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With 350 delegates expected, Contact Centre Planning 2008 is the biggest event of its kind in Europe. Organised by The Professional Planning Forum, it is a key event for contact centre directors, MI analysts, resource planners and others both in the public and private sector. Here delegates can learn about best practice in delivering improvements in contact centre performance. Suitable for key members of the management team, it is a great opportunity to discover how other organisations balance the need of numbers with people, and focus on the experience of the customer.
    
This year the conference includes 12 specialist streams, offering a choice of up to 50 workshops, technical updates, case studies and discussion groups. A great incentive for the best performers, the rich information can be brought back and shared with colleagues. The programme includes:

• Benchmark research
• Case studies from the 16 award finalists
• Participate in technical and skills based workshops
• Visit the exhibition area to meet the leading industry vendors
• Meet and network with leading specialists and experts in the areas of contact centre planning and analysis across Europe.
  

Specialist work streams
This year's programme includes 12 new streams, including one focusing on the public sector. You can build your personal agenda or follow one of the pre-prepared streams, including one to create a unique conference experience that meets the needs of your own special interests.

More than just an ordinary conference, Contact Centre Planning 2008 draws on the expertise behind the Professional Planning Forum’s hugely popular training, mentoring, best practice and networking programmes. These new work streams build on the core topics of forecasting, scheduling and workforce management for which Contact Centre Planning is now widely recognised as the key event on the industry's annual calendar.
    
To help you get the most from a time-efficient gathering of all the key players in the contact centre planning and analysis world, each strand of the conference draws from different learning methodologies and the work streams offer a conference journey that meets your needs by offering an extraordinary range of topics and styles.
    
With seven sessions in the conference offering you the choice of up to 50 different activities or groups, many companies send a team of delegates, who each choose separate combinations of topics to reflect their personal interest or experience. As a team, you can then offer a comprehensive view of the conference material when you share your learning with colleagues on your return. The new streams this year make this an ideal chance to bring along your directors, department heads or HR professionals, as well as your resource planning and MI specialists. They also showcase the Forum’s new work on back-office and outbound planning.

Customise your agenda
Choose to follow all the presentations from the Innovation Award finalists or the technical updates, create your own mix, or follow one of the following streams:

• Directors Forum – by invitation, contact us if your director or department head would like to come with you
• Resource Planning Stream – for forecasting scheduling and planning specialists
• Management Information – for MI and performance analysis
• Large virtual contact centre operations – key sessions selected for those from large, virtual centres
• The small contact centre – key topics of particular interest to the smaller centre
• The Public Sector contact centre – with a special focus on the provision of local services
• Planning for the back office – conference sessions to follow-up our new work in this area
• Planning for Outbound – conference sessions to follow-up our new work in this area
• Planning for Sales - key sessions selected for those from these operations
• Planning for Customer Service – key sessions selected for those from these operations
• People Management - key topics of particular interest to people managers.
  

The public sector stream is your chance to see first hand the excellent work done by the Metropolitan Police, Canterbury City Council, North Warwickshire Borough Council and Northern Counties Housing Association, as well as attend workshops, discussion groups or a private sector presentation on a range of interesting topics.

Learn from the finalists
As a key part of the conference programme, the presentations by the Contact Centre Innovation Awards finalists show evidence of outstandingly strong performance improvements and cover innovative work in the use of management information, target setting, employee engagement, process re-engineering and streamlining the customer experience. This is in addition to the more traditional areas of workforce management and schedule innovation.
    
Salford City Council last year not only won the Public Sector Category, but the overall Innovation of the Year 2007 Award. As Steve Woosey, membership director of the Professional Planning Forum explains: “It was fantastic to see the judges recognise the fantastic achievements of Salford over and above the other outstanding entries from major private sector organisations.”

2008 Awards
With an exceptional number of outstanding entries, drawing up a shortlist was even tougher this year with 16 contact centres selected as finalists for the 2008 awards. "These nominations show that planning analysts can make the difference in helping organisations initiate and implement change in their contact centres," explains Paul Smedley, executive director at the Professional Planning Forum.
    
