I use Alvaria to put in time off requests, manage my daily schedule, and to correct any discrepancies with my schedule.
Pros
Calculates time off balances
Calculates available group allowances for time off requests
Documents when I take breaks and the duration of those breaks/lunches
Cons
It could show more info on the home page, not just the daily schedule
At times the website runs a little slow
The mobile app could be easier to navigate as well
Likelihood to Recommend
It's a pretty convenient tool. Sometimes I accidentally go a bit over on my break and instead of waiting for leadership to report the attendance occurrence to me, I can just check it on Alvaria.
Verified User
Employee in Customer Service (5001-10,000 employees)
Alvaria is used to organize and track employee schedules, and adherence to schedules, as well as tracking available employee perks such as personal time off available, vacation time off available, and various extended leave policies available for each employee. It allows management to track large numbers of schedules simultaneously and be alerted when there is an adherence issue.
Pros
Good tracking for large numbers of employees.
Decent UI for employees.
Accurate tracking of time balances.
Cons
Clunky reporting tools.
Schedules are modifiable, but this is a time-consuming process for those with flexible schedules.
The site is a bit ugly, and the home page is not modifiable, which means a lot of extra searching for regularly used tools.
Likelihood to Recommend
Alvaria is well suited for implementing and tracking schedules for employees where strict schedules and timely staffing is important (Call center, retail, etc). Positions that are directly customer-facing are benefitted from an accurate and consistent schedule tracking as there is an hourly workflow to handle. It is less likely to help for positions that have flexible schedules - such as creator work.
We use it to request time off for any reason in conjunction with the Workday system. On Alvaria, we request the time off so we don't get any markups for the time, and Workday is used for pay purposes. It helps us keep track of any missed days or put in the time that was late. This is also where we request any time off for vacation or sick time.
Pros
Keeps track of time off.
Cons
The system is a little confusing to use because of the segments and packages.
The system seems a little outdated compared to workday and is less easy to use.
The system doesn't tell you what went wrong in a way that is easy to translate when time off is rejected.
Likelihood to Recommend
This is well suited for the employer but is very difficult for the employee to use. The system seems a little outdated and the options for taking time off are a little difficult to understand with no help from the system. When the time off requests get rejected, you have to click through a lot to actually find your answer as to when and why it was rejected and when you do find it, it is not easy to translate why it was rejected.
All customer-facing employees utilize the Noble suite of products, from Customer Service to Collections. The ability to leverage multiple methods of communication, in this age of digital engagement, is critical to our business. Noble's robust product suite offers us that ability, without engaging multiple vendors. Noble offers SMS, Email, Web Chat, and Blended voice solutions, all fully integrated. The ability to remain compliant with the stringent, ever-changing, regulatory rules is a requirement for our industry. Noble addresses all Compliance-Related challenges. Reporting and Recording is also a requirement for us, and Noble has extremely robust reporting and recording for all modes of communication.
Pros
Noble uses the same code for either Premise or Cloud, making the decision for us to go 100% Cloud simple. Our industry, like so many others, is looking to migrate to Cloud wherever possible. Deployments in a Cloud environment are much faster, from adding Agent Licenses to implementing additional products in the Noble suite. Noble monitors all servers, and adjusts as necessary, automatically, with courtesy communication to end-user as to what action was taken to prevent any production impacting event.
Noble's Enterprise Support is WORLD CLASS, providing 24/7 support. First call resolution is superb, with a "No Hassle" escalation process, all the way to CEO, if necessary. Dedicated Account Management with a tenured group of Level II technicians, assures quick resolution. Enterprise Support comes weekly/bi-weekly meetings to discuss open tickets and opportunities to upgrade to new versions of the product.
Customer inspired Road Maps to ensure needs and requirements are met, in a timely manner. Enhancements and product adds are often as a result of customer requests. Noble will tackle one-off requirements for a fee, too.
