Notice ID: 36C10B22Q0117
The Veterans Health Administration – Member Services (VHA-MS) has a requirement for workforce management software that consists of the following specifications and requirements:
System Requirements:
Customizable, User Friendly Interface – user-specific customized interface that enables robust feature set to each individual user’s unique set of recurring tasks.
Users need to learn only those tasks they will be performing, adding new tasks as necessary, without being distracted by unused features. Instead of the traditional toolbar, the users see their own personalized task bar consisting of icons which represent only those tasks that have been defined. Memorizes the sequence of commands for recurring tasks, requiring the user to enter only variable data, such as dates.
Users can access their own customized interface from any workstation. The product follows the user’s logon ID, so that users always see their unique desktop when logging on from any location.
Merlang® -The patented Merlang forecasting algorithm improves upon the traditional Erlang-C by eliminating the assumptions that queues are infinitely long, callers never abandon the queue, and all calls have to be answered by one group of agents. Merlang equations offer several advanced features that are not available from software packages that use Erlang-C, including the prediction of the number of abandons and busies, and the optimal distribution of agents within skill groups. The traditional way of expressing a service level as a percent answered within a given time is provided, along with percent calls answered, maximum percent busies, maximum percent abandons, and maximum average speed of answer. Not only are the results far more accurate than what is produced from Erlang-C, you get the right answers the first time without having to resort to costly trial-and-error simulation methods.
Merlang-M® – Merlang-M is an advanced forecasting algorithm that directly calculates requirements in a skills-based routing environment, avoiding repetitive analytical simulations.
Special Events/Correlated Attributes Forecasting – Call center forecasts are based on historical data. Features called “Special Event” that is used to isolate and weight historical statistics when producing a forecast. A Special Event can simply exclude historical data from the forecast (an event that is not likely to be repeated), or you can use a Special Event to inform the forecaster to treat historical statistics deferentially.
Correlation Attributes can be assigned to a Special Event. These attributes can limit the inclusion of historical data that meet a certain condition, or weight the importance of historical statistics used in the forecast. Correlation Attributes can also be used to include historical statistics based on a limiting factor. By assigning both types of Correlation Attributes to a Special Event, you have included only the historical data received that meets your exact situation.
Configurable Time Step Sizes and Service Level Objectives – gives you the ability to alter Service Levels based on user configurable time step size. It supports time step sizes of 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Also, you can forecast using 2-hour, 4-hour, 6-hour, 8-hour, 12-hour, and 24-hour time steps.
Let you set your service level objectives throughout the day. Service Levels can be modified as often as you need to. These service objectives can be set for each day of the week. The objectives will be measured against the total call handling statistics for each day. These weekly “total day” values allow you to specify an objective to be measured over the course of a day. You can additionally set objectives for each time step interval during each day.
Outbound Support – support outbound demand phone traffic. All work types are treated appropriately. For example, outbound service level objectives are specified differently than inbound objectives.
Skill Set Scheduling – The ability to schedule agents to multiple serving teams during the day, each serving team associated with different queues, and each queue representing a skill set. Queues can also represent non-demand, or off-key, work, such as clerical, FAX, E-mail or Back Office duties. In this manner, an agent can be assigned to both call handling, chat and non-call related duties during the day. Regardless of the mixture of call handling and on-demand activities assigned to agents, always provides the optimum scheduling solution. Your call center will easily be able to meet your service objectives, while operating at a more cost-effective level.
Multimedia Support – supports all forms of multimedia. All work types are treated appropriately. For example, e-mail service level objectives are specified differently than inbound objectives.
