HDI - Implementing Capacity Management
Overview Implementation Operations Optimization Measurement Annexes

9.1 Overview

9.1.1 Description

Capacity Management is concerned with two main factors:

Capacity is mainly concerned with staffing levels and technology levels. An example would be a new system going live which would create more calls than the Service Desk can handle - so more staff are required. At the same time the Service Desk server will have to be changed or upgraded because it cannot handle any more workstations. Performance, on the other hand, is well known because all Service Desks are concerned with metrics such as `time to answer,' `call duration,' and `first level resolution' rates.

To practice Capacity Management three questions must be continuously asked and answered:

Workforce Management (or Workforce Planning), within the Support Center industry, refers to effective staff scheduling and staffing requirements planning and forecasting - i.e., scheduling `the right people, in the right places, at the right times.' While ITIL essentially regards Workforce Management as a Service Desk line management responsibility (and not as a specific subset of Capacity Management) it uses many of the same processes and techniques and is therefore included in this section.

9.1.2 Relationships to other processes

Workforce Management does not have many relationships with the other processes because it is generally a standalone process. However, Capacity Management has relationships with most of the other processes as shown in Figure 9.1.

Figure 9.1 - The Capacity Management process

The input processes supply data to show current volumes and provide data to calculate growth trends, whereas the output processes will be changed or upgraded as a result of capacity changes. Note that these can be capacity reductions as well as increases.

Figure 9.1 shows the inputs that are required to calculate Service Desk Capacity. As these are collated, the Capacity sub-processes can calculate their impact on capacity to produce the plans and recommendations shown in the outputs segment.

9.1.3 Key inputs and outputs to the process

The additional key inputs and outputs specific to Workforce Management are simply a human resources-focused subset of the inputs and outputs to the Capacity Management process:

DescriptionSourceImportance
INPUTS
Telephony technologyService Desk High
Forecast incident volumes, by channel (telephone, e-mail, etc.) Configuration ManagementHigh
Current operational schedules Service DeskHigh
General schedule exceptions (e.g., holidays) Human Resource ManagementHigh
Specific schedule exceptions (e.g., vacations, sick days, planned meetings, off-phone activities) Service DeskHigh
Special events predicted to have an effect on incident volume (e.g., changes, deployment plans) Service DeskMedium
Personnel skill levels and training plans Service Desk ManagerMedium
Staffing budget Service Desk Manager, General Management
Changes (planned or actual) to Configuration Items in the CMDB variesVaries
OUTPUTS
Personnel Schedule Service DeskHigh
Updated volume forecast Service Level ManagementHigh
Updated training plans Service Desk<Medium
Staffing change recommendations Service Desk<High
Capacity Plan and recommendations Service Desk<High

9.1.4 Possible problems and issues

There are several major problems and issues that make Capacity and Workforce Management difficult. These are outlined below.

Quality issues
As far as Workforce Management is concerned, quality problems can occur when too much emphasis is placed on the numbers of staff members required as opposed to their skill sets. Filling a schedule gap with a new employee or one who does not possess the requisite skills can sometimes be worse, in terms of customer satisfaction, than leaving the gap unfilled and accepting the resulting impact on hold times and resolution times. To deal with this potential issue, make sure that forecasts are tied to employee training plans, and that employees have incentives to become skilled in as many areas of the Service Catalog as possible. New employees should not be formally placed on the schedule until they have completed enough training and have been certified to ensure that they can participate effectively.

The lack of Capacity Management is a quality issue in its own right. How can a Service Desk supply the best levels of support and service to the customer if it is not planning for the future? Mistakes will be made initially when planning capacity, but eventually good capacity planning will considerably improve IT quality and service.

Security issues
When planning capacity security, it must always be remembered that you should calculate Service Desk capacity volumes for those staff members who are authorized to use the services.

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9.2 - Implementation

9.2.1 The implementation process

Implementing Capacity Management requires careful planning and patience. Figure 9.2 shows a simple overview of the steps that need to be taken to implement Capacity Management. In this simplified implementation process there are ten steps that flow in a simple and logical order.

Figure 9.2 - Capacity management Implementation Plan

The ten steps in Figure 9.2 are reviewed below.

9.2.2 Steps to take

  1. Capacity education and training - training in both Capacity Management and ITIL is critical. Start by reading the ITIL manuals or going to an ITIL course; remember to concentrate on the Capacity process; also try to get some training in Capacity Management principles. If this is not possible, try to find someone in the IT department who is responsible for capacity and learn all you can from them.

  2. Identify elements for Capacity Management - the two most important elements in Capacity Management are to ensure that the correct current and future staffing levels are in place and that the Service Desk technologies have sufficient capacities in which to perform. Identify the key elements of people, tools and technologies.

  3. Put monitoring in place - ensure that the required information capacities can be made for capacity calculations. Identify the monitoring sources and then make sure that they are recording the correct information to allow for calculation of capacity levels.

  4. Create a data-gathering questionnaire - create a list of questions to obtain the necessary data so that calculations of the capacity required for new systems/applications or significant changes can be made. There is a list of questions in Annex A9.11.

  5. Create an implementation project plan - create a master project plan listing all the tasks that will ensure that you calculate your capacity levels correctly.

  6. Identify benefits and ROI - identify the benefits and Return On Investment for Service Desk Capacity Management.

  7. Create a presentation to `sell' Service Desk Capacity Management - although managing Capacity is the responsibility of the Service Desk, it cannot be achieved without input from other IT departments and support groups. Now is the time to make a business case. Prepare a presentation, or write a report, to make the case based upon all findings and actions so far.

  8. Start with a pilot system or application - link the master project and questionnaires with a pilot project. Pick a pilot that could affect Service Desk capacity. Throughout the pilot, adopt a continuous improvement mindset and adapt the overall project and questionnaire as you progress.

