Taske Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0 Introduction Manual

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-11-incoming call to the Agent who has been idle the longest.  The effect of this is
that, even over a relatively short period of time, the call load distribution is
approximately even.
ACD MIS System
The MIS provides the information that helps the ACD Supervisor control and
manage the system.  The term ACD Supervisor is used to describe the personnel
and functions that are needed to control and manage an ACD Call Center.  Some
functions include: the ability to access MIS information, the ability to control call
routing, and the ability to control available Agent resources.
Recorded Announcement Devices
An automatic message system is used to improve Callers tolerance of Queue
delays.  A recorded message(s) informs Callers that their call has been received
and will be answered in order of arrival.  This encourages the Caller to wait,
providing reassurance the call has reached the right number and that the delay
will be limited.
Wall Sign
A Wall Sign may be used to inform Supervisors and Agents about the current
status of an ACD Queue.  A Wall Sign is an electronic sign board connected to a
controlling device, such as a PC, and displays information provided by the
TASKE system.
Wall Signs can be used to display many ACD performance parameters such as
the number of daily calls handled and the level of service provided to Callers.
Wall Signs can also be used by Supervisors to display congratulatory (Well
done!), encouraging (Speed up!) and warning (Calls are backing up!)
messages.
Typically, the Wall Sign is used to indicate the number of Calls Waiting and/or the
Average Speed of Answer.  If these parameters increase to a level where
performance targets are not being met, then Agents and Supervisors should
respond by attempting to handle calls more efficiently.  The Supervisor may be
able to log in additional Agents and/or the Agents may be able to shorten the call
Talk Time to handle more calls. 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-12-Call Center Performance Objectives
Performance Targets
In order to ensure consistent service, the Call Center should adhere to some pre-
defined targets for performance in terms of the level of Blocking, and Queue
delay characteristics.  This ensures that the telephone traffic, the number of
Trunks and the number of Agents are kept in balance.  The objective is to
achieve the performance targets specified by the organization, and at minimal
cost.
The performance targets should be appropriate to the function of the Call Center.
In this respect, incoming Call Centers may be broadly divided into two
categories: Revenue-based and Cost-based Call Centers.
Revenue-based Call Centers
In revenue-based Call Centers each call has value in terms of the net revenue
per call.  For example, by tracking call and sales statistics, a catalog sales
operation can estimate the average revenue per call.  The objective in this type
of Call Center is to provide a very high level of service with few Blocked calls and
minimal delays.  Otherwise, the Caller may go to the competition and the
organization loses revenue.  Thus, the Call Center must balance average call
answering costs against average per call revenues.
The objective is to receive as many calls as possible at the maximum net
revenue, or profit, per call.  The Call Centers net revenue is the gross sale price
less the cost of goods and shipping, and less the cost of call handling.  In order
to ensure minimum handling costs per call, the Call Center does not attempt to
handle every single call; marginal calls may cost more in additional Agent costs
than the revenue generated by the last few calls that Abandon.  The Call Center
constantly monitors lost calls to identify the number of these per shift.  When the
lost revenue from calls not handled exceeds the cost of an additional Agent, then
the Call Center will hire another Agent.
Cost-based Call Centers
In a cost-based Call Center, ACD Queuing is often employed in the customer
support and service provision categories where a cost is incurred for each call to
the organization.  The call handling incurs costs but does not result in additional
revenue.  The costs to the organization include the cost of handling the call and
the cost of providing the support service (or the research to examine a Callers
particular problem).  Ideally, there would be no calls, and thus no cost to the
organization.  However, if the support service was not provided, there would be a
short term savings to the organization but a long term loss in business as clients
migrate to organizations providing support. 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-13-The level of service in a cost-based Call Center is generally not as good as that
for a revenue-based Call Center; this is typically manifested as relatively little
chance of Blocking but an almost certain delay of considerable length.  In fact, it
would appear that many such support lines are programmed to ensure a
minimum delay; it is often the intent of an organization to force Callers to listen to
information on-hold.  Generally, an organization provides information on
problems that are typically encountered with their product(s), with the expectation
that Callers will obtain some clues and resolve their problems without requiring
the assistance of a live Agent.
