<h2>Introduction</h2>

<img class="screenshot" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/busy_channels.png" alt="Busy channels" />

<p>The Busy channels report allows you to break down each business day 
into half-hour periods, showing the maximum and average number of 
telephone lines in use in any particular half-hour.  You can run the 
report for your entire organisation or for any entity within your 
organisation. You can even add filters e.g. to see how many channels 
were used answering calls to a specific number.</p>

<p>You can also opt to exclude weekends, when perhaps not many calls are
 being made or received, and so as not to distort the averages.  You can
 also concentrate on incoming or outgoing calls or look at all calls.</p>

<p>This report is ideal when trying to determine if you have enough 
lines or indeed if you require more lines. Please note that if your call
 traffic tends to fluctuate throughout the year, you may want to run the
 report for a period that includes busy times before deciding to reduce 
lines!</p>

<p>This report is also ideal if you have a number of legacy switches 
throughout your organisation and are looking to replace with an IP 
solution which will allow you to streamline and save on redundant line 
costs.</p>

<h2>Understanding the Results</h2>

<p>All reports can be exported in five different formats; Web, PDF, XML, CSV and Excel.</p>

<h4>Output to Web</h4>

<p>When selecting <span class="reference">Web</span> as the output format, the Busy channels report will appear as above.</p>

<p> The Web format allows for complete flexibility when viewing any report. To view details of any filters or selection parameters used in creating this report, simply click on <span class="link">About this report</span> at the top right of the page.</p> 

<p>All headers are clickable allowing you re-arrange the report layout in seconds. The headers of this report are as follows:</p>

<table class="confluenceTable">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th class="confluenceTh" width=110>Header</th>
			<th class="confluenceTh">Description</th>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Time slot</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">To sort by time slot, simply click on the <span class="reference">Time slot</span> header. On web reports all headers are clickable so you can alternate between 
				ascending and descending order of time slot.
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Total duration</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">The total duration is the sum of all time when lines were busy in the half-hour slot alongside. To sort and see which half-slot contained the longest duration of time 
				when channels were busy, click on the <span class="reference">Total duration</span> header.
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Max busy</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">To reorder the report to show the average number of busy lines per time slot, simply click on the <span class="reference">Max busy</span> header. The report will 
				immediately re-arrange itself in descending order to show which time slots were busy on average. To see the least busy time-slots, simply click once again to re-arrange in ascending order of average busy.
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Average busy</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">To reorder the report to show the average number of busy lines per time slot, simply click on the <span class="reference">Average busy</span> header. The report 
				will immediately re-arrange itself in descending order to show which time slots were busy on average. To see the least busy time-slots, simply click once again to re-arrange in ascending order of average busy.
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>If you would like to go back and view this report for a larger section of the organisation, simply click on the appropriate link in the breadcrumb as shown below:</p>

<img class="screenshot naked" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/breadcrumb.png" alt="Breadcrumbs" />

<h4>Output to PDF</h4>

<p>This report format appears as a three page PDF report. The first page shows the name of the person who has prepared/scheduled the report. This name is picked up from your login. It also contains the entity you report on, the period covered and any filters used in the report.</p>

<img class="screenshot" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/busy_channels_pdf_1.png" alt="Busy channels PDF" />

<p>The second page has a graph depicting average and maximum number of channels used as shown below:</p>

<img class="screenshot" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/busy_channels_pdf_2.png" alt="Busy channels PDF" />

<p>The third page breaks this graph down into detail showing the time slots with the maximum and average number of channels busy and the total duration of time spent on calls for each time slot depicted.</p>

<img class="screenshot" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/busy_channels_pdf_3.png" alt="Busy channels PDF" />

<h4>Output to XML</h4>
<p>You can choose to output information as an XML feed for use in external applications. This may look a little odd when presented as shown below but is ideal when you need to provide a call logging feed to other applications.</p>

<img class="screenshot" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/busy_channels_xml.png" alt="Busy channels XML" />

<h4>Output to CSV</h4>
<p>The CSV option allows you to output the data to a CSV file. This can be either opened immediately or saved for future use.</p>

<img class="screenshot naked" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_plus/busy_channels_csv.png" alt="Busy channels CSV" />

<a id="Introduction"></a>

Introduction

The Busy Channels report allows you to break down each business day into half-hour periods, showing the maximum and average number of telephone lines in use for each half-hour period. This report is useful for determining whether or not you have enough lines or if you have too many.

<a id="Running the report"></a>

Running the report

On the Reports screen, select the Busy channels report from the left-hand pane and click the Select this report button.

A new window will appear, where you can set the parameters of your report.

Selecting the reporting period

For each report, you must specify a time span that covers the calls you want the report to include. This is known as the "reporting period".

There are several preset reporting periods available for selection, based on the standard Gregorian calendar. The following table describes how the start and end times are defined for each preset period:

In addition to the presets described above, it is possible to specify a custom reporting period by choosing Custom period from the

Once you have set the reporting period, click on the Next button to set additional report parameters and options, or select the Finish button to run the report immediately.

Selecting the reporting entity

The Reporting entity parameter allows you to select the part of your organisation whose calls the report should include, e.g. a site, a group or an individual user.

