Method and system for skills-based planning and scheduling in a workforce contact center environment

A method of allocating and scheduling in a multi-location, skills-based call center environment, comprising the steps of

• organizing the call center environment into a hierarchy of one or more aggregated call types at a first level, multiple call types at a second level, and a set of two or more management units at a third level;
• (a) having a user create a set of given call allocations that define how calls are allocated from each of the one or more aggregated call types at the first level to the multiple call types at the second level, with each call type of the multiple call types at the second level being defined by one or more queues all located at a geographically distinct location, there being at least two or more geographically distinct locations in the multiple location, skills-based call center environment;
• (b) having the user create a set of given agent requirement allocations that define how agent requirements are allocated from the multiple call types to two or more management units, each management unit defining a collection of a eats at least some of whom have multiple skills;
• (c) predicting agent availability by call type using a schedule simulation to generate agent availability data, wherein the simulation data corresponds to agents working their schedules and handling contacts in the multi-location, skills-based contact center environment;
• (d) allocating forecasted calls and forecasted agent requirements based on the given call and requirement allocations and the agent availability data;
• (e) using the allocated forecasted agent requirements to generate a schedule for each of the plurality of scheduled agents;
• and
• (f) repeating the steps (a)–(e) until an output of a set of call allocations and a set of requirement allocations occurs;
• wherein at least the schedule simulation and at least one of steps (c)–(e) are performed at least in part using one or more processing devices.

An allocation method operative in a multi-location, skills-based contact center environment, comprising:

• (a) organizing the contact center environment into a hierarchy of one or more aggregated contact types at a first level, multiple contact types at a second level, and a set of two or more management units at a third level;
• (b) allocating a percentage of incoming contacts from each of the one or more aggregated contact types, at the first level to the multiple contact types at the second level, with each contact type of the multiple contact types at the second level being defined by one or more queues all located at a geographically distinct location, there being at least two or more geographically distinct locations in the multiple location, skills-based contact center environment;
• (c) allocating agent requirements for a given contact type to one or more management units by predicting agent availability data using a schedule simulation of agents working their schedules and handling contacts in the multi-location, skills-based contact center environment, each management unit defining a collection of agents at least some of whom have multiple skills;
• (d) using the allocated forecasted agent requirements to generate a schedule for each of the plurality of scheduled agents;
• and
• (e) repeating steps (b)–(d) until an output of a set of contact allocations and a set of requirement allocations occurs;
• wherein at least the schedule simulation and at least one of steps (c)–(d) are performed at least in part using one or more processing devices.

An allocation method operative in a multi-location, skills-based contact center environment, comprising

• (a) organizing the contact center environment into a hierarchy of one or more aggregated contact types at a first level, multiple contact types at a second level, and a set of two or more management units at a third level,
• (b) allocating a percentage of contacts from each of the one or more aggregated contact types at the first level to the multiple contact types at the second level, with each contact type of the multiple contact types at the second level being defined by one or more queues all located at a geo graphically distinct location, there being at least two or more geographically distinct locations in the multiple location skills-based contact center environment;
• (c) allocating agent requirements for the multiple contact types to two or more management units by predicting agent availability data using a schedule simulation of agents working their schedules and handling contacts in the multi-location skills-based contact center environment;
• (d) using the allocated forecasted agent requirements to generate a schedule for each of the plurality of scheduled agents;
• (e) repeating steps (b)–(d) until an output of a set of contact allocations and a set of requirement allocations occurs;
• wherein at least the schedule simulation and at least one of steps (c)–(d) are performed at least in part using one or more processing devices.