Aspect Workforce Management Reviews

We have had some difficulties with communication with aspect, 18 months into our contract. We often need help or some guidance to support our business needs. It’s sometimes difficult to be a happy customer when aspect can be quite rigid with the support. Regardless of this the product itself is good and Aspect seem on board with feedback and generally seem to do what they can to highlight difficult areas.

I have touched on it in my previous answer but the support structure is very rigid.

We are now able to reliably track the time we need to spend on a number of activities we do. We are also able to manage our agents better with WFM and how they are using their time. It’s provided some great insights and ignited some good conversations

Aspect Workforce Management is a very robust system with a whole host of features to better help manage our workforce. The core software provides a number of reporting options as well as functions to help creatively solve staffing challenges. Aspect also provides services (such as APIs and web-services) that allow us to integrate our own tools into the system for a seamless advisor experience.

The software does have a steep learning curve simply because there is so much built into it. I've been working with it for over 10 years and still find new features I didn't know existed.

We suggest working closely with Aspect during implementation and being honest and upfront about your needs. As mentioned, the tool offers a lot in functionality and reconfiguring the tool to fit changing business needs can be an issue. Also take advantage of the Aspect community forums. Aspect itself will teach you the basics but the community users are very helpful with best practices which really lets you get the most out of the tool.

We use Aspect Workforce Management to staff our call centers. We have over 16,000 employees and Aspect is the only product we have found that can handle this scale.

Fairly simple and user friendly program, as long as you are making basic changes and updates.

Drag segment options and useful Search functions

-Slow. Running off local PC connected to server half way across the States, creates so much lag and response when doing simple tasks or running reports. I can connect (with limited user connections) to a remote server and run the same reports about 4 times faster than on my local PC.

-Nearly impossible to remove forecast groups unless you can properly follow the insane amount of steps in the correct order for each group.

-Limited on proper data reports that can be pulled from the system.

Needs better live views for ACTUAL data

Forecasting for staffing in call centers. If all data can be programmed correctly, there is a very simplified way to pull suggested staffing goals without too much effort. The lead up to said end goal however can be extremely time consuming.

Sometimes we have tools at our disposal, but we might not know the best ways to use it. Aspect gives the support for users to solve doubts and courses to learn how to make the best out of each tool.

Then we are able to learn what we need for each role in the Corporation, finding faster ways to generate schedules and forecasts for planning purposes.

On some days the traffic is high on the servers, and since Aspect uses a virtual environment to host the tools, we have issues with connection now and then, but only for a short while. On these days, tools run slightly slower than usual, but we are able to work with it without bigger problems.

If you use other softwares, compare all the tools you can have on each to see if it is Worth the investment.

Headcount planning for the business. We deal with Technical Support through chat and phone, so we need fast planning to work with demands and hiring if needed. We had benefits with Aspect because it got easier to work with historical data and to compile everything.

The software generate the Schedule set studies withing customizable patterns and even break and lunch schedules, which is great. It makes the best out of staff potential.

The AutoRun features which auto update NCO and AHT, application delivers exceptional schedules with varied labor resources.

Configuration! Although I hold 30 years in the WFM field, I was new to Aspect WFO. Learning the "terminology" specific to Aspect and the relationship between modules started as a difficult period for me. The support team and the learning curriculum's understood I was fresh and provided the knowledge necessary to get the app up and running, while explaining the processes and linking terminology. All said and done, my worries were not warranted.

Attend the configuration classes to learn how the app functions, it will be critical for taloring WFO to suit your business needs!

Currently our organization is deploying the basic inbound scheduling and the agent desktop for viewing. Once this becomes a normal routine for agents, the time off (Calendar) and shift trades will launch. Making the agents responsible for their success has made them understand they do control there time to meet KPI's.

I really love the layout of Aspect on my desktop, my dashboard has the important information I need but it's still super easy to make any changes. I love the staffing information that shows how many agents will be at the center, and my personal account shows my PTO, and accrued PTO on any given day in the future so it's super easy for me to plan ahead for vacations.

I don't love the layout/design on the app? It just looks a little outdated but it still is handy for when I need to make changes when I'm out of the office. It doesn't keep me logged in for as long as I would like (it usually logs me out after a few days) but I don't use it too often on my phone so it's not a large problem.

