Lucent Technologies Centrevu Advocate Release 8 User Guide

							  Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Combining CentreVu Advocate Solutions to Meet Call Center Needs2-29
Percent Allocation
(call handling 
preference)
lUCD-LOA
lService Level 
Supervisor
lDirect Agent Calls
lEAD-MIA
lSkill Level 
lGreatest Need
lPredicted Wait 
Time
lService 
Objective
lTop SkillPercent Allocation is a skill-
based agent call handling 
preference. It works well 
with UCD-LOA. It does not 
work well with EAD and 
MIA solutions.
Service Level 
Supervisor
lAll other CentreVu 
Advocate 
solutionsService Level Supervisor 
can be used to enhance 
any other call center 
solution.
Predicted Wait 
Time
lAll other CentreVu 
Advocate 
solutions EXCEPT 
Percent AllocationlPercent 
AllocationPredicted Wait Time can be 
used to enhance any other 
call center solution with the 
exception of the Percent 
Allocation agent call 
handling preference. 
Because Percent Allocation 
is based solely on assigned 
skills, the value of using 
Predicted Wait Time is 
nulled.
Service Objective
lAll other CentreVu 
Advocate 
solutions EXCEPT 
Percent AllocationlPercent 
AllocationService Objective can be 
used to enhance any other 
call center solution with the 
exception of the Percent 
Allocation agent call 
handling preference. 
Because Percent Allocation 
is based solely on assigned 
skills, the value of using 
Service Objective is nulled.
Direct Agent Calls 
lAll other CentreVu 
Advocate 
solutionsDirect Agent Calls can be 
used to enhance all other 
call center solutions. Solution Works With Works Against Comments 
						

							  Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Combining CentreVu Advocate Solutions to Meet Call Center Needs2-30
Top SkilllEAD-MIA
lEAD-LOA
lService Level 
Supervisor
lSkill Level
lPredicted Wait 
Time
lService Objective
lGreatest Need
lPercent 
AllocationTop skill is only used with 
Skill Level call handling 
preference to track agents 
that skills can count or to 
provide service. Top Skill is 
used to provide a dedicated 
agent pool for a particular 
skill. Solution Works With Works Against Comments 
						

							  Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Getting the Most from Your Call Center2-31
Getting the Most from Your Call Center2
For Best 
Performance
2
For optimal effectiveness and fairness in most situations, Lucent 
recommends that you use the following features and settings.
These are general recommendations. Every call center is unique, so if 
you implement these recommendations, track system performance 
closely for the first two weeks to ensure our recommendations work in 
your specific system.
Least Occupied 
Agent vs. Most Idle 
Agent
2
Lucent recommends that you use the Least Occupied Agent (LOA) agent 
selection method. LOA gives the fairest distribution of the work load, 
optimizes agent productivity, and reduces Average Speed of Answer. To 
get the greatest benefit from EAD-LOA, we recommend that you 
minimize the number of skill levels assigned to agents. EAD-LOA works 
best with 2-4 skill levels.
EAD-LOA selects the least occupied agent within a skill level; therefore, 
an agent with higher skill levels will still have a higher overall occupancy.
If you do use the Most Idle Agent (MIA) agent selection method, Lucent 
Technologies recommends that you measure MIA across splits or skills. 
(LOA is always applied across skills.) To do this, set the  MIA Across 
Splits or Skills? field to Y on page 8 of the System-Parameters 
Features form.
Predicted Wait 
Time vs. Current 
Wait Time
2
Lucent recommends that you use the Predicted Wait Time (PWT) call 
selection method.
Current Wait Time (CWT) selects calls based on the recent past. This call 
selection method tracks how long a call has waited in queue. When an 
agent becomes available, CWT delivers the oldest call already waiting 
from one of that agent’s skills.
Predicted Wait Time (PWT) selects calls based on the past and future. 
This method also tracks how long a call has waited in queue; but, in 
addition, it analyzes current system performance and predicts how long 
the call would wait if the currently available agent does not answer it. 
Predicted Wait Time attempts to eliminate long wait times, thereby 
reducing abandonments. PWT is particularly useful when you need to 
balance wait times between specialized skills staffed with a few agents 
and one or more skills with large staffs.
NOTE: 
						

