distribution calls like in hunting group

[peters]

Our customers would like to have calls distributed like in hunting group - in circle, one agent after another, no special statistics. There are sophisticated functions for distribution, how to make this "simply" one?

Thanks, Peter

[jbobinsk]

Depending what you mean - if you want treat agent as an station and ring on his phone for a while, and if he doesn't answer put the phone call to the other station; or you want distribute calls among agents in a group but put the call on agent station based on availability.
In first scenario I'd use troute function directly to station, in second I'd use SelectTarget block in loop for next single agent a time.

Regards
jbobinsk

[peters]

I meant the scenario, where first call rings on agen1 (is answered), second call rings on agent2 (answered), x-call call on agentX, then the next call again on agent1 and so on. Calls should be routed according to skill.

Peter

[jbobinsk]

In such case I'd make a 2 strategy persistent variables:
- in first one I'd keep all agents from the group (it can be also in List object, db, etc)
- in second I'd keep last used agent
then based on that I'd check who was the last agent I route to and get another one and route to him (of course acordingly to his availability).

But there are complications: what to do if agent is busy, should I go to another one or wait for him; and what should I do if he becomes ready.

Regards
jbobinsk

[cavagnaro]

Which PBX? If you don't define nothing in the strategy it will follow what your PBX orders.

[peters]

It is genesys sip server... What about ACD queues? I think SIP server supports them, could they be used for this?

Peter

[jbobinsk]

I think that you can build your hunt group based on agent group and strategy, and implement ringing overflow functionality.

Regards
jbobinsk

[peters]

What exactly do you mean? Which routing statistic would you use? The reason why customer wants to implement this logic, is that he wants to distribute incoming calls fairly. Some agents make outbound calls, some not, and these have then more incoming calls then others. We used custom statagentoccupancy (filter on incoming calls only), but it doesn't work quite well - outbound calls are also counted. So at the end of day, every agent has approx. the same occupancy_rate (but for all calls). Therefore customer wants some easy-logic - calls going in circle...

Peter

[cavagnaro]

And why not create a custom stat formula which wouldn't count inbound calls? If blending is your objective then it is ok...inbound calls will have more preference than Outbound.

[peters]

Actually, should the outbound calls not be counted? Which custom statistics would you suggest? The StatTimeInReadyState has the disadvantage, that agents can login/logoff often and avoid routing of incoming calls, then i used custom StatAgentOccupancy with only inbound calls, and it doesn't work so well..

Peter

[jbobinsk]

You can use individual agents in Target blocks - so availability would be the only statistic that URS will use for them. You can do for example:
1. GetNextagent from group (function which retrieves data from global variable in loop) to Agent1
2. Select Target - Agent1 with clear target with wait 1/0 sec (if agent is ready than call will come to him at once if not we will go out from the block)
3. goto 1

In such case every loop will reset all previous agents, and you'll get circle.

Regards
jbobinsk

[Dionysis]

You don't need to use a target block necessarily.  You can manually build a hunt group quite easily using IRD.  The TRoute function will blindly send a call to any number you specify.

I have done this with an automated system answering the calls so it didn't matter which extension received the calls.  I simply attempted the first extension and then attempted the next one on failure.

If you need to spread the call volume you could use a "script" variable in IRD to remember which extension received the last call, then attempt the next one in your list, on failure try the next extension, and so on.

Make sure you have a check in the strategy to stop an endless loop though.

[jbobinsk]

TRoute is ok - unless you have multiline and using agents, but beside them it's fine solution.

jbobinsk

[peters]

I would go the target block way, because of reporting and other things. I will give update about how it is going...

[tomasz]

How do you define Target Block.  I need to split a current group into two, but if the first one is busy to queue both as one.

Thanks