It's great to use and very useful. The insights provided really streamline your office/workplace and make you and your team more productive and efficient.

AWM is really useful for coordinating schedule changes with my team at work, and to coordinate meetings around breaks and lunches since we all have different shifts. If someone is scheduled to be out of office we don't even need to verify with them in person we can just check their Aspect to see if it's official on there. Also we can schedule breaks and lunches in line with business needs, so if it's supposed to be really busy around 6:30 PM we know not to put our breaks around that time since the center needs the staffing.

My favorite component of the Aspect suite is the workforce planning. I consider it the benchmark for all other workforce planning. The forecasting tools, scheduling tools, and intraday management are far superior to any other company

The least component and where Aspect has struggled is maintaining an integral system for production/performance reporting. While the latest WFO piece has a lot of updated components and the UI has been changed greatly, the actual architecture behind the scenes leaves a lot to be desired. Putting a pretty face on something doesn't fix the issues behind what actually makes it work.

Make sure there is a constant communication flow from Aspect. They can be slack in this department.

Aspect WFM allows us to forecast accurately, schedule effectively while meeting our service level goals. It also allows our agents to self manage their schedules without leadership presence.

The level of detail and ability to configure as required for the organization. Set service level, operational hours, agent performance, historical data, shrinkage view etc is very helpful. It has the ability to have a parent-child relationship between contact types linked to agents that are skilled to handle them. It has routing sets (groups) that is configurable by single skilled or multi-skilled. Forecast and schedule integration and administration is easy. Features like tracking Multi channel performance, shrinkage analysis and setting staffing tolerances is very helpful for large contact centers.

Ability to access data apart from the scheduled reports section. Reporting from the tool is not compatible or up-to-date with the existing enterprise data architecture. Standard APIs not readily available. Agent schedule integration and connectivity to a scheduling software is not standard. UI is outdated and has latency issues despite being a cloud system.

Easy to use, flexible workforce management tool for large and multi-skilled contact centers. Make sure your company's data infrastructure can easily integrate with the system for reporting and data needs.

Problems such as intraday and long term staffing requirement.

It will easy to use even for people are aren't really computer friendly. I like that it lets me see my schedule an week and advance so that I know when my breaks and lunches are. I like that I could figure out how to use it by just viewing it and going over it. It don't take some long guide that i had to read to learn how to use it

There is nothing I dislike I feel like it a simple system

its really simple to use and try not to get frustrated while using it just take it a day at a time

Aspect helps me to know what my schedule is and breaks. It also helps me to put in segments when im unable to login on time

Enjoy the ability to manipulate stats as it pertains to the call center. Next day stats are important. Intraday enjoys real time stats. It's the primary way the callcenter checks on who is where they should be. Shift bids works flawlessly. There are many ways for a client to configure their operation.

We don't have a live data-feed for all of our clients that we serve, but that is more to the point of the clients we support. We are hoping to get one in 2019.

Highly recommend the software. It is a well-rounded suite of tools.

Readily available to have next day reports. Improves decision making, hands-down.

What I like best is that after you get used to the interface and the way all the parts work as a whole, it all makes sense. I really like the way the upgrades look and feel, in line with changing technology.

I dislike that in more complex routing configurations, it's not always easy to know what configuration settings to use and what they will do. The Help menu has always been a challenge for me. It needs more real life examples and sometimes it feels like a big circle.

Our complex routing configuration staffing analysis has helped us to understand future staffing needs to a greater extent.

Quite honestly - I most like the 'Help' functionality. From anywhere and in any tab, or sub menu, you can find specific help to that section or topic or entry. the 'Help' then allows you to drill down to your specific concern, or point of confusion. I found myself not only learning more about the product but more about workforce and call center mechanics as well.

With smaller lines of business, small data, can sometimes generate some questionable data points.

Read the whitepapers - I found them very helpful. If possible ask sales representative if you can reach out to support to see how effective they can be. Talk to others who have used the product. ensure one person from your company attends the Aspect Conferences.

Rank and preference / performance based rank and preference scheduling. Love the flexibility the 'Multi' preference sets can allow.

The improvements that have been implemented over the years with the various versions. As an Administrator I think the system is very well built, easy to explain.