							  Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Getting the Most from Your Call Center2-32
ACW Considered 
Idle?
2
In most call centers, ACW time is associated with a call and therefore is 
considered work time. If this is the case in your center, set ACW 
Considered Idle? to No (N).
Service Objective 
and Predicted Wait 
Time
2
Lucent Technologies recommends that Service Objective be used with 
Predicted Wait Time.
Matching 
Features to 
Goals
2
CentreVu Advocate features are extremely flexible, and they were 
designed to help you achieve the goals that are most important to you. 
The following table lists goals that are important in most call centers and 
identifies the call and agent selection methods that can help you achieve 
the goals you need to reach.
 If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods
Achieving business objectives
Maximizing 
revenuesService Objective
Minimize lost revenue due to 
abandoned calls by setting lower 
acceptable service levels for the 
highest revenue generating skills. As 
the number of calls in queue 
increases for these critical skills, 
DEFINITY ECS will preferentially 
select calls in these skills to keep 
maximum wait times low.
Skill Levels
Skill Levels can be assigned to 
indicate the highest revenue-
generating calls; for example, if a skill 
has the highest potential revenue, it 
is assigned level 1.EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA
Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) 
selects the most highly skilled agent 
available to answer each call. Define 
skills to represent different levels of 
sales performance; for example, and 
assign agents to skills based on their 
performance: now more calls will go 
to your best salespeople.
Increasing agent 
productivity
UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA
For any given call volume and staff 
level, Least Occupied Agent (LOA) 
reduces Average Speed of Answer 
and makes overall agent work time 
more uniform.  
						

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Increasing 
operating flexibilityService Level Supervisor
Service Level Supervisor (SLS) 
automatically manages agents 
during periods of peak load. Using 
criteria you supply, SLS adds 
predefined reserve agents to the 
busiest skills when Expected Wait 
Time exceeds preset thresholds. 
When the reserve agents are no 
longer needed, SLS removes them 
from the skills. Your call center 
automatically adapts to changes in 
call volume without supervisor 
intervention.
Increasing 
customer 
satisfactionPredicted Wait Time 
Predicted Wait Time (PWT) reduces 
abandonments by equalizing wait 
times. With this feature, 
DEFINITY 
ECS looks at how long calls are likely 
to wait in queue and selects calls in 
the order to equalize wait times 
across skills.
Service Level Supervisor
Service Level Supervisor (SLS) 
automatically manages agents 
during periods of peak load. Using 
criteria you supply, SLS adds 
predefined backup or reserve agents 
to the busiest skills to keep Expected 
Wait Times low. The maximum wait 
times are minimized, and abandoned 
calls are reduced.EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA
By selecting the most highly skilled 
agent available to answer each call, 
Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) 
allows you to give customers the best 
possible service.  If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods 
						

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Getting the Most from Your Call Center2-34
Increasing 
customer 
satisfaction
(Contd)Service Objective
Service Objective allows you to 
preferentially select calls for your 
most important skills first—even if 
those skills don’t have the oldest 
calls. Set a lower Acceptable Service 
Level (ASL) for crucial skills and 
enable Service Objective for some or 
all of the agents in that skill. 
DEFINITY ECS will select calls from 
the skills that are closest to 
exceeding their ASL.EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA
By selecting the most highly skilled 
agent available to answer each call, 
Expert Agent Distribution (EAD) 
allows you to give customers the best 
possible service.
Increasing agent 
satisfactionPercent Allocation
Percent Allocation allows you to 
evenly distribute calls to a skill and to 
all the agents assigned to that skill. 
To do this, assign equal percentages 
for the skill to all agents assigned to 
that skill. (For example, if all agents 
assigned to skill 1 have a percent 
allocation of 25% for the skill, 
DEFINITY ECS will select calls for 
each agent so that they spend 
approximately 25% of their staffed 
time on calls in skill 1.) Percent 
Allocation also gives agents a 
greater variety of calls.UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA
Least Occupied Agent (LOA) 
distributes the work load more fairly 
among agents than the Most Idle 
Agent (MIA) method does. LOA 
eliminates “hot seat” agents—agents 
who spend more time on calls 
because they have more assigned 
skills or higher skill levels.  If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods 
						

