Hi,

Can someone share a weekly staff planner that computes staff based on Erlang?

Thanks!

Alterian Acquires Intrepid, an international social media analytics firm

Acquisition enables Alterian to provide packaged solutions that will help Customers and Partners to accelerate their Social Media strategies

London, U.K. – 01 September 2010 – Alterian (LSE: ALN), the leader in customer engagement technology and solutions, today announced that it has acquired Intrepid, an international market research and social media analytics consultancy. The acquisition further strengthens Alterian's market leadership position in social media marketing, and its application to the mainstream marketing mix.

Intrepid is a consulting business with a heavy focus on providing insights using social media data, enabling social media to be integrated as a core element of mainstream marketing. The company has around 40 staff, and offices in Seattle and London as well as a rapidly growing social media analytics team in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Intrepid is a long standing user of Alterian’s social media monitoring and analytics product, Alterian SM2.

The acquisition of Intrepid allows Alterian to expand its support for clients and partners in the area of social media marketing. Alterian has seen growing demand from brands and partners for packaged social media solutions that include best practices, services and software, delivering benefit even where the partner or brand does not have the in-house staff to use the software and generate insights directly.

Alterian CEO, David Eldridge, commented: "With the explosion of social media, many brands are well aware of the need to harness this exciting new channel as a key and integral part of their marketing mix. However, a large proportion do not yet have the necessary in-house skills to use social media analytics to best effect. The addition of Intrepid into the Alterian portfolio gives our partners and customers access to an extremely talented group of people with a deep track record in social media analytics and market research," said Eldridge. "It also strengthens our leadership position in social marketing, one of our fastest-growing areas of the business, as we help marketers address new channels and build engaging dialogues with their customers.”

John Song, founder and CEO of Intrepid, added:
"We believe this acquisition will have a positive effect on all of Alterian’s current business lines and will accelerate our ability to help organizations that know they must move quickly to integrate social marketing into their customer engagement activities, but may not have the necessary resources and methodologies to do so. Our vision and our company culture align perfectly with Alterian, and we are excited to become part of this fast-growing company."

Acquisition Reflects Growing Demand for Alterian's Social Media Solutions

The Intreprid acquisition reflects the strong and growing demand for Alterian's social media marketing solution, Alterian SM2, and for the social media features that are offered as an integrated component of Alterian's offerings in email marketing, web content management, campaign management, and web behavior analytics. It also provides, through the Ho Chi Minh team, a rich pool of language skills to help further enhance Alterian’s offerings in the important Asia Pacific region.

Growing demand for Alterian's social media marketing software solutions is driven by increased awareness that consumer expectations have changed forever, based on the emergence of new digital channels and internet-based social media. A new world of communications has emerged that many brands are struggling to understand. Alterian's solutions help marketers to address this challenge. For more information, please visit Alterian.com | Alterian acquires Intrepid

Hoesbach/Germany, August 26, 2010 – ASC (ASC telecom AG - communications recording, quality monitoring), a leading global provider of innovative solutions to record, analyze and evaluate communications, announced it will demonstrate its new quality management software, INSPIRATIONpro version 10.0 and it’s VoIP recording solution, EVOip at the CSA & DBSG Annual Conference, at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham on 8th-9th September, at Stand 18.
The Credit Services Association (CSA) is the National Association in the UK for companies active in the area of unpaid credit accounts, debt recovery agencies, tracing and allied professional services. The DBSG works for the benefit of those involved in buying or selling debts (or intermediaries in the sale process).
The CSA & DBSG Annual Conference is an important conference for everyone involved in the Credit Collection and Debt Sale and Purchase industry. Over 230 delegates are expected at the Conference, which includes seminars, networking and exhibitors supporting the collections industry.
At the CSA & DBSG Conference, ASC will show how its solution portfolio supports “Business Process Optimization”, a new approach encompassing communications recording, quality management, speech analytics, e-learning and workforce management, enriched with vital information from CRM and ERP systems.
Mike Murley, Sales Director, ASC telecom UK, said “The CSA & DBSG event is an ideal backdrop for ASC to promote its recording and quality management solutions within this key financial segment. ASC will be able to engage with other solution providers and assist end users on the correct management and deployment of our VoIP recording, achieving PCI DSS compliant recording and enhancing Business Process Optimization programmes”.

ASC’s new version of its award-winning VoIP recording software, EVOip 10.0, offers the strictest adherence to security requirements, which help to achieve the payment card industry’s data security standards (PCI DSS). Other new features include one-click backup and dynamic enterprise licensing. New and enhanced integrations with Aastra MX ONE and Avaya ACM complement the existing range of integrations with major IP phone switches including Alcatel, Cisco, Genesys, Mitel, Nortel and Siemens.

EVOip captures telephone calls from the network and enables storage, playback and archiving of the entire interaction. The software can record hundreds of channels simultaneously, including encrypted calls, and is entirely software based. Many functions may be accessed directly through the IP phone, such as record-on demand, start/stop, keep/delete and search-and-replay for recorded calls.

