When Plan Meets Reality: Calabrio Named a Visionary for the Fifth Consecutive Year in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Workforce Engagement Management (WEM)

There’s something to be said for planning ahead. But no one was planning for a pandemic. Or were we?  

On the surface, Calabrio and our customers were planning for a continued shift to a hybrid workforce, more agent autonomy and flexibility in scheduling. We were planning for a cloud-first infrastructure that would enable fast scalability, greater innovation and cost optimization. We were planning for greater ease-of-use and visibility across business data that would propel agility.   

For the past five years, Gartner has named Calabrio a Visionary in its Magic Quadrant for Workforce Engagement Management. Turns out, our “plan” was aligned with the exact needs of our customers during a pandemic. So, while we weren’t planning for a pandemic, we were definitely prepared.  

Looking ahead to what’s next is part of our DNA at Calabrio. When we launched the new Calabrio ONE, we offered a platform that prioritized the cloud and the demands of a modern call center. Our goal was to provide a flexible, agent-centric platform that could quickly adapt to change and meet the moment. Customers told us they wanted a platform that worked together as a fully integrated suite, rather than separate solutions that exist alongside each other. After all, what is the good of a plethora of shiny, state-of-the-art features if they don’t work in unity? We’ve always envisioned that our WEM solution needs to be easy to use, unified and built to leverage modern analytics, AI and machine learning tools, and intelligent automation.  

We believe that this recognition from Gartner demonstrates that we continue to build on our vision year after year and that our customers value Calabrio’s innovative approach that prepares them for what comes next – whatever that may be. 

The report details the growing role of WEM in the evolving world of work, “Gartner recommends that WEM solutions be considered strategically within customer service organizations, as they not only help improve operational performance but also increase employees’ well-being. Key market and societal shifts require a repositioning of how organizations manage employees and ensure engagement within their contact centers.”1 

In our State of the Contact Center: Cloud is Here. What’s Next? Study, contact center leaders told us that they have truly seen that cloud-based platforms enable remote workforces with greater flexibility. This was never more important than in 2020 as it empowered our customers to be more strategic and business oriented as the world changed around us and we all flexed to adapt.  

Gartner equally observes, “Innovations that meet the need for better management of employee engagement will be key to vendors’ differentiation in this market during the next few years. Analytics will be at the heart of much of the new functionality.”2

What we hear from our customers is in our opinion, consistent with Gartner’s report. We know customers are looking for easy, personalized and smart user experiences that give them access to vital insights. Analytics have become pivotal to gathering insights and understanding customer sentiment. Agents need to be empowered with data at the center of the process. When all these factors are in place, having the agility to evolve during critical times – from seasonal changes to a pandemic – feels a lot more manageable.  

While the last year has indeed been one of evolution and agility, putting customers first remains at the center of everything we do and is what pushes our organization to continually innovate. Yet we believe it’s important to foster the same innovative spirit among our customers, as is noted in the Magic Quadrant report. So, for the third consecutive year, we will hold the Calabrio Analytics Competition which recognizes and rewards companies using analytics in new ways to turn data into compelling business insights. Not only does this give customers an opportunity to explore and innovate, it provides a forum to share new ideas with peers.    

By staying close to, building a community for and moving with our customers we have been able to help them shift and grow, and have also seen the same accelerated trajectory for Calabrio. Yet our growth ambitions are even higher. So we were thrilled to announce our acquisition by Thoma Bravo. Thoma Bravo’s billion-dollar investment gives us an opportunity to accelerate our product development and portfolio growth and solidifies Calabrio’s leadership in the market. Our commitment to building on our vision, prioritizing customers and providing transformative WEM experiences remains the same – and is supported by a new partner that believes in the power of Calabrio and how we are addressing the market. The future does, indeed, belong to those who plan for it.  

Click here to read the full Gartner Magic Quadrant for Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) report.