Sabio Highlights Five Key Factors For Successful Homeshoring

To help organisations ensure that their Homeshoring programmes stay on track, Sabio has focused on five key areas: technology; culture; security; location and communication that are critical for success. "Analysts such as Gartner have predicted that Homeshoring can unlock overall contact centre cost savings of between 8-10 percent, however organisations will need to leverage their IT, HR, contact centre operations and business process resources if they are to make Homeshoring a sustainable component of their customer service business," commented Stuart Dorman, Principle Solutions Consultant at Sabio.

"We're seeing an increased focus now on Homeshoring as it is an approach that directly addresses the twin organisational goals of increasing productivity and value while still delivering on service quality and corporate social responsibility objectives," he continued. "Initial research shows that businesses operating Homeshoring programmes can benefit from attrition reductions of around 10 percent and estimated productivity gains of between 10 and 20 percent, however there are also significant personal and social benefits that make Homeshoring even more attractive for both organisations and contact centre agents."

Agents opting for Homeshoring can benefit from a more flexible working environment, while organisations are able to take advantage of a more diverse workforce, increased flexibility thanks to split shifts and micro shifts, greater support for unsociable/out-of-hours customer contact, as well as disaster recovery benefits. Homeshoring also helps contact centre operators start to address the environmental challenges faced by an industry where - according to Sabio's recent Voice of the Contact Centre Agent research programme - nearly two thirds of agents currently drive to work or share lifts with friends.

Across Sabio's five key Homeshoring characteristics, major issues that organisations need to consider include:

* Technology - equipping agents for home-working used to be expensive, however technology should no longer prove a limiting factor for homeshoring agents working from home simply require separate broadband and phone connections, and a notebook PC that can run an organisation's existing contact centre and CRM applications via a thin-client connection. With individual agent technology set-up costs running at less than £1,000 per agent, payback will be rapid with ROI achievable in less than a month.

* Culture - it's important for organisations to create and support a culture where Homeshoring can succeed. Sabio advises that both agents and their Team Leaders should practice working in a virtual environment before they start Homeshoring.

* Security - while some sectors may have security concerns about customer interactions taking place outside of a secure contact centre environment, the reality is that the latest identification and verification techniques mean that Homeshoring staff can deal with customers once verification has taken place, and that sensitive parts of an interaction - such as credit card payments - can be automated using automation with a hybrid agent approach.

* Location - Homeshoring demands that the agent works in a home office environment that is appropriate. In addition to infrastructure such as laptops, broadband and a fixed voice line, agents should also work at desks, have the right kind of seating and ensure they are free from distractions. This requires a key process to audit the home-working environment, and a consistent approach to protect both the agent and their employer.

* Communication - operating a network of home-based agents demands strong two-way communication, with agents taking full advantage of channels such as instant messaging and presence-enabled messaging, as well as workforce optimisation approaches that are configured for the distributed workforce - again there should be no technology barriers here, but organisations will need strong processes in place to ensure that remote agents are fully integrated into their contact centre management activities.

In addition to strong HR and process skills, effective Homeshoring will involve the design, integration and deployment of a range of different contact centre technologies including Workforce Optimisation, IT and communications convergence, Customer Interaction Management and potentially Voice Self-service applications to support agents in key areas such as security. With its distinctive, multiple practice approach, Sabio brings together the consultancy skills, systems integration and managed service expertise to help organisations turn Homeshoring into a reality.