Capacity Planning & Scheduling

[Aden]

Is it possible to use a different software package for capacity planning (using simulation) at a high level (monthly FTE requirements) and then using a different application such as Blue Pumpkin for Workforce management to schedule agents daily/weekly? Has anyone else encountered any problems/issues with this or realized any disadvantages from this approach? Please advise. Thanks.

[centerguy]

I'm sure it's possible, however I think that ideally you would want to use the same tool for both, unless the issue is that you don't trust your scheduling package to run an accurate simulation. If that's the case you may want to ask yourself whether you should be using that package at all.

[sheldonoverton]

I used to use something once by TCS called Call Center Calculator/Designer. You can enter parameters like the calls per interval, AHT, and average delay, and it will tell you how many agent you need. A relatively simple and very inexpensive tool.

[JoeB]

In theory, the use of various tools for capacity planning and scheduling should not affect the fidelity of the results. Presumably, if the input data is identical, so should be the results. However, there are several factors that complicate capacity planning and scheduling as well as service levels forecasting, and are likely to produce different results.

The fundamental mathematical modeling in call centers (see http://www.DiagnosticStrategies.com/...c_modeling.htm) provides a very good estimation of resource requirements. However, due to the statistical nature of service call requests and a number of human-driven factors, such as talk time, time to abandonment and retry rates, actual resource requirements may be somewhat different than forecast. Try www.DiagnosticStrategies.com/EasyErlang.htm for a comprehensive capacity and service level planning tool.

Simulation tools on the other hand, can potentially be more accurate because it can evolve to provide a better simulation of caller behavior in your specific situation, but requires an effort to build the model and evolve it to the point that it produces accurate results. Still, the statistics and the unpredictability of human behavior prevent perfect capacity planning.

Either way, no tool should be used once. Call center planning requires an ongoing assessment and adjustment, accommodating both short-term variations and long-term (e.g. seasonal) shifts. Once you reach this level, both methods should produce very similar results, within the natural variations of the process.

[deadriaw]

I would recommend using the same software program for your long term and short term planning. If you are confident in your forecasting skills, you should be able to calculate your capacity and hiring model based on your percentage of growth and your attrition rate. Using the same program that stores your daily historical call arrival patterns would be best. Maintaining two different databases of historical information or manual data entry will expose you to a greater potential of error.

[OPsMan]

You mention Blue Pumpkin. Along with the Director Enterprise Suite, they offer what is called Planner. This will give you exactly what you are looking for. I use it to help me strategiclly plan my operations for 12 months. It takes into account shinkage, AHT, training times, wages, differnt employee types....

You should check it out on bluepumpkin.com....