WITNESS simulation in Vertex was introduced in September 2002 and models built so far

• 5 call centres
• Scan, index and process Housing Benefit claims
• Printing and enveloping machines
• Conversion strategy customer flows

The background of the Case Study

A contact centre for Utility client with 7 different call types by homeworkers with a second site support for one call type and some dual-skilling of agents, ringfenced inbound calls and document handling.
 

The Issues Faced were:

• Service Level below target
• Abandon rate above target
• Two calls types ringfenced (stand alone areas)
• Shifts optimised within constraints
• Cost constraints

The potential Solutions contemplated were:

• Extra staff with multi-skill agents.
• Overflow into document handling.
• Blend with ringfenced call types with a network skill sets for homeworkers.
• Second site.

WITNESS simulation was used due to the complexities that cannot be modelled using Erlang and Excel (multi-skilling, blending and overflows) and the need of forecast of performance required and the comparison scenarios.

The simulation allows the comparison of scenarios with extra staff, multi- skilling benefit, overflow rules, blending rules and staffing, call duration, call volumes, and network skill sets.

The conclusions of the Case Study were:
to use a combination of extra staff and multi-skilling, only overflow with 30 agents available, strive to reduce duration and volume and limited benefit in investment in network skill sets.