In these circumstances, the Call Center must find a balance between perfect
service and the cost of providing the service; if it wishes to lower costs then
service gets worse (in terms of the answering time and probability of getting a
busy signal).  In essence, the balance is between complaints that the
organization spends too much money, and complaints that the organization
provides poor service.
The length of delay is generally a balance between long distance and manpower
costs, and the long-term impact of potential lost business.
Note  For 1-800 calls, the waiting time spent in Queue is a cost to theorganization and the chargeable time starts when the call enters the ACD Queueand not when the Agent answers the call. 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-14-TASKE ACD ToolBox Overview
The TASKE View of Service
The TASKE ACD ToolBox MIS provides Historical Report and Real-time display
capabilities for all operations that are performed by the MITEL SX-200 DIGITAL
system, enabling a review of the performance of ACD and NonACD elements.
TASKE Historical Reports
Historical Reports provide the following accounts of long-term activity.
Customer perception of service:Pilot and Pilot Group Reports
Agent activity and productivity:Agent and Agent Group Reports
System and equipment activity:Trunk, Trunk Group, Extension and
Extension Group Reports
Call types (optional):Pilot and Pilot Group Call Reason
Reports
Pilot and Pilot Group reports provide a view of the operation of the Call Center as
seen by the Caller.  Information is collated on service parameters and call activity
including: the Service Percentage (or the chance of being Answered before
Abandoning), the length of time a Caller waits before Abandoning, and whether
the Call is Answered by an Agent or is recalled to an alternate answering point.
Agent and Agent Group reports provide a view of the operation of the Call Center
as seen by the Agent.  Information on call parameters and resource activity, such
as the number of NonACD calls that are Answered by an Agent(s) and the
percentage of time that an Agent is talking to Callers, is compiled.
Trunk, Trunk Group, Extension and Extension Group reports provide an
indication of how ACD equipment is used.  Information pertaining to the
percentage of total time spent on incoming and outgoing calls for a particular
Extension or Group, is compiled.
Pilot and Pilot Group Call Reason reports provide a detailed view of call handling.
By analyzing Agent Account Codes, a view may be obtained of the type of calls
that are handled.
Account Codes are strings of digits that Agents enter into the ACD system to
indicate a particular category of call.  For example, if an Agent in an office supply
business receives an order for a stapler, the code 1588 might be entered, where
15 is used to indicate stationery products and 88 to indicate staplers.  The 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-15-business can then track how many calls were received for various departments
and products.
The MIS collates call records by Account Code and reports call details for each
code, such as the total number of calls and the relative usage of a given code
when compared to all codes.  This enables the business to identify which
departments and products are generating the most, or the least, number of calls.
TASKE Real-time Displays
The VT100 based Mitel DIGITAL Monitor and TASKE ACD Monitor Real-time
displays provide the Supervisor with a snapshot of Agent and Pilot activity.  Real-
time Displays focus on short term activity and provide the following current and
recent views.
Now and Current StatusNow is the current status of Agents via Pilot/Path or Pilot Groups. The
Real-time Display provides a view of the current status or recent activity of
the ACD operation based on the latest available information.  For displays
that focus on the current status, information such as the number of Idle
Agents and the number of Agents handling ACD and NonACD calls, is
provided.
LastHourLastHour is the activity for the last hour via Pilot/Path or Pilot Groups.
Last12HoursLast12Hours is the activity for the last 12 hours via Pilot/Path or Pilot
Groups.
LastHour or Last12HoursFor displays that focus on the last hour or the last twelve hours, a view is
provided for a given Pilot or Pilot Group of information on: the Average
Abandon Time, the Average Speed of Answer, the Service Percentage,
the Telephone Service Factor and the number of Calls Waiting. 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-16-TASKE ACD ToolBox: Components
The TASKE MIS system includes the tools illustrated below.TASKE Data Collector
The TASKE Data Collector program runs in the background and is not
readily apparent to the user.  The TASKE Data Collector is a program that
interfaces with the telephone system and collects call center data. This
data consists of SMDR and Real-time Event records. To ensure efficient
use of the hard disk, the TASKE Data Collector compresses the records.
TASKE Administrator
The TASKE Administrator contains these functions:
The Administrator program is used to establish and modify (when
required) the TASKE systems Administrator so that it meets the
configuration requirements for: Agents and Agent Groups, Extensions and
Extension Groups, Pilots/Path and Pilot Groups and Trunks and Trunk
Groups. The Administrator program drives the Historical Reporting
functions and is located on a non-volatile hard disk medium. The
Administrator tells the TASKE system which devices are required for the
Historical Reports.
