Adding a New Forecast | Eleveo User Guides

Overview

The studio environment allows for the creation of multiple draft forecasts, each containing different adjustments or with time periods that overlap. Any draft forecast can be used in production. This page describes the forecast creation process.

The WFM_CREATE_FORECAST role is required to create new forecasts. This role is included by default in the WFM_SCHEDULER composite role. Read more about Workforce Management Roles.

Creating Forecasts

To add a new draft forecast, click the Add new button.

The Add New Forecast pane opens.

Fill in all required fields to complete the first step:

Forecast Name – The name of the new forecast.
Queue – The queue for which the forecast will be created (select from the dropdown menu).
Historical Data Range – The time range of the historical data used for the new forecast (cannot be shorter than two weeks; only full weeks can be selected). Click on the calendar icon to expand the calendar and select a time range.
Forecast Range – The time range of the new forecast. Click on the calendar icon to expand the calendar and select a time range.

If the type of the selected queue is Chat, an additional field is available:

Number of Concurrent Chats – The number of chats that each person in this queue can handle concurrently. The default number of concurrent chats that each person in the queue can handle is one. This means that each person can handle only one chat at any moment. If this value is changed to two (or any other number), it indicates that each person can handle two (or more) chats simultaneously. As a result, the Forecasted Staffing Requirements are recalculated and the number of people required is divided by two (or the number defined).

If the Historical Data Range fields are not active (greyed out), there is no historical data available for the selected queue. Ensure that historical data was imported or select a different queue.

The selected period of historical data cannot be shorter than two weeks. Due to this limitation, the calendar displays only options that ensure the selection is two weeks or longer. Click a day to select it; the whole range is marked in blue.

Date selection is based on the time zone of the queue for which the forecast is created.

Example: Uploaded historical data covers the period from January 1, 2019, to February 1, 2019. When a new forecast is created, the following limits apply:

Only days from January 1 to January 18 are available as Date From. If a later date were selected, the whole period would be shorter than two weeks. The system does not permit this.
If January 18 (the last possible day) is selected as Date From, then February 1 is the only available Date To (all earlier days would result in the period being shorter than two weeks).

Forecasting tips:

Ensure that at least two weeks of historical data have been imported to the application. The system does not allow the creation of a forecast without this data.
Base reliable forecasts on historical data that covers a range of between a few weeks and a few months.
Do not create a forecast based on a historical data range that includes data from more than one year.
Do not create a forecast for a period far in the future. The most accurate forecasts cover the upcoming few months.

Click Generate to create a forecast. At this stage, a default shrinkage value of 10% is applied to the forecast.

The details of the newly generated forecast are displayed on the next screen.

The screen contains charts calculated based on the data selected in the first step:

Forecasted Contact Volume – The forecast of the number of incoming calls.
Forecasted Average Handle Time (incl. ACW & ATT) – The forecast of the average handling time of a call.
Forecasted Staffing Requirements – The forecast for the number of people needed to handle the predicted workload, including the Service Level, and with shrinkage (green line) or without shrinkage (blue line) applied.

The forecast name is displayed in the top left corner. The time zone for which the forecast is displayed can be found below its name. By default, the queue's time zone is used.

Use the dropdown menu to change the time zone if needed. The possible options are:

My Time Zone – The time zone that the user browsing the forecast has set in User Management.
Queue's Time Zone – The time zone set for the queue for which the forecast was created.
All Time Zones – Any other time zone (selectable from a dropdown menu).

The forecast is automatically displayed in the newly selected time zone.

If the time zone of a queue is changed, all draft forecasts created for that queue are recalculated (the beginning and end of the forecast may change) and displayed in the new time zone. Production forecasts are not recalculated, but they are displayed in the new time zone.

Hover the mouse pointer over the chart to view details. A tooltip appears, showing all values for the selected point in time. The time interval is the same as the time interval of historical data on which the forecast was based (for manual import, this value needs to be set). For voice queues, it is usually 15 minutes.

Switching to Table View

By default, forecast data is displayed as charts. Click the button in the top right corner of the screen to switch to table view.

Table view replaces the charts with a data table showing the same forecast data in the following columns:

Date – Timestamp of the interval, for example, 2024/02/01 08:00.
Contact volume – Forecasted contact volume for the interval.
Average handling time – Forecasted AHT in seconds for the interval.
Base requirements – Base staffing requirement for the interval.
Staff with shrinkage applied – Staffing requirement with the shrinkage factor applied.

Use the Date range picker above the table to filter the displayed rows to a selected range within the forecast range.