Noble Product Suite is extremely robust, resulting in minimal-to-zero additional vendor requirements, stacking on top of the product. Our IT requirement has been review and consolidates vendors where possible, and bringing Noble into the organization did just that. From Quality Assurance and Compliance to Multi-Session opportunity, Noble reduced the need to engage multiple vendors.
Cons
Selfishly, I would love for Noble to provide their own instance of gateways for SMS and Email. This is one area where additional vendors are required, to serve as the gateway to launch texts and emails. This opens opportunities for breaks that require additional resources to trace the root of the issue.
Some of Noble product offerings require extensive start-to-finish resources. While there is not much room for improvement, end-user should know some products require much more upfront work than others. Prerequisite courses and questionnaires are almost always required, along with on-site training. It should be made very clear, Noble has these requirements to absolutely ensure end-user are proficient in taking full advantage of the product, once released to Support.
Post-Upgrade testing is time-consuming, especially if the number of products utilized is extensive. While Noble deploys most all upgrades to a DEV environment and engages multiple resources when deploying to PROD, ensuring all products don't resort to "Default" isn't 100%. End-User is required to complete significant testing, too, but there are opportunities for misses, that may result in production impact. Upgrades, with testing, could take 4-6 hours.
Likelihood to Recommend
Noble is well suited for any size contact center doing inbound only, or fully blended environments. From appointment setting to collections, Noble has products to successfully accomplish the requirement. For organizations that are heavily focused on compliance, Noble's TCPA Lockdown product, Post and Real-Time Speech Analytics, and onboard evaluation tools are a must - all proprietary and fully integrated. For organizations interested in "doing more with less", Noble has multiple AI products that ensure success.
My department used Noble Systems cloud-based call center solution for telephone customer service contacts. We bought it to replace an outdated premise-based phone system because it had features we wanted. Specifically, it advertised robust reporting, a Quality Assurance module with call recording and a configurable call auditing form, excellent user interface flexibility, and flexible user location - agents could work from home or other locations.
Pros
Local control: the Noble Maestro platform, once you learn it, enables you to control your call center right from your desk. You can add, delete, and skill users, you can build all of your IVR flows and change them as necessary (like for holiday closures, etc)
User interface design: I built the pop-up windows for each queue, and was able to design them to contain quick reference information for how to handle calls, and build an order number capture module from the IVR to the agent. In other words, I could prompt the customer to punch in their order number, then display it to the agent.
Technical support - their support group was easy to reach and easy to work with.
Cons
Java compatibility - Java compatibility errors were constant during my time using Noble, as in multiple errors per week in an 80 person call center. Although their tech support was responsive, it was not effective in achieving a lasting solution, even when I facilitated conference calls between my telecom group and their tech support. After several months I counted 172 tech support tickets opened with Noble about Java.
Noble advertised an Email Response Management System, and we bought it. After two years, we decided to implement it. It turned out that it was so primitive as to be worthless. As I managed the implementation, I was continually surprised at what it could not do. I would have to consult my notes from back then, but I remember that it did not have standard features like one would find in Outlook or Gmail, for example. It could not handle attachments, the CC function did not work as expected, and there was no BCC, there was no "Sent" file (we would have had to use our Outlook server to save sent emails), among many other things. After 5 months of testing and trying to make it work, we decided to discard it.
Technical support - I listed this as a strength, but only on the responsiveness and politeness of its agents. Although there was always someone to answer the phone, we had chronic problems like Java incompatibility, reporting inconsistencies, stuck calls, two agents on the same call, and many other problems that were never solved. We always had to keep calling tech support to report these problems, and they said they investigated them, but the problems would reoccur. I ended up speaking to most of their IT chain of command over the two years.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is designed as an outbound campaign calling platform, and it is a home-grown design. They require administrators to come to their home office in Atlanta to receive training and certification on its use, and state that only a certified trained user can call tech support. They did not stick to that rigidly, but it was only somewhat intuitive in its design. It is best suited for an outbound call center.
