Workstation Sharing

[JPalkowski]

I'm looking for some advice from some of the larger call centers that routinely use "desk sharing." We are a 24/7 shop, and we are running out of available workstations. What we are looking to do is have certain desks shared by agents who work on different shifts or days.

Other than the obvious concerns about how to manage everyone's personal space, we are looking for an automated way to help us coordinate available workstations with our TCS schedule. Is anyone aware of, or are you using any software to assist with this task???

Thanks!

[Alexrv]

Jeff,
I use an incredible software that imports my TCS workfiles automatically and creates my floor plan (It also can import cvs files). It also creates my Supervisor schedules to ensure that my agents have access to their Supervisors when they need to. The software is easy to use and is a lifesaver. I combined 4 call centers into one 450 seat call center in one afternoon.
Send me some contact information and I will have a representative from the company contact you with info.

Alex Reilly-Vinicombe
avinicom@optonline.com

[mobile]

Hi Jeff,

We are running the same scenario here. we are encouraging desk sharing to be more practical and cost effective at the same time. Agents are requested to practice a paperless environment so they dont end up scattering alot of paper materials within their cubicle. As a policy, no one is allowed to post any document or display irrelevant items in their post so as not to discomfort the next occupant. By the time they sit at their post they only have their basic kit with them (manuals,pens, notebooks, mugs) as everyhting they would need are shared in the intranet and crm ...

hope this will help.
Mobile

[Alexrv]

Mobile,
How many seats is your call center? How do you figure out where a person sits? Does your process take into consideration where the Supervisor is sitting?
I only ask cause I use to do seating manually but with the software I can tell the agent day by day where they can sit, even for overtime! I find this makes the agent more comfortable with the idea of shared seating (we call it hot seating).

Alex
avinicom@optonline.com

[mobile]

Hi Alexrv

How many seats is your call center? - We have 110 workstation, 80% occupied.

How do you figure out where a person sits? - the area closes to the Team or Client she/he servicing


Does your process take into consideration where the Supervisor is sitting? - Yes

And we don't have a software as reliable as what you have... eveything is done manually.

[Earl]

Hello Mobile,

I am using a software called Call Center Floor Manager. This software is produced by Call Center Performance Management. I had the same problem as all of you have and once I found this software it blew my mind to know that for years I was searching for this tool. It is simple to use.

1. I export all of my employee schedules from my work Force Management tool which is TCS.

2. I import them into Call Center floor manager

3. I create my floor plan using the tool which includes supervisor, managers and agent's desk on the grid supplied by the software.

4. Once I have done the above, I hit a button and it produces a seating analysis that tells me based on my schedules how many desk I need to seat everyone permanently or hot seating them.

5. The software also builds optimal supervisor schedules to ensure my team gets the proper "face time" with their sups

5. Once I have done this, the software automatically assigns seats to the agents in close proximity to it's supervisor.


In the past this would take me days and sometimes weeks to do a floor plan. Now it takes me an hour tops. I have over 500 seats with 750 employees and it has be incredible! My boss was thinking about outsourcing calls until we could build out. These guys at CPM had found that we didn't need to build out but that we were not maximizing our seating. We were able to utilize our space more effectively by using the tool. At roughly $10,000.00 dollars a pop for cubicle, computer and etc. we were able to save a substantial amount of money by purchasing this tool. We were thinking about building another building with 200 addtional seats and found that we didn't have to.

I found this software when I was talking to a friend. He gave me this website...WWW.CallCPM.COM. Once I got in touch with them, they requested some files from my database and came out with it in a demo and blew our minds. Go to there website and give them a call. The guy that contacted me was Thomas Williams and his number is 770-974-1820. He's in Atlanta. Good luck!