Contact Center Analysis
Interaction Recording
Definition
Interaction recording systems are large scale software-only or occasionally integrated software and hardware devices that are used to capture, retrieve, analyze, and report voice and data interactions. The primary application is in commercial contact centers, but they may also be used in a 9-1-1 emergency call centers, investment trading floors, air traffic control centers, and other environments.
Purposes
These systems have four primary purposes:
- When paired with quality management software, to help evaluate the quality of interactions between call takers and callers.
- To monitor compliance with laws, regulations, and industry standards.
- To help protect organizations from unwarranted claims based on telephone communications.
- With the addition of advanced speech and data analytics tools, enterprise management can identify and quantify patterns within large volumes of stored communications.
Market Size and Growth
The global contact center market size amounted to 339.4 billion US dollars in 2020. This industry is expected to grow steadily in the next years and reach a value of 496 billion U.S. dollars by 2027.
Industry Leaders
Key Vendor Trends
- Capture and analysis of non-voice communications
- Continued move to WFO suite solutions
- Adoption of cloud architecture
- Support for remote workers
- Enhanced with speech and data analytics
- Compliance with multiple state, US, and international laws and standard
Workforce Management Systems
Definition
Workforce management software is used by call centers and other functional groups within the enterprise to calculate staffing levels required to achieve specified service levels and to forecast future staffing requirements. These systems use historical data, statistical modeling, and simulation to project agent requirements at specified times and days and provide reports that track performance against goals. The software is designed to produce the best fit between service level requirements, labor cost, and agent preferences.
Purposes
- Reduce agent labor costs by more accurately aligning agent staffing with call traffic.
- Help assure that service levels are maintained within accepted parameters at all times.
- Help improve agent retention by providing schedules that equitably balance labor costs, service requirements, and agent preferences.
- Provide a mechanism for advance testing of the likely impacts of proposed schedule and staffing changes on costs and service level.
Market Size and Growth
Global sales at vendor level were $605 million in 2019. Demand is projected to grow at 6% – 7% annually.
Industry Leaders
Contact center workforce management system market is also highly concentrated. The three leaders in order are Verint systems NICE-IEX, and Aspect. Each has between 20% and 30% market share and collectively accounted for 77% of global sales in 2019. Other significant players include Calabrio, Genesys, InVision, and Pipkins.
Key Vendor Trends
- Agent personalization
- Adoption of on-demand delivery model
- Artificial intelligence to boost scheduling and forecasting accuracy.
- Multi-channel scheduling and forecasting
- Expansion into back-office opportunities
- Incorporation of mobile technology
Workforce Optimization
Definition
Workforce optimization or “WFO” refers to a suite of integrated contact center solutions, provided by a single vendor, that collectively address the core performance functions of the contact center. Originally these functions encompassed compliance recording, quality monitoring/evaluation, screen recording, workforce management, performance management, and e-learning. The list has since been expanded to include automated coaching tools, speech and data analytics, and voice of the customer feedback surveys. Proponents of the WFO model cite advantages like shorter learning curves, easier administration, reduced internal support cost, and single point of contact accountability. Vendors that specialize in one or two specific applications are considered best-of-breed. These vendors maintain that their singular focus helps assure customers will always have products with the greatest functionality and superior quality.
The terms “Customer Engagement Suite,” “Customer Experience Suite,” Workforce Engagement Management,” are also used to refer what has traditionally been known as workforce optimization. These newer terms may include applications such as robotic process optimization, virtual attendants, omnichannel call routing, and voice authentication and others depending on the vendor.
Vendor Adoption of The WFO Model
In 2005 Witness Systems launched Impact 360°, the first fully integrated WFO suite. Since that time, the following vendors have introduced WFO suites
- Aspect
- dvsAnalytics
- NICE Systems
- Verint Systems
- Calabrio
- Enghouse Systems
- OnviSource
- ZOOM International
- CXM Record
- Envision Telephony
- OpenText WFO
Points of Differentiation
- Breath of functionality
- Level of integration
- Ease-of-use and administration
- Architecture
- Scalability
In the most advanced manifestations of the WFO model information is collected from multiple contact center and enterprise data bases and the data is shared in real-time among all applications. The applications work in harmony with each other and are accessible from a common source customer interface.
Market Size and Growth
Pelorus Associates estimates that global vendor level sales of WFO applications were approximately $1.7 billion in 2017 and total demand is growing in the high single digits. The fastest-growing applications are speech/data analytics and voice of the customer feedback tools.
Industry Leaders
Pelorus Associates estimates that both Verint and NICE have approximately 40% of the total WFO market. Aspect would be in third place.