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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 in any particular half-hour. You can 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 only incoming or outgoing calls.
This report is ideal for determining whether or not you have enough lines, or if you have too many!
Running the report
On the Reports screen, click on Busy channels in the reports list and then press the button.
The following report selection criteria window appears:
Reporting period
Every report requires a period to run over. This is generally defined as the "Reporting period".
There are several pre-defined periods that can be selected from a simple drop-down list as shown above.
The built-in periods are based on a standard Gregorian calendar and are defined as follows:
| Period | Description |
|---|---|
| Today | The start date and end date is set to the current date. The default start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to the current time. |
| Yesterday | The start date and end date is set to the current date minus one day. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to 23:59:59. |
| This week | The start date is set to the Monday of the current week, whilst the end date is set to the current day. The default start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to the current time. |
| Last week | The start date is set to the last Monday, whilst the end date is set to the start date plus seven days. The start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to 23:59:59. |
| This month | The start date is set to the 1st day of the current month and the end date to today. The default start time is set to 00:00:00 and the end time to the current time. |
| Last month | The start date for this period is set in three stages. The day is set to 01, the month is set to the current month minus one, or in the case of January, it is set to 12. The year is set to the current year, unless it is a new year, in which case the year is reduced by one. The start and end times are set to 00:00:00 and 23:59:59 respectively. |
| This year | The start date is set to the first day of the first month of the current year. The end date is set to today's date. The start and end times are set to 00:00:00 and 23:59:59 respectively. |
| All calls | The start date is set to the date of the first call in the database, whilst the end date is set to the date of the most recent call in the database. Times are also set to the times of the first and last calls in the database. |
| Custom period | Enter the start and end dates and times into the boxes below. The start and end times are linked to their respective dates. |
If you want to be more specific, you can choose the Custom period from the bottom of the drop-down list. This option will allow you to define the start date and end date yourself, as shown below. When you need to be even more specific, you can also choose a start time and end time.
When the report is executed, if the user has selected an in-built period, the reporting engine simply substitutes the start and end dates based on the current date and the period the user selected.
Once you have set the report's period, click on the button to set more of the report's features or select the button to run the report.
 | NOTE: Running this report over longer periods increases the reliability of its results. |
What do you want to report on?
In addition to the reporting period, each report offers you the opportunity to define exactly what you want to report on. This is generally a site, group or user.
Site
TIM Plus will allow you to log information from up to five sites. If you want to report on a specific site, select that site from the drop-down list or to select all sites' data, leave it at the default All sites as shown above.
| NOTE: The username and password you have been allocated may mean you are restricted to specific sites or groups. If you have any difficulty accessing other sites or group, please contact your system administrator and check that access has been enabled. |
Group
There is no limit to the number of groups available on each site. Groups, like sites are available as a drop-down list. You can choose to select a specific group or leave at the default All groups. Please note that the drop-down list for each group can only appear if a site has already been selected.
User
Once a site and group has been selected, you can decide whether you would like to report on all users or select a particular user from the drop-down list as shown above.
Once you have set the report's entities, click on the button to set more of the report's features or select the button to run the report.
Filter call information
You have the option of filtering the information, based on a number of call filters. These filters allow you to be very specific, when deciding the call information you would like in the final report.
If you do not want to select any filters, simply press the button to skip.
Please find a brief description of all filters below:
| Filter | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Account code | If you want to produce a bill consisting of all chargeable calls made using a particular account code, enter the account code in this filed. To report on more than one account code, simply comma separate. |  |
| Call type | This filter allows you to define the type of call you would like to report on. If you would like to report on all calls, leave at the default All calls. |  |
| Carrier | If you use more than one carrier, you can choose which carriers calls you would like to report on.
To report on all calls from all carriers, leave at default. If you only use one carrier, there will be no drop-down list available and no option to choose a different carrier. |
 |
| CLI | The Caller Line Identification (CLI) is the number associated with the incoming call. This is sometimes withheld by the person making the call.
You may choose to report on calls from a particular CLI or from numbers beginning with a particular CLI by entering the number in here. For example, for calls from Tri-Line you would enter in "02072652600". This filter accepts the comparison operators ! and *, e.g. to exclude calls from Tri-Line use "!020726526*". To report on more than one CLI, simply comma separate. |
 |
| Cost | If you want to add a filter for call costs, simply type in the cost you wish to define as shown nearby and add the appropriate above, below and between symbol . This filter accepts range (-) and comparison operators (>, <, ! and *). |  |
| Destination | If you want to filter calls to a specific destination and that destination has been added to your locations field, simply type the destination in here. This filter accepts the comparison operators ! and *, e.g. to exclude all calls to France use "!France*" |  |
| Dialled number | To filter calls to a specific number, type the number in the dialled number field. To filter calls to a specific area, a partial number may be entered here e.g. "0033" for calls to France. This filter accepts the comparison operators ! and *, e.g. to exclude calls to 0207 265, enter "!0207265*" |  |
| Duration | To filter call above or below a particular duration, simply enter the number of seconds and the relevant symbol. This filter accepts range (-) and comparison operators (>, <, ! and *).