The TASKE Administrator includes the maintenance functions:
· Disk Audit - indicates when available disk space is running low 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-17-· Shadow Drive Support - to make a backup of records as
protection against a network crash
· Error logs - track and report any errors encountered by the
TASKE system
· Disk Utilization - provides statistics on disk usage
· Archive Records – provides for the automatic archiving of older
records to ensure there is always free space for new records
· Delete Old Records  -  provides for the automatic deletion of old
records to ensure  there is always free space for new records
· Alarm Setting – allows alarms to be set to notify if the collector
stops receiving data.
TASKE Search
TASKE Search contains these functions:
The Search program enables Supervisors to extract particular data
records for closer review. Typical Call Center activity generates very large
volumes of data records. The Supervisor may wish to examine specific
categories of records.  The TASKE Search tool narrows down the search.
TASKE Reports
TASKE Reports contains these functions:
A series of  Reports can be created for the following time periods:
· Daily Reports for reports for a single days Telephone system
operations.
· Weekly Reports for reports for a seven day period of Telephone
system operations.
· Monthly Reports for reports for a calendar month of Telephone system
operations.
· YearToDate Reports for reports by week for several weeks of
Telephone system operations.
· YearByMonth Reports for reports by month for several months of
Telephone system operations. 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-18-Reports can also be generated in the TASKE Reports program by Agent,
Pilot, Extension or Trunk.
Templates for commonly run reports can be saved and reused in the
TASKE Reports program.
TASKE Reports also includes a Forecasting function to determine the
resources needed for the Call Center, and is based on either hypothetical
parameters (input via the keyboard), or on parameters derived directly
from TASKE Historical Reports.  This utility estimates the number of
required Agents, the number of calls that can be handled for a given
period, and the maximum Talk Time.
Any reports created in the TASKE Reports program can be viewed on
screen, printed or exported to another data file type.
Traffic Analyzer
The Traffic Analyzer program is a traffic engineering utility which
enables traffic estimates to be performed on Trunk, Queue and
Agent resources and performs calculations via the Erlang B,
Erlang C and Poisson formulae. It also enables the calculation of
estimates for the following traffic parameters: the number of Trunks, the
level of traffic, the Grade of Service, the average delay and the number of
Agents.  Parameters are input via the keyboard.
TASKE ACD Monitor
The TASKE ACD Monitor contains these functions:
The ACD Monitor program provides a display of real-time information
based on the present status and operation of the ACD Call Center.  ACD
Path numbers represent the ACD Agents directly related to the Path.  This
program is a key tool that enables Supervisors to manage the ACD Call
Center.  It provides information on the status of Agents and Pilots.  Pilots
may be combined to form Pilot Groups, enabling the Supervisor to monitor
combined segments of the ACD system.
The TASKE ACD Monitor program provides a replay interface for the
playback of historical Call Center performance information in both graphic
and text form.  Event records stored in ACD system files can be replayed
allowing Supervisors to view Call Center activities as they happened. 
						

							Introduction                            TASKE Call Center Management Tools Version 7.0-19-TASKE WallSign Administrator
TASKE WallSign Administrator contains these features:
The TASKE WallSign Administrator programs allow selection and display
of various messages and ACD information on one or more Wall Signs.
The WallSign Machine is the engine that drives the Sign Network; in its
running state, it analyzes and executes the Sign Plans defined in the
Configuration program.  The TASKE WallSign Machine receives
performance updates, every second, on the Real Time Database variables
specified with the current running message.
The TASKE WallSign defines, tests, and saves Conditional and Default
Messages displayed on the Wall Signs of the Sign Network.
The TASKE WallSign Quick Message function displays a brief message
before, during, or in place of a message defined in a Sign Plan.
The TASKE WallSign Graphics Wizard function allows custom designed
graphics to be produced (like company logos) for display on the Wall
Signs.
TASKE Agent Desktop
The TASKE DeskTop Sign displays both user-specified real-
time and historical statistics on the status of Agents, and also
ACD performance parameters.  The statistics are displayed
in color-coded subdivisions on desktop screens, and are
continuously updated as new data is received from the TASKE Data
Collector.