INSPIRATIONpro helps managers learn about their agents’ service level through analysis and evaluation of recorded call data and screen activities. ASC’s latest release 10.0 facilitates new capabilities for supervisor interaction. The E-Learning module spots the weak points in individual agent training and delivers customized instruction directly to each desktop, thus creating a loop of continuous learning. INSPIRATIONpro also includes audio analytics which allows automatic categorization of calls or the ability to search for keywords and phrase, particularly useful for high-volume call centers with an otherwise unmanageable number of conversations.

KXEN, the leading provider of data mining automation solutions, announced today that Equifax Capital Markets is using KXEN technology to strengthen its data mining and predictive modeling capabilities. Through its relationship with KXEN, Equifax can build models faster and identify variables that are most predictive of mortgage loan default and delinquency. Together, Equifax and KXEN provide investors with access to data sources and tools that provide precise indicators of securitised loan performance.

With KXEN technology, Equifax can quickly analyse data and conduct efficient data mining and variable reduction exercises. KXEN technology advances the analytic capabilities of Equifax Capital Markets by isolating selected credit variables to build highly accurate and reliable models. This added speed and scalability enables rapid testing and delivery of credit data to the mortgage-backed securities marketplace.

“Through this relationship, we have the ability to provide the secondary market with the critical insights to improve default and pre-payment predictions,” said Steve Albert, vice president, Equifax Capital Markets. “By leveraging the combined strength of Equifax’s extensive borrower credit data and KXEN’s leading-edge technology, our Capital Markets team gains access to actionable intelligence in a fraction of the time it would take using conventional tools.”

A fully automated solution, KXEN’s software embeds predictive analytics into key business processes and strategic solutions. The unmatched speed, ease of use and scalability of KXEN technology enable the delivery of critical customer insights related to potential pre-payment and default risks.

“We are pleased that Equifax has selected us to work with them to leverage the powerful capabilities of KXEN technology in the mortgage-backed securities market,” said John Ball, Chief Executive Officer, KXEN. “Equifax represents the new wave of analytically sophisticated companies looking to next- generation technologies to build highly predictive models that can reshape the way mortgage investors predict payment performance and thereby reduce risk and exposure.”

This relationship is the latest development among a number of industry innovations led by Equifax Capital Markets. Recently, Equifax added several, unique data variables to its premier solution for the mortgage-backed securities market - ABS Credit Risk Insight. An industry first, the solution gives investors greater visibility into borrower credit health by providing detail on all mortgage and home equity payments, owner-occupancy, bankruptcies and performance on past mortgages.

For more information about KXEN solutions, visit Home - Analytical CRM, data mining application, social network analysis software. To learn more about Equifax Capital Markets, visit Capital Markets.

Hi there all,
I am employed with a very busy 24/7/365 inbound CC with call agents working a rotating roster. Over the last 7-8 months management have implemented a brand spanking new rostering system getting rid of the existing 6 days on 4 days off 10 hours shifts and placing staff onto 8 hours shifts with shifts with 1 or days off a week. Management have stated that it is only trial basis and would review the adverse effects of it. But there has been a number of problems and staffing matters that have come to light due to the roster t management are not able to see it from staff's perspective. Staff have been given the option to preference the shifts that they would like to work yet 15% of staff are getting what they want and the others never get what they want. We as staff have really had the raw end of the stick, countless amounts of time where there is 2 staff working a busy Saturday night, staff not having enough days off and then in turn getting extremely run down, not enough time to spend with the family, therefore relationships at home suffering. With the current trial roster there has been no flexibility, i have never worked in a call centre or any other job where it has been so hard to either request a day off or do a shift swap with another staff member.There has been a number of staff leaving and the turnover is greater than Ben Hur. I really want to hear from someone or anyone that has experienced this and been able to implement something to make it a little easier to either retain experienced staff member or even a better roster to create a more staff- friendly environment?????
Please any feedback is welcome!!!!
Jane

In an effort understand and improve FCR, I'm looking to collect some baseline data.

What is your internal transfer rate (calls answered by one CSR transferred to another)?
What is the greatest challenge for transfers (Systems, Operations, Skill etc.)?
Do you have a CTI application?
What CRM do you use (inhouse or canned)?

Thanks

Hello,

Am wanting to computed average waiting time using mean and standard deviation for a) service time and b) interarrival rate to a call center. Not sure about the best way to calculate given this kind of information from a typical day:

Call Type Frequency CSR Time Spent (sec)
1 65% 85
2 15% 45
3 10% 30
4 5% 90
5 5% 60


Time Mean # Calls # Delayed Mean Delay (sec) # Abandoned
6:30 am 25 4 12 2
7:00 am 29 5 20 4
7:30 am 40 15 25 8
8:00 am 54 14 10 12