solution

© 2017 Aspect Software 8

See more details online: www.aspect.com/aspect-via-WFM

LEARN MOREDiscover the remarkable benefits of Aspect Via WFM!

Call us today: 1-888-547-2481

© 2017 Aspect Software 9