Configure the data collection to forecast the demand for resources

Define the data you want to collect for cases, interactions, or any table to forecast the number of agents that you require for your staffing needs.

Before you begin

Important:

Starting with the Tokyo release, Legacy Workforce Optimization is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer activated on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see the Deprecation Process [KB0867184] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.

You must have the MetricBase plugin [com.snc.clotho] enabled to use Demand Forecast in Workforce Optimization for Customer Service. For more information, see Requesting the MetricBase product.

Note:

• When you change the forecast parameters or resource conversion formula, the new values for resource forecasts will not reflect on the team calendar until the Forecast resources for future scheduled job is executed. Your administrator can run the scheduled job on-demand to view the changes in the team calendar.
• Once the Historical data collection job is run for specific data collection definitions, the column Is historical data collected in the Forecast Configurations [sn_agent_forecast_configuration] table is set to true. Hence, the historical data collection will not run even if you add data for the past dates from the back-end. Historical data is stored for 1098 days for forecasts set at daily interval. Beyond three years, historical data is cleaned and cannot be saved.

Role required: sn_agent_forecast.admin

Procedure

1. Navigate to All > Workforce Optimization for Customer Service > Demand Forecast.
2. Define the data you want to collect for forecasting agents to resolve cases.
   1. Click Data Collection Definitions.

      See the Forecast Configuration table in Scheduling for the list of configurations that are available by default.

   2. Click New.
   3. On the form, fill in the fields:

      Table 1. Forecast Configuration form

      Field	Description
      Name	Unique name for the collection forecast configuration.
      Type	Data Collection Definition type is set to Collection by default and collects data using a scheduled job.
      Table	Table that is used for collecting data. From the list, do one of the following: To collect data to forecast cases, select Cases. To collect data to forecast interactions, select Interactions.
      Condition	Conditions that you can set so that you can capture the data that you need.
      Date Field	Data that you can add to forecast for the future.

   4. Click Submit.
   5. Create an index for the table you have created using the date field and the conditions you have added to the table. For information on creating a table index, see Create a table index.
3. Add parameters to be defined in the formula to calculate agent count per hour in a day.
   1. Click Formula Parameters.
   2. In the Name field, enter a name for the parameter.
   3. Do one of the following:
      • If you need to add a value to be calculated for the formula, in the Value field, enter the value.
      • If you want to use the performance analytics score card API or a custom API, click Advanced, and add the script.
      The Average Case Work Time and Average Chat Work Time forecast parameters provided by default are examples of how you can use scripts to add the parameters. For a list of parameters provided by default, see Forecast Parameters in Scheduling.
   4. Click Submit.
4. Configure the resource conversion formula.
   1. Click Resource Conversion Formula.
   2. Click New.
   3. On the form, fill in the fields.

      Table 2. Forecast Configuration form

      Field	Instructions
      Name	Name for the resource forecast configuration.
      Type	Type is set to Resource Conversion Formula.
      Formula	Formula to calculate the forecasted number of agents that you need. In the Related Links section, do the following: Click Browse Forecast Configuration, select the forecast configuration to add to the formula and click Add. Click the Browse Forecast Parameter, select the forecast parameter to add to the formula and click Add. Note: FC refers to Forecast Configuration and FP refers to Forecast Parameter.

   4. Click Submit.
5. Associate an assignment group with a Resource Conversion Formula.
   You can assign a forecast configuration to multiple assignment groups, but an assignment group can have only one forecast configuration.

   1. Click Group Forecast Configurations.
   2. Click New and do the following:
      • In the Assignment Group field, click the search icon and select the group to which you want to associate a forecast configuration.
      • In the Forecast Configuration field, click the search icon and select a Resource Conversion Formula.

What to do next

Run the Collect historical data for demand forecast data collection definitions scheduled job. For more information, see Schedule jobs for Demand Forecast.

Related concepts

• Use Demand Forecast