The only place that you can copy a group of agents is inside the Employee Data Center. Once the agents are copied, they can then be pasted in the Inter-Day Time Line, Official Schedule Editor, etc. I would like to see the ability to copy agents from outside the Employee Data Center. Also, I wish there was the ability to build new reports from scratch.

Give your sales person lots of "what if" scenarios so they can wow you with what they can provide.

Forecasting, managing Real Time schedule changes for chat, email, back office, client facing, sales, client support inbound and outbound, and Client Retention for North America, Europe, Panama, and the Philippines.

In a traditional WFM environment, Aspect WFM combines the three main pillars, forecasting, scheduling and real time management into one package.

It lacks intercommunication features, where WFM personnel could have options to counteroffer options for failed time off requests. Additionally, the WFO logon screen needs to be brought back displaying a username and password box in the web page instead of a pop up box, in order to provide better error messaging.

Scheduling and staffing are the prime problems being solved. Once we tied the plan to the day to day life of the agent, integrating time off solutions, scheduling visibility and planning, Aspect provides a robust solution to managing the call center.

I'd have to say the official and trial segment worksheets. I get so much functionality out of both of those tools. The filtering ability is fantastic.

I wish Aspect was able to deal with time changes better for organizations operating in multiple states. I work out of Arizona, but the company is based in Philadelphia, and it's quite a cumbersome process to ensure schedules will behave as expected when it comes time to shift for DST. Reporting could also be better. It's difficult to find metrics that should be readily available, such as base scheduled, or shrinkage stats.

It's always best to figure out the needs of your own organization, but in my opinion, while the price point is a bit higher than other workforce software programs out there, you definitely get your money's worth. Aspect provides the whole package.

Scheduling, forecasting, and reporting. Efficiencies of scale. For example, the sequential shift bid tool is very easy to work with and saves a lot of time, especially when working with multiple lines of business.

Request checking, personal account management and group allowances. The Superstate Analysis has definitely made a difference. Aspect WFO is a good enhancement in terms of look.

Aspect RTA is far to restrictive and would be better designed to provide all selected employees with their schedule activity, actual activity and status of adherence. The need to 'model' our queues, routing and groups rather than configure something closer to our actual ACD configuration is often frustrating.

Revamp Aspect RTA to provide a simpler view. Work on a more resilient forecasting module that can be based on more than historical trends. Allow schedules to be viewed and edited in a resolved view.

Non-productive time management (meetings, coaching, etc.) and the ability to allow everyone to self-serve has been very useful. Fundamentally, it is the ability to use IDP to review net staffing that is the hub of what we do.

I like that I am able to create and manipulate schedules and hold shift bids through aspect. I also like that I am able to control the group allowance balances within aspect and by line of business.

the configuration process seems very tedious, if you don't know what you're doing it's easy to get lost or mess something up. Though I know it's necessary, it does seem like it could be more user friendly

really understand the configuration of everything. once you understand that, it makes everything else much easier.

able to see schedule deficiencies and fill voids, monitor schedule adherence. scheduling long term is easy and efficient.

Aspect WFM is an industry leading WFM Tool that provides a ton of functionality and granularity around scheduling workforce, forecasting, and planning. It's super powerful.

WFM is anything but user friendly. Training new people to it is extremely time consuming, doing simple things can take an unnecessary amount of time, flexibility is not a strong point (doing things differently from what Aspect advises, even if it doesn't fit your business, is a huge pain), and managing users is done in multiple different parts with a level of complexity that borders on the absurd.

Carefully review your needs to ensure you are not spending additional manual effort to incorporate Aspect into your workflow.

Schedule generation is second to none. It's extremely powerful when using optimization for breaks/lunches. WFM is very good at tackling multiple staffgroups with with large agent numbers across multiple sites.

I personally like the encompassing employee engagement and business needs can now be both served within the same platform,

I find the forecasting can be a very tricky element to master. We do our initial forecast outside the system and our interval and daily splits within it.

We've yet to realise the impact of adherence, however, we have already noticed a key swing in shifts that the system is producing that we never knew was a requirement.

