OPTIMIZING SALES, SERVICE & OPERATIONS

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Local media spotlights HardMetrics

In the past month, HardMetrics has gotten some nice attention from the local media that we wanted to share. 

First, Brian James Kirk of Technically Philly wrote a profile of the company, talking about the growth of the enterprise software industry, and how HardMetrics is making its mark in that space.

Brian took particular interest in our recent tablet announcement, noting that more and more companies are moving to SaaS solutions that allow for easier mobile use.

And after that, the Philadelphia Business Journal featured me in their CEO File, where I shared lots of personal information, including little known facts about how I spent my youth on a dairy farm, and my number one tip for staying competitive.

If you’re looking for some light reading and are interested in getting to know HardMetrics a little better, check these articles out.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Guest post: Arise Virtual Solutions embraces BI on the tablet

We've been touting our capabilities on the iPad and other tablet devices for months now. But we thought it would be more interesting for you to read about how one of our customers is actually using HardMetrics Performance Manager on the tablet. We asked Matt Cormio, VP, Planning & Support Services for our client Arise Virtual Solutions to share his experience and plans for using HPM on the iPad. Here's what he had to say:

First of all, thanks to the guys at HardMetrics for asking me to contribute a guest post this week. We’ve been using HardMetrics Performance Manager (HPM) for over three years now, and it’s really made a big impact on the operations infrastructure at Arise. When we first started using HPM it was for management reporting and analysis, but we quickly realized it had even more value in the hands of our call center agents.

If you’re not familiar with Arise, we have a business model that is unique in the call center space. All of our call center reps are Arise Certified Professionals (ACPs) that we have B2B relationships with. The ACPs work from home and handle incoming calls on behalf of our customers, so there are no huge call centers with rows of desks and agents on their phones.

More than 3,000 of our ACPs currently use HPM daily to track their personal performance data and see how they did yesterday, last week, last month, etc. They know that their income depends on their volume and performance efficiencies, so they can log in at any time to see how they are performing vs. goal, and what they should expect to make at the end of their month, based on their stats.

Earlier this summer, I saw the news that HardMetrics is now available on the tablet. As an iPad user, I was intrigued, so I tested it out. And it worked perfectly. As any tablet owner knows, the real beauty of these devices is the ability to use them anytime, anywhere, anyplace. So now I have access to the exact same management data that we compile on HPM whether I’m sitting at my desk in the office, traveling on a business trip, or watching a ballgame on the weekend. An added bonus is that HPM doesn’t require any software or application downloads to run on the tablet. It’s easy to deploy and maintain, and doesn’t cost us any additional fees.

But what’s really exciting is the opportunity to roll this out to our ACPs. All of them are independent business owners who have set up their own IT infrastructure to contract with Arise. Many of them have an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola XOOM or other tablet, and now have more freedom of choice in how, when and where they view their individual performance data. I even talked to one of my coworkers, who successfully used HardMetrics on his Barnes & Noble Nook – not exactly a device you’d think of for serious business applications.

We have big plans for HPM. By the end of the year, we expect another 5,000 of our ACPs to have access to the data, bringing us to a total of 8,000. Having HPM on the tablet gives this initiative even more energy, and I think it’s going to be a great asset for our fast-paced, work-from-home business model.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

HardMetrics to present at ATA Dallas Vendor Showcase

Fall is almost here, which means the start of trade show season once again. To kick things off, Joe Przbylowski, head of our implementation and sales support team, is heading down to Dallas to speak at the American Teleservices Association (ATA) Dallas Vendor Showcase.

Joe will be giving a presentation entitled “Harnessing the Power of Your Contact Center Data.”
He’ll be addressing best practices for combining your contact center and back office operations data into one dashboard, drilling down from enterprise to agent-level detail, ensuring access to data for all users, the power and impact potential of agent scorecards and more. Joe will be presenting alongside representatives from several companies, including our customer, NOVO 1.

If you’re going to be at the showcase, make sure to stop by and say hello to Joe. And if you can’t make it but have questions on any of these topics, leave a comment and we’ll be happy to answer them!