  9. Review results of pilot and update the process as required - at the end of the pilot, perform an in-depth review of successes and failures. Then make any necessary changes to the project and questionnaire.

  10. Fully implement Capacity Management - take the updated master project and questionnaire and fully implement Capacity Management.

9.2.3 Support Center Manager's role

Responsibilities and activities
Capacity Management is not an activity that can be delegated. It is possible to delegate the actions associated with Service Desk Capacity Management but the decisions made as a result of Capacity Management must always rest with the Service Desk Manager. A full list of the tasks required to be performed by the Service Desk Manager can be found in Annex A9.12 - Support Center Manager's Role for Service Desk Capacity Management.

The Support Center Manager should drive the process of implementing Workforce Management, as it is the Manager who is most concerned with the smooth day-to-day operation of the Support Center. The list of specific responsibilities may be found in Annex A9.13.

Deliverables
For Workforce Management, the deliverables are similar to those for Capacity Management in general; the differences merely involve the specific nature of Workforce Management. For example, the structure of the process needs to be developed and monitors need to be identified, but these will focus solely upon employee management.

One major difference involves defining the skills of each team member. The Support Center Manager must create a skills map that shows the skills needed to provide effective support for each item in the Service Catalogue and indicates the skill level of each employee. The skills map will then be used to help determine any coverage gaps. It can also be used as a software configuration aid.

When Workforce Management-specific software is being implemented as part of the process, the deliverables also include:

Most of the above can also relate to Capacity Management but there are a few extra deliverables that apply specifically to Capacity Management:

Key performance indicators (KPIs)
There are not many KPIs for Capacity Management, but not having enough capacity to manage the incidents within the terms of SLAs is the key KPI. Others may include:

9.2.4 Support Center Function's role

Responsibilities and activities
Workforce Management is a process contained completely within the Support Center, so the Support Center function itself does not have a `role' in the sense that other ITIL processes do. Members of the Support Center, however, have a responsibility to participate in the skills mapping process and training, and to ensure that data about their schedule adherence is captured.

9.2.5 Other groups' responsibilities and activities

The group responsible for Telecommunications, particularly ACD support, is usually very involved in implementing Workforce Management. When Workforce Management software is used, the ACD is generally integrated with it in some way. Even without special software, additional telecommunications reports are usually necessary for monitoring purposes, as are changes to the way calls are distributed.

The Human Resources group may also become involved. The creation of a skills map and the formalizing of the skills required for effective support often leads to a change in the way employees are evaluated and incentivised. New roles and career paths may also be developed. Human Resources can help to develop job descriptions and determine appropriate types of incentives.

If new software is being installed as part of the implementation, Change Management procedures should be followed. Depending on the Information Technology Department's organization, developers, database administrators, and other technical resources, as well as the Change Advisory Board, may also assist in implementing Workforce Management.

9.2.6 Planning for implementation

Some of the preparatory steps for implementing Workforce Management are described above; a checklist can be found in Annex 9.5.

Planning to implement Capacity Management for the Service Desk is not like many of the other processes because planning and implementing Capacity Management never completely stops. Capacity Management is a continuous cycle of learning how to manage capacity and implementing techniques to improve the process. The implementation of Capacity Management is a complex and dynamic process that depends on circumstances -that is, it is based on your current weaknesses. A typical plan may have the following steps.

Figure 9.3 - The Implementation Flow

Figure 9.3 shows a typical flow to implement Service Desk Capacity Management. Start with one Service Desk component and fully implement Capacity Management for it before moving to the next component. Capacity Management cannot be done by half measures. The details of Figure 9.3 are presented below.

Staffing capacity - this is the typical starting point for most Service Desks because staffing levels are a constant struggle of calculation, explanation, and justification. No organization likes to increase its headcount; in fact, it is often the opposite and demands for reduced headcounts are common. Figure 9.1 shows the inputs, sub-processes and outputs. You will need to put in place the monitoring to measure the current Service Desk staffing capacity levels. You would then need to set-up the processes to gather the data that could change the levels of staffing for the Service Desk; typically significant changes, significant releases and new services, systems, applications or technologies. With this data you can then calculate the potential staffing levels required to handle the extra volume that they may create. Take this data and add it to your current staffing capacity loadings to see the overall effect on our staffing levels. Finally, produce a capacity plan showing the impact and potential courses of action.

Service Desk tool capacity - Service Desk Agents must be able to record incidents as quickly and accurately as possible. If the Service Desk tool is slow or cannot cope with the current and future levels of staff the tool will need to be upgraded or replaced. The same pattern for staffing levels can be repeated here; gather current capacity and performance data, identify future data, and then produce a capacity plan.

Server capacity - if the Service Desk tool is slow or cannot cope with the current and future levels of staff, the need to upgrade or replace the tool may become unavoidable. It may be that the tool is adequate but the server cannot cope. Again the same pattern for staffing levels can be repeated here; gather current capacity and performance data and identify future data then produce a capacity plan.

ACD capacity - customers want to be able to get their calls answered as soon as possible and not have busy lines or have to abandon calls, so careful attention needs to be given to ACD capacity. The same pattern for staffing levels can be repeated here; gather current capacity and performance data, identify future data, and then produce a capacity plan. Several ACD simulation tools can be purchased for this task as well as numerous Erlang calculators that can be accessed via the Internet (see the Tools Implementation section for more details).

Etc. - extra Capacity Management will depend upon the services the Service Desk provides, but typically email and knowledge tools will also need a Capacity Management review.

Groups to contact
All IT groups should be contacted because all of them, at some time, use or support the Service Desk so all are potential sources for capacity growth. The Service Desk Manager should stay in constant contact with all IT groups. Some of the groups may be performing monitoring that is required by the Service Desk for capacity calculations, such as server usage for the server on which the Service Desk tools reside or network performance as it relates to Service Desk response timings. The Service Desk should ensure that all relevant groups are measuring the correct components and forwarding that data to the Service Desk.

