Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

ACD is a software application that runs on the existing campus telephone system, and CCM (Call Center Manager) is a server based application that records ACD statistics to assist the user departments in managing their calls and agents. ACD supports supervisor monitoring, queue information on displays of ACD telephones, and up to 3 different types of queue announcements. Use of ACD requires that at least one agent is always logged-on and available to take calls, and CCM requires that agents log-in and log-out consistently for reporting accuracy. The purpose of CCM is to monitor and report call statistics such as number of calls received or abandoned, average wait time, and average handling time, within businesses that process large volumes of telephone calls for customer support, reservations, order desks, and other similar operations.

ACD is often described as a specialized telephone system or application originally designed to route an office's incoming calls to any available personnel so that calls are evenly distributed. ACD provides callers with announcements indicating that they are in queue, and will be served in the order they were received. ACD applications are sometimes front-ended by a call processing application. Other characteristics include the following:

system-wide music-on-hold will be heard in between announcements
calls are connected to available agents one call at a time
agents must log-in with a PIN code to be available for ACD calls
daily opening and closing procedures must be performed including nightly call diversion to after-hours greeting
calling and statistic reports are available through CCM
number of calls allowed in queue must be defined
user departments receive orientation, after which they assume responsibility for continued training and user support
reconfiguration of extension numbers on digital and analog sets may be required
ACD system(s) and CCM server software is maintained by ITS, and any changes in programming must be requested through a Telecommunications work order

In order to use the statistics created within CCM, it is necessary to appoint someone within the user department to learn how to access and read the reports provided by CCM. It is also important that the appointed person train others in the department as Telecommunications will provide training and orientation once, and after that Telecommunications only supports CCM at a system level. CCM is usually installed on the PC belonging to the supervisor over the ACD agents. The vendor's specifications for the supervisory PC and CCM are as follows:

100% Windows NT 4.0 compatible PC, Pentium 166 MHz or better
Windows NT 4.0 (or later version)
32 MB RAM
3.5" high density diskette drive
1.2 GB hard disk drive (minimum)
17" VGA monitor capable of high resolution and 256 colors
mouse and Windows 95 w/compatible keyboard
2 (each) serial com ports
1 (each) parallel printer port (optional)

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