The way that the too make our work easier, is great to know that we can make a lot of tasks in a short period of time.

the only thing that I can say I dislike is the fact that the tool closes after a few minutes of no use

Definitely is the best product I've use so far

run scenarios to create projections to the client and give the idea of what we need in regards of the business needed

Speaking to a few colleagues from different businesses it was reassuring to see that others had similar issues to ourselves but on a more inspiring approach some were way ahead and stated how much time they've got back from the system.

Nothing really stood out as an issue. Due to the weather it was unfortunate I was unable to stay for the final seat swap to sit with others to understand how they use it for things like colleague engagement

Take full usage of all the training available as it will just make it more difficult if you don't understand what the tool has to offer.

We started as front office only and now trying to transition to backoffice is harder without the support/training

Currently understanding gaps. However, after yesterday my next goal is to work with the senior managers to empwer colleagues more to start to manage their time effectively.

The reporting section is one of the best, the exporting options and auto-runs are very helpful we automatize the excel reports

Maybe add a section to customize reports easily and save them.

This is one of the best applications you will find on the market, easy to use and user friendly.

The scheduling and forecasting for several clients, we are showing all the necessary information for operations in order to take the best paths to solve the issues

I like that you Aspect shows you the hold times when a representative places a caller on hold.

1.The loading process for calls with video is terrible.2. I don't like that you can only select 10 calls at a time.3. searching for a specific representative call is hard. This process should be simple.

Better way to locate a rep call without having to go through multiple screens to type the agent name.

Being able to view video footage of the representative screen, I'm able to see if the reps are checking alerts and disconnecting on calls.

I like how easy it is to capture the data and record everything our customer agents are doing.

I thought it was initially very difficult to set up the system...I also thought that your training wasn't that good. The training was very long and I felt like in that amount of time it wasn't necessary and the instructor seemed very confused himself sometimes.

in my opinion it would be easier for Aspect Workforce Management and any company using it if Aspect does all the development from start to finish. It saves a lot of time and effort from the IT/development side and in case of any support it is always better for Aspect to do the Support then someone from IT.

Aspect Workforce Management is amazing at what it does and how we're able to look at those customer service agents that provide the best customer experience to our customers.

The Microsoft Office Calendar interface allows associates to see any changes made to their schedule, to include PTO approval, in near real-time. In fairness, this is a function that is in almost every other Workforce Management tool on the market today.

This is far and away the worst forecasting tool I have seen on the market. Unless your call center takes a static amount of calls, this tool is not for you. The lift to get to a forecast is absurd and the only thing they forecast based on is previous year volumes rather than utilizing your client base population.

Compare this to other tools such as IEX TotalView and Genesys WFM before buying. You will find other solutions that are better at working with your business and cheaper on your finances.

PTO selection by the associates and scheduling of items by WFM are the only benefits to this tool. The forecasting is only accurate after jumping through absurd hoops and is inaccurate unless the call volumes are static.

I appreciate the ease in running different reports, as well as the ease in which Aspect talks to Avaya and Kronos. I also really like Empower! Most staff using it are very happy with being able to use a URL to view their schedule. The 'Help' index is really useful, too. I participate in a lot of the ASUGA webinars and they are wonderful.

I would like to see more ease in building some of the rules, without having to have a consultant come in. I would like to be able to use more set up specific to our department without the risk of changing another department's settings. Perhaps that user error, but it often seems complicated.

Really take advantage of the Aspect consultants who come to help train and set up. Ask a lot of questions, consider future scenarios, and keep their email address handy!

We're forecasting more which is leading to better and easier staff, and moving away from manual schedules. Getting users to view their schedules online.

Great reporting functions - you can run a report on anything from superstate hours and holiday balances remaining, to an employee check-in summary, which makes running a register of attendees for real time management much easier.

Thereis nothing about Aspect Workforce Management that I don't like.

Great product, easy to use, many fantastic features, and very customisable to your company's requirements.

Holiday reporting and addition is super fast - it's very easy to run a report that tells you exactly how many hours entitlement a colleague has used or has remaining, and to be able to add additional hours if they are earned.

The integration that you can have between the telecom servers and Aspect's ewfm, makes several functions very easy to work with. As well as the reporting functions. Deep and complete.

I know they are outside reasons, but when there is data loss and the administrators are unable to recover the lost data threads.

