Lucent Technologies Centrevu Advocate Release 8 User Guide

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Overview9-1
9  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill
Overview9
Many call center administrators want to simplify agent scheduling, as well as 
control agents’ time in different skills. Controlling agent time in skills more 
evenly spreads the overall work load between agents as well as more evenly 
distributes calls among agents.
CentreVu® 
Advocate 
Features
9
This chapter discusses the following CentreVu Advocate features:
lPercent Allocation call handling preference
lService Level Supervisor.
Use the 
CentreVu Supervisor reports presented in this chapter to verify that 
CentreVu Advocate is working.
Customer 
Example
9
A travel agency call center has 20 agents and 4 skills. Since agents are paid 
on commission, they need an equal opportunity within each skill. The call 
center supervisor wants to evenly distribute the calls among agents, which 
will in turn more evenly distribute overall work load. Based on traffic, the 
percentages are assigned the same for each agent, as follows:
lCruises: 20%
lAirlines: 50%
lDomestic: 15%
lInternational: 15%.
To better serve the higher revenue skills, such as Cruises and 
International, the percentages are set higher than the expected traffic.
NOTE: 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Implementation9-2
Implementation9
Agents will have their time in the four skills determined through Percent 
Allocation, a new call handling preference available with 
CentreVu 
Advocate. The agent selection method is a form of Expert Agent 
Distribution (EAD).
Agent Selection9Agent selection for this call center solution is through Uniform Call 
Distribution-Least Occupied Agent (UCD-LOA) to choose the least 
occupied agent available in a skill. All agents are assigned to all four 
skills. UCD-LOA distributes the work load across all skills, giving all 
agents a comparable level of occupancy. The Average Speed of Answer 
(ASA) should also be determined for each skill to minimize the abandons 
per skill. Once the ASA is determined, the thresholds can be set below 
the average time to abandon on each skill and above the acceptable 
service level.
Call Selection9Agents are given a call handling preference of Percent Allocation. 
Percent Allocation controls agent time in skill by selecting a mix of calls 
for each agent that keeps the agent as close as possible to the 
administered percentages per skill. Service Level Supervisor may be 
used with Percent Allocation, and will override the Percentages for each 
skill if the forecasts on which the percent allocations are based turn out to 
be inaccurate, if Call Selection Override is ON (see Chapter 2, “Custom 
CentreVuâ Advocate Solutions,”  Chapter 11, “Administer CentreVuâ 
Advocate on the
 DEFINITYâ ECS” and Chapter 3, “Call Center Solution: 
Maximize Revenues” for more information).
Direct Agent Calls First may also be administered on a per-agent basis. 
Selecting this option will send direct agent calls before percent-allocated 
calls, overriding Percent Allocation even in an over-threshold situation. If 
this option is not selected, then Direct Agent Calls will be treated like 
other skill level calls, and will be answered as Direct Agent Calls only 
when there is a best percentage match. 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Implementation9-3
Switch 
Administration
9
Several items must be administered on the switch administration forms 
for this business solution to work. See Chapter 11, “Administer 
CentreVuâ Advocate on DEFINITYâ ECS” for more information on 
switch administration.
Customer Options 9On the System Parameters Customer Options form, set the following 
fields:
lCentreVu Advocate? must be set to Y.
lExpert Agent Selection (EAS)? must be set to Y.
Features9In the Service Level Supervisor Call Selection Override 
field, enter Y to divert agents to over-threshold skills.
Hunt Group 9On the Hunt Group form, set the following parameter:
lEnter the skill number on the command line.
lOn page 1, the Group Type: field must be set to UCD-LOA.
If Service Level Supervisor is to be enabled, continue with the following 
administration:
lOn page 2, enter Y in the Service Level Supervisor field and 
set the Thresholds to a level high enough that warrants agents to be 
redirected.
Administer these parameters for the Airlines skill, the Domestic skill, and 
the International skill.
CentreVu 
Supervisor 
Administration
9
Agents need to have their call handling preferences set to Percent 
Allocation, and then need to be assigned to the skills Cruises, Airlines, 
Domestic, and International with percentages. Direct Agent Calls First 
may be selected if Direct Agent Calls are to be selected on a per-agent 
basis; otherwise, Direct Agent Calls will be treated like other skill level 
calls. 
New Agents must have this administered on the 
DEFINITY ECS forms 
(see Chapter 11, “Administer 
CentreVuâ Advocate on DEFINITYâ ECS” 
for more information). Existing agents can have this administered using 
the following procedure. 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Implementation9-4
Change Agent 
Skills Dialog Box 
9
On the Change Agent Skills dialog box, shown below, set an agent’s call 
handling preference to Percent Allocation.
