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Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

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  • 1.  Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-04-2021 12:37
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi all,

    I was wondering can you help me with this question - we are considering adding a new skill to already existing planning groups. It's more of a language, than a skill but we would be adding it as a specific skill. So for example French speaking planning group agents would get a skill "French" and so on...
    My question is would that influence forecasting somehow? We are using Automatic best method currently and I was wondering would be need to switch to Weighted Historical Method because of this change? 

    Thanks in advance!
    #WorkforceManagement

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    Dejan Mavrovic
    Shutterstock, Inc.
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  • 2.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    GENESYS
    Posted 08-05-2021 07:00
    No replies, thread closed.
    No need to switch to weighted historical method. The automatic best method will 'learn' once the new skills start occurring in the aggregated queue stats.

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    Jay Langsford
    VP, R&D
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  • 3.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-06-2021 07:36
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Jay, thanks a lot for the response! Do you know how long will the "learning" process take?

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    Dejan Mavrovic
    Shutterstock, Inc.
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  • 4.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-05-2021 08:46
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Dejan, 

    You may already be aware, but I just wanted to mention (since I was not aware when I first made changes to planning groups), that if you add or remove queues and/or skills in your planning groups you will lose your historical forecasted data for that planning group (i.e. forecasted service levels, agents staffed, etc.).  You may not look at that data historically, but I thought I would mention it in case you did.  

    Thanks!

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    Jason Lorden
    Independent Health Association, Inc.
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  • 5.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-06-2021 07:37
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Jason, 

    Thanks for the heads up! I was not aware of that, thank you for sharing. So the best workaround would be to download the historical forecasts if I have to add skill to a planning group I guess...

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    Dejan Mavrovic
    Shutterstock, Inc.
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    GENESYS
    Posted 08-10-2021 07:17
    No replies, thread closed.
    You don't lose historical data - we don't purge analytics data on planning group changes. Think of the planning group as a means for you to describe what type of interactions we query for forecasting. If you configure a planning group to have a new 'widgets' skill in its skillset and that skillset combination (e.g., sprockets + widgets) has never been required historically on any interaction, then of course when we query analytics for say calls for the support queue that required sprockets and widgets skills we won't find any data.

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    Jay Langsford
    VP, R&D
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  • 7.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-10-2021 08:25
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Jay, 

    I guess technically you are correct.  The data exists somewhere in Genesys, but it is not readily accessible to me as a user/admin...sorry for my poor choice of words.  I simply wanted Dejan and others to know that if you change a planning group you will not be able to go back and see some of the historical data you had forecasted. 

    I do feel that this is something that should be addressed by Genesys.  Other software I have used in the past allowed me to date rule changes to the planning groups which allowed me to see how the groups as they were configured at that time and ensuring that I always had access to any historical data I would have forecasted.

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    Jason Lorden
    Independent Health Association, Inc.
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  • 8.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    GENESYS
    Posted 08-10-2021 08:55
    No replies, thread closed.
    I agree, the platform as a whole would benefit from allowing specification of effective start/stop dates on a number of config items (not just within WFM).

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    Jay Langsford
    VP, R&D
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  • 9.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-11-2021 10:41
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Jay and Jason,

    This information was very helpful, thank you both! So if we decide to go with it, we'd essentially lose the data. 
    I can download it for sure, but I am guessing there is no way to re-upload it?

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    Dejan Mavrovic
    Shutterstock, Inc.
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-12-2021 07:43
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Dejan, 

    The only way I am aware of to get the data back, would be to adjust the planning group back to it's original settings (if you added a queue and/or skill, you have to remove it and if you removed a queue and/or skill you have to add it back).  Since the planning groups don't match, I do not believe uploading the old data will make a difference, but Jay would be better to answer that than me.  

    Thanks!

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    Jason Lorden
    Independent Health Association, Inc.
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  • 11.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    GENESYS
    Posted 08-12-2021 09:50
    Edited by Jay Langsford 08-12-2021 09:51
    No replies, thread closed.
    You don't lose the data. It is still there.