Necessary information and data
For Workforce Management, the required data includes:

Measurements that should be in place
Besides the kinds of measurements needed to produce the necessary data, above (Incidents by channel, etc.), you will need to have an accurate percentage of what the Service Desk staff's schedule adherence has been over time. This will tell you how often the staff are performing assigned duties at assigned times and where discrepancies are likely to be found.

Some measurements required to manage Service Desk capacity are:

9.2.7 Implementing key process activities: hints and tips

Capacity Management is an ongoing process that should be recalculated on a monthly, quarterly and as-necessary basis. Time to perform and analyze these calculations should be a routine item on every Service Desk Manager's `to-do' list. The Service Desk Manager needs the tools and procedures that will be predicting, far in advance, when the Service Desk will have a staffing capacity problem.

Workforce Management is a complex activity, and it is best to start small. Begin by using a Workforce Management system to schedule (and ensure) adherence to breaks and lunches. Almost immediately there will be improved coverage and more satisfied employees, since they won't have to skip, delay, or abbreviate their breaks.

What to implement first
This depends upon the areas where the Service Desk has the fewest capacity measures, but Figure 9.3 shows the most logical order.

Little things that deliver big returns
The key to success and bigger returns lies with managed staffing levels. It is not always about headcount reduction. For example, your target could be to take on 25% more systems with the same headcount.

How can this be achieved? Reducing the number of incidents is a great source for big returns. Capacity Management is not only about increasing capacity; it is also about Demand Management, which includes reducing traffic, and whenever possible, incident levels. The Service Desk should regularly review its incidents and submit `Requests For Change' where they can see an opportunity to reduce the number of incidents. This concept is covered in greater detail in the chapter on Problem Management.

As far as Workforce Management is concerned, many Support Center Managers avoid scheduling shifts outside of the regular eight hours. However, you can almost always provide better coverage at less cost by incorporating shifts of different lengths into your schedule.

9.2.8 Audits for effectiveness

Thoroughly investigate any capacity failures or issues and make sure that they do not occur again.

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9.3 - Ongoing Operation

9.3.1 The ongoing process

The ongoing process for Service Desk Capacity Management is regular monitoring, looking for impact on current capacity and creating options to solve potential capacity problems. Figure 9.4 below highlights the main stages required for ongoing Service Desk Capacity Management:

Figure 9.4 - Capacity Management Process Flow

Given the complexity of the entire process, it should be examined in smaller components starting with Business Capacity Management.

Figure 9.5 - Business Capacity Management

There are three components for monitoring and understanding Business Capacity:

In summary: trend, forecast, model, prototype, size, and document future business requirements, because they will affect the service the customers need and the daily operations of the Service Desk.

Service and Resource Capacity Management is concerned with any future changes that may affect the service requirements or the resources used by the Service Desk. Some questions to ask are:

In any event, the Service Desk must stay in constant contact with Service Level Management and evaluate the effect of changes in service on the Service Desk.

There may have to be changes to the resources used by the Service Desk. For example, a change to the server where the Service Desk software and databases reside could result in an impact on capacity. The Service Desk must be fully involved in Change Management so that they can identify any potential effects on their resources.

Resource Management covers all the resources required by a fully operational Service Desk. This includes staff, servers, telecommunications, ACD, Service Desk software and any other resources. This is primarily a monitoring function: the future capacity of all resources is measured and then compared with the amount of available capacity. For example: an agent can handle 30 incidents in a day, but currently there are 22 incidents per day per agent; therefore, there are still 8 incidents per day per agent available. You should also set safety thresholds; e.g., you may set the level for agents at 25 incidents because this gives you a buffer to make capacity calculations and decisions rather than work to 30 where capacity cannot be expanded any further. By using your current capacity levels and the information from Service and Resource Capacity Management, you can determine when you will have capacity issues on a resource. Monitor, generate reports, analyze, and brief senior management on the utilization of components. Establish baselines and profiles of component usage.

Performance Management is similar to Resource Management but focuses on the performance of all of the resources required to run a Service Desk. Often slow performance can indicate low levels of capacity. The longer Service Desk staff members are confined to their desks without breaks or training, the more tired they will become, with a resulting drop in performance.

It is imperative that the Service Desk Manager monitors, analyzes, tunes and reports on service performance, establishes baselines and profiles of use of services and manages demand for services.

Figure 9.6 - Relationship to purchasing This section is about building relationships and getting involved in IT development and purchasing policies to get an early warning for potential capacity issues:

  • IT Development is primarily about new applications and systems developed in-house. Any activity that affects any customer will, sooner or later, affect the Service Desk. The Service Desk Manager must be involved in all new projects to determine whether these projects will have an effect on Service Desk capacity. The sooner the Service Desk Manager knows if capacity will be affected, the longer the Service Desk Manager will have to explore alternatives and solutions. Annex 14 contains a list of questions for project leaders to help determine the capacity needs of new applications or systems. For each new application or system a calculation will have to be made about the extra capacity required by the Service Desk resource to support the new application or system.
  • IT Purchasing is similar to IT Development, except that it concentrates on technology purchasing. This includes both IT hardware and IT software.
  • Application Sizing is normally performed by the project team. The objective is to size all of the resource requirements and budget for the resources required for those resources. The Service Desk Manager must be involved in this step and make sure that all of the Service Desk resource requirements are included. Use the information that was collected from IT Development and IT Purchasing to justify the case. The Service Desk Manager must have a close relationship with purchasing, contract management, Change Management, Release Management, and Service Level Management so that the Service Desk is never surprised by new purchases, services, initiatives, etc.
Figure 9.7 - Putting it all together Modeling is all about `what if' scenarios. Here, all of the measurements, projects and findings from everything that has been discussed so far are brought together. Whenever areas are found that do not have enough capacity, then all potential solutions must be explored. At the end of Modeling, all of the potential capacity shortfalls and potential courses of action should be identified, documented and resolved.

