The Market

The contact center workforce optimization (WFO) solutions market continued its growth streak through much of 2013, increasing 3.7 percent to go from $615.4 million in the first half of 2012 to $638.4 million in the first half of 2013, a rise of 3.7 percent, according to DMG Consulting. The analyst firm expects growth to continue through 2016, particularly as vendors invest to make their products easier to use and look toward incorporating analytics, mobile, and video into their suites. 

As the market grows, analysts expect vendors to continue adding substance to their offerings. In today’s climate, companies expect their contact center WFO vendors to offer quality monitoring and assurance and interaction recording, as well as at least two additional applications, DMG concluded in its “2013 Workforce Optimization Mid-Year Market Share Report,” adding that, increasingly, companies are also expecting these modules to be integrated so that they can share data. 

The Leaders

Aspect Software, in a repeat visit to the leaderboard, continues to impress, with scores of 4.3 in company direction and 4.1 in customer satisfaction, though analysts did point to limited functionality within its offering; its average score there was 3.5. But that is starting to change under new company leadership. “Aspect continues to have a strong offering that it is continually improving upon,” says Paul Stockford, chief analyst at Saddletree Research. “Expect to see Aspect’s WFO…evolve this year. I continue to be impressed by the direction Aspect’s management is taking the company.”

Calabrio, last year’s One to Watch, moved up in the rankings this year to take a leadership position, bolstered by scores of 3.9 in depth of functionality, company direction, and cost. “For a midsized company, Calabrio continues to make a lot of noise in the market,” Stockford says. “This is a company that is on the move, and it’s moving in the right direction.”

An important factor in that move, says Dick Bucci, principal analyst at Pelorus Associates, was the strategic decision to expand not only in the Cisco contact center environment but also to include other providers, such as Avaya. An early adopter of the Web 2.0 architecture, most analysts agree that the company is the hands-down leader in ease of use because of that as well.

NICE Systems, a perpetual fixture on the WFO leaderboard, made some creative moves in 2013, which proved to be a dual-edged sword with some analysts. While its depth of functionality score was 4.0, Stockford likened NICE’s WFO offering to “a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that don’t fit together well.”

But that’s starting to change, according to Bucci, who says NICE is “doing a much more effective job of integrating the functionality and operation of acquired technology.”

Beyond that, its greatest strength is in company direction, where it scored a 4.3. Its score in price, however, was among the lowest in the industry, at 3.2. And that could adversely affect the entire market. “As a market leader, NICE tends to be a price setter rather than a price follower,” Bucci comments.

The Winner

Verint Systems, which some analysts have credited with pioneering the WFO concept, consistently takes the top spot in the industry, and this year is no exception. “Verint is a company at the top of its game,” Stockford says, “with a strong product line, brilliant strategic acquisitions, and a clear vision of the market and where [it] intends to fit into that market.”

The company garnered an industry-leading 4.6 in depth of functionality, 4.7 in company direction, and 4.4 in customer satisfaction. John Ragsdale, vice president of technology research at the Technology Services Industry Association, calls Verint’s offering “an impressive analysis platform for voice, text, sentiment, etc.”

“Verint has an offering for every WFO application and market segment...and provides superior integration and ease of use,” Bucci adds. “Verint is ahead of the game with its new applications for addressing specific business problems and what it is doing with mobile.”  —Leonard Klie

ONE TO WATCH

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, a company that made the leaderboard in the past two years, fell a bit as analysts tried to pin down its company direction, where it only scored a 3.5. “I cannot classify Genesys as a WFO company, largely because it lacks a quality management application and [voice-of-the-customer] capability,” Bucci contends. “Its primary product focus is on self-service, workforce management, and call distribution.” Stockford agrees. “WFO doesn’t appear to fit into Genesys’ current market strategy, with the exception of the questionable acquisition of Utopy,” he says. But Genesys has made some good moves as well. “It’s good to see some focus outside large enterprises, with new products for small and medium-sized contact centers,” Ragsdale says.  —L.K.