Rockwell Automation Arena Contact Center Edition Users Guide - Manual (Page 29)

3 • G ENERAL C ONCEPTS
21
•
•
•
• •
3 •
Gener
al Co
ncep
ts
Contact types
Describing the different types of contact is generally the starting point for contact center
modeling and analysis. Each contact name represents a particular customer request for
agent services. It is characterized by the expected talk time, as well as the associated
arrival pattern and the trunk group on which the contacts enter the center.
The following more advanced aspects of contact behavior may also be modeled using
Arena Contact Center Edition:
„
Abandonment
„
After-Contact Work
„
Prioritization
„
Contact Back
Data sources
Information about contact volumes is typically taken from forecasts while expected talk
time is available either from contact center ACD databases or from a contact center’s
contact-tracking system.
Arrival pattern
Contact patterns describe the arrival of contacts across the planning horizon by specifying
the distribution of contacts across each timeslot. Within the Pattern module, this distribu-
tion is specified in terms of expected contact counts for each timeslot.
The arrival times of contacts within the timeslot are randomly generated according to a
Poisson process with the defined rate. Therefore, the actual number of contacts arriving
within the timeslot may differ from the expected number.
E XAMPLE
Suppose that the planning horizon is one day (24 hours), the timeslots are 60 minutes long.
Then, if the arrival pattern specifies that 240 contacts are handled during the 10:00
AM -
11:00 AM timeslot, the simulation model would assume 240 expected contacts during the
10:00 AM -11:00 AM timeslot. The Poisson arrival rate for the timeslot is 0.25 (60/240) or,
on average, one contact every 15 seconds.
Data sources
Arrival pattern data is available either from contact center ACD databases or from a
contact center’s tracking system.