It's an application with sufficient depth and enough room to learn.

the implementation of new tools makes it so good. The WFO portal, ewfm and there are a lot of more tools that Aspect has available for this platform that will make appreciate the complete and robust experience.

Attendance and schedule compliance is a difficult subject.

with Aspect WFM application makes everything transparent and better to tackle those areas of oportunity.

Aspect Workforce Management has been around a long time and they have continued to grow and refine this product. You can be confident that it will satisfy all of your workforce management needs. It is very reliable and has minimal down time.

The reports are still very much the same as they have been for years. I would like to see more graphical reporting. This may come out in the new Aspect Via product. You have to wait on reports to be produced and some business process to run. It would be better if you could multi-task.

Hire at least one or two experienced individuals that really know the system to mentor others. It will allow the rest of your team to learn from them and become experienced more quickly.

We use Aspect Workforce Management for managing daily operations. It helps us identify any areas where we need additional staffing or less staffing and allows us to make decisions on how to meet service levels before we experience any patient impact.

Seeing what the future hold and sharing best practice with other users

Nothing !! It was the first time i have attended the user group and would recommend any other users to go along to the next session

Easy to use

Automation is the way forward and we need to look at our current processes to see if we can work more smartly

Agent interface, the ability to schedule and email automated reports, Automated IDP loads

Cumbersome and not intuitive, does not work well for small group forecasting. Difficult to on-board new associates as a lot of training required to use the system.

Do your research and ensure all your needs and wants are covered

trying to manage multiple workgroups across multiple locations and trying to manage staff efficiently. Using Aspect, we are able to cut down the time it takes to produce schedules for multiple workgroups.

The ability to model and vary, with ease the model to ensure we have necessary staff to meet our customer's demands.

sometimes integration with other telephony platforms can be a bit m=hit and miss.

We are working towards recruiting to our FTE thanks to being able to use WFM to accurately see our peaks and troughs. We are also able to monitor adherence to schedule to ensure our staff are sticking to the plan.

Creating budget forecasts and pretty much everything in the forecasts tab.

The ability to memorize and export reports.

No interactive view of a day to day schedule of all employees. I would like an interface wherein you can adjust schedules on sort of a real time thing. This way you can see (on a daily perspective of all employees) where some activities are stacked and move them accordingly.

Try it. it's way better than Avaya Aura.

getting right staffed. it's very efficient.

Aspect WFM does a great job with flexibility. It has a large number of ways to modify and run sample scenarios to allow you to answer a lot of different questions. The automatic approval process for segments is also very well done.

Aspect seems to fail when things get overly complex. Trying to model groups that are not 1:1, with complex multiskills, often results in strange results.

Ensure your phone system is compatible!

We use Aspect for all our forecasting and scheduling. The ability to run different schedule sets for individual weeks is often useful, but can require some creative settings.

Analytic options, are the best feature of this tool, you just need to update information and system will create forecast, staffing what ever you need

As of right now there is nothing I can say I dislike from this tool

I will say this is an amazing tool that will feed your needs in a matter of Real Time analysis, scheduling, planning and forecasting, as well as WFO and APM

1. Real Time optimization,.

2. Save Money by been able to provide schedules to advocates just in front of their desk.

3. Been able to manage their schedule Adherence.

My favorite feature is that employees are ablrle to use the site from home and from their phones.

I dislike the time constraints. Meaning that you can only put in requests 90 days in the future or more than 48 prior.

This is where employees can request time off and overtime hours on their own, so it has great benefits.

Very current solutions. Meets our needs. The Aspect team is always interested in hearing what new features we would recommend.

The training subscription model does not meet our needs. I prefer paying for the training I need, when I need it and for the people on my team who need it.

Leader in Workforce Management solutions!

Effective intra-day management that allow us to respond quickly in real-time. Great service levels that are important to our guests.

The forecasting module is setup to either manually input forecast or auto-generate based on historical

Integration with other systems for non-phone work, must be purchases in a separate add-on for back office work. Only distribution available is an erlang model, need to have more options.

Have the Aspect team spend the time shadow the current workforce planning and staffing process and take the appropriate time to setup correctly in Aspect. Otherwise you'll find a lot of wasted effort re-creating routing sets for forecast groups and skills.

