Affordable business intelligence for call centers

Small or large, it makes little difference. A call centre is measurable and variable profits depend, in part, on the productivity of its core ingredient, the agents. Larger call centers usually have the budget to implement business intelligence. Their smaller cousins however cannot afford to embrace costly reporting software and access to ‘click once’ reports indicating levels of productivity often remain a dream.

It is therefore not surprising that resourceful call centre managers, the world over, have turned to Microsoft Excel to gain some visibility on performance. The problem with this approach is quite simply that Excel is usually not tightly integrated to the call centre’s databases and therefore requires time consuming manual intervention.

Alchemex is an Excel integration and report writing solution with a local user base in excess of 2000 sites. The administrator module is used to connect to the dataset and (integration) containers are developed to prepare the data specifically for reporting in Excel. The Report Manager is used to create reports which consist of a query (on a selected container) and an Excel layout. This combination facilitates rapid development of automated Excel reports.
 
Alchemex distributor, Excel Integration (Pty) Ltd has recently released a BI product specifically for outbound call centers, where **GoldMine is used for the CRM capture. MD, Brad Bartlett says, “Our presence in call centers has enabled us to focus on packaging our reports for this vertical”. The containers and Excel layouts act as a starting point for the creation of customised reporting specific to each call centre. Bartlett explains, “We have enhanced the **GoldMine data in our virtual containers so almost any report is achievable and without costly development”.

The concept of Alchemex is to remove the need to ‘redo’ formatting in Excel. When satisfied with a layout you simply “create and link” this to the query. “The data is flushed and the format remains, giving birth to a new automated report”, explains Bartlett. Alchemex converts Excel into a true reporting solution and any investment in Excel reporting becomes reusable, valuable intellectual property. “The accelerating collection of reports culminates in a trigger and a crusade for affordable desktop business intelligence begins”.

Because Alchemex is a generic reporting solution the Excel reports developed for **GoldMine, can be reengineered to work on other databases and applications. “More work is required in the backend to map to the new database but in our experience it is still affordable and viable for call centers to go this route”, says Bartlett.

Microsoft’s has recently announced it is formerly entering the business intelligence space. Further, its selection of Excel as the mass deployment vehicle gives further credence to the booming global trend of integrating Excel with databases in general.  

          
**Alchemex is a standalone reporting tool and references to GoldMine DO NOT imply this is a product from FrontRange Solutions

Brad Bartlett can be reached on brad@alchemex.net

New article

The year 2015 – Looking back at Microsoft Excel

Excel Integration describes its vision for the deployment of BI going into the future

Can you imagine a world where it’s not possible to push a button and get the precise answer you want from your software application?
Do you remember that frustrating button called ‘export to Excel’? We used to hit it daily and then clunk away trying to make the data more presentable. Did you know that just 10 years ago, around 2006, this was the norm, hard to believe, right?

A paradigm shift occurred in 2006.

I remember it clearly. IT journalists were all writing about Microsoft’s official entrance into the Business Intelligence space. Bill had named Office as his official platform to take Business Intelligence to the masses. SQL provided the back-end brains, and Office the selected front-end, because of end -user familiarity with the product.

The Microsoft news was met with mixed feelings generally, and by us personally. We had already been playing in the Excel Integration space for five years or so, here in South Africa. We distributed a product called Alchemex, and by the time Microsoft started making BI noises, Alchemex was already providing automated Excel reporting to 2000 South African businesses.

The obvious concern was that Microsoft would replace our product with functionality built intoExcel. Would we become a small niche player? Precariously, we were already specialists because we had focused all our attention on the financial sector.

Our strategy had always been to develop solutions for popular accounting packages. End users were not interested in a raw tool. Instead, they wanted immediate value. We had solutions for Pastel, ACCPAC, SAGE, SAPB1 and efforts we were just beginning to develop intellectual property for payroll applications. These solutions were not designed to satisfy a financial manager ‘out the box’, but served to fast track the process of delivering customized reporting.

The effort we had already put into solutions got us thinking a little more. We just could not see Microsoft doing integrations for all the applications out there. But, in order to justify the claim that they were offering business intelligence, some-one would need to develop the reports. So who would take on this task? The obvious candidates were the application vendors themselves. We debated this at length and came to the conclusion that generally, they were simply not well placed to do this. We already had some history to call on and accounting vendors wanted to remain focused on accounting, not business intelligence. So, what about the database vendors? The popular view on this one was that they needed to match Microsoft, and ensure they offered a raw tool, but no more.

As we contemplated the future, it became clearer and clearer that business intelligence would only reach the masses if intense resources were applied to converting application data into meaningful Excel reports. The technology had arrived, so it seemed like a case of all dressed up and nowhere to go. Someone needed to make the investment. A huge, and accelerating demand for report development resources was predictable, foresight was the required skill to take advantage.

Once we understood this reality, the color returned to our faces. A new market opportunity had emerged because Bill had just stated that he was about to give his million strong Excel install base some boosted power.

So, in mid 2006, a new crusade began. Entrepreneurs all over the world began feverishly developing every conceivable Excel report in a race to stake a claim in the endless reporting domain called business intelligence.

At the time, we were thankful our paths had placed us in a privileged position to observe the signs. Years on, looking back, we have used Alchemex to partner countless 3rd parties, software vendors and industry vertical operators to contribute a significant collection of intellectual property that makes each end user’s day more productive.

If we could turn back the clock, we would not change much in doing it all again!