In the example nearby, the filter will look for calls above 1800 seconds (30 minutes). Alternatively you may want to exclude calls below a certain threshold e.g. below 3 seconds. |
 |
| LCR code | If you are using Least Cost Routing (LCR), you may want to filter by LCR code in order to check a bill from your LCR provider. To do this simply enter the LCR code in the LCR field. This filter accepts the comparison operators ! and *, e.g. to exclude a specific LCR code, simply add as follows "!162*" |  |
| Response | This filter allows you to filter based on the response times to calls. You have the option of
filtering for calls above or below a threshold. You can define this threshold in the box
alongside.
The figure relates to seconds. e.g. the example nearby shows 10 seconds. By selecting from the drop-down list, you will be able to filter calls that took more than 10 seconds to answer or see calls answered in less than 3 seconds. |
 |
| Start time | This filter allows you to filter calls based on the start time. This is the time of day when the call started in the format hh:mm:ss, e.g. if you want calls after 8 a.m. only, then enter the start time in as "08:00:00" as shown nearby. |  |
| Trunk access code | If you want to filter by Trunk access code, simply enter the Trunk access code in this field. This filter accepts the comparison operators ! and *. The * is not needed if it's an exact match, so the 9 for TAC should just be "!9", e.g. to exclude all calls with access code 9, add "!9" to the TAC field. |  |
Specific Options
This section allows you to add more specific filters to your report. The filters are fairly self-explanatory. If you would like to exclude weekend calls from the report, simply tick the option to exclude weekend calls. If you would like to ignore missed calls shorter than a specific duration, simply enter the duration in the box. In the example above, a filter has been added to exclude weekends and any calls shorter than 3 seconds.
Exclude weekends
This option gives you the option of excluding weekend calls from any results shown. If you would like to exclude weekend calls, simply select the tickbox to exclude weekend calls.
Exclude transfers
Select this option if you would like to exclude transfers when running a report. For example if you were running an incoming call analysis report and wanted to see only how well calls were answered when first presented, you would choose the option on excluding transfers.
Sort order
Choose whether you would like the results of the report to appear in ascending or descending order, by selecting from the drop-down box.
Sort results by
You may choose the order in which results are sorted by selecting the appropriate option from the list shown below:
Ignore missed calls shorter than
If you would like to exclude short calls from your report, enter the duration below which you'd like to ignore calls. If you would like to exclude very short calls, e.g. calls below 3 seconds, simply enter the number '3' in the box, as shown here.
Creating the report
When you have chosen a reporting period, and are happy with your selections, you have two options:
- Run the report now
- Schedule for future delivery
To choose your preferred option, select the appropriate button.
If you choose to run the report now, click the button. The results will appear immediately in your chosen format.
To schedule the report for delivery at a later date, follow the instruction given on the Schedule a report section.
Busy channels - The results
Output to Web
When selecting Web as the output format, this report will appear as above.
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 About this report at the top right of the page.
As with all reports, the header of the report includes the report title, any name you may have given to it, and the date and time it was run.
All headers are clickable allowing you re-arrange the report layout in seconds, to sort the calls in ascending or decending order based on the header clicked.
The main report body consists of two parts: a graph and a table.
The graph is a quick and easy indication of your line usage, broken down into half-hour timeslots. The percentage on the y-axis shows the number of lines utilised. The x-axis shows the start point of each hour of the day.
The bars on the graph are coloured to show the maximum number of trunks busy in each particular half-hour (light red), overlaid by a bar showing the average number of trunks busy in the same period (dark blue).
The table shows the actual data for each half hour of the day. It also splits the data into maximum lines busy and average lines busy as well as providing a total for all types of calls. The table holds the following information for each half-hour period:
| Header | Description |
|---|---|
| Time slot | The time of day in half-hour periods. |
| Total duration | The total time when trunks were busy, both incoming and outgoing combined. |
| Max busy | Shows the maximum number of trunks in use during the time slot shown. |
| Average busy | Shows the average number of trunks in use during the time slot shown. |
| NOTE: ALL headers are clickable, allowing you to reorder the report as required. |
Summary information box
The info box at the beginning of the report is fairly self-explanatory as you can see from the sample summary shown below:
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:
Output to PDF
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.
The second page has a graph depicting average and maximum number of channels used as shown below:
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.
Output to XML
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.
Output to CSV
The CSV option allows you to output the data to a CSV file. This can be either opened immediately or saved for future use.