Capacity Planning identifies the shortfalls, potential solutions and the recommendations to management showing how capacity failures can be avoided.

Capacity Plan - see Annex A9.15 for a list of the contents of a Capacity Plan. Distribute the plan to all IT Managers and selected Business Managers. Do not just issue the Capacity Plan: make sure that actions are taken to avoid capacity failures on the Service Desk.

9.3.2 Support Center Manager's role

Responsibilities and activities
The Support Center Manager's activities in the ongoing operation of Workforce Management are listed in Annex A9.8.

Deliverables
New forecasts and schedules

Training plans
Recruiting plans and budgets

KPIs

9.3.3 Support Center Function's role

Responsibilities and activities
Support Center employees must monitor their compliance with the Support Center schedules; they must also ensure that the training system is up-to-date with newly-acquired skills, schedule preferences and exceptions.

9.3.4 Other key roles and functions in the ongoing operation process

The Support Center Manager may be responsible for handling reporting and Workforce Management system administration. However, most Support Centers will have a person specifically assigned to administer the system and perform forecasting and scheduling. This person will be responsible for: [To top of Page]

9.4 - Optimization

9.4.1 - The optimization process

Support Center Manager's role Responsibilities and activities
The optimization activities for Workforce Management are the same as those for ongoing operations, and are listed in Annex A9.6.
Deliverables

KPIs
The KPIs for Workforce Management are the same as those listed in the Ongoing Operation section: as Workforce Management is optimized, you should see an improvement in those KPIs.

9.4.2 Other key roles and functions in the optimization process

The Workforce Management system administrator will play a role in optimization, as may IT and Telecommunications resources.

9.4.3 Steps and tips for optimizing this process

See the Annex for ideas on how to optimize Workforce Management (Annex A9.7).

9.4.4 Future impact of this process on the Support Center

Workforce Management results in more cost-effective Incident handling in the Support Center and improves staff job satisfaction.

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9.5 - Measurement, costing and management reporting

9.5.1 - Implementing: Benefits and Costs

Why implement this process and what can be gained
There are many benefits that accrue from implementing Workforce Management. They can be broken into five categories:

Improved staffing efficiencies: forecasting tools can examine a Service Desk's call history and predict the expected call volume over the course of the day. By feeding this information into a scheduling module, an optimum schedule based on previous call histories can be developed. This schedule can take `shrinkage' (the time agents are on break, at lunch, absent, etc.), agents' preferences and skills and all sites into account. Besides making better use of staff, this `schedule smoothing' effect means that the Service Desk will be able to provide more consistent levels of support to your customers.

It can also help determine the optimum schedules for each customer contact channel. Some packages can manage chat and web-based channels as well as phone queues. Response-style work, such as responding to emails and faxes, can be difficult to schedule. The right kinds of software tools can help identify the best times to handle response work while still taking your SLAs for emails and faxes into account. In a similar way, workforce-planning software can automatically schedule staff members' breaks and lunches while still ensuring that the maximum coverage is in place, and it can suggest the best times to hold meetings and training sessions.

Workforce management tools help you predict and plan for `shrinkage' - that is, the percent of staff likely to be sick, out, on a break or occupied with other tasks. Every support manager has wondered how 40 people can be scheduled, but no one is logged into the phone system, while monitoring the email and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) queues. Forecasting can also help predict seasonal peaks and valleys; 'what-if' analysis allows you to see the effects a new rollout or special promotion might have on call volume and provide the opportunity to proactively schedule for it.

Intra-day forecasting helps a manager to respond to shifts in customer calling patterns `on the fly.' Workforce planning tools with intra-day functionality allow a manager to see if the volume is higher or lower than predicted, and help to adjust staffing levels accordingly.

Increased employee satisfaction: employee satisfaction is a particular benefit to come from the use of workforce planning software. A workforce planning system usually results in a somewhat more regimented workplace. Employees have specific duties built into their schedules, shifts may be assigned by the system, and adherence reporting gives management a view into exactly what they're doing at any particular time. This `Big Brother' aspect of Sears, the retail chain, did a study that quantified the impact of employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction and increased revenue: every 5% improvement in employee satisfaction led to a 1.3% improvement in customer satisfaction, which translated into a 0.5% increase in store revenues. IBM, MBNA, Nortel, and dozens of other companies and research firms have come to similar conclusions with their own studies. All help desks appreciate improvements in their customer satisfaction levels! Technical support operations, in particular, may be able to quantify the impact of their improvement efforts on revenue.

Reduction in management workload: scheduling software, once it has been set up, automates the production of the support operation's schedule week. Even the most basic scheduling program can turn a several-hour-job into a task that takes minutes. By being able to view holidays, vacations and other planned `time off' requests into the future, it is possible to identify scheduling problems and plan for them well in advance.

Those are only some of the advantages that come with the ability to automate your schedule. More advanced workforce planning tools help free up time in other ways. Budget time can be a weeks-long effort of putting together the numbers to justify staffing projections for the upcoming year. A forecasting package can help demonstrate the impact that staffing requests will have on service levels, and, perhaps more importantly, what happens if changes are not made. Add sophisticated what-if analysis capabilities into the mix and the validation of budget proposals will be more efficient and effective. In addition, day-to-day time tracking and payroll activities become easier when a workforce planning system is tied to payroll. Schedule adherence features can eliminate time sheets and clock punching, and move to time reporting based on actual activity. Adherence reporting also allows documenting specific areas of excellence or improvement for each agent, so that preparing for performance reviews is easier and demonstrably objective.

A subtler plus that comes with the use of scheduling and forecasting software is improved regularity in performing various workforce management tasks. According to a survey by Professional Planning Forum, Ltd., companies using workforce management systems were more likely to produce variance reports, monitor adherence, re-forecast based on a day's activity; they are even more likely to schedule breaks and lunches! While performing these administrative tasks can add to the manager's workload, the regular examination of staff members' performance and work volume can produce a more smoothly running Service Desk. By performing them regularly, the tasks are easier to accomplish.

