Siebel Systems Inc. on Monday introduced Contact Center Performance Solution and Sales Performance Solution, which are designed to measure and improve the effectiveness of employees in the two areas.

Contact Center Performance Solution will help contact-center agents increase cross-selling and up-selling of products and services during customer calls to counteract potential revenue losses caused by limitations on outbound telemarketing, says Anthony Deighton, general manager of Siebel ERM.

The new systems are modules that work in conjunction with Siebel's customer-relationship-management software, he says. Companies can use the software to evaluate cost structures and organizational competence, communicate organizational business goals, provide training to employees, and measure employee performance.

The contact-center and sales-performance products will provide scorecarding and analytics to give employees a view of relevant key performance indicators, intended to help a company evaluate success. The communications and productivity tools can help keep sales representatives and contact-center agents appraised of the latest business strategies and processes.

"A critical issue in call centers is the high level of turnover, where we've all heard about the agent who leaves for 5 cents an hour more somewhere else," Deighton says. "Sometimes they do that because they don't believe or understand how they can make 10 cents more an hour by staying at their current position. These solutions can measure performance against a matrix that shows how the employee fits on a career path."

Training and competency management in the solutions can continually track employee performance and help improve workforce skills, he says.

Telecommunications company Alcatel is among the first adopters, but Deighton says he believes virtually all of Siebel's CRM customers will be interested in adding the software.