Business Intelligence Lowdown: Analytics and Performance Management

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February 22, 2006

Analytics and Performance Management

It is difficult to draw the line that differentiates analytics from performance management in a call center. Analytics tools are usually integrated within performance management software, hence the confusion between the two. Analytics refers to the use of information from various sources to generate quantitative and comparative reports of past and ongoing call records. Performance management applies quality measures on analytics to derive quantitative information from them.

A report listing the number of calls, the people who attended those calls, the duration of the calls, and the customers who called, can be generated from the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD). Analytics can add an extra dimension to the report by combining it with sales figures and drawing parallels between the amount of time spent on calls that translates directly into increased sales. With performance management, call recordings can be analyzed and judged to gauge customers' responses and agents' performance. This information can then be used to regulate how calls are routed handled, and how service personnel are scheduled.

Reporting, analytics and performance management can thus be visualized as three layers of the same application __ that of improving performance and reducing costs in a call center. If reporting has a single dimension to it, analytics is two-dimensional, while performance management is three-dimensional.

Another way of perceiving the difference between analytics and performance management is by looking at the user of the information generated from each application, says David Middleton of AIM Technology. Analytics generally provide the top management of the company with an overall picture of what is going on in the call center. Performance management on the other hand, is used to enhance the functioning style of agents who handle calls.

Though performance management does help in giving answers when analytics cannot, most vendors do not differentiate between the two. They are both types of business intelligence software that are being increasingly used to add value and quality to the call center, and integrate its operations with that of the enterprise.

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February 22, 2006 in CRM | Permalink