Generate forecast (web Forecasts tool)

The main views in the Forecasts tool on web shows all skills and their channel type. Toggle between the Forecasts view and the Skills view to show more details.

The Forecasts view shows until which date forecasts are created for these skills. The status column shows the result for the forecasts generated in the last three days. A blue pulsing circle indicates that generation of a forecast is in progress. A green circle indicates that a forecast has been generated and a red circle indicates that the generation of a forecast failed. Hover a circle with the mouse pointer for more information. Click to open the forecast for any skill, to see the details of the volume and handling time.
The Skills view shows if the skills are connected to a dynamic shrinkage template. Click to edit the skill settings.

Generate a forecast for one or more skills. The Forecasts tool calculates a volume forecast and applies a distribution pattern for each day.

The volume forecast and distribution patterns are based on the historical data that is available for the queues that are connected to the skill, maximum three years of data. If there is manually validated historical data, that is used. If not, the original historical data is used. The forecast process then automatically cleans the historical data and replaces outliers with more appropriate values before using the data to base the forecast on.

Different forecasting algorithms are evaluated when generating the forecast. The algorithm that gives the best result when compared to the actual values for a comparison period is used to generate the forecast.

The daily distribution pattern is based on the data for the last three months.

NOTE Forecasts for Inbound telephony, Email, Chat, and Backoffice skills can currently be automatically generated using the web Forecasts tool. Use the Forecasts module in the client to generate forecasts for other channel types.

Prerequisites

You have the Web > Forecasts permission.
A skill is created.
There is historical queue data on the queues which are connected to the skill. The queues can be either queues from an ACD integration or queues with imported queue data.

Page location

WFM > Forecasts

Procedures

Generate forecast for one skill

Select the skill for which to generate a forecast.
Click Actions and select Generate forecast.
Select the Scenario to save the forecast in.
Select the time period to Generate forecast for.
Click Generate forecast.
A suggested forecast is shown. Click Save to save the forecast as it is or make manual adjustments to the forecast before you save it. See Adjust the forecast manually on the web for more information.

Generate forecast for several skills at a time

Select the skills for which to generate a forecast.
Click Actions and select Generate forecast.
Select the Scenario to save the forecast in.
Select the time period to Generate forecast for.
Click Generate forecast.

A background job to generate forecasts for the selected skills is started. The forecast and distribution patterns for the selected period are automatically saved when the job is done. Any previously created forecast for the selected period is overwritten.

Set up automatic updates of forecasts

Turn on automatic forecast updates for your skills.

Select the skills for which to set up automatic updates.
Click Actions and select Automated forecast.
Drag and drop the circles on the time line to adjust the rolling time period for which to automatically update the forecast.

EXAMPLE The period is set from 7 to 60 days. This means that each night, the forecast is automatically updated for the period starting 7 days from today and until 60 days from today.
Click Save.

Turn off automatic updates of forecasts

Select the skills for which to set up automatic updates.
Click Actions and select Automated forecast.
Click the Enabled toggle.
Click Save.