Talkdesk announces AI-infused Workforce Management at Enterprise Connect

Talkdesk Workforce Management, powered by Talkdesk iQ, takes an innovative, agent-first approach to improve efficiency, engagement and schedule adherence in contact centers


Orlando, FL, March 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Talkdesk, the cloud contact center for innovative enterprises, today announced Talkdesk Workforce Management, a cloud-native and 100 percent microservices architecture fully unified with a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform. With other CCaaS providers still reliant on legacy cloud (hosted) built in a monolithic architecture, Talkdesk’s speed to market and rapid pace of innovation ensures customers receive new features and increased value faster than any other contact center solution.  


“Unlike legacy solutions focused on optimizing outdated processes, Talkdesk Workforce Management will redefine agent involvement and personal ownership within their role,” said Tiago Paiva, chief executive officer, Talkdesk. “As legacy, first-generation cloud providers scramble to migrate from monolithic, cluster-based models to microservices, Talkdesk will stay ahead and deliver greater value for our customers, faster.”


“While we’ve seen several companies enter the Contact Center as a Service market with shiny new microservices-based solutions, workforce management (WFM) has, for the most part, been addressing the move to the cloud with variants of premises-based applications. It is exciting to see Talkdesk take on the challenge of throwing the proverbial Erlang C book out the window to build a true cloud-native, single platform, artificial intelligence (AI)-to-the-core, WFM application,” said Sheila McGee-Smith, founder and principal analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics.


“The old contact center infrastructure, cobbled together from a set of vendor solutions, limits the delivery of differentiated service,” wrote Forrester analysts Kate Leggett, Art Schoeller, Ian Jacobs and Laura Naparstek in the November 2018 report, Vendors Battle for the Heart of the Contact Center. “It stops contact center managers from obtaining a full, omnichannel view of customer interactions, limits their ability to forecast and schedule agents across media types, and makes it difficult to configure more-effective rules for contact flow.”


Talkdesk Workforce Management takes an agent-first approach to drive employee engagement and reduce stress. Improving employee satisfaction through agent-centric workforce management tools can produce significant increases in key performance indicators (KPIs) and reinforce the “happy staff leads to happy customers” principle. Talkdesk Workforce Management will empower users with the ability to:


  • Eliminate manual intraday analysis to determine optimal staffing levels. Powered by Talkdesk iQ, Talkdesk Workforce Management uses AI to present recommended staffing adjustments in real-time. An intuitive interface allows users to easily accept or decline changes with the click of a button.
  • Simplify and automate agent schedule changes with self-service shift swaps and time off requests accessible from the agent desktop or their mobile device. Administrators have the option to require management approval or automate the process if the change fits within predefined parameters.
  • Predict and plan for hiring needs with early notifications, visibility and long-term forecasting. With this new AI-infused WFM solution, Talkdesk customers can receive advanced notifications when staffing levels are expected to drop below acceptable thresholds, calculate how many agents will be needed, determine start dates and predict when new agents will reach optimal proficiency levels.


With the infusion of AI throughout Talkdesk Workforce Management, contact center leaders have the ability to replace manual scheduling processes with automation to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and minimize effort. Powerful new capabilities allow contact center managers to fine-tune staffing needs, accelerate reaction time and make rapid intraday adjustments, drastically improving schedule adherence with the introduction of surge pay. Talkdesk Workforce Management is the cornerstone of tomorrow’s growing workforce by placing the agent experience at the center of the product’s design.


“After completing hundreds of customer interviews, we consistently heard that the majority of WFM products require the administration team to work for the software instead of the software working for the team,” continued Paiva. “This is the overarching theme we aim to resolve as we launch and expand Talkdesk Workforce Management. In the end, it’s all about freeing time to improve the customer experience.”  


Additional Information


About Talkdesk

Talkdesk Enterprise Cloud Contact Center empowers companies to make customer experience their competitive advantage. With enterprise-class performance and consumer-like ease of use, Talkdesk easily adapts to the evolving needs of sales and support teams and their end-customers, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, productivity and cost savings. Over 1,400 innovative enterprises around the world, including IBM, Acxiom, Discovery Education and Peloton, rely on Talkdesk to power their customer interactions. Learn more and request a demo at www.talkdesk.com.



            

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