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Getting the Most from Your Call Center2-35
Controlling Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
Lowering ASA for 
selected customersPercent Allocation
Allocate more of your agents’ time to 
important skills so that they will take 
more calls from those skills than from 
less important skills.
Predicted Wait Time
If you have important but small skills 
with just a few agents, use Predicted 
Wait Time to balance wait times 
between these specialized skills and 
your larger skills. Predicted Wait 
Time will lower ASA for the smaller 
skills.
Service Level Supervisor
By automatically adding agents to 
your most important skills during 
periods of peak load, Service Level 
Supervisor (SLS) will reduce 
Expected Wait Time and Average 
Speed of Answer for these skills.
Service Objective
Service Objective allows you to 
preferentially select calls for your 
most important skills first—even if 
those skills don’t have the oldest 
calls. Set a lower Acceptable Service 
Level (ASL) for crucial skills and 
enable Service Objective for the 
agents in that skill. 
DEFINITY ECS 
will select calls from the skills that are 
closest to exceeding their ASL.
UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA
Least Occupied Agent (LOA) 
distributes the work load more 
equally to agents across all skills, 
thus giving all callers better levels of 
service.
Equalizing ASA 
across skills
Predicted Wait Time
If you have important but small skills 
with just a few agents, use Predicted 
Wait Time to balance average speed 
of answer between these specialized 
skills and your larger skills. Predicted 
Wait Time will lower ASA for the 
smaller skills.UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA
Least Occupied Agent (LOA) 
distributes the work load more 
equally to agents across all skills, 
thus giving all callers better levels of 
service.  If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods 
						

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Getting the Most from Your Call Center2-36
Controlling Abandonments
Minimizing 
abandonments by 
controlling 
maximum wait timeService Level Supervisor
By automatically adding agents to 
your most important skills during 
periods of peak load, Service Level 
Supervisor (SLS) will reduce 
Expected Wait Time and Average 
Speed of Answer for these skills, 
reducing the likelihood that callers 
will abandon.
UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA
Least Occupied Agent (LOA) lowers 
the ASA across skills, thus giving all 
callers better levels of service.
Controlling Percent in Service Level
Equalizing Percent 
in Service Level 
across skillsService Objective
By using Service Objective, 
DEFINITY ECS will select calls 
based on how long they have waited 
in comparison to the acceptable 
service level. This feature works to 
keep all your skills at approximately 
the same percent in service level and 
relatively close to their acceptable 
service level.
 If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods 
						

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Handling any media 
with different levels 
of serviceService Objective
If you are using your 
DEFINITY ECS 
to handle, faxes, e-mails, and video 
calls as well as voice calls, there may 
be large differences between the 
Acceptable Service Level (ASL) for 
different media. Use Service 
Objective to ensure that skills with 
higher volume and shorter ASLs 
(voice calls, for example) do not 
negatively affect service for skills 
with longer ASLs (A skill for e-mail 
requests might have an ASL of two 
and a half hours.) For a detailed 
example of this type of application, 
see Chapter 4.
Service Level Supervisor
In the above example, if there are a 
few agents administered with the e-
mail skill, the reserve agents who 
normally handle voice calls could 
back up the e-mail agents.
Giving better 
service to smaller 
skillsPredicted Wait Time
If you have important but small skills 
with just a few agents, use Predicted 
Wait Time to equalize wait time for all 
skills. Predicted Wait Time will lower 
ASA for the smaller skills. (There 
may be a slight increase in the wait 
times for larger skills.)
Service Objective
Set a lower Acceptable Service Level 
(ASL) for small skills and enable 
Service Objective for some or all of 
the agents in that skill. 
DEFINITY 
ECS will select calls from the skills 
that are closest to exceeding their 
ASL—even if those aren’t the oldest 
calls waiting.
 If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods 
						

							  Custom CentreVu® Advocate Solutions CentreVu® Advocate Release 8 User Guide
Getting the Most from Your Call Center2-38
Managing Agents
Automatically move 
agents to respond 
to changes in call 
volumeService Level Supervisor
Service Level Supervisor (SLS) 
automatically manages agents 
during periods of peak load. Using 
criteria you supply, SLS adds 
predefined reserve and backup 
agents to the busiest skills when 
Expected Wait Time exceeds preset 
thresholds. When the reserve agents 
are no longer needed, SLS removes 
them from the skills. Your call center 
automatically adapts to changes in 
call volume without supervisor 
intervention.
Control the amount 
of time agents 
spend in each of 
their skillsPercent Allocation
The Percent Allocation feature is 
designed to make agent scheduling 
easier. With this feature, you can 
allocate a percentage of an agent’s 
work time to each of their skills and 
DEFINITY ECS will select a mix of 
calls that keeps the agent as close as 
possible to the percentage you have 
specified. (You can use Service Level 
Supervisor with Percent Allocation. If 
the forecasts on which you base your 
allocations turn out not to be 
accurate, Service Level Supervisor 
will override these allocations during 
periods of peak call volume.)
 If your goal is:Consider the following:
Call Selection methods Agent Selection methods