Cost savings: the cost savings inherent in workforce planning software flow from all the other benefits listed above. There are a few particular points worth highlighting.

By using software that can forecast and schedule for technicians with multiple skills, a better fit between the caller and your available agents is achieved. The Help Desk Institute has shown that increasing first call resolution provides an opportunity for cost reduction. Besides saving employees' time by not escalating calls, there is also a savings on telephony costs - both by avoiding callbacks, and by merely shortening your customers' wait in the queue.

Some Service Desks prefer to use full-time, rather than part-time, agents - in part because of the increased complexity of scheduling them. A good scheduling package can help identify the areas where the Service Desk can be better served by less expensive part-time resources.

Employee retention is increased, thus saving on the costs associated with recruiting and training new staff.

Purdue University's call center benchmarking studies have found that the average call center (including Support Centers) budgets somewhere between 10% and 15% for employee overtime. By optimizing scheduling, the Service Desk may be able to spend less of the budget on overtime.

Workforce management software allows organizations to `do more with less'. Using software to help optimize schedules and future planning will facilitate the goal of better service with fewer people ... and fewer headaches.

Cost elements for implementation
Cost elements for implementing Workforce Management include:

Making the business case to implement Workforce Management
When should Workforce Management software be implemented? The size of your Support Center is the primary factor to consider. There are workforce-planning packages that are suitable for Support Centers ranging in size from 30 employees up to the tens of thousands. However, there are other factors that can have an effect on the decision to whether or not special software is necessary.

Return on Investment
There are some items that should be understood when preparing to calculate the return on investment (ROI) for Workforce Management software.

ROI is a measurement of the value - usually in the sense of cost savings, cost avoidance, or profit - that will result by proceeding with the action under consideration. In this case, acquisition of a workforce planning system. It also looks at the rate of payback: How long will it take before the new system has paid for itself via cost savings, profit, etc.?

ROI is not just about hard numbers. Hard numbers will be needed to justify the project. But do not neglect intangible benefits when putting together ROI documentation. Some examples of quantifiable factors to look at include:

Intangible factors generally involve employee and customer satisfaction. Document what goes into the soft ROI factors that are presented: assumptions, examples and time estimates should be completely described for management. Current measurements around both hard and soft factors need to be accurate and documented. For example, if a workforce planning system will save some amount of time each week in scheduling-related tasks, it will be necessary to know the average amount of time it takes to prepare the schedule, as well as the amount of time spent on schedule adjustments. While the process is time consuming, it can ensure that the right decisions and measurements can be used as input to the project scope and objectives when the time comes to implement the software.

Several workforce planning software vendors maintain ROI calculators on their sites. Please note: every Support Center is unique, and these calculators may not adequately model your situation - but they can be a good starting place.

Workforce management software is not beyond the reach of the smaller support operation. Many vendors have responded with smaller-scale offerings and hosted solutions, where it is possible to `rent' the software on a per-user, per-month basis. This low initial investment can put workforce-planning tools within the reach of most Support Centers.

Even if these types of solutions will still break your budget, there are options. Very inexpensive, even free, Erlang calculators and scheduling software packages are available on the Internet. The sorts of efficiencies and time savings that can be garnered by using even the simplest of tools makes workforce planning software a sensible investment for any support operation regardless of its size.

9.5.2 Ongoing operations

Cost elements for ongoing operations Ongoing operational costs for Workforce Management include:

Management reporting

9.5.3 Optimization: benefits and costs

Why optimize this process and what can be gained The benefits of optimizing Workforce Management are the same as those of implementing it: by optimizing your schedules and forecasts you achieve better Incident handling, resulting in more effective operations.

9.5.4 Tools

Implementation
For large and/or complex Support Centers, Workforce Management software is essential for implementing the process of Workforce Management. There are many packages available on the market. For smaller Support Centers, other tools may be used to implement the process:

Finally, ACD and unified messaging software are invaluable when implementing Workforce Management. Project management software is also helpful during the implementation.

Reporting
Most Workforce Management-specific software comes with a range of useful reports and can be used with third-party reporting packages. Data can also be exported to spreadsheets and databases.

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Annex Documents

Overview

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Annex A9.1 - Implementation Responsibility Checklist

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Annex A9.2 - Skill Definitions

