Administrator's Guide

Understanding Automatic Call Distribution
Issue 5 October 2002 243555-233-506
Understanding Automatic Call
Distribution
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is MultiVantage feature used in many call
centers. ACD gives you greater flexibility to control call flow and to measure the
performance of agents.
ACD systems operate differently from non-ACD systems, and they can be much
more complex. ACD systems can also be more powerful because they allow you
to use features and products that are not available in non-ACD systems. See Avaya
MultiVantage™ Call Center Software Guide to ACD Call Centers for more
information on ACD call centers.
Enhancing an ACD system
First, all call center management systems (such as Avaya’s Basic Call
Management System (‘‘BCMS’’), BCMSVu, and the sophisticated Avaya IP
Agent Call Management System) require ACD. These management systems give
you the ability to measure more aspects of your center’s operation, and in more
detail, than is possible with standard Avaya MultiVantage reports.
Call vectoring greatly enhances the flexibility of a call center, and most vectoring
functions require ACD. Vectoring is a simple programming language that allows
you to custom design every aspect of call processing. See ‘‘What are vectors?’’ on
page 230 for more information.
Together, ACD and vectoring allow you to use Expert Agent Selection (‘‘EAS’’).
For a variety of reasons, you may want certain agents to handle specific types of
calls. For example, you may want only your most experienced agents to handle
your most important customers. You may have multilingual agents who can serve
callers in a variety of languages.
EAS allows you to classify agents according to their specific skills and then to
rank them by ability or experience within each skill. Avaya MultiVantage uses
these classifications to match each call with the best available agent. See Avaya
MultiVantage™ Call Center Software Call Vectoring and Expert Agent Selection
(EAS) Guide for more information on call vectoring and EAS.