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Introduction

The Busy times report provides a clear, hour-by-hour graphical representation of your call volumes for each day. Drill down into any hour to see a detailed breakdown of calls by type for that hour.

This report is ideal for identifying call traffic trends and very quickly highlights your busy days and times, allowing you to more effectively plan your staffing requirements.

Busy times

Running the report

On the Reports screen, click on Busy times in the reports list and then press the Select this report button.

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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".

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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.

Busy times

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 Next button to set more of the report's features or select the Finish button to run the report.

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
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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
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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
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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 Next button to set more of the report's features or select the Finish button to run the report.

Filter call information

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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 Next 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. Busy times
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. Busy times
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.

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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.

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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 *). Busy times
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*" Busy times
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*" Busy times
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.

Busy times
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*" Busy times
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.

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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. Busy times
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. Busy times

Specific Options

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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 and transfer calls from the report, simply select the two tickboxes. 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.

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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.

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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.

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Creating the report

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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 Run now 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 times - The results

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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.

The larger darker red dots represent your busier periods and the smaller greener dots, the quieter periods. This report is truly interactive. To see how many calls for any period, simply float over it to see more details.

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 headers of this report are as follows:

To see more details for any time slot, simply click and details of all calls contained within this period are shown as follows:

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All calls are shown on the front page and clear colour coded tabs allow you to easily sort by call type e.g. Inbound, outbound etc.

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

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