Other modules of Agent Power let you create reports and graphs based on historical statistics from your phone switch, check agents' adherence to their schedules and display call statistics on their PCs. PRM recently introduced a sixth module that lets agents view their schedules from their PCs. Agent Power lets you create forecasts and schedules for up to 35 groups of agents with a maximum of 500 agents per group. Although you can use any phone switch if you only want to use the Scheduling module, you need to use other Agent Power modules with Avaya, Nortel and Siemens switches. You can use Staff Planning SSystem to create forecasts and schedules, view real-time data from your phone switch and generate reports based on that data.
Agents can submit their preferred work times for approval through a Web browser.
You need to purchase the InVision Enterprise Server module to install InVision Staff Planning Solution on a server running Windows NT, Novell, Unix or Linux, and you need the PhoneLink module to collect data from ACDs from vendors that include Aspect, Avaya, Nortel Networks and Siemens. InVision signed an agreement with PGE, a Quebec, Canada-based hardware and software vendor, to distribute Staff Planning Software in the US and Canada in February 2000. Peter Bollenbeck, the CEO of InVision Software, says that allowing agents to request preferred work hours is a popular trend among the company's US and European customers for different reasons. In Europe, strict regulations from unions and labor laws require managers to accommodate agents' scheduling preferences. Although call center managers in the US don't work with the same regulations, they find that allowing agents to participate in the scheduling process helps to improve their morale and to raise the revenue their centers earn.