Jeff Wasilko <jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu> (04/10/91)
ACDs have been mentioned a few times this week, which got me
wondering:
What did recipients of large volumes of calls do before ACDs? Did
someone manually distribute calls?
Also, there was a mention some time ago of an ACD that can
periodically announce your position in the queue, and the average wait
time from that point. Does this actually exist? I've never heard one
do that ... as someone who seems to spend a lot of time on hold, I'd
love to know how much longer.
Jeff Wasilko BITNET: jjwcmp@ritvax INET: jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu
INTERNET: jjwcmp@ritvax.rit.edu UUCP: jjwcmp@ultb.UUCP
[Moderator's Note: The Chicago Transit Authority (312-MOHawk 7200) has
an ACD in their customer service unit which periodically announces
your position in the queue ("there are two calls ahead of you"). My
first knowledge of ACDs was about 1970. Diner's Club and Amoco Credit
Card had one in their sales authorization unit which pumped several
hundred calls per hour -- about 10,000 calls daily -- to
representatives who would authorize sales over the floor limit. Most
calls took about twenty seconds to handle, and came in on 800 numbers.
Prior to such systems, incoming calls were handled by large banks of
operators at cord switchboards, just like the ones telco used. When I
worked at the University of Chicago about 1960, they had 19 operator
positions for incoming calls. (Outgoing local calls were made by
dialing "9". Long distance went through the switchboard.) With an ACD
for incoming calls they were able to cut back to about six operator
positions. PAT]
macy@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> (04/14/91)
In article <telecom11.282.6@eecs.nwu.edu>: > What did recipients of large volumes of calls do before ACDs? Did > someone manually distribute calls? Well, Western Electric made electromechanical ACD's back into the '50's as I recall. The site I remember was a variation of a 701 as I recall. I can't remember the exact offical designation. I'd have to drag out my old catalogs, but I think either SC or AE made something along the same lines. These were true ACD's and offered supervisor positions along with some indication of load. I also recall seeing an ACD setup based on a 101ESS node slaved out of the central office. ACD's were usually used only in larger installations way back then. Frankly, ACD's were not used by most organizations of small and medium size until the '70's. Small and medium sized installations were handled in different ways: We had a lot of dispatch areas that were nothing more that very big (60 button) call directors with a large rotary hunt line group feeding them. Most of the large Police Dept. dispatch areas I saw back in the '60's were done this way. They were often supported with a 2040 Dialpak PAX for intercom and call transfer. (Boy, I barely remember these for some reason.) In the early '70's, the first crossbar PBX's with circular rotary hunt groups were introduced. Many of these were used as pseudo-ACD's, often with 1A2 systems behind them. Early Rolm and Philco electronic PBX's did not have any real ACD features, either. They called circular hunt groups ACD groups, but the introduction of real traffic oriented ACD algorithims had to wait until CPU and RAM got a bit less expensive. > Also, there was a mention some time ago of an ACD that can > periodically announce your position in the queue, and the average wait > time from that point. Does this actually exist? I've never heard one > do that ... as someone who seems to spend a lot of time on hold, I'd > love to know how much longer. There are a couple of ACD manufacturers doing this now. Technokron (sp?), Rockwell, and Aspect have demonstrated these features, and tell me they are delivering the products. Several PBX manufacturers are in the process of introducing these features. I recently saw a Mitel SX-2000 set up for this feature, and many others say they will deliver this soon (Fujitsu 9600, NT Meridian, AT&T, Rolm, Tadiran, and others.) Other features that are now being seen in the medium size systems that were previously seen only in larger systems: - Predictive routing: When a call lands in the system, the current call load is calculated, and the call is set to overflow positions (at the same site or at other locations) if the system predicts that the call would have to hold beyond certain time period while holding for the first choice ACD group. - Call Center Management: The system prints out reports showing current loading and the past half hour's load. Full shift analysis and reporting also provided. Some systems use an external processor for management reporting and can assist in estimating call center staffing requirements based on accumlated history. This can also be used to show which agents are the most/least productive. - Off Premise Overflow: Too busy? Send the calls to another call center ... This can also be used to send calls to agents working at home (kinda like what some of the 900 dial-a-friend services are now doing...) - System Load Display: The present holding time and number of calls holding are displayed on electronic wall displays and/or the agent phones... keeps up the pressure to keep things moving... Side note: We now have auto-attendant systems that add some intelligent call holding features to a phone system. If you call and reach a busy station, the system announces: There is one call holding presently, press 1 to hold. (Other use can be made of this feature, too.) Public announcement: Dayton Hamvention (currently the largest amateur radio convention in the world) is April 26-28. Think of 10,000 nerds accompanied by massive intermodulation products. Its a very worthwhile convention, with more and more emphasis on the overlapping fields of telecom and computers. We are currently accepting suggestions for a simplex frequency for all internet/telecom types to meet on. Macy M. Hallock, Jr. macy@fmsystm.UUCP macy@NCoast.ORG uunet!aablue!fmsystm!macy
nagle@uunet.uu.net> (04/16/91)
jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu (Jeff Wasilko) writes: > ACDs have been mentioned a few times this week, which got me > wondering: > What did recipients of large volumes of calls do before ACDs? Did > someone manually distribute calls? Yes, using "order turrets", special switchboards set up for the purpose. But Automatic Call Distribution was introduced in 1932, with the No. 3. Order Turret. The problem is very similar to distributing calls from one level of selectors to the next in a step-by-step office, and was first solved using that technology. Definitely not a new feature. John Nagle