The Emergence of Back-Office Workforce Optimization Suites

After spending the last 15-plus years trying to fully automate all back-office functions, managers are finally coming to the realization that they won the battle but lost the war. Despite succeeding with often costly and lengthy automation initiatives, the number of back-office workers required to support their business has not been reduced, and in some cases has grown. Since it was believed that automation would eliminate the need for workers, these initiatives did little to nothing to optimize performance. The cost, complexity and opportunities in the back office have captured the attention of senior executives. Back offices in the public and private sectors are now under increasing pressure to reduce operating costs while improving quality and the customer journey. And the long-lasting worldwide economic slowdown has turned the back-office issue into a top priority.

During the past 2 years, back-office workforce optimization (WFO) suites have emerged. These suites combine and integrate the capabilities from a variety of best- of-breed solutions, production operations management concepts and best practices from similar contact center solutions. These WFO suites have the potential to vastly improve the effectiveness and performance of back-office operating groups. The return on investment for the small number of early adopters who have embraced the back-office WFO suites and best practices has been 9 to 18 months. Read this white paper to learn what these new and emerging back-office WFO suites can do for your organization.