Optimising the workforce is about being open to the power of cloud technology, says Stephen Ball, Senior VP of Europe & Africa at Aspect
Embracing flexibility and cloud-based solutions is essential to making employees as efficient as possible.
As organisations face an increasingly urgent need to make their workforces more productive, technology is often touted as a powerful enabler of greater efficiency and improved employee morale.
While this is certainly true, this can only be effectively achieved if workers have access to tools that are optimised to the specific needs of the business and the people within it, and if these tools embrace the flexibility that modern business demands. This is according to Aspect Software.
The UK business landscape is made up of a myriad of diverse organisations, each with their own specific challenges to meet.
For Stephen Ball, Senior VP of Europe & Africa at Aspect, this means that there will never be a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to optimising the impact of the workforce through technology. Instead, this technology needs to reflect the agile nature of modern business, and be adaptable to the unique pressures that each sector faces.
Ball said: “It’s safe to say that we no longer live in the simpler, more rigid working world of old. Technology has come along to automate and streamline cumbersome processes and tasks, customers are more demanding than ever before, and the increasingly mobile nature of our world means that organisations frequently need to cater to the needs of remote workers.
With all of this in mind, workforce optimisation technology that is inflexible to this range of needs and requirements is likely to do more harm than good, and will have a detrimental impact on staff morale as a result.
“Workforce management solutions, therefore, need to incorporate a number of features that leverage the latest technologies, such as applications that can keep tabs on employee schedules wherever they are, or analytics capabilities that enable workers to quickly see how they can better serve the needs of their customers.”
For Ball, making the most of cloud technology is instrumental to the creation of a high-performing workforce optimisation system. By moving away from on-premise solutions, businesses can rapidly achieve that much-needed flexibility.
Ball added: “Keeping infrastructure and applications in-house undoubtedly still holds appeal for some organisations, and it often makes sense to keep certain elements of a company’s IT estate – such as sensitive customer data – a little closer to home.
However, adopting cloud-based workforce optimisation technology can be hugely beneficial in increasing the agility and efficiency of this crucial area of the business. Operating this from the cloud brings flexibility by enabling the software to be accessed anywhere and on both desktop and mobile devices. Updates to the software can also be applied as and when they are made available, meaning staff can quickly access new features that will further boost their productivity.”
He concluded: “Key to the success of any business is its people, especially when it comes to building and maintaining strong relationships with customers. For employees to be able to do this, they need to have the technology at their disposal to do their jobs in a way that is unhindered by time-consuming admin work or outdated processes. Cloud has the power to play a defining role in this area.”
Additional Information
Aspect helps enterprises break down the walls between people, processes, systems and data sources, empowering organisations to unite around the customer journey. Our customer engagement platform offers native interaction management, workforce optimisation and self-service capabilities that drive dynamic, conversational interactions and create a truly frictionless omni-channel customer experience. Leveraging all the benefits of the cloud and over 40 years of industry ingenuity, Aspect conveniently and easily connects questions to answers while helping enterprises keep service levels high and operational costs contained.
For more information on Aspect Software visit their Website or view their Company Profile
