Abstract
The number of businesses using Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems has grown significantly in the last five years. The industry shows all the signs of continued or greater growth in the foreseeable future. While ACD systems have proliferated they have also evolved from fundamentally local to distributed systems. An ACD manager can no longer optimize his traffic by using inputs from a simple set of queueing tables. The most common system is now a distributed network where subsystems interact with each other and cannot be analyzed in isolation. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of queueing models that have been used historically with ACD systems and develops modifications to these models (including agents wrap-up times) that are combined with queueing network theories to construct an original ACD network performance algorithm to work with distributed systems.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Automatic Call Distribution Systems: Overview (Datapro Information Services Group, McGraw-Hill, June 1994).
Business Communications Review, Customer service excellence the key to the future, Advertisement supplement (July 1995).
Business Communications Review, Call Center section (July 1995).
Call Center Technology: Overview (Datapro Information Services Group, McGraw-Hill, May 1994).
R.B. Cooper, Introduction to Queueing Theory, Second edition (North-Holland, 1981).
H. Cravis, Traffic engineering with an ACD, Telephone Engineering and Management (July 1990) 56-59.
R. Disney, Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, eds. S.I. Gass and C.M. Harris (Kluwer, 1996).
M.J. Fischer, Two queueing systems sharing the same finite waiting room, Naval Research Logistics Quarterly 25(4) (December 1978) 667-679.
M.J. Fischer, D.A. Garbin, T.C. Harris and J.E. Knepley, Large scale communications networks-design and analysis, Omega 6(4) (1987).
M.J. Fischer, D.A. Garbin and A. Gharkhanian, Traffic engineering of distributed call centers: Not as straight forward as it may seem, in: The Mitretek Systems White Paper.
D. Gross and C.M. Harris, Fundamentals of Queueing Theory (Wiley, 1985).
C.M. Harris, K.L. Hoffman and P.B. Sanders, Modeling the IRS telephone taxpayer information system, Operations Research 35(4) (1987) 504-523.
D.P. Heyman, Asymptotic marginal independence in large networks of loss systems, Annals of Operations Research 8 (1987) 57-73.
M.T. Hills, ACD management reports: Why are they of no use with my traffic tables, Service Level Newsletter, The Authoritative Journal for Incoming Call Center Managers (July 1994).
K.L. Hoffman and C.M. Harris, Estimation of a caller retrial rate for a telephone information system, European Journal of Operational Research 27 (1986) 207-214.
S.S. Katz, Statistical performance analysis of a switched communications network, in: Fifth International Teletraffic Congress, New York (1967).
F.P. Kelly, Loss networks, Annals of Applied Probability 1(3) (1991) 319-378.
M.J. Perry, Performance modeling of automatic call distributors, Ph.D. thesis, North Carolina State University (May 1991).
K.W. Ross, Multiserver Loss Models for Broadband Telecommunication Networks (Springer, 1995).
R.L. Sharma, A good system model or problem solving method takes the confusion out of ACD traffic engineering, Communication Week (July 1986) 24-27.
W. Whitt, Blocking when service is required from several facilities simultaneously, AT&T Tech. Journal (1985) 1807 ff.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fischer, M., Garbin, D. & Gharakhanian, A. Performance modeling of distributed automatic call distribution systems. Telecommunication Systems 9, 133–152 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019139721840
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019139721840