Call center systems produce reams of data. If you’re into numbers your call center platform’s and system’s various reports will keep you happy for days. If you’re more of a people person, as is the case with most call center managers and supervisors, all this data makes your eyes glaze over and your head spin. Yet you know these numbers are important. If only they made sense to you. What you need is a call center management portal, a one-stop access point that produces data in a way you can understand and apply. Here’s what you can expect from a call center management portal: Merge Reports: How many times do you need to cross-reference information from one report with numbers from a second? A call center management portal can merge data from multiple sources to present the combined results in an easy-to-use tool. How much time will this save you? More importantly, how much aggravation will this save you? Think of it: no more rekeying numbers into an external spreadsheet, no more database uploads that take forever, and no more error messages when a file import doesn’t go as planned. With a call center management portal you will spend less time playing with numbers and more time using understandable data to manage your staff. Helpful Dashboard: Most call center management portals provide an at-a-glance, real-time picture of call center activity. Select the parameters that matter most to your operation and the numbers that best influence your decision-making. Then let the portal present them to you in an easy-to-read display. A call center management portal’s dashboard provides you with the actual, current conditions in your call center. Make decisions using reliable, up-to-date information that you can access with ease and apply with confidence. Historical Numbers: In addition to considering your current call center conditions, sometimes you need to look at historical data, too. What were conditions at this time yesterday, last week, or last year? Another common request is to look at aggregate data over a span of time. This might be for a shift, a day, a week, or from the beginning of a certain campaign. A call center management portal lets managers pull up historical reports in order to manage better today and make informed decisions to influence tomorrow. Actionable Analytics: The results of merging data, a real-time dashboard, and historical numbers—along with other reports and database statistics—is actionable information that managers and supervisors can use to better manage agents, track client results, and optimize operations. In fact, the key benefit of call center management portals is actionable analytics. Without applicable data, you can have vast quantities of numbers that accomplish little. Actionable analytics helps supervisors and managers make informed decisions. And that’s the goal of any call center management portal. Get yours today and begin managing with greater effectiveness. Learn more about having accessible, actionable call center and answering service statistics—provided by Call Center Sales Pro’s Fuzion Portal—at this year’s NAEO conference, March 12-15. Janet Livingston is the president of Call Center Sales Pro, a premier contact center consultancy that offers telephone answering services their exclusive CCSP Fuzion Portal, the next-gen portal for actionable analytics. Contact Janet at contactus@callcenter-salespro.com or 800-901-7706 to learn more.Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer from Southwest Michigan.