Please click on the following link to learn about our recent Menu Change Request Procedure. 

TM-2000_ACD_Menu_Change_Request_Procedure_v2.pdf (83.06 kb)

The T-Metrics Real-Time Agent Monitor or TRAM is a new service offered by T-Metrics that writes real-time data about agents and skills into a SQL database. Because the tables for TRAM are actually inside the same database used by TCAT and historical data is not kept by TRAM, the extra storage required will be minimal.

 What do we mean by real-time data?

 Each time there is a change in an agent’s or a skill’s information, a message is sent from the ACD Controller to all listening modules, including TRAM.  TRAM takes that message and checks to see if this skill or agent is already in the database. If so, it performs an UPDATE with the new information. Otherwise, TRAM creates a new record for this agent or skill. There will never be more than one record for each agent or skill.

 What can you do with this data?

 By placing this information in a SQL database, we have made this information accessible to outside workforce management applications, custom applications, custom web pages/portals, and more. Anyone with access to the SQL database can take the data and create a display or perform new calculations to suit any call center’s needs.

 With the provided sample webpages, a user can view the same data seen by a supervisor without logging on to an agent or monitor module but simply navigating to a webpage on any browser. 

 In addition to all the information shown in the monitor module or the expanded view for a supervisor, each day TRAM tracks the total time an agent has been available or in an unavailable working status, all set by customer in a configuration file, so measuring adherence is a breeze.

Details about agents or skills can be seen by clicking the “Details” link in the right most column of each row. This page will show the unformatted view of every column in the agent table for this agent or every column in the skill table for this skill.

The main view for the skills is similar to what is seen in the agent module, but remember, these are only samples. With a bit of creativity, you can create some very interesting views.  

In addition to data grids, the data can be used in graphical displays as seen in the following images.

We received orders from General Dynamics in regards to the Air Force Air Combat Command's (ACC) Operator Consolidation project. This order includes: Davis Monthan AFB, AZ; Dyess AFB, TX; Ellsworth AFB, SD; Holloman AFB, NM; Nellis AFB, NV and Beale AFB, CA

Have you ever wanted to IM a coworker, Change your Status, and Launch your Internet Browser all at the same time from inside your ACD Agent Module? Well now you can!

Custom Macro Trees

Much like Global Hotkeys, the Macro Tree is brought up by a combination of keyboard presses. For example, Pressing Ctrl + 1 launches a Macro Tree like this:

 The Title of this Macro Tree is "Connect to a Customer" and has a few different Sub-Menus: VPNs, Direct Connect, and Listen. Using the keyboard to navigate through the menus, one can select different actions. An Menu can have multiple submenus underneath. For example:

Once the Action has been selected it can have multiple commands embeded in the Action. A quick look at the code will better explain this idea:

<MacroTree ordinal="3">
		<Settings>
			<Size>100x100</Size>
			<Header>Custom Macro Trees are Awesome</Header>
		</Settings>
		<Contents>
			<SubMenu name="Food" color="Green">
				<Settings>
					<Size>100x100</Size>
				</Settings>
				<Action name="Lunch Restaurant">
					<Command name="IM">
						<Argument>Lunch in 5, send your orders!</Argument>
						<Argument>SKILL</Argument>
						<Argument>Emergency Support</Argument>
					</Command>
					<Command name="Status">
						<Argument>Out To Lunch</Argument>
					</Command>
				</Action>
				<Action name="Snack Time">
					<Command name="IM">
						<Argument>Snack run in 5 pay up!</Argument>
						<Argument>SKILL</Argument>
						<Argument>Emergency Support</Argument>
					</Command>
					<Command name="Status">
						<Argument>Out To Lunch</Argument>
					</Command>
				</Action>
			</SubMenu>

All of this information is stored in C:\Tmetrics\TMIACDAgentModule_v3.0\MacroTree.xml (where C:\ is your root directory). Each <SubMenu> has multiple <Action> tags, which are made up of different <Command> tags. <Command> tags can also be passed <Argument> tags.

Custom Macro Trees are completely customizable to your organization. One particularly powerful feature is the the <Command nam="Shell"> command. With this command you can launch any program just like you would from a Windows Command Prompt. 

If you are interested in setting up Macro Trees, let us know and we'll be glad to work with you to develop Custom Macro Trees for you!  

Note: This feature requires Agent Module v3.0 with a version date of 24 Aug 11 or later. It also requires that the T-Metrics Namespace Ultilies DLL be dated version 24 Aug 11 or later.

Agent tagging allows users to follow the actions of selected agents with bubble forms. Specifically, these activities include change in position status, change in phone state, and threshold crossing.

Settings for Agent Tagging are very straight forward and can be found in Edit -> Settings -> Bubble Forms. First, choose the individual you would like to  tag, then you can choose among the actions “Changes Position Status”, “Changes Phone State”, and/or “Crosses a Threshold”. Users can choose as many or as few actions as they please.

