BSkyB signs contract with Sabio for Workforce Management (WFM) solution

Open Wave WFM to help BSkyB optimise staffing at its contact centres

Glasgow – 15 September 2003 – Sabio, the innovative contact centre services company, has signed a three year contract to provide BSkyB - the UK’s leading digital TV provider - with a flexible Workforce Management (WFM) solution for its customer contact centres at Livingston and Dunfermline, Scotland. BSkyB has over 6.8 million subscribers and its 6,000 contact centre staff handle up to one million customer calls per week. Under the new contract, BSkyB will use Open Wave WFM software from Sabio to forecast agent resource requirements and schedule BSkyB contact centre staff to ensure customer service levels are met efficiently.

In addition to the Open Wave software, Sabio will also provide BSkyB with consultancy and ongoing support services to optimise the performance of the WFM solution. Using Open Wave, BSkyB will be able to schedule contact centre staff to cater for periods of peak customer demand - such as one-off ‘Pay-Per-View’ sporting events. Sabio will work closely with BSkyB, starting with the initial implementation and the development of a best practice model, to integrate the solution with other key areas of the business.

“The number of agents needed to fulfil demand varies greatly in our business - not just on a seasonal basis, but by the half hour,” commented Tony Ackroyd, Contact Centre Director at BSkyB.

“One of the main reasons we selected Sabio was the company’s clear commitment to delivering its WFM solution against an agreed set of targets,” added Tony. “Sabio will also help BSkyB to evolve our WFM function from being purely administrative to a process that delivers a connected solution for the rest of the business.”

Adam Faulkner, director, Sabio added: “BSkyB’s contact centre experiences substantial call peaks and troughs - for example, a football match may be scheduled on a ‘Pay-Per-View’ basis. Now, with Open Wave WFM, BSkyB can accurately predict just how big such a demand could be, and translate this into appropriate staffing levels. Thanks to Open Wave’s powerful real-time capability, they are able to fine-tune the operations, re-optimising resources on an ongoing basis to best meet the call demands for each individual day. We’re confident that the Sabio/Open Wave solution can deliver the performance BSkyB needs to meet and exceed its demanding performance targets.”
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About BSkyB
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) is changing the face of entertainment. More than 16 million viewers in 6.8 million households in Britain and Ireland enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels and interactive services on Sky digital, the UK’s first broadband digital television platform. For more information, visit www.sky.com/corporate