Managing relationships with millions of customers is a huge organisational challenge for any large utility. For Hera Comm, the main challenge lies in the extremely high variability in demand for customer support, driven by marketing campaigns, billing deadlines and seasonality.
Accurately forecasting demand peaks is critical: understaffing immediately leads to backlog build-up, long queues at service desks and a decline in customer experience. Overstaffing, on the other hand, drives up operating costs inefficiently.
What was needed was to move beyond rigid scheduling models disconnected from historical data. Hera Comm needed a tool capable of balancing staff contractual constraints with expected service levels, turning workforce planning into a strategic lever for customer experience.
How we create value
Optit developed a custom SaaS solution that applies Decision Science to manage the entire resource planning cycle. The system combines advanced demand forecasting models, which estimate footfall by cross-referencing historical trends with commercial drivers, with prescriptive engines for shift optimisation and simulation. The algorithm translates contractual rules and staff availability into mathematical constraints, delivering stable scenarios and monitoring dashboards for management oversight.
The scientific rigour and industrial impact of this approach have been validated by international publications and recognised globally, taking the project to the finals of some of the most prestigious awards in operations research worldwide, including the EURO Excellence in Practice Award and the Wagner Prize for Excellence.