Keep your eye on the blog for announcements of other shows we’ll be attending and/or speaking at in the coming months.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Meet our newest customer: C3/CustomerContactChannels

Any day that I get to announce a new customer win is a good day. The latest company to come on board with HardMetrics is C3/Customer Contact Channels, an undisputed leader in the call center outsourcing space. If you’re not familiar with C3, they’re a relatively new company, but the executive team has a long track record of building successful businesses in this industry.

The implementation of the cloud-based model of HardMetrics Performance Manager (HPM) is already underway. C3 will be relying on HPM for insight into their operational activity and business trends, and will be available to everyone from corporate management down to the individual agent. We’re thrilled to be working with such a top notch company, as we continue to expand our customer base in the call center industry. And it seems that C3 is excited too. Here’s an excerpt of a quote from Ken Condren, C3’s Vice President of Technology:

“We want to give our clients a package of tools and experience they can’t get anywhere else. The analytic component of HardMetrics further enhances our analytic capabilities, differentiating us from anyone else in the industry.”

We look forward to living up to, and exceeding C3’s expectations.

To read the press release we put out on the partnership, keep reading below.


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Forbes recognizes the "No Software" revolution

Forbes magazine recently published their Innovators issue, in which the editors name the "50 Best Companies of Tomorrow." The top company this year isn't Apple (they came in at #5). And it's not Google (they're #7). The company that Forbes considers the most innovative, over some of the largest and well-known companies out there, is Salesforce.com.

This is a company that I've watched and admired for years -- and in some ways, aspired to emulate. Since its inception in 1999, Salesforce.com has completely changed the face of the CRM space with their disruptive technology, enabling companies to track, manage and monitor their sales efforts via agile, cloud-based solutions. Their online hosted (Saas) model was the first of its kind, and they are the undisputed leader in that space.

This is exactly what we're doing in the business intelligence space -- pioneering the availability of complete enterprise-scale performance management solutions for companies that can't afford NOT to step up their game, without requiring massive IT budgets, resources and time commitments.

I tip my hat to Salesforce, and look forward to replicating the success that they've had, in our own industry.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

HardMetrics boosts performance at Auto Club South

Since launching our blog earlier this year, we’ve shared a number of customer case studies with you. I hope that in doing so, you’re getting a feel for the value that business intelligence solutions can bring to the enterprise. When a company makes a commitment to business intelligence, the possibilities are endless in terms of what that higher level of visibility into the enterprise can bring.

So here’s one more. We started working with Auto Club South (ACS)—which services AAA members in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Puerto Rico—back in 2006. ACS was looking for performance metrics that would enable them to monitor their customer interaction process, including the number of calls coming into their various branches, along with hold and handle times and other agent metrics.

After five years of experience, today ACS is using HardMetrics on several fronts. They’re tracking the sales performance of individual agents, opening up opportunities for cross-selling. They’re identifying standards and best practices, and applying them across the board. They deployed an Executive Dashboard for company leadership to have easy access to the data most important to them. What started out as a project to get better insight into basic front-line metrics has turned into an enterprise-wide, sophisticated and completely automated performance management solution.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Business intelligence, tablet computers and cloud computing

Since we announced the optimization of HardMetrics Performance Manager for the iPad and other tablets, I’ve been amazed by the feedback we’ve received—it’s clear that we’ve hit a hot topic here. The popular blog CloudTweaks obviously agreed, as they included a quote from me in a post on the impact of tablets and cloud computing on business intelligence.

The article focuses on the tablet enabling employees to “access information from anywhere at anytime, and also input data using shared document formats in real time.” But as I said in the comment I left on the post, the advantages of BI on the tablet go well beyond employee access. For our customers, the bigger advantage is the empowerment of the entire corporate org chart, from executives and management on the go, to client-facing resources, and even a manager/supervisor’s ability to walk over to a call center agent in the middle of the day with their tablet in hand, and discuss their real-time performance. And I believe that as the use of tablets in the business world becomes more widespread, we’ll begin to see even more benefits to mobile BI solutions.

You can see my comment and the full article at CloudTweaks.com.
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