Demonstrated behavior
Core Competencies		Skills Definition
BasicFullExpert
Verbal Communication Skills
  • Mature phone skills
  • Able to give and rake concise directions
  • Able to describe technical issues to a non-technical audience
  • Mature listening
  • Demonstrated interpretive
  • Translate non-technical issues into technical direction
Mentor of..
Written Communication Skills
  • Good grammar and spelling
  • Able o be concise or detailed based on the event.
  • Discreet and business-focused
  • Sensitivity to recipient's)
Mentor of... Evaluation of...
Customer Relationships
  • Achieve and maintain high customer satisfaction
  • Understand key customers
Understand cultural impact Demonstrate ability to raise customer relationship levels across all IT services
Problem Solving
  • Identify basic/routine problems
  • Effective troubleshooting
  • Ability to present solutions
  • Ability to escalate
  • Alternative thinking
  • Ability to include other groups/resources in solution
  • Identify root-cause problems and solution recommendation
  • Identify workarounds
  • Ability to manage and resolve escalations
  • Alternative thinking
  • Ability to include other groups/resources in solution
Technology Orientation
  • Basic aptitude for technology learning
  • Monitor and maintain competency in industry standards, customer- specific technologies, trends, and issues
  • Mastery of a group of products from a single vendor or similar functionality
  • Mastery of a single service line
  • Mastery and/or certification across multiple products and functionality
  • Mastery of multiple service lines
  • Facilitate learning with peers and reports
  • Identify changes in direction for learning requirements
Shrink-Wrap App Support
  • Familiar wilt desktop products at average user-level
  • Resolve 90% of functional (how- to) issues within baseline applications
  • Resolve 50% of functional (how- to) issues with extended applications
  • familiar with desktop products at advanced user-level
  • Resolve functional escalations of applications in designated areas of expertise
  • Able to resolve 90% of technical (break/fix) issues within applications
  • Research solutions for application
  • Resolve escalated issues
Proprietary App Support
  • Understanding of business impact of application
  • Understanding of application configuration
  • Diagnosis, triage and documentation of issues
  • Primary escalation point
  • Liaison with appropriate application development group
 Participate in change control process as appropriate
Operating Systems Hardware Support
  • Standard knowledge of Microsoft operating systems
  • Knowledge of standard operating
  • Advanced knowledge of Microsoft operating systems
  • Familiarity with Sun/HP UNIX
Escalation point for...
Desktop/laptop Support
  • equipment list
  • Knowledge of standard configuration installation
  • Diagnosis, triage and documentation of issues
  • Drivers
  • Application interactions
  • Evaluate hardware requests
  • Repair
  • Installations
  • Special configurations
  • Component support
  • 0/S interactions
  • BIOS
  • Approval for upgrades
  • New equipment testing
  • Liaison with third-party vendor
User Administration
  • Password resets
  • Lockouts
  • Account enable/disable
  • Diagnosis, triage and documentation
  • Escalate to third-parry vendor as appropriate
  • Account creation
  • Group requests
  • Permission requests
  • Respond to escalations as appropriate
  • Administer changes to Active Directory Services
Corporate proficiency
  • Understand corporate culture
  • Understand customer's lines of business
  • Understand key members of customer's organization
  • Understand business function
  • Develop business relationships
  • Navigating corporate Infrastructure for enhanced customer advocacy
  • Deliver value to all levels of corporate structure
Ticket Handling
  • Categorization
  • Issue documentation
  • Timely routing/escalation
  • Documentation of basic-level resolution
  • Customer follow-up
  • Resolution responsibility for escalated calls
  • Documentation of full-level resolution
Review of. ..

Mentor of. ..

Ownership
  • Demonstrated ability to own issues to resolution within stated SOPs
  • Customer advocacy
  • Leverage resources for issue resolution
  • Ability to seek/develop solutions
 Ability to authorize and implement solutions
Escalations/Service Provider Relationships Understand and follow escalation process
  • Document escalation process
  • Build relationships with service teams
  • Identify service gaps and recommend changes
  • Negotiate and gain buy-in
  • Implementing recommended changes
Knowledgebase Use knowledgebase Contribute solutions to knowledgebase Validate solutions
Scheduling and Allocation
  • Understand coverage strategies
  • Adhere to schedule
  • Follow process for planned and unplanned time off
  • Recommend changes to process
  • Develop schedules
  • Allocate people to projects
  • Resolve scheduling conflicts
Indicate new people /allocation requirements

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Annex A9.3 - Role-Skill Mapping

Once you've identified the skills your Support Center requires, map the skill levels to your Support Center's roles. Then evaluate each employee in light of the skills necessary to perform his or her role. Finally, within your Workforce Management system, ACD, and other routing tools, make sure that Incidents are routed to the people best able to resolve them.


Demonstrated Behaviour Support Centre
Tier I 		Desktop Technician Support Centre
Tier II 		Team Lead Supervisor
Core Competencies
Verbal Communication Skills basic basic full expert expert
Written Communication Skills basic basic basic full expert
Customer Relationships full full full expert expert
Problem Solving basic full full expert expert
Technology Orientation basic basic full full expert
Technical Competencies
Technical Shrink-Wrap App Support basic full full expert expert
Proprietary App Support basic full full expert expert
Operating Systems - Hardware Support full full expert expert expert
Desktop/laptop basic full full expert expert
User Administration basic full expert expert expert
Hard Skills
Corporate Proficiency basic basic basic basic basic
Ticket Handling basic full full expert expert
Ownership full full full expert expert
Escalations / Service Provider Relationships basic basic full expert expert
Knowledgebase full full expert expert expert
Scheduling and Allocation basic basic basic full expert

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Annex A9.4 - Software selection Template Notes

The Software Selection Template has two functions: it is used to collect, categorize, and prioritize your requirements; and it is used to evaluate vendor responses. It is designed for use by large organizations that have multiple groups and/or individuals creating and prioritizing many requirements that can be grouped into multiple categories. However, smaller groups can also use it by removing some of the columns and using simple ranking systems instead of more complex priority weighting schemes.

The template has three worksheets: Functionality, Vendor, and Technology.

All three worksheets are organized in the same way: requirements are listed and organized into categories. There are some sample requirements and categories listed in each of the worksheets. These are very general, and are meant to help jump-start your thinking - while some may be applicable to your business and the type of workforce planning system you are preparing to select, you should prepare requirements that are specific to your situation.

Empty rows for additional requirements have been left as "reminders" that you may have hundreds of requirements, if you're seeking a complex, feature-rich workforce planning/routing/analysis system. But even if you're looking for a bare-bones tool to help streamline your management tasks, you'll still have more requirements than the few listed here! There are four priority columns for various stakeholder groups or individuals participating in requirements development (columns can be added or removed, depending on the number of stakeholder groups/participating individuals in your organization). Each stakeholder group should evaluate any listed requirements, add new requirements, and prioritize each of them by noting a priority or rank in the appropriate "Stakeholder Group Priority" column.

