PRESS RELEASE
10^th April 2008

ProtoCall One survey reveals call centres failing on business intelligence integration

ProtoCall One, the leading Genesys contact centre solutions and consultancy provider, has surveyed members of its Genesys Workforce Management (GWFM) user group which reveals that contact centre heads are stating time pressures for blocking progress on integrating business intelligence (BI) into their call centre systems.

The survey was conducted at the end of the latest ProtoCall One GWFM group meeting held in Hitchin on 27th February. The user group members are senior heads from leading UK businesses and their organisations account for around 25% of all GWFM UK users. The afternoon session focused on the challenges of successful BI integration.

The members of the group were asked for views concerning their experiences of BI and their plans to pursue BI within their organisations:

• Lack of time was the key blockage to achieving BI for 63% of those surveyed
• Highest priority for all group members was to use BI to measure call agents based on business focused objectives instead of standard call metrics
• 75% of those surveyed are now looking to integrate customer data for their BI use from their customer relationship management (CRM) systems
• 75% of respondents used only historical rather than real-time data to track agent performance
• 37% of respondents stated that BI and agent performance reporting was still treated separately.

Manual workarounds still prevail but time spent by agents is minimised, with 50% stating that less than 5% of agents' time was spent on manual workarounds such as completing forms and reports, but 25% have agents spending 10-20% of their time on non-automated processes. With call centre agent salaries averaging £15,458¹ per year, agents spending just 5% on manual workrounds would equate to a total annual cost of £77,290 for a one hundred seat call centre.

Overall key challenges included agent productivity and high agent turnover or 'attrition', both scoring 62% respectively. To give agents more flexibility and control around their work, 38% of user group members reported that they were using web applications to allow staff to specify shift preferences and then trade shifts with colleagues.

Chris Rodwell, practice head - business intelligence, ProtoCall One, commented:

"Our user group meeting and the survey results brought up interesting issues with regards to integrating BI into the contact centre. There is a genuine shift away from old ACD metrics to business-linked KPIs, but this obviously requires a commitment to effective BI integration. This is an area that will pay dividends for organisations and although time and resources are tight, these companies want to progress with real-time agent performance tracking and linking in customer data with BI. All this can now be achieved with the technology from the likes of Genesys and Oracle."

-ends-

Notes to editors
1 Source: Mitial Research in partnership with the Call Centre Management Association and Local Authority Contact Centre Benchmarking Group

The next Genesys Workforce Management user group meeting will be held at Job Centre Plus in Halifax on Tuesday 3rd June. For more information about this event, please email info@pc-1.co.uk

About ProtoCall One
ProtoCall One provides systems integration and consultancy for the contact centre world. It has its origins in the implementation of Genesys call centre solutions, but is now extending its portfolio into new areas including Business Intelligence (BI) and workforce optimisation (WFO). For more information please go to www.pc-1.co.uk

For ProtoCall One sales and marketing enquiries, please contact:
Steve Robertson, sales and marketing director, ProtoCall One
Tel: +44 (0) 0781 569 5055, Email: srobertson@pc-1.co.uk

For ProtoCall One UK media enquiries, please contact:
Miles Clayton or Simon Bennett at Agility PR Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 1438 310 139. Email: miles@agilitypr.co.uk

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