Managing the ACD Interface

By Maggie Klenke

The Call Center School, LLC.

One of the benefits of an automated workforce management system is the data link between the WFM tool and the ACD reporting system.  This data link automates the loading of data on call volume, handle time, agents logged in, etc., so that the WFM team does not have to key in the data manually.  This can be a great time saver, but it is a process that must be managed to ensure accuracy and usefulness of the data for WFM purposes.

Initial Setup

During the initial implementation of a new WFM system, the telecommunications technician will work with the WFM vendor to set up the data link.  This includes the physical connection between the systems and the format of the data that will be transmitted.  The physical connection can be a direct link between the ACD reporting system and the WFM system, or both can be attached to the LAN/WAN to support the data transfer process.  In some cases, there is a dedicated PC/server that serves as a middle point, but many systems communicate directly.  In some configurations, the ACD data is transmitted to the WFM system as if it were a report being sent to a printer.  In others, the WFM system must regularly query the ACD database to find the information required.  Most of the major vendors have worked out the interface processes and the standard methodologies for implementation are well known to the WFM and ACD vendors.  But if you have a lesser-known ACD or a new variety of WFM system, that interface may have to be developed.

If a real-time adherence module is used, the data link for the real-time data from the ACD will probably require a separate link to be established in addition to the one that provides half- or quarter-hourly data.  This may result in additional charges from the ACD vendor.

For call centers utilizing multi-media contacts, it is also possible to link the email management systems and other back-office devices to the WFM system to provide the volume and handle time data.  Care must be taken in setting these automatic feeds since the handle time of an email or chat session may not be as easy to identify as the handle time for a phone call.  Ensure that the vendors work out all the details and you understand the limitations of the information your system will receive and the role you must train your agents to perform.  Using the right work states for non-call contacts will be just as important as using the after call work state for phone calls – without accurate recording the average handle time will be off.  And you can also link the WFM system to other call center systems that need schedule data such as a payroll system, time clock, quality monitoring system, or elearning system.  These systems typically do not feed information into the WFM system, but gather information from it, although the data may flow in both directions

The format of the transmitted data is a critical part of the setup.  Each ACD reporting package has its own format of data and report layouts and the data coming into the WFM system must be mapped to the correct fields for call volume, each element of handle time, etc., for each work type and period.  If the ACD is equipped for skill-based routing, or there is a third-party routing device such as a Genesys or Cisco ICM involved, this mapping can be challenging.  It is vitally important for the WFM system to know what kind of call each is originally.  For example, if a call is actually a sales call but it is overflowed into a service team for handling due to a long queue in the sales team, it is important for the WFM system to count the call as a sales call.  If it is reported as a service call because it was handled by a service skilled agent, then the count for that type is artificially inflated and sales calls are under-reported, resulting in a forecast for fewer sales calls than is accurate.  As this forecast is used to establish schedules, fewer sales agents will be scheduled, forcing more calls to overflow, making this a vicious circle.  For most centers, the best solution to this is to establish multiple skills that might look like this:

• Sales skill – for agents who are primary on sales calls
• Sales backup skill – for backup agents who are secondary on sales calls
• Service skill – for agents who are primary on service calls
• Service backup skill – for backup agents who are secondary on service calls.

Sales calls might queue to both the Sales and Sales backup skill at the same time, or there might be a delay or threshold that must be exceeded before the backup team is tapped.  The result of this kind of setup is that the calls handled and abandoned in the Sales and Sales backup skills can be counted for a total for sales, and likewise for the two service skills.  The call center can see how many calls each group of agents is handling to help out in a secondary skill and what the variation is in handling time between a primary and secondary agent.  Setting up the system with a primary and backup directory number for each skill may not be attractive to the IT/Telecom team, but it is essential to the accuracy of the data for WFM purposes.

