I am happy to share some insights on WorkForce Software drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic representation of our assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Workforce Management 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We utilized a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect the breadth of the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for workforce management. We evaluated WorkForce Software and 12 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and data derived from our benchmark research on workforce management.
WorkForce Software ranks second overall in the WFM Value Index, second in Usability for its consumer-like user experience, second in Manageability due to its administration, security and licensing. It was first in Validation due to the quality of its references, case studies and product roadmap. It was third in TCO/ROI for its documented business case materials with benefits and costs. WorkForce Software was ranked first in customer assurance for its work in validation and TCO/ROI.
The WorkForce Software WFM platform supports a big data model with exceptional granularity and accuracy. The forecasting module includes foot traffic, sales data and other demand drivers to forecast labor demand and create optimized schedules. The suite can be configured to create schedules based on KPIs, employee availability, contractual constraints and local labor laws. The Schedule Optimizer analyzes an average of more than 70 million schedule iterations before displaying the best option to the scheduling manager.
WorkForce Software’s lowest score was 12th place in Adaptability as its configurability and integration need improvement. While it was ranked seventh in Capability, it has some areas for improvement, such as mobile device support, task management, collaboration and analyst-specific support.
This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of workforce management software in the industry. You can learn more about our Value Index as an effective vendor selection and RFI/RFP tool here. Participating vendors can learn more about how to use the Value Index here.