Adding Adjustments

The Forecast Adjustments pane allows for modifying the Contact Volume or AHT values calculated based on historical data. By default, the raw calculated values of Contact Volume and AHT are displayed (100%), but they can be changed for a selected date and time range, in 15-minute intervals. Shrinkage can also be modified. Different adjustments can be added for different days.

To modify the forecast, click the Forecast Adjustments button in the top right corner of the screen. The Forecast Adjustments pane opens.

Configure the values:

Adjustment name – The name of the adjustment.
Apply changes to the range – The date range to which the adjustment applies (by default, the whole range of the forecast is selected).
Time from and Time to – The time range to which the adjustment applies (the lowest selectable interval is 15 minutes).
Forecasted Contact Volume – The percentage of the calculated Contact Volume value that should be used in the forecast in the defined date range (default value is 100%).
Forecasted AHT – The percentage of the calculated AHT value that should be used in the forecast in the defined date range (default value is 100%).
Shrinkage – The value of the shrinkage (default value is 10%).

If the type of the queue is Chat, an additional field is available:

Concurrent chats – The number of chats that each person in this queue can handle concurrently (default value is 1).

Click Apply to apply the adjustment or Reset Changes to clear the form.

Example

A forecast has been created for the week of July based on historical data. The analyst preparing the forecast knows that there will be a public holiday on July 23. Based on this, the analyst assumes that the Contact Volume will be lower and adds a new adjustment, modifying the Forecasted Contact Volume to 50% and Shrinkage to 30%.

Forecast adjustments are visible in the top left corner of the screen. Also, applied adjustments are displayed in the bottom part of the pan on the right. Click Edit to modify an adjustment or Remove to delete it.

After clicking the Edit button, the adjustment details can be modified within the pane. Click Apply to apply changes.

The changes from the adjustment are automatically reflected in the chart. The time range of the currently edited adjustment is highlighted in grey.

It is not possible to add more than one adjustment for the same selected date and time range. Information about an overlap is displayed:

After clicking Apply, a notification appears. Click No to modify the time range of the new adjustment. Click Yes to save the new adjustment and overwrite the previous one.

To apply corrections to a specific period of an existing adjustment, define a new adjustment containing all required corrections. It overwrites that period of the original adjustment.

Example

A user has created adjustment A, increasing call volumes to 120% from Monday to Sunday. The user then wants to increase shrinkage on Saturday and Sunday to 40%, but has already submitted adjustment A. If the user adds adjustment B increasing shrinkage only, the increased call volumes on Saturday and Sunday are not applied (they are overwritten by the second correction).

To resolve this, the user can create adjustment B for Saturday and Sunday that contains both corrections: increasing call volumes to 120% and increasing shrinkage to 40%.

The Forecast Adjustments pane is expanded by default. To hide it, click the Forecast Adjustments button or the Close button.

Saving Forecasts

Click the Save button to save the forecast. Click the Publish button to put the forecast into production. If the forecast is not saved yet, it is first saved and then automatically put into production. More information about working with the production forecast can be found on the Working with Production Forecast page.

If the forecast’s name needs to be modified, click the Configuration button in the top right corner of the screen. Other settings cannot be modified, hence they are greyed out. If these settings are incorrect, discard this version and create a new forecast.

Click Proceed to Scheduling to continue to the Scheduling Studio, or click Unpublish to return the forecast to draft status.

The Close button navigates back to the Forecasting Studio screen. A dialog window indicates if there are unsaved changes. Click Save and Leave to save changes before leaving the Create New Forecast page, or click Leave to abandon changes. Click Cancel to close the dialog window and continue working with the forecast.

Exporting Forecasts

Click the Export button in the top right corner of the screen to download the currently displayed forecast data as a CSV file.

The exported file:

Covers the full date range shown in the Forecast Range field.
Contains one row per:
- Date and Time – start of the interval in ISO 8601 UTC format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ)
- Queue name – the name of the queue
- Contacts – forecasted contact volume for the interval (integer)
- AHT – forecasted average handle time in seconds (decimal)
- Base staffing Requirement – forecasted staffing requirement for the interval (decimal)
- Staffing requirement with shrinkage applied.
Is named using the pattern forecast_export_<forecast_name>_<forecast_start_date>_<forecast_end_date>.csv.

Example (15-minute aggregation):

2024-02-01T00:00:00Z,Queue_Sales,12,45.5,2.4,2.9
2024-02-01T00:15:00Z,Queue_Sales,8,42.3,1.8,2.5
2024-02-01T00:30:00Z,Queue_Sales,15,50.1,3.1,3.8

Both draft and production forecasts can be exported.