The News: Zendesk, Inc. today announced the completion of its acquisition of Tymeshift, an AI-powered modern workforce management (WFM) solution. Built exclusively for Zendesk customers, Tymeshift is designed to allow organizations to manage agent workforce activity, productivity, and efficiency more effectively in real time, thereby reducing the time and costs associated with managing these processes manually. You can read the full press release here, which provides additional details on the functionality being incorporated within Zendesk.
Zendesk Acquires Workforce Management Software Provider Tymeshift
Analyst Take: Zendesk, Inc.’s acquisition of Tymeshift, an AI-powered WFM solution built on Zendesk, is designed to assist organizations with tracking agent workforce activity, productivity, and efficiency in real time, reducing the time and costs associated with manually handling workforce management tasks.
From a cost and efficiency standpoint, the automation of previously manual agent management tasks is a clear value for customers. Instead of having managers spend their time running manual reports on agent attendance, performance, and efficiency, they can instead devote efforts to critical agent workforce training and compliance tasks which have a direct impact on customer experience and revenue generation.
Improving Workforce Deployment Efficiency to Provide Better Customer Experiences
The acquisition and incorporation of Tymeshift within Zendesk is a clear example of a vendor understanding that good CX starts and ends with the people who are charged with delivering and supporting experiences. Zendesk has done a solid job of providing the agent workforce with the AI-driven tools to support friction-free experiences across voice and digital channels, but had lacked a solid suite of workforce management tools to support efficient management of live agents.
Tymeshift incorporates predictive AI-powered forecasting, which uses Zendesk data to predict ticket volumes and subject matter, so businesses can reliably plan future staffing needs with real-time insights to reduce operational costs. Based on this staffing forecast data, a completed schedule is automatically created so that companies can schedule the agent workforce appropriately based on data that is updated in real time. Visualizations of historical and real-time data can be used to optimize costs and service levels, as well as analyze agent productivity and inform staffing decisions to drive future improvements.
Organizations can ensure that the right number of staff are available to field inquiries, and that the agents with the right skills or subject matter expertise are available. Not only will customers be better served by having an agent workforce that is appropriately skilled to handle their issues, but individual agents will appreciate not being forced to handle issues for which they do not feel qualified or comfortable.
Real-Time Data Availability Supports Dynamic Resource Allocation and Prevents Staff Shorting
The ability to incorporate interaction data on a rolling and real-time basis is extremely useful in managing demand trends that may not be immediately apparent, simply by looking at prior-period historical reports. Running periodic reports and producing visualizations of that data can help managers quickly spot oncoming spikes in inquiries, and then allow them to adjust agent workforce levels accordingly.
The acquisition of Tymeshift will help Zendesk’s customers more efficiently manage staffing demand, and ensure that the agent workforce is ready and available to deliver a great customer experience.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Zendesk Q3 Revenues Up 20% to $417M
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