The priority or rank can be simple (low, medium, and high), or more complex. For example, the following numerical codes or similar ones could be used:

If a numerical ranking scheme is employed, the "Average/Weighted Priority" column may be used to calculate the average priority across all stakeholder groups, as in the table below:

Category/DescriptionSupport CentrePayrollTelecomAverage
Weighted priority
Multi-skill scheduling5133
Schedule adherence3513
Skill swapping4222.6

The "Average/Weighted Priority" column can also be used to determine a weighted priority in the event that stakeholder groups' priorities are not given equal weight. For example, a Support Center that is actually going to be using the tool may use a multiplier on its priorities, while a payroll group that will be viewing reports may not, as shown below (the multiplier used to weight the priorities appears at the top of each group's column):

Category/DescriptionSupport Centre (*3)Payroll (*1)Telecom (*2)Average
Weighted priority
Multi-skill scheduling51322
Schedule adherence35116
Skill swapping42218

As you can see, weighting can make a difference in how requirements are prioritized.

The "Phase" column can be used to indicate whether a requirement can be postponed to a later phase of implementation.

The "Notes" column is for any explanatory text associated with the requirements.

The next three groups of columns are for evaluating different systems. (If more than three systems are evaluated, the columns can be copied.) Within each group are fields for "Performance" and "Method of Performance." The "Performance" field can be used as a Yes/No field, or with a numerical ranking, such as:

Alternatively, the two fields can be combined for a simpler system. Any columns that use a numerical ranking can then be summed to calculate an overall "score" for each system being evaluated. The "Comments" column is used for any explanatory text associated with the product's ability to meet the requirement. Finally, the "Demonstration Notes" column is used to capture each software selection team member's notes during vendor demos. Again, some type of numerical system can be used, or the column can be used for comments.

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Annex A9.5 - Workforce Management Implementation Planning Checklist: Support Center Manager

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Annex A9.6 - Workforce Management Operation Responsibility Checklist: Support Center Manager

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Annex A9.7 - Optimizing Workforce Management

Forecast Incident volumes over shorter periods of time. You probably began forecasting using one-hour increments; change to half-hour or 15-minute blocks. Your forecasts and schedules will become more accurate as a result.

As noted in the Implementation section, experiment with different-length shifts.

Look at scheduling part-time staff to handle peaks in Incident volume. You may also have staff members willing to work split shifts, especially those who are attending classes or who have a second job.

Schedule Support Center staff members for longer shifts. Try a four-day week, with 10-hour per day shifts, or a three-and-a-half-day week with three l2-hour shifts and one 4-hour shift. You might schedule some staff members for longer shifts on your peak days, then shorten shifts over the rest of the week - for example, if Monday is a peak day, schedule a 10-hour shift that day, then use 8-hour shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and end with a 6-hour shift on Friday.

Adjust your policies to ensure fairness in scheduling: require all staff members to work weekends and holidays according to set rules (depending on the size of your staff, you might try one weekend per month, or one weekend day per week; two holidays per year; etc.). You might also want to consider rotating schedules.

Allow staff members to "bid" on different shifts. Some Workforce Management tools allow this as a matter of course and will even take seniority into account.

Make schedules available earlier, even as much as a month in advance.

Push schedule exception approval to lower management levels. In some Support Centers, the Support Center Manager must approve all schedule exceptions. With Workforce Management in place, supervisors, team leads, or the Workforce Management system administrator can see the effect of a change and take steps to ensure that it will not affect service. Some systems can allow staff members to handle shift-swapping via business rules - for example, a system will let two staff members swap days if both have the skill sets required for those days - so no management involvement is required (beyond setting up the original business rules).

Make sure performance reviews include schedule adherence as a component, and allow staff members to monitor their ongoing adherence. Staff members will be able to see adherence and take their own steps to improve it.

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Annex A9.8 - Schedule Template

Schedule Template

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Annex A9.9 - Forecasting Techniques

In order to look at your future staffing needs, you must be familiar with your past. A ratio, based on your Support Center's history, can be a good, rule-of-thumb way to plan for future staffing requirements.

The ratios most Support Centers use are staff-per-customer and staff-per-incident. In order to determine your current ratio, review your problem tracking system or ACD reports to find today's staff-per-customer or staff-per-incident. Then start moving back in time: was the ratio the same prior to your last change in staff numbers? Before your company expanded? What about during the big rollout? In this way, you can see what your ratio has been over time and use it to predict upcoming needs.

Are there industry-standard staff ratios that you can use? Not really. While you can find recommendations for "standard" staff-to-customer and staff-to-incident ratios, there are many factors that affect them. For example:

All of these factors can have an impact on the number of staff you need. You are much better off examining your history and using it as a predictor of future requirements than using an anonymous average as your guide. One potential alternative approach might be to talk with other Support Centers that are very, very similar to your own. As a group, you can perform benchmarking analyses to determine "the best" staffing ratio values to use.

Regardless of the method you use to develop your ratio, continue to test it over time. New software deployments to your customers, additional training for your staff, and new Support Center technologies can result in modifications that must be taken into account.

Other methods of determining staffing needs involve digging into your history a little more deeply in order to build a model. Begin by figuring out your staff members' availability to answer calls. This is not just the amount of time they're supposed to be at work, but the amount of time they're actually taking calls: breaks, lunches, and other scheduled off-phone activities should be excluded. Next, estimate your shrinkage rate (the amount or percentage of time your employees are vacationing, sick, etc.). Many people use 15% as an average, but you may be able to determine it directly from your Support Center's historical data.

You will also need to figure out your utilization rate, or the time your agents spend actually delivering service to your customers as opposed to doing after-call work or waiting for the next Incident to arrive. And you need to know how many incidents you receive in a given time period (per day, per hour - however you'd like to calculate it), and how long the average handle time is for each incident, including after-call work.

Now you have enough information to establish the number of staff members you'll need. The formula is:

 (Number of incidents) (Time per incident)
Required staff =
 (1 - Shrinkage %)(Utilization rate) (Agent available time)

You'll need to do the same calculation for each channel of customer communication you manage, since the utilization rates, number of incidents, and so on will be different for each one. Note that this includes different ACD queues: while you can lump every call together, you'll get a more accurate forecast of requirements per queue if you calculate them separately.

