Blue Pumpkin launches industry's first workforce optimization suite.

New Performance & Productivity Management Applications Complete Solution Suite To Help Enterprises Maximize Human Resources 

Blue Pumpkin, an industry leader in enterprise workforce optimization solutions, recently introduced its complete Workforce Optimization Suite--the industry's first comprehensive offering to optimize the employee management and performance processes that drive customer loyalty and corporate profitability.

Two new solutions, Blue Pumpkin Advisor and Blue Pumpkin Activity Manager, complete the Workforce Optimization Suite to form a closed-loop system that transforms the workforce into a strategic asset capable of impacting market share and profitability. The processes supported by the Suite include: long-range human resource planning, budgeting, employee scheduling, productivity assessment, payroll integration and performance measurement.

Blue Pumpkin ensures greater customer success with both services and technology. Blue Pumpkin Strategic Consulting Services introduce best-practice business processes and change management to build the proper work environment and lay the foundation for getting the most from technology solutions offered by the Workforce Optimization Suite.

"Blue Pumpkin is among the companies leading the way for organizations to make much needed changes in the way they manage their people," said Robert Mirani, director of Yankee Group's Customer Relationship Management Strategies Planning Service. "Their new solutions directly and positively impact customer satisfaction and cost control by ensuring people are aligned with corporate objectives with respect to performance and productivity. By focusing on the entire employee lifecycle, Blue Pumpkin helps organizations more quickly and profitably achieve their goals."

As the face of their company, people on the frontlines of customer service are the mission-critical link to revenues. Blue Pumpkin helps create a higher performing, more satisfied workforce whose productivity and performance directly impact both the top and bottom line.

Timberline, a software provider with more than 25,000 customers worldwide in the construction and real estate industries, is on track to achieving a 220% ROI from using Blue Pumpkin Advisor. Advisor keeps an organization aligned with goals by giving visibility into overall employee and organizational performance, highlighting successes and problem areas.

"Like the other Blue Pumpkin Suite applications we are using, their newest performance management solution Advisor is already showing immediate returns," said Mark Brannan, operations director for Timberline. "Advisor gives us a daily pulse of our people's performance, which is critical to measuring our progress. We can take those new insights and turn them into action with other Suite solutions--ensuring consistently high service levels and guiding our operations forward."

Musician's Friend, the world's largest direct marketer of music gear, anticipates more than an 800% ROI from Blue Pumpkin Activity Manager. Activity Manager provides employees as well as managers the ability to better understand how time is being spent on the various tasks. This in turn enables supervisors to measure and analyze productivity and focus employees on value-added activities.

"Blue Pumpkin helps us lower our people costs and increase productivity by giving us visibility into our workforce," stated Robert Brashear, contact center director for Musician's Friend. "The new Activity Manager application, for instance, is powerful enough to give us a real-time picture of the workday and where hours are being spent. That's mission-critical information we need to align our people with business goals and drive the right changes in our organization."

For more than 900 customers including Apple Computer, Borders Group, JetBlue Airways, Verizon and other Global 2000 companies, Blue Pumpkin solutions ensure that their people are at the right place at the right time, performing at their highest levels to help customers. Blue Pumpkin customers have achieved a rapid and rich return-on-investment from implementing Workforce Optimization Suite components--often in the triple-digits or greater in just the first year.

Blue Pumpkin maintains partnerships with leading technology vendors to seamlessly connect to different enterprise information systems, increasing the effectiveness of its solutions. Partners include Avaya Inc., BEA, Cisco Systems, eGain, eLoyalty, IBM, Nice Systems, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel Systems, Siemens Enterprise Networks and many other companies.

"To develop closer relationships with your customers, you need to enable them to communicate with you however they prefer," explained Linda Dotts, director of CRM product management for Avaya. "Your employees also need to be managed and shaped into a high-performing workforce capable of representing your company and building those relationships. Avaya and Blue Pumpkin solutions work together to optimize your people and processes in order to drive customer loyalty and your bottom line."

The Blue Pumpkin Workforce Optimization Suite is priced on a per user basis. Depending on the applications and modules purchased, pricing for software licenses ranges from approximately $200 per user through $1000 per user. Professional services, consulting and integration are priced separately to meet customer needs.

Blue Pumpkin is a leader in workforce optimization, a market quickly gaining momentum and enabling businesses to leverage their most critical resource: their people. Blue Pumpkin solves the urgent needs of more efficiently deploying resources and effectively managing employee performance--significantly impacting customer service, loyalty and profitability.

The Blue Pumpkin Workforce Optimization Suite applications form a closed-loop system and include Planner, Director-Enterprise, Activity Manager, Advisor and other products. Professional services implement best practices and manage change to build the right processes and fully leverage technology solutions. As the first to offer extensive services in addition to applications and customer support, Blue Pumpkin helps people and businesses successfully execute on their goals.