To administer an agent’s call handling preference, use the following 
steps.
1. Select Com
mands from the CentreVu Supervisor Controller.
2. Select A
gent Administration.
3. Select the automatic call distribution (ACD) by entering the ACD in 
the text box or selecting an ACD from the drop-down history list.
4. Select Change Agent Skills on the Operations tab.
5. Select OK. The Select Agent/Template dialog box will display.
6. Select an agent by entering the agent’s name in the text box, using 
the drop-down history list or using the history button.
7. Select OK. The following Change Agent Skills dialog box will display 
with the selected agent’s information shown in the title bar. The 
Assigned Skills grid will display on the dialog box.
8. Select Call Handling Preference: Percent Allocation.
9.Optional: Select the Direct Agent Calls First check box to send 
direct agent calls to the agent fist, even in overload situations.
10. Set the agent’s percentage for each assigned skill. The total must be 
equal to 100 percent of the agent’s staffed time across all skills.
11 . S e l e c t  OK to accept the assignment. 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Implementation9-5
Options9If you have several agents that need to have the same assigned skills 
and skill levels, use the Agent Template options on the Change Agent 
Skills form to use the information for another agent.
1.Using procedures in the Chapter 6, “Agent Administration,” of the 
CentreVuâ CMS R3V8 Administration document (585-210-910), 
define an agent template with the skill profiles you wish to apply to a 
group of agents .
2. Select the agent template in the Select Agent/Template dialog box. 
The Change Agent Skills dialog box will display with the skill profiles 
for that template displayed.
3. Select the Agent Name(s)/Login ID(s) check box and enter up to 
50 agents in the agent field or select up to 50 agents using the drop-
down list or Browse dialog box.
4. Select OK. 
CentreVu Supervisor will buffer the change agent skills requests and 
send them to the switch one at a time. A status dialog box will 
display with the status of each agent request. 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Verifying the Solution Through Reports9-6
Verifying the Solution Through Reports9
This solution can be verified by reviewing agent work states and time in 
skill. The results of implementing this solution can be seen in any of the 
reports that include information on agents staffed per skill and overall 
agent information, such as skill assignments. 
Reports9The most relevant reports to this solution are listed below:
lReal-Time Graphical Allocated Agents Report
lHistorical Graphical Average Positions Staffed Report
lIntegrated Agent Graphical Information Report
lReal-Time Agent Information Report.
You may also use the Real-Time Queue/Agent Summary Report to 
display a summary of agent activity for the administered skills.
Additional 
Information
9
These reports are fully documented in the CentreVuâ Supervisor Version 
8 Reports
 document (585-210-929). They are summarized as they relate 
to 
CentreVu Advocate in this chapter. See the Reports document for 
more information on Real-Time and Historical reports.
Database Items and 
Calculations
9
New database items and calculations for CentreVu Advocate, along with 
modified, existing database items, are described in Chapter 13, 
“
CentreVuâ Advocate Database Items and Calculations.” Existing 
database items and calculations are described in the 
CentreVu CMS 
R3V8 Database Items and Calculations 
(585-210-939) document. 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Verifying the Solution Through Reports9-7
Real-Time 
Graphical 
Allocated Agents 
Report
9
This report, which is available only for customers who have DEFINITY 
ECS R6 or later switches with Expert Agent Selection (EAS) and have 
purchased 
CentreVu Advocate, displays the number of active and staffed 
percent allocation agents who are staffing a selected skill.
If 
CentreVu Advocate is not activated then those fields on the report 
which pertain to 
CentreVu Advocate will not be populated.
Things to Know for 
CentreVu Advocate9
Here are some things you need to know about this report:
lYou can access this report from the Real-Time Split/Skill Category 
selector menu.
lThe Graphical Allocated Agents report will show the total number of 
active agents and full-time equivalent agents, for a selected skill. 
This report will also show the number of Standard, Reserve1, and 
Reserve2 agents staffed and the number of each of those 
categories of agents who are active for the skill.
— The Call Center manager or supervisor can use this report to 
determine how many agents are active from each agent pool 
and compare that to the number of total staffed agents.
lThis report shows the following two-dimensional bar charts:
— The chart on the left side of the report displays the agents 
active for the specified skill, and has a bar for the number of 
standard agents active, a bar for the number of reserve1 
agents active and a bar for the number of reserve 2 agents 
active.
— The chart on the right side of the report displays staffed agents 
and has a bar each for the number of standard agents staffed, 
number of reserve1 agents staffed, and number of reserve2 
agents staffed.
lThe database items used for the Graphical Allocated Agents Report 
are stored in the csplit table.
lThe chart type can be changed. See the CentreVuâ Supervisor 
Version 8 Reports 
document (585-210-929) for more information.  
