Calabrio Helps Susquehanna Bancshares Elevate Customer Service and Efficiency

    MONTREAL, May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Calabrio, Inc, a leading provider of
 contact center workforce management (WFM) solutions, today announced a new
 deployment with Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq:   SUSQ), a leading
 financial services holding company in the mid-Atlantic region. With
 Calabrio, Susquehanna had immediate visibility into its customer contact
 center operations, enabling it to enhance customer service and lower
 expenses with a more intelligent use of the bank's people -- its most
 valuable resource.
     Susquehanna Bancshares includes three affiliate banks with 167
 branches, as well as other affiliates that provide trust and investment,
 asset management, insurance brokerage, commercial leasing, and vehicle
 leasing services. Due to its growth, Susquehanna was outgrowing its manual
 process of using spreadsheets for forecasting and scheduling. It needed a
 more efficient and accurate system to quickly determine the optimal
 deployment of its agents, given ever-changing call volumes and shift
 preferences, since that affects the financial bottom-line as well as the
 customer experience.
     After carefully evaluating a range of workforce management solutions,
 Susquehanna recently implemented Calabrio's forecasting, scheduling,
 e-agent, e-supervisor, e-adherence and vacation modules for a WFM system to
 meet the bank's demanding requirements. With Calabrio, the bank was
 immediately able to identify hours of coverage that were over- and
 under-staffed, which impacted profitability and customer service. It now
 had the flexibility to correct that problem, for instance, through its new
 ability to better work part-time employees into the schedule to fill the
 gaps.
     Debra Miller, assistant vice president of alternate retail services for
 Susquehanna, explained why she selected Calabrio: "We were looking for a
 workforce management leader that gives great customer service. During our
 due diligence process, we heard rave reviews about the level of service
 Calabrio gives to its customers. Further, we were excited to begin using a
 browser- based application to minimize the internal IT support needed for
 this initiative, unlike other enterprise systems."
     Susquehanna also reported being able to consistently meet service
 levels, which made a noticeable difference on customer service. Agents
 reported greater satisfaction, now that they have the ability and freedom
 to trade shifts and view their schedules online and on demand. And since
 labor costs are typically the highest expense of any business, more
 efficiently deploying its people translated into lower expenses for the
 customer service center.
     "Calabrio outshined several competing systems we evaluated," Miller
 continued. "The most important areas for us were product superiority,
 support, and price. We are happy with our decision -- from the beginning,
 the training and support we received from Calabrio's support staff has been
 excellent. Our results and the ongoing level of support from Calabrio
 continue to exceed our expectations."
     Rene LeBel, chief executive officer and founder of Calabrio, added,
 "Susquehanna Bancshares has done quite well on their own, but we are very
 proud to help take their business performance to the next level of success.
 They recognize employees as the company's greatest but most complex asset,
 so deploying that talent, even just a little bit better, has a tremendous
 impact on the overall business. Calabrio's software isn't just a piece of
 technology -- for many of our customers, it represents peace of mind in
 knowing that they can now properly and easily manage their people, putting
 them in position to do their best work."
     About Calabrio, Inc.
     Calabrio's workforce management solutions are used by companies
 worldwide, such as Blue Cross, Direct TV, MasterCard, MBNA, Sears and
 hundreds more. From our start in 1995 -- and now with offices in Canada,
 United States and Europe -- Calabrio is one of the very first to give
 multi-site and multi- channel management capabilities to today's evolving
 contact centers. Unlike competitors, Calabrio offers an unmatched
 forecasting and scheduling accuracy of up to 99.5% as well as a full range
 of additional capabilities at no extra charge, such as skills- and
 performance-based scheduling, KPIs, payroll integration, and much more. As
 a result, our customers can dramatically improve productivity, employee
 satisfaction and efficiency, which in turn drive customer service and
 profitability. For more information, please visit www.calabrio.com.
     Media Contact:
     Renee Maler
     Public Relations
     renee@philosophyPR.com
     +1.925.968.9495
 
 

SOURCE Calabrio, Inc.