Maxima Advantage Vantage Point.

Maxima Advantage Vantage Point

Pipkins 

1031 Executive Parkway

Ste. 110

St. Louis, MO 63141

Ph: 314-469-1124

Web: www.pipkins.com

Price: Call Pipkins for pricing.

In simple terms, workforce management (WFM) is the process of balancing work to be done and the amount of resources needed to complete that work. Workforce management solutions must analyze and predict a call center's workload by the day, by the hour and even by the minute, then allocate resources accordingly. If the work volume is not accurately predicted ahead of time, then the resources allocated may by incorrect, resulting in overstaffing (which is expensive) or understaffing (which leads to poor customer service and higher customer dissatisfaction).

Typically, most WFM solutions allow users to define thresholds for the "quality of service," which is typically the average hold time. Using predefined objectives (such as staffing requirements), historical ACD data and a complex formula, call center managers and supervisors can predict or forecast the amount of work expected to be completed within a specified amount of time. Once the work volume and staffing requirements have been forecast, the optimal scheduling of resources can be created. WFM solutions must incorporate fluctuating work volume and shift patterns in their calculations. In addition, varying skill-sets of employees and individual preferences must also be considered when producing a viable schedule. TMC Labs examined Pipkins Maxima Advantage Vantage Point, an enterprise WFM product featuring comprehensive scheduling, forecasting and planning functionality for complete, enterprisewide, multisite call center workforce management. It includes all of the aforementioned capabilities, and we were quite impressed with the product during our test drive.

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Maxima Advantage is designed to handle complex call center forecasting and scheduling problems with what the company claims is "the best and most accurate WFM scheduling formula on the market today." Because of its scalable architecture, Pipkins can focus on call centers of all sizes, from the small business segment to the largest of call centers. In fact, Maxima Advantage Vantage Point is a true client-server architecture, combined with an Oracle database and the Windows NT/2000/2003 operating system.

One important feature of any WFM solution is the ability for intraday "tweaking" of the schedule, which does not end with the creation of an optimal schedule. For instance, unexpected changes occur in employee status--such as sick days--or the need to reallocate resources to unexpected volume increases in a particular skill-set. Workload conditions must be constantly monitored and adjustments made as necessary. Maxima Advantage handles this quite well. Daily Management facilities offer an up-to-the-minute view of call center performance. This includes current call handling statistics and immediate staff whereabouts, which can detail problems in schedule adherence. Of course, this solution supports "special events," which might consist of a holiday or an anomaly in statistics due to a hurricane or power outage. (See Figure 1.)

Other features include the following:

* Advanced forecasting with patented Merlang algorithms;

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* Scheduling in skills-based environments, using SkillSense technology;

* Easy-to-use point-and-click graphical schedule management tools;

* Total ACD integration for data collection across multiple sites and time zones;

* Workload distribution/automation with Multiple Application Server (MAS);

* Comprehensive analysis and reporting capability;

* Complete multisite management;

* Attendance preferences;

* Support for multimedia environments;

* Open architecture/ODBC access;

* Live real-time adherence monitoring; and

* Web access module for agents.

The latest new features;

* Scenarios (perform "what-if" operations);

* Filters (wherein data can be filtered to many levels for easier management);

* Linked shortcuts (perform multiple repetitive operations with a single click);

* Scheduling reoptimization; and

* Interactive voice response (IVR) interface.

Other recent additions include e-mail integration, automated data exports, WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") report distribution, budgeting Vantage Point, data-level security and filtering and agent productivity/statistics reporting.

We all know ACDs that support skills-based routing can place calls into different queues and are then presented to single-skilled or multiskilled agents. Skill-set scheduling is the ability to optimally schedule multiskilled agents to meet an integrated set of multiskilled requirements. Maxima Advantage is able to optimize and generate a schedule (see Figure 2) that incorporates skill-sets into its calculations to help prevent overstaffing or understaffing in any particular skill-set. Should an agent call in sick, for example, Maxima Advantage can also determine what effect this would have on a particular skill-set. Real-time reports display real-time agent adherence to each skilled activity. These reports show the call center supervisor which activity the agent was scheduled to perform and which activity the agent is currently performing, giving to supervisors real-time visibility of each skill type. You can also customize charts and graphs or use third-party tools to pull information from the Oracle database. With this information in hand, you have the capability to perform intraday re-forecasting.

Additionally, Pipkins claims Maxima Advantage to be the only system that can directly calculate optimal staffing levels for your agent skill groups, using the Merlang-M equations, which the company says eliminates the need for simulations. In fact, Pipkins rhetorically asks, "Are your calls generated by promotional mailings, catalog drops or other marketing events?" Its own answered solution: "Well, Maxima Advantage goes far beyond traditional forecasting methods, providing you with a way to directly correlate your marketing activities with anticipated call loads." The ability to forecast based on statistics from, for example, a past marketing promo, is a huge benefit. And it certainly helps improve the statistical forecasting formula immensely.

We encountered some interesting features within Maxima Advantage that might be considered "icing on the cake." For instance, you can terminate employees, then reinstate them--useful for seasonal employees--and still retain their information, statistics, skill-set information, etc. This eliminates the need to start from scratch in removing a seasonal agent only to have to add him or her in again later. The product takes seniority among agents to a new level, as it includes both the date and time of hire; if you hire 10 agents in one day, you can determine seniority by the time the agents were hired. Another interesting feature lies in that, when scheduling, you can assign multiple supervisors to an agent with a priority setting to figure out which supervisor to assign the agent. The product defines offices with time zones so agents are able to see schedules in their time zone.

Using Maxima Advantage, you can supplement with roster groups to determine how many hires are needed, then pass that information to an HR person.

Finally, a Web-based vacation feature can tie into HR and payroll, allowing you to color-code the days an agent is on vacation. Overall, TMC Labs was very impressed with the performance and feature-set of Pipkins' Maxima Advantage. The scheduling algorithms are, indeed, one of the best in the industry; as such, we find this to be a terrific solution to meet your workforce scheduling needs.

RATINGS (0-5)

Installation: 5

Documentation: 4.5

Features: 5

GUI: 4.75

Overall: A