Ongoing Management

Once the implementation is completed correctly, it might seem like all the hard work is done.  Unfortunately, that is just not the case, and this is where some users become dissatisfied with system performance over time.  When the forecasts are inaccurate, it is common for the cause to be poorly managed data from the ACDs, rather than some problem in the forecasting algorithm of the WFM system.

The way that many WFM systems use historical data is to create averages over a period of time, smoothing out the minor variations.  The percentage of a week’s call volume that is likely to happen on Monday versus Tuesday is stored in the WFM system.  This allows the user to supply any amount of call volume for the upcoming week, and the system will know how it will distribute among the days.  In addition, the WFM system stores a percentage of an entire day’s load that happens during each half- or quarter-hour and uses this distribution pattern in a similar way.  If bad data corrupts those percentages, the results will be increasing levels of inaccuracy.  Similarly, the systems store the AHT average over time in each period so that this can be used as well.

There are hardware/software failures in the data link that cause the data reported to be lost or corrupted.  For example, the WFM system might have nothing but zeros for three half-hour periods due to such a failure.  If the correct data is still stored in the ACD reporting system, it might be possible to reconstruct the missing data, or it may be totally lost.  The WFM analyst must recognize that the zeros are there, and then adjust the numbers to estimate the needed information based on similar patterns, or may choose to discard the entire day of data as worthless and misleading.

In fact, the WFM analyst should review the data that is being transmitted on a daily basis to ensure that it is reasonable and valid before it is stored in the WFM system as a forecasting statistic.  For example, yesterday might have been an unusual day with a major marketing campaign or an IVR failure sending massive numbers of calls to the center.  There might have been a large class of new hires on the phones driving up AHT for a couple of hours, or the computers might have been slow that day.  All of these situations represent abnormal events that should not be averaged into the normal ones for a new forecasting pattern.  The analyst must review the data and identify if there is anything out of the ordinary and determine the cause.  If the cause is one that is likely to repeat itself, then the data may be saved in a file for future use as a good predictor of that kind of situation (such as a marketing campaign).  If the cause is a one-time event, then the data can be adjusted (normalized) prior to storing it, or it may be best to discard it.  But allowing the aberrant data to be stored and averaged into the forecast will destroy forecasting accuracy over time.

Another issue to be aware of is any change that might take place in either the ACD or the WFM system.  For example, if an upgrade is implemented for either system, the data mapping may need to be redone since report formats tend to change.  In addition, if any new call types or routing patterns are implemented, the WFM system will need to receive the data for these as well and map them to appropriate agent groups in the scheduling.  It is all too common for changes to be made in the ACD but never linked properly to the WFM system and this results in significant disconnects in the processes, schedules, and service level results.

Changes in hours of operation will also require an adjustment to the patterns.  Most WFM systems allow the WFM analyst to completely replace an existing distribution pattern if needed, and this is one of the times when that may be the best approach.  It is also appropriate when queues are consolidated or there is a need to create new work types.  Such changes essentially render the historical data useless and the WFM analyst may have to enter a reasonable estimate of the new percentages for the initial distributions, completely overriding prior history.  Over the weeks that follow, the system will gather the new data and adjust the percentages based on that data.

Summary

Managing the data flow to the WFM system is one of the most important roles of the WFM analyst.  This is truly a case of “garbage in, garbage out”.  The whole process starts with a forecast and it is based on history.  If that history is inaccurate, the whole process falls apart.  Check the accuracy of your forecasts and if you are typically more than 5% off for the day or consistently for some half-hours, a review of the historical data and the process of storing it may be a worthwhile project.  No sense in abusing yourselves and your agents in fine-tuning schedules to meet a projection that is not accurate to start with.  And getting a better match of plan to actual will minimize the daily reactionary processes that increase stress and impact customer service.

The WFM vendors will be happy to work with your team to better understand the WFM interface setup in your center and to maintain accuracy of the data.  Give them a call.  You’ll both be happier in the end, and so will your agents and customers.