For decades, workforce management (WFM) has been the backbone of contact center operations.
Scheduling, forecasting, and ensuring compliance were integral to ensuring organizations ran efficiently.
But in today’s fast-changing environment – with fluctuating demand, hybrid working models, and rising customer expectations – the old approaches are starting to creak.
“The business problem is still the same — organizations need enough people to respond to customers when they reach out,” said Magnus Geverts, VP of Product Marketing at Calabrio.
“But the types and volume of interactions are now too complex for traditional tools to manage.”
From Management to Intelligence
Calabrio believes the best way to address these new challenges is by moving beyond workforce management toward Workforce Intelligence.
I can guess what you might be thinking. Is this just another example of a brand repackaging the same solution with a fancy new name and nothing else?
But this isn’t the case with Calabrio.
Calabrio Workforce Intelligence moves beyond simply allocating shifts and monitoring adherence by using AI-driven insights to anticipate challenges and recommend, or even automate, responses.
“We have embedded AI at the core of workforce management,” explained Geverts.
“The result is an application that is more of a living, breathing system that makes autonomous decisions and learns as you go along.”
This shift represents a move from reactive management to proactive optimization.
By monitoring signals like interaction volumes, absenteeism, and forecast changes, Calabrio Workforce Intelligence can help organizations intervene before service levels are at risk.
The Enterprise Opportunity
For enterprises, the opportunity is considerable. Smarter workforce insights mean lower attrition, optimized costs, and better employee engagement.
They also allow leaders to focus on higher-value activities like coaching and strategy, rather than firefighting daily scheduling issues.
Another advantage that Geverts outlined is the automation tools and packaging of workforce management knowledge within the application itself, which can support junior resource planners and help transform them into experts.
Interestingly, Calabrio’s VP of Product Marketing reveals that industries with tight margins are showing the strongest interest in the new solution, including the outsourcing space.
In detailing why he believes this to be the case, Geverts explains that these companies “really need to optimize all the time, and workforce intelligence is compelling to them; it allows them to do things they simply cannot do today.”
Spotlight: Calabrio Workforce Intelligence
But how exactly will Calabrio’s newest tool deliver on all of this promise?
In a nutshell, Calabrio Workforce Intelligence offers the following key capabilities:
- Predictive forecasting to anticipate demand.
- Trend analysis to understand long-term patterns.
- Intraday optimization to adjust schedules in real time.
Rather than bolting AI onto legacy systems, the company has rebuilt its approach from the ground up.
“With this new tooling, we can rethink everything: forecasting, scheduling, intraday management, and agent empowerment,” said Geverts.
He described the leap as moving “from a calculator to a brain transplant.
“It can collect so many different signals, crunch them together, and come up with ways of doing it much, much faster than a human can.”
Looking Ahead
As CX operations grow more complex, enterprises cannot afford to remain reactive.
Workforce Intelligence enables leaders to outpace change, rather than constantly chasing it.
“The main goal here is to help our customers stay ahead of an ever-evolving market,” said Geverts.
“The speed of change is so quick in contact centers now. We want to help them move ahead and be proactive.”
Calabrio views the shift from WFM to Workforce Intelligence as more than a technology upgrade; the company views it as a sea change in how enterprises think about operations – turning the contact center from a cost center into a strategic value driver.
For CX leaders, embracing intelligence will be critical to staying ahead in the AI era.
You can find out more about Calabrio’s wider customer service approach by checking out articles here and here.
You can also learn all about Calabrio’s full suite of services and solutions by visiting the website.
