Forecasting terms 275
Forecasting
Forecasting involves taking historical data generated by your telephone system and using it to predict future
traffic volumes and patterns. Forecasting is the basis for estimating required resources, such as agents,
trunks, and workstations. You take a year or more of ACD queue traffic data, examine trends in Call Load
patterns and determine the ACD Handling Times of the calls. After you run a forecast, you examine the data
and make adjustments based on current contact center conditions. You can tweak the forecast by adding or
reducing calls, based on your intuition, and information gathered by yourself and others. See “Step #3
Forecast the Call Load” on page28 for more information on forecast concepts.

Forecasting terms

Conducting a forecast involves accurately estimating Time to Handle, Wrap Up Time, and ACD Calls Offered
values. The following terms are used in forecasting resource requirements:
• Service Level percent
See “Service Level percent” on page252.
• Service Level time
See “Service Level time” on page252.
• Wrap Up time
Wrap Up Time is the time an agent spends completing transactions associated with a call after the
agent hangs up. The Wrap Up Time is a standardized period. If an agent requires additional time to
complete paperwork or online transactions, the agent can leave the ACD queue temporarily for this
purpose.
• Agent Efficiency percent
Agent Efficiency percent is the percentage of time agents spend on ACD calls relative to the time
agents are scheduled to work. Agent efficiency is calculated using a straight linear relationship. For
example, 50% agent efficiency means that two more agents are required to handle the forecasted
call load. An Agent efficiency percentage of 100 is unrealistic. Agents routinely take breaks, perform
other non-ACD duties, make outgoing calls, and place themselves in Make Busy.
• Average Talk time
Average Talk Time is the average time agents spend talking to callers.
• Calls Offered
See “Offered” on page251.
You can predict the agent requirement for your Service Level percent and Service Level time targets
by applying the Erlang C equation to the estimated Call Load and average ACD Handling Time.
• Manned Agents
Manned Agents is the average number of agents who were logged on for the interval of time being
forecasted.
• Time to Handle
Time to Handle is the average time calls wait in queue before agents handle them.
• ACD Handling time
ACD Handling time is the talk time plus the hold time. If an agent calls a supervisor in search of more
information (while the caller is on hold) and/or transfers or conferences the call, the system adds
these times to the ACD Handling Time value.
For example, an agent speaks to a caller for two minutes and then puts the caller on hold for three
minutes and tries to solve the problem. This might include a call to the supervisor. The agent then
initiates a conference call with the caller and a third party and they speak for three minutes and
resolve the issue. Therefore, the ACD Handling Time for the agent is 2 + 3 + 3 = 8 minutes.
• Call Load
The term Call Load is to the combined effect of the number of calls received by the ACD queue and
their duration, or the calls offered x (average ACD Handling Time + average Wrap Up Time).