Aspect Software Releases Workforce Optimization 8.0 and Aspect Mentor
Aspect Software, a provider of customer interaction management, workforce optimization, back-office, and cloud solutions, yesterday launched Aspect Workforce Optimization 8.0 (WFO 8), an advanced, integrated workforce optimization solution that includes workforce management, quality management, and performance management capabilities.
The company also released Aspect Mentor, a real-time speech analytics application that monitors voice with speech detection across the contact center and automatically sends guidance notifications and intelligent response alerts, based on detected or omitted speech, to agents and supervisors.
WFO 8.0 boasts a customizable graphical interface, back-office integrations, and more accurate forecasting, scheduling, and tracking of personnel.
John Amein, vice president of product management at Aspect Software, says the user interface "is a huge part of the release, making the 8.0 app appear very different to customers."
With its back-office integrations, the new release "extends the contact center into the back office, where all the transactions and fulfillment activities happen," Amein says. "It enables more complete management across the enterprise, not just the contact center."
Also new to the WFO 8.0 product is intraday management, which allows supervisors to adjust staffing and job responsibilities in near real time. This component also incorporates historical staffing data, business rules, and predictive capabilities.
An analysis module makes it easier for supervisors to digest the information uncovered by WFO 8.0. "Supervisors can now segment the data right from within the app, without having to pull the data and import it into other data apps," Amein says.
WFO 8 also allows for tight integration with other Aspect products, including the full suite of customer interaction management and analytics solutions, including Aspect Unified IP, Aspect Analytics for Speech and Text, and the new Aspect Mentor.
Aspect Mentor helps companies meet compliance mandates by detecting when agents fail to say required phrases and provides a consistent monitoring methodology for better agent training and coaching. Supervisors can receive real-time alerts whenever agents veer from the prepared script and can then take action, such as scheduling a meeting with the agent, right from within the alert.
This is especially significant for financial services firms, which are now heavily regulated by the government, Amein says. "It monitors the call to make sure the agent is saying everything that she is supposed to."
Aspect Mentor also provides timely agent guidance based on the conversation, which allows supervisors to identify, intervene, and change the course of a call in real time.
It integrates with leading CRM systems, such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, for real-time use of customer history and activity and more precise offer targeting.
"Aspect's overarching mission is to enhance the customer experience by providing understanding to what is happening with every customer interaction and provide our clients with the tools that allow them to take value-driven action," said Spence Mallder, senior vice president and general manager of workforce optimization at Aspect, in a statement. "With the market for real-time analytics growing 20 percent year over year, we developed Aspect Mentor in response to our customers' desire to accelerate customer data gathering and analysis and enhance customer interaction value."