You can also look at your per-hour, or per-half-hour, statistics from your ACD. By graphing the results over several weeks, you'll see the average daily pattern. Any unusual spikes or drops in call volume should be investigated. Once you have a feel for the "real" average, you can estimate staffing needs by interval. If you don't have an ACD, you can attempt to forecast using your problem tracking system's data. However, you should remember that there is almost certainly some number of calls that don't get logged, and that call handle time is not usually calculable from these systems.

Another way to forecast your staffing requirements is to use a service/task-based model. Witlthis method, you look at the activities of your Support Center, and estimate the skill set or type of employee needed to perform the task, the amount of time each instance of the task will take (including after-call work, if appropriate), and the number of instances of the task within a given time period, as shown in the chart below:

ServiceEmployee TypeTime
(Minutes)		Quantity
(per day)		Total Time
(Minutes)
MS Office callsTier I775525
Connectivity callsTier I1515225
Proprietary application #1 callsTier I2040800
E-mail responsesTier I580400
Sub-total1950
Divide by the number of minutes your agents will provide these services per day [Note]390
1st Level Agents Needed5
Proprietary App #2 callTier II10550
etc.....Tier I 7  
     
     

The advantage to this model is that you estimate the time taken for all tasks, including offphone work, and you can drill into the differences in the time it take to provide various services. However, it requires you to collect historical data on a more granular level than the other methods (particularly if you go to the per-hour level, rather than the per-day level in the example shown above).

What happens if you don't have any history? Say, for example, you're setting up a brand-new Support Center - how do you forecast your requirements? You can use the same sort of model given above, but each of the values will need to be an estimate, rather than based on actual history. (And you'll probably want to make sure you have a little padding, or a contingency plan to call in additional workers, in case you've underestimated.) Once you begin operations, you can re-visit your estimates and continue to fine-tune your forecasting.

Regardless of how you develop your forecast - even, or perhaps especially, if you use a software package - review it with an eye to upcoming special events, technologies, vacation periods, etc., that will have an impact on it. While your history can predict your future needs, there's no guarantee that the prediction will always be correct. Your own judgment should be the final arbiter.

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Annex A9.10 - Implementation Checklist

Review your existing data and systems. You are almost certainly performing forecasting in some way, even if it's unsophisticated. Identify:

You also need to be aware of your staffing budget, and you need to understand your management's commitment to implementing Workforce Management.

Determine the organizational structure you'll need. Someone will need to administer your Workforce Management system, whether you use software specifically designed for the purpose or use your historical data for forecasting. Determine your budget for the implementation. Include software, staff, consulting, and implementation costs. Determine the skills your staff members need in order to provide effective support, and associate skill levels with staff roles. Skills definition and roles/skills mapping templates can be found in the Annex (Annexes A9.2 and A9.3). Prepare your staff communications. You should explain why you're implementing Workforce Management and how it will affect them. Identify your Workforce Management system requirements. A requirements template and instructions for using it can be found in the Annex (Annexes A9.4 and A9.5).

If you will be buying Workforce Management software, research software vendors and submit your requirements (in RFP form) to those who look like good fits.

Review the responses to your RFP and select the top two or three vendors to provide you with onsite demonstrations and vendor references.

Prepare a guide, or script, for the vendors. Standard demonstrations may place too much emphasis on features you don't need, or may skip something particularly important to you. Provide your guide to the vendors. Prepare a vendor reference questionnaire in advance (Annex A9.12) and interview each reference. Document your discussions.

Invite stakeholders to attend the vendor demonstrations. Stakeholders may include supervisors; team leads; staff representatives; Human Resources, Telecommunications, and IT Department representatives; and your upper management. The resource you identified as your system administrator should definitely attend. However, the overall group should be fairly small so as to ensure meaningful discussion and decision-making.

Prepare a demo score sheet, so that as you watch each vendor demonstration, you can capture your notes. You'll find that, after viewing multiple demos, details will become confused - your notes will help you remember each software package's features.

Attend the demos.

With your team, discuss the demos and reference information. If no clear-cut winner is identified, you may want to conduct a reference site visit, and visit the vendor's own site to meet the implementation and support teams. (It's a good idea to do this even if you have selected the finalist.)

Prepare a software implementation plan. Your vendor will have a standard plan, but you should adapt that for your specific needs. (See Annex A9.6)

Execute your implementation plan.

If you'll be implementing Workforce Management without special software, determine how you'll meet your requirements: will you need additional ACD information? How can you best track staff schedule adherence? Identify all the monitoring points you'll need, and the data you'll need to collect from each.

Prepare your forecasting system (this could be a spreadsheet or database designed to hold historical data) and set up a scheme to populate it, perhaps by importing ACD data on a weekly basis. (See Annex A9.11)

Design the reports you'll need to get from your system. Prepare your schedule template. (See Annex A9. 10)

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Annex A9.11 - Reference Question List

The list of questions below is designed to help you interview vendor reference customers. It's a "starter set" of questions: they are very general and can be used regardless of what features you're looking for in a workforce planning product. You will be able to think of other questions that are more specific to your business and the nature of the product you're selecting. For example, if one of your "showstopper" requirements involves the vacation request approval process, make a point of asking whether the reference makes use of that functionality, and whether they've experienced any problems with it.

Implementation:

Integration:

Customization

Support and Administration

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Annex A9.12 - Support Center Manager

The Service Desk Manager should either perform the following Capacity Management tasks, or ensure that appropriately skilled members of staff are delegated perform the following tasks: [Note]

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Annex A9.13 - Help Desk Requirements

System description

Technology details

Supplier details

New application functionality

Incident management system new fields

Customer community details

Support Group details

External support services

Incident details

Reporting requirements

Service Level requirements

Help Desk security specifications

Additional ITIL data

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Annex A9.14 - Contents of a Capacity Plan

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