Site

To report on a particular site, select it from the drop-down list or select All sites .

Group

If a site has been selected, you are able to further limit the report's results by selecting a group from the drop-down list.

User

If both a site and group have been selected, you can further limit the report's results to include only calls involving a particular user, by selecting that user from the drop-down list.

Once you have selected the scope of your report, click on the Next button to set additional report parameters and options, or to run the report immediately, click the Finish button.

Selecting the report filters

You can limit the results of your report by choosing one or more of the following filters:

Account code

To produce a report consisting only of calls that were made using a particular account code, enter the account code in the field provided.

To report on more than one account code, separate each code using a comma.

Call type

This filter allows you to define the type of call you want to report on, in terms of where the call originated and where it was delivered, e.g. incoming, outgoing, internal etc.  To report on all types of call, set this to All calls.

Carrier

If you use more than one carrier, you can limit the results to include only calls that were made using a specific carrier.

CLI

Calling Line Identification (CLI) is the telephone number of the remote caller in an incoming call scenario.

You can report on calls that originate from a specific CLI or those whose CLI matches a particular pattern of digits. For example, to report on all incoming calls from Tri-Line, you could enter 02072652600.

You can use the ! symbol to explicitly exclude a CLI from the report's results, and/or the

Cost

You can define a cost filter to include calls above or below specific values by entering your criteria, as shown below:

You can specify a cost range by using the 

Destination

If you want to filter calls to a specific, known destination, type the name of the destination in the text box provided. This filter accepts the ! and * symbols for excluding values and specifying partial matches, respectively.

For example, if you wanted to exclude all calls to France, you could enter

Dialled number

To filter calls to a specific dialled number, type it in the text box provided. The dialled number is defined as the number that is dialled (in the case of an outbound call), or the DDI number that the remote party dialled to reach a particular extension or group (in the case of an inbound call).

To filter calls to a specific area, a partial number can be entered (e.g. 0033 for calls to France).

You can use the ! symbol to explicitly exclude a dialled number from the report's results, and/or the 

Duration

To filter calls above or below a particular duration, enter the desired duration in seconds.

You can specify a duration range by using the 

In the above example, the report will return only calls longer than 1800 seconds (30 minutes).

LCR code

To filter your results to include only calls that used a Least Cost Routing (LCR) code, enter it in the text box provided.

You can use the ! symbol to explicitly exclude a LCR code from the report's results, and/or the 

Response

This option allows you to filter calls based on their response time, measured in seconds. Specify the desired response time threshold in the text box provided.

In the above example, the search results will display calls that have a response time greater than 10 seconds. 

You can specify a response time range by using the 

Start time

This option allows you to filter calls based on the time the call started. Specify the start time in the text box provided using the hh:mm:ss format.

For example, to include only calls that began after 10 am, you could enter 10:00:00 in the Start time field, as shown below:

Trunk access code

If your telephone system uses trunk access codes to connect calls using specific channels, you can limit your report's results to include only calls made using those codes. Specify the trunk access code in the text box provided.

You can use the ! symbol to explicitly exclude a trunk access code from the report's results, and/or the 

Selecting the report options

This section enables you to further narrow down your report results, by excluding certain types of calls. It also allows you to sort the report's results in a particular manner.

Exclude weekends

To exclude weekend calls from your report's results, select the 

Exclude transfers

To exclude transferred calls from your report's results, select the

Sort order

Choose from the

Sort results by

To sort your report's results by a particular column, select it from the 

Ignore short missed calls

Missed calls below a certain duration can sometimes pollute the meaning of a report's results. To exclude such short calls from your report, enter a duration threshold in the text box provided, e.g. to ignore calls below 3 seconds, enter 

Selecting the report format

This section allows you to choose the media format of your completed report. The formats available are 

More details about each report format are available in the Setting the report format section above.

<a id="Creating the report"></a>

Creating the report

When you have selected a reporting period and have chosen any filters and options, you can either run the report immediately by clicking on the

<a id="The report's results"></a>

The report's results

Web format

Below is an example of this report's output in

The

As with all reports produced by TIM Plus, each page of the report includes the following information:

• the report's title
• the date and time that the report was generated
• the name of the report, if applicable

The body of the report consists of a graph and a table:

• The graph is a quick and easy indication of your line usage, broken down into half-hour time slots. The percentage on the y-axis shows the number of lines utilised, and the x-axis shows each half-hour of the day. The bars on the graph coloured light-purple show the maximum number of busy trunks in each particular half-hour, and the overlaid dark-purple ones show the average number of busy trunks in the same time period.
• The table displays the actual data organised in columns for maximum and average busy lines and the total duration for each half-hour time slot. Each column is described below:

To modify your report to cover a larger organisational scope, click on an element of the breadcrumb as shown below:

PDF format

If you chose to run the report in

The first page shows the login name of the person who has prepared/scheduled the report, the entity you are reporting on, the period covered and any filters used in the report. 

The second page has a graph depicting the average and maximum number of channels used, as shown below:

The third page contains a table of time slots, showing the maximum and average number of channels that were busy, along with the total duration of time spent on calls during each time slot.