Aspect Software launches PerformanceEdge, first fully synchronised contact centre optimisation suite

Aspect Software, the world's largest company solely focused on the contact centre, today announced the launch of PerformanceEdge, the industry's first contact centre optimisation suite that synchronises workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management, and coaching and e-learning to holistically improve business performance.

By bringing critical performance optimisation functionality together, PerformanceEdge enables businesses to control costs, enhance service levels and align contact centre performance with strategic company goals.

"Both inbound and outbound-focused contact centres are struggling to meet the growing demands of the consumer and the business due to a number of factors, including increasing transaction volumes, limited insight into real-time events, siloed systems requiring manual report compilation and too many technologies that don't support business process initiatives," said Bob Kelly, vice-president of PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect Software.

"Now, for the first time, with PerformanceEdge, managers are able to tap into historical data, evaluate real-time intelligence and plan future scenarios to gain a complete, end-to-end view of contact centre performance and, with the benefit of that information, take immediate action in the face of changing business conditions." PerformanceEdge offers existing integrations to all leading ACDs and predictive diallers, including those from Avaya, Cisco, Nortel, as well as Aspect Software.

The solution also includes integrations to customer relationship management (CRM) systems and other back-office solutions, allowing organisations to leverage a complete range of information about their company-customer interactions. PerformanceEdge consolidates data on agent performance, response times, average handle times, call recordings and campaign metrics, empowering managers to make decisions that lead to better operational efficiency and agent effectiveness with optimal resources.

"PerformanceEdge has enabled us to optimise our contact centre workforce through better forecasting, more accurate planning and improved scheduling, all of which helps us ensure the right number of agents with the right skills, are available across all locations. In particular, the solution's real-time adherence capability helps us leverage complex agent data to get the most from our staffing efforts," said Aaron Jacobs, contact centre section manager at VW Credit. "We see great value in the integrated data collection and reporting capabilities offered by PerformanceEdge, and look forward to further synchronising our performance optimisation initiatives to achieve our revenue and service objectives."

PerformanceEdge offers unified management, administration, data collection, workflows, reporting and data sharing across multiple applications and sites. By bringing together Aspect eWorkforce Management, Aspect Quality Management, Aspect Performance Management, Aspect Enterprise Campaign Manager and Aspect Campaign Optimiser, PerformanceEdge provides:

* Workforce Management - enables organisations to plan and manage the performance of inbound, blended and outbound staff.
* Performance Management - measures, analyses and communicates performance results to continuously improve business processes and ensure they are aligned with business goals.
* Recording and quality management - records, evaluates and analyses agent interactions and captures real-time customer feedback to deliver insights into business issues and agent performance.
* Campaign Management - optimises outbound and blended campaign strategies and increases productive contacts by pinpointing best time-to-call.
* Coaching and e-learning - provides needs-based coaching capabilities, as well as e-learning management and content authoring tools.

"Enterprises need to do what they can to maintain a competitive edge and that includes making sure customer service is not compromised by poor contact centre performance," said Paul Stockford, president and chief analyst of Saddletree Research. "With PerformanceEdge, Aspect has redefined and brought together the key ingredients for complete performance optimisation to ensure the contact centre is firing on all cylinders. The sheer quality and quantity of data - spanning both inbound and outbound contacts - that can be parsed, analysed and leveraged will truly bolster an enterprise's ability to react immediately to customer demands."

Now globally available through Aspect Software and its channel partners, PerformanceEdge quickly transforms results and metrics into actionable information, such as forecasts, schedules and key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be leveraged by a diverse array of stakeholders in the contact centre. Users can also initiate manual actions or control inter-application workflows according to permission levels and business rules. Completing the solution, PerformanceEdge also includes a dedicated group of highly experienced professional services, educational services, development and support professionals. With resources deployed worldwide, the team has helped thousands of companies align their operations and processes to improve customer service, collections and sales results.

"Providing an exceptional customer experience is paramount in today's competitive marketplace and true performance optimisation requires insight into a wide range of variables and, most importantly, the ability to take meaningful action from those insights," said Kelly. "PerformanceEdge brings together the number one workforce management, performance management and campaign management applications, along with sophisticated recording and quality management capabilities. As a result, it can deliver tremendous value and change the operational reality for contact centre managers by allowing them to consider everything and act immediately."