Case Study: Thomas Cook Scheduled for Take Off

Thomas Cook has improved its forecasting and scheduling by migrating its NICE Workforce Management solution to the cloud.

Thomas Cook had been using the on-premise WFM solution for nine years.

The solution

The migration to the cloud has given the company a single view across its UK-based operation, enabling it to forecast and schedule agents across all of its contact centres and retail stores.

With NICE IEX WFM deployed in both contact centres and retail locations, the organisation can also take advantage of the availability of retail staff to support the contact centre – routing calls to individuals with the right skills and knowledge to handle customer queries.

This deployment model provides flexibility and lower total cost of ownership – and is helping Thomas Cook be more responsive and competitive.

The benefits

• Transparency – Forecasting and scheduling take into consideration multiple factors like skill types, contact channels, departments, etc.
• Insight – Contact centre and store managers gain real-time visibility into service queues and employee adherence to shifts and can take immediate action when necessary.
• Motivation – Employees own their own schedules and can easily request time off or trade shifts.

“We decided to move our operations to the cloud in order to accommodate our growing business needs, which includes a multichannel service operation,” said Martin West, Head of Central Operations Support at Thomas Cook UK & Ireland. “This has also given us the opportunity to centralise our customer-facing operations, which will help us achieve greater operational efficiency, better service, and reduced costs.”

“Our WFM offering continues to evolve to meet the needs of leading companies like Thomas Cook – providing them with the necessary deployment flexibility to effectively meet customer demands across touchpoints,” said Benny Einhorn, President at NICE EMEA. “With this cloud deployment, the company has a clear, organisation-wide view into the forecasting and scheduling of staff, while at the same time retail personnel have ownership over their schedules.”

For more information about NICE Systems, visit their website.