# ACD Terminology

ACD Agent Groups: ACD Agents are normally grouped together based on skill level or department to handle incoming telephone calls in an organization; for example, sales or engineering, or first- or second-level support. Callers are then directed to the group that best serves their needs. ACD Agent Groups are either ACD Agent Skill Groups or ACD Express Groups.

ACD Agent Skill Groups: You can assign agents to skill groups, for example Sales Group or Technical Support Group. The 3300 ICP controllers support 256.

ACD Skill Levels: The Skill Level represents the agent's expertise relative to other agents in their skill group. There are 500 levels. The lower the skill level, the higher the level of expertise. So an agent with skill level 1 is the most qualified to answer a call in their skill group.

ACD Express Groups are call answer groups similar to Hunt Groups, and provide the same functionality as an ACD Path, except that ACD Express Groups support only one group.

ACD Call is an incoming call destined to an ACD path of agent skill groups.

ACD Caller is an external caller who has successfully entered an ACD path. The system automatically distributes the call to an available agent. If no agents are available, the caller remains in the call queue until it is interflowed out of the path, is transferred to an non-path destination, or is transferred to an extension that has no logged in agent.

ACD Path is a directory number based service that guides an incoming call through a list of ACD agent skill groups and associated RAD
A Recorded Announcement Device (RAD) is a device which automatically answers a call and delivers a pre-recorded message. RAD is often used to inform a caller that they are in a queue and their call will be dealt in due order. and MOH
Music on Hold options.

ACD Enabled Set A set that has been designated as an ACD set in the Multiline IP Sets form. ACD sets can support either ACD hot desk agents or traditional ACD agents, but not both on the same system. The following conditions apply to ACD enabled sets:

- The set uses the ACD set interface including the idle display and the Superkey ACD Login menu options.

- Any ACD specific telephone user interface functions, such as the ACD soft key on advanced display sets, are available on the set.

- Real time events can be generated by the set when no agents are logged in.

- Hot desk ACD sets are shared ACD sets that are intended for hot desk ACD agents. When no user is logged in, it is recommended that an ACD enabled set provide only basic service such as emergency and operator calls.

- Regular hot desking is not available on the ACD enabled set.

ACD Licenses are dynamically allocated to traditional ACD agents and hot desk ACD agents. When an agent logs in, the system gives the agent an ACD Active Agent License from the available pool. After the agent logs out, the license is returned to the pool. A license is only required by an agent for the duration of the login session.

Effective with MCD Release 4.1 and later, hot desk ACD agents require an IP User License in addition to an ACD license. Complete licensing requirements for all ACD agent types are summarized in the following table:

Agent Type | ACD License | IP User License
Traditional ACD Agent | Yes |
Hot Desk ACD Agent | Yes | Yes
ACD Express Agent |  | Yes

Active Agents are agents that can take ACD calls. An agent is considered "active" when:

- logged in,

- present,

- not in Make Busy,

- not in DND,

- the agent's work time is inactive, and

- idle.

Agents answer incoming ACD calls. Agents are specially trained to deal with the caller's requests. There are three ACD agent classifications, Traditional Agents, Hot Desk ACD Agents, and ACD Express Group Agents:

- Traditional ACD Agents can log into any ACD set using their Agent ID and receive ACD calls. During agent log in, the set uses the ACD agent characteristics of the agent. The ACD agent characteristics include the assigned name, COS, COR, group memberships, and path memberships.

- ACD Express Agents are Hot Desk ACD Agents that have been assigned to ACD Express Groups. ACD Express Agents can not belong to Agent Skill Groups.

- Hot Desk ACD Agents are assigned an Agent ID and a User PIN that allows them to log into any hot desk enabled set and ACD enabled set. After the agent logs in to the set, that set adopts the agent's personal set profile and provides ACD phone functionality.

- External Hot Desk Agents are External Hot Desk Users that are members of an ACD group.

NOTES

1. You must use either hot desk ACD agents or traditional ACD agents. The use of hot desk ACD agents and traditional ACD agents in the same ACD system is not supported.

2. Hot Desk ACD agents that are not programmed in any groups do not consume an ACD license when they log in.

Both types of agents are assigned a unique agent identification (Agent ID) number. The Agent ID number is similar to a telephone directory number and can be assigned a name in the telephone directory. The total number of agent ID numbers is 1181 for all MiVoice Business systems except server-based MiVoice Business for Industry Standard Server, MiVoice Business Virtual platforms which support 2100 agent IDs. On all MiVoice Business systems, each agent ID can be a member of up to 16 agent skill groups. These numbers apply to ACD Express Agents in ACD Express Groups as well.

Interflow: Interflow is a time-based or load-based feature that takes an ACD call out of the path and routes it to the interflow answer point (if programmed). All calls that interflow lose their priority in the Queue.

Overflow: Calls that queue to a busy agent group can overflow to another group after a set period of time if the calls remain unanswered. A path contains one primary agent skill group and can have up to three overflow groups. This provides backup resources to the primary agent group to ensure that service level goals are met. Calls that overflow maintain their position in queue. Group overflow timers determine how long a call waits before overflowing.

Supervisors normally oversee ACD operation by monitoring agent activity, reassigning agents to handle overload conditions, and dealing with any unusual situations that arise. This position is not considered a separate entity by the system.

Unavailable Agent Skill Group: a group is unavailable if it

- in Do Not Disturb mode,

- has no agents logged in and present, or

- has its "Queue Callers to Group When No Local Agents are logged In and Present" option set to "No".

Related Topics

- ACD Overview

- Networked ACD

- ACD Planning

- ACD Programming

- ACD Real Time Events Records

- ACD and SMDR Reports

- ACD Agent Feature Operations