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Verifying the Solution Through Reports9-8
Input Fields9The following table describes the input fields on the real-time Graphical 
Allocated Agents report input window. You must fill in the report input 
window to run the report.
Item Description
Skill:Fill in the Skill input name or number for 
which you want to run the report. You can 
enter a skill name only if the name has 
been defined in the Dictionary.
Refresh Every  
SecondsEnter the number of seconds (3 to 600) to 
specify how rapidly 
CentreVu CMS should 
update the report data.
The default for the Refresh Every  
Seconds: field in this window is your 
assigned minimum refresh rate plus 15 
seconds. To find out what your minimum 
refresh rate is, or to change it, check with 
your 
CentreVu CMS administrator.
Enable Report 
ThresholdsCheck the Enable Report Thresholds 
option to start the report with report 
thresholds running. Uncheck the option if 
you do not want to run report thresholds.
Run MinimizedCheck the Run Minimized option to run the 
report in a minimized window. Uncheck 
the option to run the report at full size. 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Verifying the Solution Through Reports9-9
Report Example9The following report is an example of a Graphical Allocated Agents 
report.
Report Description9The following table describes the report fields: 
Report Heading DescriptionDatabase Item/ Calculation, 
Ta b l e  N a m e
Skill:The name or number of the skill (up to 20 
characters) that is selected for this report. syn(SPLIT)
Skill StateThe current state of the skill, compared to the 
administered thresholds.
Requires 
DEFINITY ECS R6 or later with 
CentreVu Advocate.syn(SKSTATE)
Total Agents 
Active:The current number of POSITIONS that are on 
inbound and outbound ACD calls; plus the 
current number of POSITIONS that are in after 
call work (ACW), including agents on 
ACWIN/ACWOUT calls as well as agents in 
ACW not associated with an ACD call; plus the 
current number of POSITIONS at which skill or 
direct agent calls are ringing.ONACD + INACW + AGRING
Full Time 
Equivalent 
Agents Staffed:
CentreVu Advocate full-time equivalent 
number of agents staffed for this skill.
Full Time Equivalent Agents Staffed = 
TOT_PERCENTS / 100.FTE_AGENTS 
						

							  Call Center Solution: Control Agent Time in Skill CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Verifying the Solution Through Reports9-10
Standard 
Agents (active)The current number of POSITIONS that are on 
inbound and outbound ACD calls; plus the 
current number of POSITIONS that are in 
ACW, including agents on ACWIN/ACWOUT 
calls as well as agents in ACW not associated 
with an ACD call. This also includes the current 
number of POSITIONS at which skill or direct 
agent calls are ringing, minus the reserve1 
agents (active); or the number of reserve1 
agents on ACD calls, plus the number of 
reserve1 agents in ACW, plus the number of 
reserve1 agents with this skill that have an 
ACD call ringing. This field is minus the 
reserve2 agents (active); or the number of 
reserve2 agents on ACD calls, plus the 
number of reserve2 agents in ACW, plus the 
number of reserve2 agents with this skill that 
have an ACD call ringing.(ONACD + INACW + 
AGINRING) - (R1ONACD + 
R1INACW + R1AGINRING) - 
(R2ONACD + R2INACW + 
R2AGINRING)
Standard 
Agents (staffed)The current number of POSITIONS that are 
staffed (logged in), minus the number of agents 
staffing this skill as reserve1, minus the 
number of agents staffing this skill as reserve2.STAFFED - R1STAFFED - 
R2STAFFED
Reserve1 
Agents (active)The number of reserve1 agents on ACD calls, 
plus the number of reserve1 agents in ACW, 
plus the number of reserve1 agents with this 
skill that have an ACD call ringing.(R1ONACD + R1INACW + 
R1AGINRING)
Reserve1 
Agents Staffed:The number of agents staffing this skill as 
reserve1.
Requires 
DEFINITY ECS R6 or later with 
CentreVu Advocate.R1STAFFED
Reserve2 
Agents (active)The number of reserve2 agents on ACD calls, 
plus the number of reserve2 agents in ACW, 
plus the number of reserve2 agents with this 
skill that have an ACD call ringing.(R2ONACD + R2INACW + 
R2AGINRING)
Reserve2 
Agents Staffed:The number of agents staffing this skill as 
reserve2.
Requires 
DEFINITY ECS R6 or later with 
CentreVu Advocate.R2STAFFED Report Heading DescriptionDatabase Item/ Calculation, 
Ta b l e  N a m e