How many agents are available?

Have you tried using Erlang calculations to work out how many agents you really need?. It seems simple enough, just take the "Forecasting" report from CCM as the input. Of course this is a long process, and some call centres have purchased really expensive agent scheduling systems that use the same data . I wonder how many get inaccurate results. You see, it takes 'The Investigator' to get the REAL available agents.  Am I saying the report in CCM is wrong?. Not really, the report is correct, but it doesn't give the right number of available agents for the use in Erlang calculations (or any other distribution calculation). Its fairly simple if you think about it. Lets say I have 3 ACD groups , and one agent is available in all of them. Each ACD group shows this agent as available in your reports. (Even when He/She is talking on an ACD call.) In reality you only have 1/3 of an agent available, but wait it gets worse!. You may have a priority ACD group which means that the agent always takes calls from ACD group 1. Yet your reports show that agent as available in the other groups. The same is true for an outbound call. The forecasting report includes outbound time as being available, and in a way this is correct. The agent had not made themselves unavailable.

For an Erlang calculation to work, the agent must either be free, or on an ACD call for THAT ACD group to be called 'available' for that group. Outgoing and Other ACD call states should be seen as unavailable.

Confused?, don't be, just buy the Investigator and see how many agents you really have available. Of course you also get the Erlang calculation reports and a new report showing the agent states for your ACD group. This includes the time they are busy on other ACD groups, and the time that they are on outgoing calls, so not able to answer a call. ( as opposed to being on an ACD call and making an enquiry call)

Have a look for yourself. I have added the option of using my Agent calculation , or to use the CCM reported agents. In some call centres the calculated version may not be accurate. ( For very low traffic, where agents dont take a single call for over 15 minutes).

Here is the report using CCM values. VS the same report using calculated agents.