Hi all

I have recently joined in the forum, have few queries if any one can answer

I have used Bluepumpkin extensively and its FTE req results are very consistent with Erlang C calculations, however IEX seems to follow different rule, though the basic calculation structure is totaly dependent on Volumes, AHT, SL, ASA, Operating hours and productive time. I tend to get higher FTE req when I use Erlang C to IEX.

Can anyone kindly elaborate on the reason.

Its different metrics that it uses in its calculation. Depending on your contractual model IEX can be manipulated to forecast that outcome i.e t&a model or an OTE/ASTS (staffing) model. Based on that, your IEX does not need to have AHT, ASA, SL incorporated into it if thats not what your looking for when it comes to FTE calculation. Its all dependent on the model your pursuing, and what you need IEX to give you for instance i use it on an OTE model, therefore there are areas that do not need to be plugged. Furthermore it depends on how automated you want IEX to be- I still like a fair amount of manual input as I am not fully bought by any system manipulating every aspect of WFM. I use it mainly for weekly staffing projections, scheduling, RTA, holiday management. Therefore I do not plug EVERYTHING into IEX - apart from ACD etc obv however its all comes down to the model of business/billing and what you need to derive from IEX.

Hope this Helps,

Con

Thanks Con,

The difference between calculations on IEX and Erlang C is big.

Now the interesting question is if IEX is a good tool to calculate Long Term staffing say monthly, quarterly for budgetting perspective. since you yourself use IEX for weekly FTE and then Iam sure for scheduling the agents across shifts, there is still quite a bit of manual work required in order to meet SLs.

Yes

Your correct. There is a lot of manual work that needs to be done. It is now my task to try and utilize IEX to make the processes much more automatic and at the moment im finding it difficult to do so becuase there is a lot of real time and scheduling exceptions etc that need to be constantly plugged. Furthermore when lockdown agreements change many changes do need made to the scheduling model. I posted a blog on this for some assistance in making the process much more automatic but to no avail. I spend 15 hours a week on IEX alone along with using excel templates (i have created) to analyze the data and to work certain things out. But as a department and process we are moving away from that now and are pursuing an IEX controlled environment.

Con

True Con,

Though there are whole lot of applications but I strongly believe Excel is the best application (with help of right formulae, information) that can take us any near to perfect accuracy. However its tedious working on templates and specially if you have a huge staff to plan for.

Long term plannin and Short term planning are two different streams with later much more influenced by real time activities and monitoring.

Thanks for your views.