To quickly change these settings, you may click on an agent and the button Check All if you would like to be notified of all of this agent’s actions or Check None if you no longer wish to be notified for this agent.

Clear Tagging for All Agents allows the user to clear all settings that are currently in place for agent tagging.

The action “Crosses a Threshold” refers to an agent spending more than the allotted time in a certain phone state or position status. The assigned timeframe is set by an administrator in the controller for each skill and position status.

T-Metrics is happy to announce a new release of the v3.0 ACD Agent Module. The update includes bug fixes, usability updates, and brand new features from months of rigorous development. Official patch notes can be found at the end of this post.

New Features:

Agent Tagging

Agent tagging allows users to follow the actions of selected agents with bubble forms. Specifically, these activities include change in position status, change in phone state, and threshold crossing.

Settings for Agent Tagging are very straight forward and can be found in Edit -> Settings -> Bubble Forms.

Mass Agent Editing

This feature allows a supervisor to add, modify, or delete a skill for any users that they select.

This new Mass Edit Form can be accessed from the Edit Agent Information window, found by going to Agent -> Edit Agent Names and Skills. It has three tabs available to make a supervisor’s life easier.

The first tab is the Activity Items tab, which allows you to Add, Modify, or Delete an activity item from skill groups and/or skill sets.

The second tab is the Agent Skills tab, which allows you to Add, Modify, or Delete Skill sets for agents. This can be done by agent names, or skillset criteria; as well as by skill level and under a particular role such as agent or supervisor.

The third tab is the Position Statuses tab, which allows you to Add, Modify, or Delete position statuses from skill groups and/or skill sets.

Global Hotkeys

The new Global Hotkeys feature allows you to create macros and assign keyboard shortcuts to perform commonly repeated task such as changing your status, or logging off.

Status Details

Status Details allow agents to give more verbose information about what they are doing in their current status.

Chat Logging

The new chat logging feature allows and agent or supervisor to automatically save a copy of their conversations for later review. You can go to Edit -> Settings and select Instant Messages to enable this feature and tell it where to save your conversations.

How to Upgrade

Upgrading can be achieved through one of the methods listed below. Administrative rights are required to perform the update. If presented with a warning during install, please contact your System Admin to complete the update.

Click Help -> Check for Updates from your Agent Module. This will automatically download and install the latest version. This feature may not work in all locations due to network restrictions. If you receive an error regarding an incorrect username/password, please contact T-Metrics.

Download the latest patch from our website at http://www.tmetrics.com/

T-Metrics ACD Agent Version 11.10.04.0 Patch Notes

Interface Changes

o   Additions

·         The Agent Module now has the ability to call custom made macro trees, which will allow for a user to create their own forms that perform custom functions for the user via keyboard shortcut.

·         A new form allows for the Mass Editing of Activity Items, Agent Skills, and Position Statuses, making it easy to add, change, or delete many items at one time.

o   Modifications

·         The Activity Item form has been increased in width from 309 pixels to 623 pixels to allow for longer Activity Item names.

·         The console will now show the option for Toggle Skills, if appropriate.

·         The Toggle Skills option now allows a user to toggle all skills that they can within a skill group, even if some skills in the group cannot be toggled.

·         The Toggle Skills option now ignores toggles for skills in which the user has a Skill Level of 0.

o   Corrections

·         A problem has been corrected in the Instant Message Recipient Selection screen whereby having more than 130+ agents caused the screen to load with a blank agent list.

·         Closing a Bubble Form while it was fading out was causing an unhandled exception to be thrown - this is now corrected.

Logical Changes

o   Additions

·         The Agent Module will now check to see if there are calls in queue before logging a user out due to an afterhours check.

o   Modifications

·         When a user enters a DeskPhone into their connection settings for the very first time, the software now populates this to all records in the database.

·         When an administrator changes an agent's skills (level, on/off, etc.) the controller is now notified to re-evaluate the agent for currently queued calls.

·         A non-impact change was made to the way the Agent Module was determining which skills could be toggled. This was to prevent future complications.

·         A major structural change has been made to the networking classes of the agent module to allow for the use of many network connections. This should not impact current performance.

o   Corrections

·         Usernames that have apostrophes in them no longer cause problems when writing to the local settings database.

·         An issue in the Controller Module (server) is now being protected against in the Agent Module - it was causing a blank Instant Message Recipient Selection form.

·         An issue with the Toggle Skills functionality whereby the server would ignore certain toggles has been fixed.

·         An issue causing non-supervisor agents to have trouble logging off has been addressed.

·         The Settings Override ability for the setting TRCCList now functions properly. The settings were previously being overwritten, but not locked down.

·         The Weekday/Holiday Hours of Operation form had an issue whereby certain skills would not show up and changes might harm the server. This has been corrected.

Andy and I met some well qualified job candidates at yesterday's ASU JobFest.  Plus a possible intern.