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Kids Help Phone Enhances Counseling Services With Blue Pumpkin350% ROI, 80% reduction in payroll losses, other results projected from workforce optimization performance gains and cost savingsSunnyvale, Calif. – December 9, 2002 – Blue Pumpkin, an industry leader in enterprise workforce optimization solutions, today announced positive results from its implementation with Kids Help Phone – Canada’s only national, bilingual, 24-hour, toll-free phone counseling, referral and Internet service for children and youth. With Blue Pumpkin, Kids Help Phone has been better able to address the real needs of its callers by ensuring the right number of professional staff are available to provide counseling on physical and emotional abuse, depression, suicide, relationships, health and well-being and other issues facing young people. Even with the sharp increase in duration of calls during the holidays, Kids Help Phone is now able to maintain a consistent level of efficient and effective counseling service through workforce optimization. Kids Help Phone selected Blue Pumpkin to optimize its workforce and saw improvements in its contact center operations that it expects to result in a 350% total return-on- investment within one year. Additional projections include: 12% increase in counselor on-phone productivity; 50% improvement in counselor schedule adherence; 72% less management workload; and 80% reduction in payroll losses. "As a non-profit organization, we operate under a tight budget, so investing in solutions with the highest returns is mission-critical," stated Ted Kaiser, vice president of information technology for Kids Help Phone. "With Blue Pumpkin, we are leveraging our resources and professionals as effectively and efficiently as possible. Workforce optimization puts us in a better position to counsel the kids who count on us for help." Previously, Kids Help Phone relied on manual or Excel-based spreadsheet methods for critical workforce processes, such as scheduling, planning, managing time and payroll. Without being able to see, track and analyze how hours were being spent, managers didn’t know where to make adjustments in order to drive the highest levels of service, control costs and boost productivity. To address these challenges, Kids Help Phone implemented the Blue Pumpkin Director and Blue Pumpkin Activity Manager components of the Workforce Optimization Suite, which enabled them to make the most from their resources. These new solutions enabled them to more clearly identify and quantify peaks and valleys in call volume, better track activities, empower counselors to be more self-managing and streamline the payroll process. As a result, Kids Help Phone is now confidently positioned to ensure that, at all times, calls from children and youth in need of help will be answered promptly by counselors driven to excel within the context of an efficient and employee-friendly organization. Kids Help Phone evaluated several other vendors who had point-solutions, but the Blue Pumpkin Workforce Optimization Suite was the only solution that could optimize the entire range of people-processes needed. The organization also needed applications that were easy for the staff to implement and use but also powerful enough to deliver the highest results. "We are pleased to bring the innovations and advantages of the corporate world to the business of helping others," stated Doron Aspitz, chief executive officer and co-founder of Blue Pumpkin. "Kids Help Phone provides a very important service to our communities, helping one child at a time. Blue Pumpkin is happy to be part of that mission by allowing their people to perform at their best and the time they’re needed the most." Blue Pumpkin impacts customer service and profitability by optimizing and aligning all the underlying workforce-related processes, including strategic planning, training, time tracking, performance evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, forecasting and more. For more than 1,000 customers including many Global 2000 companies, Blue Pumpkin solutions ensure that their people are performing at their highest levels and helping the customer at the right place and right time. About Kids Help Phone Kids Help Phone is Canada’s only national, bilingual, 24-hour, toll-free, confidential and anonymous phone counseling, referral and Internet service for children and youth. Professional counselors answer approximately 1,000 calls and online questions every day from young people with questions and concerns about a wide range of issues including: abuse, relationships, substance abuse, violence and suicide. For more information about Kids Help Phone, please visit http://kidshelp.sympatico.ca. About Blue Pumpkin Blue Pumpkin is a leader in workforce optimization, a market quickly gaining momentum and enabling businesses to leverage their most critical resource: their people. Blue Pumpkin solves the urgent needs of more efficiently deploying resources and effectively managing employee performance – significantly impacting customer service, loyalty and profitability. The Blue Pumpkin Workforce Optimization Suite applications form a closed-loop system and include Planner, Director-Enterprise, Activity Manager, Advisor and other products. Professional services implement best practices and manage change to build the right processes and fully leverage technology solutions. As the first in its category to offer extensive services in addition to applications and customer support, Blue Pumpkin helps people and businesses successfully execute on their goals. Blue Pumpkin has more than 1,000 customers in a wide range of industries, including many Global 2000 companies such as ADP, Apple Computer, Airborne Express, AOL/CompuServe Europe, AT&T, Borders Group, Compaq Canada, FedEx, General Mills, JetBlue Airways, Kaiser Permanente, KitchenAid, TimeWarner Cable, and Verizon. An advanced ecosystem of over 150 partners supports Blue Pumpkin customers with other products and services. For more information about Blue Pumpkin and its products, please visit http://www.bluepumpkin.com. © 2002 Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Blue Pumpkin and Blue Pumpkin Software are registered trademarks of Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc. The Blue Pumpkin logo is a trademark of Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Editorial Contact: Renee Maler Blue Pumpkin Software 925 968 9495 rmaler@bluepumpkin.com top of page |
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