    >>> You don't lose historical data - we don't purge analytics data on planning group changes. Think of the planning group as a means for you to describe what type of interactions we query for forecasting. If you configure a planning group to have a new 'widgets' skill in its skillset and that skillset combination (e.g., sprockets + widgets) has never been required historically on any interaction, then of course when we query analytics for say calls for the support queue that required sprockets and widgets skills we won't find any data.

    Old forecasts will cache the planning groups at the time of forecast generation. So, you can still see this data within WFM by looking at past forecasts (weighted historical, look at source days; automatic best, utilize week/month/year over week/monty/year functionality). You can hover over the planning groups in a forecast in the faceted navigation / active browsing 'filter' to see the route path associations.

    You can also utilize other analytics views, reports, or the analytics api to view/query the 'old' planning group related data - you would just need to know what parameters like queue, media type, and skillset.

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    Jay Langsford
    VP, R&D
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-12-2021 10:54
    No replies, thread closed.
    I'm going to go ahead and stop responding to this thread...as I don't think this back and forth over the word "lost" is helping anyone. 

    If you can answer Dejan's question.  I believe the question is: If he downloads the forecasted data, makes a change to the planning group, and then re-imports the data, would the forecasted Service Level then be visible on the Intraday Monitoring screen...and my assumption is no since the data in the historical export will not match the new planning group that is in production.  To get the forecasted service level to update he would need to delete the previous forecast and schedules and then build a new ones.  If that is not correct, please let him know what needs to be done in order see the forecasted service levels on the Intraday Monitoring screens for previously created and published forecasts and schedules. 

    Thanks!

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    Jason Lorden
    Independent Health Association, Inc.
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    GENESYS
    Posted 08-12-2021 12:26
    No replies, thread closed.

    What you see in intraday is specifically tied to the 'effective' forecast and schedule for that day - more specifically for a day in intraday we determine the current published schedule and know which forecast was used to create that schedule and which historic planning groups were used.

    I am going to over-simplify an example...

    1. prior to say Aug 2021 you have specified a planning group like 'voice; support queue; skills: sprockets'; there exists forecasts and schedules prior to Aug 2021 using this planning group
    2. after Aug 2021 you change the planning group above and add a widget skill - 'voice; support queue; skills: sprockets, widgets'

    If you look at intraday monitoring for dates prior to Aug 2021 where the forecast and schedule used the original planning group, then you will still see that planning information (intraday, forecasts, schedules) regardless of the config change in item 2. With forecasts and published schedules created after the change of the planning group​, then the new planning group information (intraday, forecasts, schedules) will be in effect.

    I will say that changing a planning group is not what you want to do if you expect to have both 'voice; support queue; skills: sprockets' and 'voice; support queue; skills: sprockets, widgets' interactions after Aug 2021. For that you would have both the old planning group and the new one.

    The re-import makes no sense in any scenario described on this thread. If you attempt to import data that does not have a corresponding planning group, then we won't forecast, schedule, or show anything in intraday for that imported data - as it doesn't match what you told us to use via planning groups. And a troubleshooting tip on planning groups is that you generally should always add route paths by the search capability so that you can select ones you know have volume historically.

    If you feel there is a product issue, then I would recommend creating a support ticket. If there is a product request, then I would recommend utilize Ideas Lab for submission (https://genesyscloud.ideas.aha.io/). You could also engage our consultant group that specializes in workforce management.



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    Jay Langsford
    VP, R&D
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  • 14.  RE: Adding a new skill to the Planning Groups

    Posted 08-12-2021 12:52
    No replies, thread closed.
    Hi Jason and Jay,

    Sorry if I caused the confusion about the question, I am new with Genesys WFM.
    Your answers were quite insightful and now I understand the consequences and limitations fully. 
    Thank you a lot for that, it is very much appreciated you looked into this and took your time to answer me in detail!

    Regards,
    Dejan

    ------------------------------
    Dejan Mavrovic
    Shutterstock, Inc.
    ------------------------------



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