Hi all (first post here), I have a question regarding the prioritization of ACD Calls vs ACD emails. The configuration is as follows, - One ACD Profile defined in Interaction Attendant with a priority of 200 and sending calls to workgroup X with utilization set @ Calls / 100% / Max Assign:1 and emails / 50% / Max Assign:2 - One Email ACD Profile defined in Interation Attendant Email with a priority of 20 and sending emails to workgroup Y with utilization set @ Calls / 100% / Max Assign:1 and emails / 50% / Max Assign:2 For a single user member of both workgroups, test was: - having 5 emails queued on Workgroup Y - User picks up 2 emails and reaches its max utilization - 1 Call waiting on Workgroup X We then expected that as soon as user completes the first email, CIC wouldn't assign him any other emails since there is a call with a higher priority for Workgroup X. That would leave him to complete the second email and then be presented with the Call interaction from Workgroup X. But it ended up with the user having to clear all 5 emails before being presented with the Call Interaction. Could you please help clarify how this whole thing works? NB: Setting all interaction types to 100% and Max Assign:1 solves the problem but we would like our user to be able to handle more than one email at once and answer calls as soon as they get to queue.. Cheers and thanks in advance, B

I recommend you set the tracing level on the ACDServer subsystem to 80(Notes), re-create the situation described, then go into the subsystem log and read the actual scoring calculations used to select which interaction would be distributed. That will tell you exactly why the emails had higher scores than the call. In the log, I jump to a time a little before the interactions were distributed, then search for the string "select agent" (un-check "match case" in the search dialog).

If your Call Uitlization is set to 100%, an agent would never get a call while they have an email. Having a call and an email would place them at 150% utilization, which isn't going to work. In your current setup, there is 1 call and 1 email waiting and an agent goes available, they will get the call, but as soon as they get an email, they will only be handling emails until all emails have been removed from their queue. Try lowering your call utilization to 50% or less. Make sure you keep the max assigned at 1 though, especially if you go under 50%. That should get you the results you are looking for. If not, then I would take a look at the ACD logs to determine the calculations used as George has suggested.

Hi all, thanks for your prompt replies,.. Our initial intention was: - Calls get a higher priority over emails (and other types of interactions like faxes) - Handling calls is exclusive of any other type of interactions (hence the 100% utilization settings) Therefore we wanted Agents to be able to handle multiple emails (up to 2 concurrently) and then be presented with call interactions whenever they drop in. After reading your answers it doesn't look like the combined conditions above are achievable the way the system is designed. I guess its either we set both email and calls at the same utilization (51% and above) and max assigned to 1 and then they get prioritized appropriately with no overlapping or have all of them set @ 50% and email max assign. to 2 and calls max assign. to 1. and then we have to accept that agents might be in situation where they will be handling email and call at the same time. I'll dig further by checking the subsystem log. Cheers, B

Hi George, Could you please let me know the exact name of the subsystem logs I should be looking in to get the detail of the interaction/agent scoring? I had a look at the ACDServer logs but couldn't see much relevant information. Cheers, B

The ACDServer log is exactly where you want to look. Make sure it is turned up to 80 (Notes), replicate the issue, and then take a look at the log in SnapShot. There are two separate reports you can use in SnapShot to see both the Interaction and Agent formulas at work. You'll see all the values used to calculate interaction and agent assignment.

We are just configuring our system to do the same. We were also finding that with utilization for calls below 100% we were not seeing how many agents were available to take calls. Based on your requirement of up to 2 emails handled consecutively and still be able to take a call immediately one comes in (interrupting work on the emails) I would suggest: Calls - Utilization 100%, Maximum of 1 Emails - Utilization 0% (yes, zero percent) maximum of 2. With these settings, user can have up to 2 emails at any time - with utilization with 2 emails still at 0% they still have 100% available to take a call, but regardless of how many emails they have, with a call they will be shown as 100% busy i.e. not available on wallboards. Only downside is that the utilization / agents available is only measuring calls - so you will need to work a little to factor in the email workload to your resource measurements. Paul

@ Paul: how come you chose for 0% utilization?

This is pretty old but we found that time in queue affected the calculation such that any email holding for longer than 1 hour would take priority of a call holding for a few minutes. One way to affect this is to create a custom workgroup and set the time in queue as a priority 0 so that it is not factored into the calc.