Calabrio Helps Taction Create the Next-Generation Contact Center

    MONTREAL, Quebec, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Calabrio, Inc., a leading
 provider of contact center workforce management (WFM) solutions, today
 announced positive results by Taction, a premier contact center services
 company.  With Calabrio, Taction has streamlined its operations as its
 business continues to grow -- now finding new efficiencies, driving greater
 productivity and building a more employee-friendly workplace.
     Based in Maine, Taction is known for providing its clients with "The
 Taction Value", delivering a higher average order value along with a higher
 number of reorders, while creating remarkable customer satisfaction, one
 positive experience after another.  Since 1983, this industry pioneer has
 served many premium clients, including such trusted brands as Polaroid,
 American Express Gift Cheques and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.
     Taction has been unusually tech-saavy and created many of its own systems,
 such as a workforce management process that did an excellent job at
 forecasting call volumes.  But the company eventually needed a more efficient
 forecasting and scheduling technology that could scale with its fast-growing
 business.  Further, as a contact center outsourcer, Taction has extremely
 demanding requirements from a diverse client-base that currently includes
 Samsonite, the State of Maine's Office of Tourism, Harbor Sweets, Cuddledown,
 The Boyds Collection and other high-end specialty companies.
     Steve White, Taction's chief executive officer, explained, "Given our deep
 experience with technology, we knew exactly what capabilities we needed and
 were careful to do our homework in researching possible solutions.  After our
 year-long search, Calabrio beat out a field of a dozen competitors, including
 the largest workforce management vendors, on features, functionality and
 price.  Other criteria included a five-year estimate of total cost of
 ownership, seventy-plus point questionnaire, Dun & Bradstreet credit ratings
 and more.  But most of all -- beyond the numbers and features -- when we
 visited Calabrio to meet their people, we saw that it was a natural fit
 between our two cultures and spirit of excellence."
     Taction's results with Calabrio have been immediate and substantial.
 Previously, it relied on spreadsheets for forecasting and scheduling, which
 eventually became time-consuming as the company grew.  With Calabrio, Taction
 only needs half the amount of time to do the job, translating into an extra
 20 hours a week that managers can spend on more critical work.  With accuracy
 rates of up to 99.5%, Calabrio's software eliminates anomalies in historical
 data for more precise forecasts and effective schedules, as well as
 automatically importing and accounting for data from other contact center
 systems.  Taction purposely overstaffs in order to maintain service levels but
 is now able to be more precise and cut that extra margin to a minimum, thereby
 saving on labor costs.
     Further, Calabrio has helped the company continue to promote an
 employee-friendly workplace, an area important to Taction's culture.  Work
 schedules can now be reviewed online much earlier by agents, are easier to
 understand and factor in agent preferences.  Calabrio has also optimized
 Taction's daily "go-home-early" list, which gives flexibility to agents in
 accommodating emergencies or last-minute needs.  Calabrio's real-time
 visibility and intra-day dynamic trending enable accurate and faster
 forecasting of the day's call volume so that the employees who want to can
 potentially go home sooner.
     White continued, "Our experience with Calabrio now validates our decision
 to invest in their solutions.  Besides now having all the functionalities we
 need in a single and integrated platform, Calabrio has consistently delivered
 on timely support and follow-up.  The way they conduct their users' groups
 shows us that they value our input in evolving their solutions to meet real
 customer needs -- our needs."
     Rene LeBel, chief executive officer and founder of Calabrio, added, "We're
 gratified that a company such as Taction, who knows technology and has the
 most stringent requirements, did their due diligence and concluded that we
 offered the best solution.  We know that technology alone doesn't give you
 competitive advantage -- we are partners in our customers' success by ensuring
 that the solution is properly deployed to their needs, that their people are
 properly trained and that we are standing by to help where needed."
 
     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 99.9% 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.