Lucent Technologies Lucent Call Centers Little Instruction Book For Advanced Administration

							Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Call and agent selection methods 
129 Agent selection examples 
Expert Agent Distribution - Most Idle 
Agent 
In the following example, the same three agents are available to serve the 
next arriving Sales skill call, but Expert Agent Distribution-Most Idle Agent 
(EAD-MIA) is administered.  Which agent will be selected for the call?    
In this scenario, Agent B is selected because he is the highest skill level who 
has been idle longest in this skill.  Notice that while Agent C has been idle 
the longest, he cannot be selected due to the EAS component of the decision; 
he has been assigned a lower skill level.  Agent Skill 
LevelTime since last Sales Call
A15 seconds
B 1 10 seconds
C 2 30 seconds 
						

							Call and agent selection methods 
130 Agent selection examples 
Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Uniform Call Distribution - Most Idle 
Agent 
Using the same agents, but administering Uniform Call Distribution (UCD-
MIA), who would be selected to receive the next arriving Sales skill call?     
In this situation, Agent C receives the next arriving call because calls are 
distributed evenly across agents according to idle time in queue, without 
regard to skill level. Agent Skill 
levelTime since last Sales call
A 1 5 seconds
B 1 10 seconds
C 2 30 seconds 
						

							Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Call and agent selection methods 
131 Developing your strategy 
Developing your strategy
CentreVu Advocate provides you with many options for call and agent 
selection.  Before you administer any of these features, you should carefully 
consider your customers and your call center staff.
Determining your agent selection 
strategy 
For each of your skills, you need to consider your call center’s priorities.  
Here are a few examples and the agent selection methods you might want to 
consider.
If there are several agents available to handle an arriving Sales call, would 
you consider it more important to:
nProvide as many calls as possible to the most proficient agents?  If 
so, consider using EAD-MIA.
nEvaluate the workload of each agent to keep workloads fair?  If so, 
consider using UCD-LOA.
nFind the agent who has been idle the longest?  If so, consider using 
UCD-MIA.
Determining your call and agent 
selection combinations
Call and agent selection methods must be paired to work together 
effectively.  The most effective combinations are:
nSkill Level call handling preference with EAD-MIA or EAD-LOA
nGreatest Need call handling preference with UCD-MIA or UCD-
LOA
nPercent Allocation call handling preference with UCD-LOA. 
						

							Call and agent selection methods 
132 Developing your strategy 
Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
The following questions and suggestions will help you to get started on 
developing your overall strategy for combining call and agent selection 
methods to achieve the results you want for your call center.  
Is a highly resilient operation and achievement of objectives your goal?  
Use PWT and Service Objectives for each skill.  Administer Greatest Need 
with Service Objective for agents and use UCD-LOA for the Hunt Group 
method.
Are some of your callers more important to your business than others?  Is it 
also important that your best agents handle as many of those calls as 
possible?  
Use PWT and set Service Objectives.  Administer Skill Level for agents 
who have higher proficiency in certain areas and Greatest Need for agents 
without strength in any particular skill.  Use EAD-LOA for the Hunt Group 
method.  
Do some of your skills experience peaks in heavy volume? 
Use Service Level Supervisor, set overload thresholds, and assign reserve 
skills.
Do you have some small, more specialized skills?  
Beginning with DEFINITY Enterprise Communications Server (ECS) 
Release 8, you can set the Activate on Oldest Call Waiting field to “yes” to 
allow reserve agents to be activated based on the waiting time of the calls in 
queue in addition to EWT.  
Are some agents handling more than their share of calls or feeling 
overburdened?  
Use Percent Allocation and UCD-LOA or EAD-LOA for the Hunt Group 
method.
For more detailed information about features and matching features to 
business goals, please see the CentreVu Advocate User Guide.  
						

							Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Call and agent selection methods 
133 Developing your strategy 
Feature compatibility
CentreVu Advocate features are powerful call distribution tools that often 
work effectively in combination with each other.  There are some features, 
however, that do not work well together.  After determining which features 
will best meet your needs, consider the following to ensure that you have 
selected compatible options.  
The following should not be used together:
nGreatest Need with: 
— EAD-LOA
— EAD-MIA
nPercent Allocation with: 
—  EAD-MIA
— UCD-MIA
— Predicted Wait Time
— Service Objective
nSkill Level with: 
—UCD-LOA
— UCD-MIA. 
						

