arvato’s Muenster site opened in the year 2000. Its core business is handling customer service and technical support calls on behalf of various companies; in addition, it accepts sales orders and manages campaigns. Over 500 agents answer customer queries during arvato’s business hours, which include weekends and late evenings. At peak times, all 350 desks in the center are occupied. arvato Muenster is a multilingual operation: agents deal with customers in 18 languages. On average, approximately 10,000 inbound calls are answered each day and call handling accounts for about 95% of agents’ work. The remaining time is devoted to outbound calls and handling e-mails and faxes. The average handling time (AHT) for inbound calls is about 8 minutes. Since the fall of 2006, agents in the telecommunications and IT business unit have been focused mainly on technical support for a specific entertainment system. This is a seasonal business with peaks during the Christmas period and when new games are released. Scheduling of agents needs to take this seasonality into account.

For many years, the workforce, 30% of which is part-time and 70% full-time staff, was scheduled using a spreadsheet tool which was developed in-house. However, the planners on the Muenster site are now responsible for scheduling not only their own staff but also those at arvato sites in Tallinn (Estonia), Gurgaon (India), Casablanca (Morocco), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Malmö (Sweden), and Venlo (Netherlands). The fast growth of arvato sites and the increasing complexity meant that the spreadsheet tool increasingly failed to support the business and also consumed an unacceptable amount of planning time.

Hence, arvato services required a tool which is capable of handling the long business hours, the volatile volume of inbound calls, and the challenge of scheduling agents according to their various language skills. The coordination of the in-house carpooling agency and observing the legal requirements in each of countries where arvato is active added to the complexity.

Having proven its functionality and reliability at the Wilhelmshaven and Guetersloh sites, InVision Enterprise WFM (iWFM) naturally gained top ranking in the shortlist of possible solutions for Muenster. During arvato´s analysis of available workforce management systems when these two sites had to pick a solution, iWFM had excelled by its comprehensive functionality. Despite its complexity and broad range of scheduling functions, the software provides a convenient user interface and intuitive operating processes. Moreover, company-specific scripts can easily be integrated and the solution’s own Software Development Kit gives arvato the control to respond to specific requirements at will. The solution’s quality is matched by the quality of InVision’s Professional Services: project management, consulting, and technical support.

Within two months, iWFM was implemented at the Muenster site, including training of planners and supervisors. A crucial aspect of the implementation was to ensure that iWFM generates shifts which comply with the works council agreement regarding working hours and shift conditions in Muenster.

Having successfully implemented InVision Enterprise WFM, arvato services is now planning to take advantage of it for more projects handled at the Muenster site apart from technical support for the entertainment system. Furthermore, scheduling-related analysis and monitoring is to play a more important part. The software automatically records deviations from the schedule in real time. This enables the Muenster site to guarantee efficient staff deployment at all times.