National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) Case Study

The Organization 

National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), a business owned and controlled by the members who use its services, delivers advanced technology solutions across rural America. They predominantly work with broadband companies, internet service providers, telecommunication providers and other utility companies. Additionally, NRTC Managed Services fields contact center responsibilities for approximately 330 companies who deliver technology solutions in rural areas. 

Motivation for Change 

On average, the NRTC Managed Services helpdesk handles 1.5 million interactions across phone, chat and email every year. The previous workforce management solution NRTC Managed Services had in place was a scheduling application, which could not handle forecasting at the level which they needed. Most processes took twice as long to run and the workforce team had to export information often and complete tasks manually. 

Desired Solution 

As a business process outsourcing (BPO) call center, NRTC Managed Services needed a solution that could meet specific challenges including how to fill in skill gaps when agents leave the organization. Agents can be trained to represent as many as 30-40 different companies. When an agent leaves, the forecasting and scheduling components of the software need to be able to point out the gaps in the schedule so the team can schedule other agents to ensure coverage for all companies is in place. Another challenge NRTC Managed Services wanted to solve was the need for a workforce management platform that could help them manage the scheduling and staffing needs to address the call and inquiry volume for the hundreds of companies they represent.  With these challenges in mind, NRTC Managed Services contacted Call Design North America for assistance in the workforce engagement  management (WEM) vendor evaluation process. Security Coverage, a company that NRTC acquired, had worked with Call Design and Alvaria (formerly Aspect Software) in the past. Call Design reviewed various software options and companies with NRTC Managed Services. With a 360o view, they took an impartial look at the business, the operations and processes in place. After the review process, NRTC ultimately selected Alvaria. 

Why Alvaria 

NRTC Managed Services depends on Alvaria Workforce to: 

• Follow day-of-week and time-of-week trends 
• Find gaps between forecasted demand and 
• scheduled agents in certain windows of time 
• Automate PTO requests – instead of going through ADP to approve each individual request, the team set up an integration with ADP and can have them approved automatically 
• Track adherence and attendance 

​“Our previous workforce solution was more expensive and delivered far less functionality. Alvaria Workforce meets our needs and is allowing us to run our business efficiently and effectively,” Rich King, Chief Operating Officer said. 

The Results 

Previously, NRTC Managed Services spent two to three hours each week reviewing and approving PTO requests. With Alvaria Workforce, this has been reduced to just one hour per week, a savings of more than 100 hours annually. Additionally, adherence and attendance review has dropped from two hours a week to just 30 minutes – a savings of 78 hours a year. “Value, value, value! Alvaria provides an amazing value from a platform relationship standpoint,” Rich King – COO, NRTC Managed Services.