Forecasting and staffing for contact center workload, accuracy of reporting from the system (assuming all setup and configuration is correct)

Aspect is an easy to use utility to submit requests for days off, and at a glance it's easy to see what your schedule will be, and alter it in a moment. You can also see adherence to scheduling guidelines, and view the schedules of those on your team as well, to see overall PTO availability.

This tool doesn't work well outside of internet explorer. Certain aspects of Aspect work within google Chrome but the ability to request days, or use any of the widgets seem to be disabled. Chrome compatibility is a big issue.

Ensure that your company functions on a Windows platform, as this doesn't work too well in many other browsers outside of internet explorer.

It allows us to easily communicate vacation requests within a customer service environment, and to manage our schedule with many different code offerings. Submitting time off is a breeze, and the communication with supervisors is seamless.

The ease in forecasting and scheduling. and PTO bids. The addition of WFO and Aspect Mobile, empowers agents and coaches to view their schedules and KPI's which in turn takes a load off the workforce team.

I dislike that we recently upgraded and we are 6 months away from end of life.

There are several business problems we are solving for with Aspect Workforce Management mainly agent adherence, scheduling bids and and time-off bids. There has been great benefit to being able to adjust hours of operations for what-if scenarios.

The scheduling tool is so easy and quick to use, really helps with my 9 sites with monltly scheules.

The rules are not that easy to use or understand. I have to make manual updates to cover there short falls.

I can controle 9 sites from one tool quick and easy.

The fact that I can pull data and reports. It does the job for me.

At first it was a lot of getting sue to, but with time I began to grow and like it.

The benefits are the ability to filter and see times listed in specific pause codes.

Flexibility of services and skilling to allow for greater fluidity of business practices.

Configuration seems to be a lot of heavy lifting. There are a variety of online resources available for continued learning, and we have had several onsite implementation workshops, but as a business converting to a WFM tool for the first time, I feel like a start to finish training and configuration approach would have been much more beneficial for us.

So many options and lots of flexibility!

We will be converting from a manual forecasting and scheduling process with excel workbooks to a more automated and accurate approach.

The core functionality around capturing and understanding the business through segments and group assignments. There is a large degree of flexibility in being able to configure and shape the application to ensure that all areas are fully represented and understood. WFO interface now a lot better and more appealing to front line employees

There are areas where it doesn't recognise the concept of "teams" well - i.e. in planning and optimising for blocks of teams, so that events/meetings are taken together. Although it is more efficient to schedule at an individual level - in very large contact centres it is viable to schedule in teams instead

Full understanding of shrinkages from gross and driving and improving agent schedule compliance

We can slide our shift. We can sche6 important days off with ease

mobile app malfunctions, sometimes the app loads a litt5 slow

make moving your schedule across months possible

Gives employees flexibility, also allows us to match production needs, scheduke important days off without the paperwork.

Simple to use, menu is very clear, shift trades are very convenient.

Language doesn`t change permnanently. Meaning at first my aspect was set to french, I have to manually change it to english every time i open the tool. should be automatic.

Schedule changes need to be approved even though they might show as done on WFO.

Able to bid for my shifts with ease. Schedules are very clear and you can even request to trade shifts with colleagues directly with the tool, which minimizes the need for management involvement.

The overall flexibility in handling multiple scenarios, various sizes of business/teams, and ability to export data is what makes Aspect stand above others.

Aspect's weaknesses are the overall user friendliness and dated interface.

Ability to create and utilize forecasts and schedules for multiple scenarios. The flexibility of reporting has also allowed data to be automated and streamlined for other processes.

The simplicity of the program. I can quickly access the necessary information quickly to analyze my staffing.

It could be more of a dislike on the part of my company, however available reporting at a user level seems lacking.

Utilizing the filters when searching for large groups is helpful.

Schedule adherence is being solved via Aspect

I like the familiarity of Aspect support team with our business and the information we get on upgrades and enhancements.

Some of our issues take longer to resolve than I would like.

Talk to Aspect to familiarize them with your business and needs. They are knowledgeable and can solve any issues or needs.

Aspect has been our workforce management tool for 13 years. It meets many of the needs of our company and allows to do everything from short range forecasts, to scheduling, to Real Time Adherence monitoring as well as allow leaders and agents to request segments through Empower. We enjoy working with our Aspect team on enhancements and updates to various functionality.