National Express targets ROI within a year with workforce management solution from Sabio

Open Wave Workforce Management solution reduces agent costs for contact centre by matching agent schedules with customer demand

London - 28 January 2003 – National Express, the UK’s largest scheduled coach operator, has gone live with a workforce management (WFM) solution from Sabio, the innovative contact centre specialist. The solution will enable National Express to forecast agent number requirements and schedule staff to ensure customer demand is accurately met. National Express expects the solution to pay for itself within a year through agent optimisation and improved customer satisfaction.

Sabio has the European rights to implement the Open Wave Workforce Management solution. Sabio integrated the Open Wave suite with National Express's existing Nortel Symposium phone system at its contact centre in Birmingham and also provides in-house training and on-going support. The implementation enables National Express to strategically manage agents to increase company efficiency.

Andy Lawrence, Technology and Infrastructure Manager, National Express said: “We used to use Excel spreadsheets to manage our agent schedules, but this was time-consuming, prone to error and could not reflect predicted demand. The WFM solution provided by Sabio is the most suitable on the market for our needs.

“There are two major benefits to National Express. We will cut down on the inefficiencies of agent surplus to increase profit margins and through accurate demand predictions, we will increase customer satisfaction by ensuring that they aren’t left in the unforgivable waiting queue!” Andy Lawrence continued.

Adam Faulkner, Director, Sabio added: “The Open Wave solution will help drive efficiency by minimising overstaffing and understaffing by using one system to strategically manage agents' time instead of several disparate spreadsheet systems for sickness, annual leave and agent social requirements.

“Agent management is becoming more and more complex, with the requirement to balance agent needs against business requirements. Open Wave's built-in analytical tools let the organisation predict peak periods of customer demand and ensure the right number of correctly-skilled agents are available. The customer gets to speak to an agent with the necessary skills and knowledge to deal with the enquiry immediately, rather than having to queue or be redirected. At the same time, the company can meet service levels without blowing its budget, and can increase job satisfaction on the part of the agents," concluded Adam Faulkner.

About National Express Limited
National Express Coaches carries 22 million passengers per annum throughout Britain to airports and around Europe and Ireland. Visiting over 1,200 destinations daily it is the UK’s largest scheduled coach operator.