Call Work Codes to Save the Helpdesk 2

[gingersnap1027]

Hi All,

Today I am tasked with somehow implementing call work codes to correspond to a help desk ticket tracking system. They do not want to report on call types but they want to report on how much time they spend on each ever changing and incrementing help desk ticket number.

So somehow I'm supposed to stay one step ahead of the help desk ticketing system and have ever changing call work codes that match the next 1999 tickets in the help desk ticket tracking system and then report out how much phone time is spent on each ticket. 1999 is the maximum number of work codes my CMS V12 will take,

Can anyone help me with this problem or suggest some kind of add on software that would capture this information?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[SF0751]

There is not a good way to do this with the phone system; I think you need to tell the requester that this is not feasible.

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[gingersnap1027]

I would like to but this is a request of the CIO and he is denial that the IT Helpdesk is understaffed where he has one person trying to answer all the calls and his SLA is in the 30s and he has an abandonded call rate at around 30% as well.

If I say that it's not feasible then he translates it that I am an apathetic employee that does not want to help. I did say that initially and he asked me if i wanted to be here, which I don't but I need a paycheck so I lied.

This really has put me in a bad situation and now I think I need a new position.

 

[SF0751]

Help Desk tickets are much more than just answering the phone call; by only wanting the phone time he is missing all of the other time-consuming porations of the ticket (research, solution implementation, etc.). A good software package for the help desk helps keep track of the other parts, as well. I suppose that you could use Expanded AUX Reason Codes, but there are only 99 of those and they are for the entire site. Or you could put the Help Desk agent on perment Agent Trace and dump his call trace to a spreadsheet every day. This would give you the ACD time for each individual caller, but there would be a lot of manual effort involved in extracting the information.

Your CIO is trying to use the wrong tool for this solution; it's like using the screwdriver instead of a hammer to drive the nail into the wall. I'm not sure of your company's structure but I would request a meeting with the CIO and his manager and explain to both of them exactly WHY this won't work.

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[jfh9219]

Go at it a different way.

1) You just want to know time spent on a ticket. I am sure that the tickets have date/time stamps. Process CDR, after the fact, to associate call time with ticket time. If they open ticket 1999 at 10:02 on 5/1 and open ticket 2000 at 10:15 on 5/1, a call that terminates between 10:02 and 10:15 is associated with ticket 1999. Hokey but its better than nothing. If the ticket system doesn't track date/time all the better. That's somebody else's problem and the CIO can ask them if they like working there.

2) Create a vdn/vector pair that simply has the caller enter a set number of digits. The digits entered are logged in the call record in the LAST DIGITS field. There are issue with retrieving call records but depending on the size of your call environment very doable.

3) I must be missing something with CWCs. I admit I don't use them. I added a work-code button to my station. logged in as an agent and took a test call. during the call I pressed the work-code button and entered a 5-digit no. followed by the "#". Hung up on the call and looked in the agent trace information. The 5-digit # was in the call work code field. So, trace the help desk person (you should do so anyway since it appears your career and theirs are intertwined). Give them a work-code and tell them that they have to enter the ticket number while on the call. The agent trace data can give you the call times. Simple custom report.

 

[gingersnap1027]

Thanks jfh, I think I'm just going to go with the trace report, that way they can enter anything and I can capture it without having to maintain work codes.

 

[lopes1211]

Why can't you prove your point with basic ACD design? If your required ASA is 30 seconds and your Avg talk time is X, there are basic ACD charts to show how many calls 1, 2, 3, 4, etc agents can handle per hour within those parameters. All of these charts and designs usually fall apart for under 4 agents as probability and statistics of multi calls coming in at the same time prove under 4 agents usually cannot support ACD and fall within acceptable grades of service.

Here is an ACD chart showing how many calls with a 4 min avg talk time can be gauranteed to be answered in 30 sec:

240sec Avg Talk Time
# of Agents Needed Avg # of Calls per Hour answered within 30sec
1 2
2 8
3 17
4 27
5 38
6 49
7 61
8 73
9 85
10 98


This 4 minute example shows the flaws of having a 1 man ACD. Only a 2 call per hour volume can be gauranteed to be answered in 30 sec or less. I'm not trying to say more people are needed, I'm trying to say more people are needed for your helpdesk, I'm simply saying the statistical odds of call delivery times show it's impossible to try to get 1 person to fall within acceptable ACD thresholds like a 30 sec ASA. Of course they can handle more than 2 calls.....but not gauranteed to answer more than that in under 30 seconds.


-CL

 

[lopes1211]

last paragraph edited....i got distracted mid sentance:



This 4 minute example shows the flaws of having a 1 man ACD. Only a 2 call per hour volume can be gauranteed to be answered in 30 sec or less. I'm not trying to say more people are needed, I'm simply saying the statistical odds of call delivery times show it's impossible to try to get 1 person to fall within acceptable ACD thresholds like a 30 sec ASA. Of course they can handle more than 2 calls.....but not gauranteed to answer more than that in under 30 seconds.


-CL

 

[nohuhu]

gingersnap1027,

a) define one cwc per ticket queue
b) turn on external call history on cms
c) use some software like echi-converter to get echi output and store it in a database
d) force your support people to enter cwc per each call
e) use something like crystal software to run reports on db

i think that's the simplest way. you get simple and easy to maintain scheme, your boss gets his info for each call related to ticket. everyone's happy. well, it's not completely free for cms r12, you'll need to pay something for ech interface license on cms but that's not huge pile of money, if your boss want it so bad he'll pay.

 

[Zowwie438]

It sounds like your user base is asking for a trip to the moon on a model rocket. Trust me, they ain't going to get there!

I think their NEEDS are valid, but using the PBX to link calls to a given ticket plus generate reports of agent talk time, etc... That is really a function of a agent client side software that communicates to a backend middleware platform.

You are talking about a pretty complex thing here to build yourself. But I am sure that avaya has something for 50-100K they could sell you to do the trick.

If you are good with database work and you have CMS. I would recommend this as your easiest solution.

1) Go buy an informix odbc driver for about 500 bucks.

2) get with your ticketing system folks and see if they have API's that will allow you to read their data or get a stored sql procedure into their stuff.

3) Go out to avaya's devconnect site and download the SDK kit (documents and table layouts) for cms.

Once you mix all these guys together.. You will have enough data to try and reach your goal.

The kicker is... you have no unique key to tie the phone call from CMS to the ticketing system other than date/time and that will not match. If you try using callerID, that's great.... But I am not sure cms will hold that.

How large of a desk do you have? We have some internal stuff here that handles 500 plus agents in an enterprise setting and I could ask the boss if we could sell you some licenses to use our code. It has automated screen pops, client sad app with agent login/logout as well as call control (hold,retrieve, makecall, etc)

There is web based reporting and web based routing and user management as well.

Good luck!

==Zow

 

[nohuhu]

Zowwie,

no need to use start/stop datetime for call identification if we have cwc or lastdigits containing the ticket number.