Improving Back Offices with Performance Management and Desktop Analytics

Back-office operating departments have caught the attention of senior executives because they are highly people-intensive and increasingly expensive to maintain. Despite years of promises and millions of dollars spent on business process management (BPM) initiatives, back offices have not fully automated their activities, nor have they eliminated much of their costly staff. Instead, these departments have become increasingly complex, and more employees have been assigned to do the work. It’s time for change, and it’s being facilitated by back-office workforce optimization technology. Like their contact center counterparts, back offices need automated tools to track their work and optimize the performance of their employees.

A fundamental rule of business is that “you cannot manage what cannot measure.” It’s surprising how often organizations overlook this basic tenet in their back offices, particularly when there are solutions custom-built to assist in measuring and managing departmental performance. As we look back at the maturation of back offices over the past 30 years, it’s clear that this management challenge is pervasive throughout enterprises, the public sector, and institutions of higher education. This white paper reviews emerging solutions and best practices that can help managers meet their service level commitments and enhance the quality of their output, while reducing operating expenses and improving the customer experience. Senior executives are finally realizing that their back office can be a strategic differentiator for their business, given the right amount of attention and investment.