System and method for complex schedule generation

• US 7,904,325 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2009
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Andre, David, Uckun, Serdar, Nourbakhsh, Illah
• Primary Examiner(s): Sterrett; Jonathan G
• Application Number:
  US12/612,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153170A1
• Time in Patent Office: 489 Days
• Field of Search: 379/265.12, 705/7, 705/9, 705/11
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5233 Operator skill based call distribution

Abstract

A system and method for generating a schedule for multiple employees in a complex environment. In one embodiment, the method includes generating a schedule for multiple employees with varying skill sets for a time period, wherein the plurality of employees have varying overlapping skill sets that enable them to perform various tasks, and wherein employees are shared across tasks within the time period. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a plurality of user inputs to a scheduling program, including a number of employee designations that each refer to a unique employee, and a number of skill sets that each correspond to one of the employee designations. The method further includes receiving a user input that changes the number of employee designations by indicating at least one changed employee, and estimating an effect of the at least one changed employee on effective staffing levels for each of the various tasks. The method further includes generating estimated effective staffing levels for each of the various tasks.

Claims

1. A method of operating a schedule system to generate a schedule for a plurality of agents in a contact center environment, the method comprising:

receiving in a user interface a plurality of user inputs to a scheduling program stored on a storage device and executed by a processing device, including a number of agent designations each of which refers to a unique agent;

receiving in the user interface a user input that changes the number of agent designations by indicating at least one changed agent;

estimating in the processing device an effect of the at least one changed agent on effective staffing levels for each of various tasks;

determining in the processing device whether to simulate the schedule based at least in part on an adaptive algorithm; and

generating in the processing device estimated effective staffing levels for each of the various tasks.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the adaptive algorithm is operative to measure an error that results from the estimating step to determine whether to simulate the schedule.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the adaptive algorithm is operative to determine how many changes can be made to the schedule based on the error and a predetermined amount of allowed error to determine whether to simulate the schedule.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a number of changes that can be made to the schedule during the scheduling method without simulating a proposed schedule.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein estimating comprises:

calculating a total effective work the changed agent will perform;

scaling each task by at least one predetermined factor; and

adjusting a work distribution for every unique agent other than the changed agent based upon the total effective work the changed agent will perform.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising distributing the total effective work of the changed agent across a plurality of tasks.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one predetermined factor includes a measure of average time to handle a subtask divided by a number of subtasks per time interval, and a measure of how much work remains in a task based upon results of a previous simulation.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein calculating the total effective work the changed agent will perform comprises applying a function to:

a number of skills of the changed agent;

proficiencies of the changed agent; and

priorities of the changed agent.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein adjusting the work distribution for every unique agent other than the changed agent includes adjusting an effective contribution to each task worked by one of the other unique agents by a factor reflecting that a different amount of work will be required for tasks worked by the changed agent.

10. A computer readable storage medium containing executable instructions which, when executed in a processing system, generate a schedule in a contact center environment by directing the processing system to:

receive a plurality of user inputs to a scheduling program, including a number of agent designations each of which refers to a unique agent;

receive a user input that changes the number of agent designations by indicating at least one changed agent;

estimate an effect of the at least one changed agent on effective staffing levels for each of various tasks;

determine whether to simulate the schedule based at least in part on an adaptive algorithm; and

generate estimated effective staffing levels for each of the various tasks.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the adaptive algorithm is operative to measure an error that results from the estimating step to determine whether to simulate the schedule.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the adaptive algorithm is operative to determine how many changes can be made to the schedule based on the error and a predetermined amount of allowed error to determine whether to simulate the schedule.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising the executable instructions configured to direct the processing system to determine a number of changes that can be made to the schedule during the schedule generation without simulating a proposed schedule.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions, to direct the processing system to estimate the effect of the at least one changed agent on the effective staffing levels for each of the various tasks, directs the processing system to:

calculate a total effective work the changed agent will perform;

scale each task by at least one predetermined factor; and

adjust a work distribution for every unique agent other than the changed agent based upon the total effective work the changed agent will perform.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising the executable instructions configured to direct the processing system to distribute the total effective work of the changed agent across a plurality of tasks.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the at least one predetermined factor includes a measure of average time to handle a subtask divided by a number of subtasks per time interval, and a measure of how much work remains in a task based upon results of a previous simulation.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions, to direct the processing system to calculate the total effective work the changed agent will perform, directs the processing system to apply a function to:

a number of skills of the changed agent;

proficiencies of the changed agent; and

priorities of the changed agent.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions, to direct the processing system to adjust the work distribution for every unique agent other than the changed agent, directs the processing system to adjust an effective contribution to each task worked by one of the other unique agents by a factor reflecting that a different amount of work will be required for tasks worked by the changed agent.

19. A computer-implemented method for generating a schedule in a contact center environment, the method comprising:

initiating an automatic scheduling process that receives agent data including skill sets as an input;

determining, in a computer system, whether to simulate a proposed schedule based at least in part on an adaptive algorithm, the adaptive algorithm including measuring an error of using an estimation function from results of the simulation and a predetermined allowed error;

determining whether a change has been made to the agent data;

estimating an effect of the change made to the agent data; and

generating estimated effective staffing levels for each of the various tasks.