ACD behavior with Skills based Routing and Queues

ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) is a software designed specifically to deliver efficient Queue management within most customer contact centers. When migrating to Asterisk, people are seeking to unleash the full potential of this dominant IP and Hybrid telephony and take advantage of its many intrinsic benefits. Q-Suite is a scalable ACD software designed to work with Asterisk, delivering and exceeding industry standard features and functionality for the customer contact domain.

One of the main features of an ACD is Skills Based Routing. Call routing based on Skills is an essential requirement for customer contact Queues to improve Service Level (SLA) efficiency. Typically, handling calls from any Queue would require one or more Skills. Every employee (customer contact rep) will have a set of Skills with Skill levels. Queues should also have priority to provide one more degree of control over call routing.
The actual working of call distribution using skills based routing is not that complex. There are two distinct cases, 1) Calls are waiting for a Customer Contact Representative to become available or 2) Customer Contact Representatives (agents) are waiting for calls. When calls are waiting and an agent becomes available, the agent can answer calls only from the Queues for which they have the required skills. Here, Queue priority should be used to differentiate between high and low priority calls. When Queue priorities are identical, skill level of the agent should dictate the call handling. When queue priority and skill levels are identical, the longest waiting call should be handled. This allows for call distribution in queues with priority levels, balanced with skills based routing enforcement where necessary. If agents are waiting and a call comes into one of the Queues, Skill level and waiting time of the agents dictate the call distribution and handling.
Indosoft’s Q-Suite 5.5 is an advanced ACD with Skills based routing that utilizes Asterisk, the leading hybrid VoIP/TDM telephony platform, to deliver power, innovation and flexibility to handle the ever increasing demands of complex customer interactions. Q-Suite ACD is geared towards providing superior performance to the call center software while dramatically reducing the costs of owning and operating a powerful Contact Center ACD.