							Call and agent selection methods 
134 Administering call and agent selection features 
Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Administering call and agent 
selection features
Once you determine your call and agent selection strategy,  you need to 
administer the appropriate features through CentreVu Supervisor or the 
DEFINITY  ECS.  
NOTE:
CentreVu Supervisor can only be used to administer CentreVu 
Advocate features for existing agent login IDs and hunt groups.  New 
login IDs, new hunt groups, and call selection measurements (CWT or 
PWT) must administered on DEFINITY ECS.  
The following table shows where each feature is administered.
Table 10: Administering call and agent selection features 
on DEFINITY ECS
Feature Where administered
Call Selection Measurement:  Current 
Wait Time, Predicted Wait Time
Use of After Call Work (ACW) in LOA 
calculationFeature-Related System Parameters 
Form 
Call Selection Methods:  Greatest 
Need, Skill Level, Percent AllocationAgent LoginID Form 
Agent Selection Methods:  UCD-LOA, 
UCD-MIA, EAD-LOA, EAD-MIAHunt Group Form 
						

							Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Call and agent selection methods 
135 Administering call and agent selection features 
Service Objective and Acceptable 
Service Levels
“Use Service Objective” Hunt Group Form
Agent LoginID Form 
Service Level Supervisor and Call 
Selection Override (ON/OFF)
Overload ThresholdsFeature-Related System Parameters 
Form and Hunt Group Form
Hunt Group Form
Reserve Skills and Reserve Levels Agent LoginID Form
Activation of Reserve Agents using 
Time in Queue (beginning with 
DEFINITY ECS Release 8)Hunt Group Form
Table 10: Administering call and agent selection features 
on DEFINITY ECS — Continued  
Feature Where administered 
						

							Call and agent selection methods 
136 Administering call and agent selection features 
Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Important notes about administration
Call and agent selections are a direct result of how you administer CentreVu 
Advocate.  The following are examples of the effect your administration can 
have on CentreVu Advocate features.  
Call selection works in different ways, depending upon:  
nWhether Current Wait Time (CWT) or Predicted Wait Time (PWT) 
is selected as a system-level parameter
nHow the agents’ skills (standard and reserve) are administered on the 
Agent LoginID form
nWhich call selection method (Greatest Need, Skill Level, or Percent 
Allocation) is administered for the agent on the Agent LoginID form
nWhether “Use Service Objective” is checked on the Agent LoginID 
form
nWhat (if any) overload thresholds are administered for the skills and 
what reserve skills are assigned to agents.
Agent selection works in different ways depending on:
nWhether after call work (ACW) is counted as idle or occupied time 
on the Feature-Related System Parameters form. 
nWhich Hunt Group method is administered for the skill (EAD-LOA, 
EAD-MIA, UCD-LOA, UCD-MIA).
For step-by-step instructions on administration of CentreVu Advocate 
features, please see the CentreVu Advocate User Guide. 
						

							Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Call and agent selection methods 
137 Where should I start? 
Where should I start? 
As a starting point, you might begin with Greatest Need for call selection, 
Service Objective to assign service levels, and UCD-LOA for agent 
selection.  This is the most basic and robust plan if your agents work equally 
well across all of their standard skills. ( “Work equally well” means that all 
agents holding a common skill will perform the same work, in about the 
same amount of time, with similar results.)  
To administer this plan:
nOn the Feature-Related System Parameters Form:
— Select PWT (not CWT) to let the advantages of this predictor 
help foresee and correct potential problems.
— If multi-skilled agents tend to have more after call work 
(ACW), include ACW in occupancy calculations.
nOn the Agent LoginID form:
— Enter Greatest Need for the call selection method.
— Check “Use Service Objective”.
nOn the individual Skill Hunt Group form:
— Administer an acceptable service level or Service Objective 
for each skill (if all skills should receive the same level of 
service, each entry should be identical, for example, all 
acceptable service levels should be 30).
— Administer a Hunt Group method of UCD-LOA for each 
skill. 
						

							Call and agent selection methods 
138 Fine-tuning options to consider 
Lucent Call Center’s Little Instruction Book for advanced 
administration  585-210-936  Issue 1
December 1999
Fine-tuning options to 
consider 
If you determine that Greatest Need, Service Objective, and UCD-LOA (as 
suggested in the previous section) are not the best fit for your call center, 
you might want to make one of the adjustments suggested below.  
If you have:
nAn agent with superior abilities on certain skills, for example, he is 
very skilled at collecting on overdue accounts, consider moving him 
to Skill Level for call selection, making the Collections skill a skill 
level 1 and other skills a level 2.  
nAn agent with less than average abilities in some skills, you could 
assign those skills as reserve skills, allowing the agent to work on the 
skills she is better able to serve until the reserve skills needs extra 
help.
nA small group of people who handle a small set of skills and are paid 
commission for their work, change the hunt method for the 
commissioned skills to UCD-MIA instead of UCD-LOA to ensure 
that everyone receives a fair share of those calls. 
nSupervisors who are normally at their desks and could take incoming 
calls during peak times, assign them reserve skills and ensure they 
know the proper procedures for logging in and out, using AUX, etc.
nOnly a few people for a particular skill and need to make sure this 
skill is as well served as possible, change the call selection method to 
Skill Level, set the agent’s unique skill to a higher preference level 
than the other, more common skills, and evaluate the Hunt Group 
method to see if EAD would create too much unoccupied time for 
these unique agents.