Noda Workforce Management streamlines load management for GRAN

Noda Workforce Management is Russia’s first fully functional solution that automates labor time management for contact centers. A new module designed for Noda Contact Center, the two are seamlessly integrated for GRAN. Of course, Noda WFM can also stand alone thanks to its universal integrability.

Noda WFM is an all-in-one-tool that delivers uninterrupted labor resource management: from load prediction, planning, and monitoring, to setting up time usage reports. 

Maxim Kalinkin, CEO at GRAN: 

We’ve been anticipating this one for a while. After all, it’s no secret that this industry’s highly competitive environment squeezes profit margins, meaning that we have to utilize every minute of our operators’ time to ensure profitability. Implementing Noda WFM yielded almost instant results: shift planning improved, and we were able to boost operator loads by 8% (without a corresponding jump in salaries) thanks to the way the program accurately predicts work load to move operators into the shifts that need them most. Text reminders keep our staff arriving on time every day and let them quickly adjust their schedule for the following day. About 80% of our operators now utilize the added control the mobile app gives them over their schedules, and the other 20% use the desktop app. Life, in short, is much easier for our managers. 

Load planning plays a pivotal role for GRAN when it comes to meeting their strategic goals. Quickly building a strong plan has a direct effect on client satisfaction, profits, and the company’s operations as a whole. Of course, shift and load planning for 1,700 operators can be tough without specialized tools, and until recently GRAN was forced to employ an entire department for that purpose. The process was bulky, error-ridden, and fraught with delays. 

Implementing Noda WFM let the contact center streamline its resource management process, giving a huge boost to transparency, the promptness with which schedules are planned, and the company’s labor metrics. 

Noda WFM includes four prediction methods: entire week, planned week, trend construction, and value at risk. Predictions are built on quantities, load distribution, external factors, and their impact on service level. When the current load changes, the system makes modifications in real time, making the planning process more flexible. Operator skills, particular shift needs, rotations, individual work rules, processing standards, and current legislation are all taken into account.

Because the planned shift schedule is displayed in the system’s personal accounts, each operator enjoys the ability to trade shifts and otherwise modify their schedule on their own without involving a supervisor. That has let GRAN free up the 15% of their work time they spent pre-Noda WFM on routine scheduling issues. Now changes made to the planned schedule are announced by text notification, something made possible by integrating the new module and the telephony system, keeping everyone in the loop and also offering an easy way to monitor the larger picture. There is also an online monitoring panel that can be set up without programmer assistance.

Even more conveniently, the included mobile app lets operators request schedule changes from their smartphones. All requests are sent directly to the manager in charge of scheduling, and approved changes are automatically introduced into the table. Sometimes GRAN needs to quickly bring in additional operators to boost SL, and managers can use Noda WFM to create additional shifts that are automatically announced to all affected employees by text. Operators use the mobile app to accept or decline requests to come in for additional shifts. 

One important aspect of the system is a powerful toolkit used to set up work time usage reports. It offers up-to-the-minute access to productivity data and work time for each operator, and each report is updated over the internet.

Andrey Zaitsev, CEO at NODA:

Until now the Russian market for WFM systems has been wholly occupied by foreign developers offering well-developed functionality that is expensive to operate. That created a gap for a strong domestic alternative to step into, an event that is both significant and unsurprising. While our module is fully integrated with Noda Contact Center, it can also stand alone thanks to the links we built in for use with the most popular foreign contact center solutions. That has widened its potential audience considerably.

GRAN is one of NODA’s oldest clients, as it has used the Russian vendor’s platform since its founding. Beginning in in 2006 with 20 operators, it has gradually expanded: today it boasts five facilities, 1,700 operators, and more than 200,000 daily voice calls. Their phone sales projects put them among the country’s top three outsourcers, and they are tenth in number of services offered (RBK.research). Happy with the results they have achieved with Noda Contact Center, GRAN was the first contact center to implement our newest development: Noda Workforce Management.