The finalists are: Alliance and Leicester, BUPA, Canterbury City Council, Carphone Warehouse (Mobile Division), Centrica (British Gas Service), Dell, EDF Energy, Firstsource, GEM, Metropolitan Police, North Warwickshire Borough Council, Northern Counties Housing Association, Orange, RBS (IT Services), T-Mobile and Vodafone. Look online at www.planningforum.co.uk/awards for more information.
    
"A special feature of these awards is that they are so thoroughly judged, based on talking to front-line staff and managers, and spending time looking at the results and how they have been achieved," explains Peter Massey, one of the external judges.
    
The award programme also provides a year-round programme of discovery, with Planning Forum members gaining access to professionally prepared case studies on each finalist, with the chance to talk to them at the April conference and visit sites in the summer and autumn, as part of the best practice programme.
    
The 2008 judges include managers from four previous award-winning organisations. These are John Tanner (Salford City Council), Steve Hubbard (Royal Sun Alliance), Paul Burgess-Clements (AXA PPP Healthcare) and Darren Leahy (Abtran).
    
"The number of quality entries was especially impressive and it makes me proud to be associated with the contact centre planning profession," concludes Steve Woosey, membership director and a member of the judging panel. "Their work takes performance in these centres to new levels and demonstrates that planning plays a key role in successful contact centre management teams."
    
Public sector finalists include some fantastic case studies, such as the following:

Canterbury City Council
20 out of 47 contact centre staff now work regularly from home, as part of a successful work-life balance programme that has halved external attrition, increased employee productivity by over 15 per cent and improved call handling efficiency by 30 per cent for agents working from home. Canterbury is now looking to use the home-working network to support the extension of opening hours and to allow the council to recruit from a wider pool of expertise.

Metropolitan Police
Employee engagement was key to releasing the benefits of major contact centre investment in the UK’s largest police force. ASPIRE involved 2,000 front line employees in changing the workplace of the new operation, replacing discouraging practices, improving the environment and gaining buy-in for a new way of working between Central Communications Command, the contact centre and local response policing. ASPIRE champions, supported by training and development, are now an established means of communication for all major changes, including the implementation of workforce management in the coming months.

North Warwickshire Borough Council
Excellence was delivered on a shoestring by working with others to find new solutions that enabled a hugely enhanced service for a lower budget than in 2006. The contact centre now deals with 75 per cent of council calls, doubling first contact resolution, increasing opening hours and establishing common job roles with the one-stop shops. In a customer survey 98 per cent rated the service as very good and feedback from stakeholders and employees is excellent, with very low levels of sickness and attrition.

Northern Counties Housing Association
Employee development took the customer contact centre to the next level of service excellence. Building trust within the organisation was made possible by creating an empowered and passionate team in the centre through a ‘Voyage of Discovery’ development programme. Local teams now have time to develop face-to-face contacts and Northern Counties has already achieved 25 per cent reduction in call volumes, through improved first call resolution. In addition, Northern Counties has experienced a seven per cent reduction in cost per call and improvements in absence and customer satisfaction.
    
“A sensational night” was how Tom Davies from 2007 award finalist Sandwell Council described the gala awards dinner during the conference. It is a chance to network with industry professionals from leading contact centres and seriously motivate your teams or clients with a real celebration.
    
This year, for the first time, the gala awards dinner follows the final day of the conference. A highly enjoyable night, delegates tell us it's very different from the typical awards event. The conference price again includes the gala awards dinner. Extra places are available for colleagues who wish to attend the dinner, but not the conference, and special prices apply for booking tables. Places are limited due to the size restrictions of the venue, so early booking is advisable.

For more information
Contact Centre Planning 2008 takes place at The Midlands Hotel, Manchester on 28 – 29 April Contact Kirsten now at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call
0870 870 5960 to reserve your place.
Or go to www.planningforum.co.uk/events to find out more.