Calabrio One is a workforce optimization (WFO) platform for call centers, combining workforce management with call recording and analytics, from Calabrio headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.
Calabrio has been great for our education environment. We have the ability to access live calls, recorded calls and evaluate based on the duration of calls. I would like to see the Reporting tab transformed and allow for more customizable reports. Overall, we have had success with Calabrio and we look forward to our partnership.
Frontline is well suited for an organization such as a school district where teachers sometimes need to put in for a substitute at the last minute or especially early in the morning. The system also helps with substitutes in picking up the jobs when a teacher puts in an absence.
Quality Management (call recordings, evaluations of said calls) is an area where Calabrio has done a particularly good job. It is a solid product and they continue to refine it.
Customer Service - since we purchased the product, customer service has always been spot on for Calabrio - they have worked hard to ensure their existing customers remain happy while continuing to evolve and bring on new customers.
Innovation - with their ear to the ground, so to speak, Calabrio forges ahead and does a great job of implementing features per customer requests and makes every effort to ensure the needs are taken care of either via API or upgrade feature.
Calabrio's scheduling module has room for improvement. I recommend adding options that will allow you to quickly add or delete multiple exceptions for a group or an individual.
Calabrio should add an option the will automatically optimize existing breaks and lunches based on the schedule rules and updates to schedules since they were initially published.
I'd like to have a feature in Calabrio that will automatically approve or deny employees requests for vacation based on the staffing number and other staff rules that are set.
For shift bidding, I'd like to have the option to create several schedule types and have Calabrio create the best coverage based on the available staff and the existing forecast.
In my practice, I have found that some reports have stats that should be weighed but are presented as a standard average (arithmetic mean) instead.
I'd like to have granular reporting on staff shrinkage that has occurred in the past so that I can use that data for future staff planning.
Teachers cannot cancel their own absence. We have to ask the office staff to do so. This is irritating when an absence must be canceled (Due to a canceled professional development, for example).
Sometimes absences go unfilled. It would be great if AESOP could have a roster of qualified substitutes to cover absences.
You cannot assign your absence to a particular substitute if you know he or she is available and a good fit for your absence.
Long time customer with Frontline Absence Management. Product support has been excellent, integrations easy to work with, & suite of products mesh together well.
It would've been a higher rating if they're able to partner up with other platforms like Liveperson chat support and have a better sense of urgency when it comes to resolving issues
While we have had minor issues logging in as our organization has its own login page, the site and its application are very easy to use. So long as members of a group log in through the appropriate page, navigating and using this site is quite easy. With the transition from Aesop to Frontline, the page also seems to have worked through any glitches found with the previous page and its app.
Because, it took them time to coordinate back some updates for us when we had to report a few major issues. ie Volume data feed for our Email support/channel. I like the webinars, however to keep the community alive. I hope they improve the training modules too and how they training new WFM guys as part of their package
Internal support is provided by EDU Staff based out of Grand Rapids. Whenever I have had an issue they are very responsive to my needs. For instance, there may be conflicts in the amount of money that was listed for the contract. There may be questions about the length of an assignment such as 1/2 day, full day, or early dismissal. The school will sometimes enter the wrong information. Very good IT support, but sometimes you are on hold for 5 to 10 minutes because they do not have enough workers in their Call Center
Our Implementer/Trainer was a product line expert. He (Connor) walked us through every step with confidence and explained everything in detail. Frontline provided written documentation, cut-n-paste emails to staff, and a test environment for us to play in. We were able to test unique scenarios without actually sending emails, notifications, alerts to staff. This was very useful.
It was better and more reliable/resilient then both of the products stated above. It is in-house though while the competition was cloud-based. Both of the platforms mentioned above had more problems and more failed screens then Calabrio.
Frontline seems to be the industry standard for this software in the education industry. I am not familiar with any competitors or what was evaluated prior to implementing Frontline. For it to be the industry standard, I would assume that its cost is fair in relation to competitors and that the onboarding process is simple.
Our district has approximately 300 substitutes & 1,800 employees. Size has never been an issue with Absence Management. There are other districts much larger using Absence Management with no problems
Negative: I've had to create more workarounds and scheduling seems to be more time consuming. However, it has had a positive effect in that some processes have been improved because of the workarounds.
Positive: Our former WFM software was not upgraded regularly. We have planned upgrade(s) for Calabrio. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements made with the newer version.
Positive: Calabrio's customer service has been a plus. I believe they listen to what their customers are saying, even when it may be painful, and seem to always be striving to improve their product, and maintain good customer service.
It's given staff direct access to inputting their absences and secure coverage quicker, whereas before they had to make a call to a person. That person had to secure coverage for the entire district at different levels. Sometimes that person was absent or unable to provide coverage.
