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.

T-Metrics tested our TM-2000 ACD with an Avaya AS 5300 SIP switch recently.  This is great news because it paves the way for our planned testing, with the AS 5300, at the Fort Huachuca, Arizona JITC certification lab.  The certification process will take place the 4th quarter of this year.  More updates to follow.

Mr. Kim, from Yongsan, Republic of Korea, is the Army hospital's System Administrator.  Just one of Mr. Kim's additional duties.  Since he was not involved with our initial TM-2000 ACD installation, he wanted to get some formal training.  We were happy to oblige his need with our 3-day on-site training course this month.  If you would like to attend our System Administration or State Table course, please contact me.

Wyle brought in their Sales and Engineering team in this week for training.

Are you using your call center tools and technologies to help gauge customer satisfaction? This presentation will explore the popular metrics call centers use to measure performance. We all use a different reporting structure to determine if we are meeting our call center goals. The data we use to determine which is the most important for driving caller satisfaction is as varied as our management styles.

HDI Joint Chapter Event - July 2011.pdf (418.82 kb)

UPDATE:  We had a very successful State Table Training class this past week.  Central Michigan University, Edwards AFB, Fort Gordon, Palmetto Health, UNC Hospital and the University of Texas (Austin) all attended.  If you missed out and would like to attend our next course, please contact me.