Place
The physical location of equipment, which can be the destination for routing. An object, representing a location, that has one or more Directory Numbers (DNs) that are operated by a single agent. Inbound Communications (ICs) may be routed to a place instead of an agent, or routing may use place information to locate an agent.
Glossary
Solution_Control_Server
Also known as SCS. The Genesys Framework component that serves as the control point for which SCI is the interface. Together, SCS and SCI provide the services that are described in the definition of SCI.
Glossary
Service_Level
Service Level is a metric that measures the percentage (X%) of calls that must be answered in a set amount of time— for example, 80% of the calls must be answered within 30 seconds.
In Workforce Management (WFM), a customer service goal that is defined as the percentage of interactions that are handled within a time limit.
In Universal Routing, using a Service Level routing object in a voice strategy enables you to select or create a routing rule that specifies a service factor for a customer segment. For example, you may want to distribute 60 percent of interactions in less than 10 seconds to a specific agent group.
Glossary
Business Rules
A set of rules that define how a business problem is to be addressed. Business rules can be converted into routing strategies, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) scripts, and so on.
Glossary
Interaction_Server
An eServices component that is the central interchange for interaction flow and mediates among media servers, routing components, Knowledge Management, and the desktop. For nonvoice interactions, it is the functional equivalent of T-Server. Interaction queues are actually entities in the database (sometimes called the cache) that is associated with Interaction Server.
Glossary
Customer_Relationship_Management
Also known as CRM. The use of technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior and needs of customers, and thus to improve customer service. The Genesys Gplus Adapters
are considered a CRM tool, because they enable businesses to use a variety of communication or media channels for better customer service and consistent customer data.
An approach that a company takes in dealing with its customers, and that is backed by a thoughtful investment in people, technology, and business processes.
Glossary
IWD Overview
Contents
Introduction
The intelligent Workload Distribution (iWD) solution creates an enterprise-wide task list that is centrally managed and prioritized. It allows work to be presented to the right resource, at the right time, and at the right location. It captures non-real-time work (tasks) from multiple source systems, uses business rules to prioritize or reprioritize the tasks, and then distributes the tasks to the most suitable resource.
iWD works in concert with the Genesys Customer Interaction Management (CIM) Platform—enabling a centralized service delivery platform, and proactively managing interactions and tasks across all channels and media.
iWD uses a Global Task List (which is sorted, based on business value) to ensure that the right resources—regardless of their location—are proactively receiving the most critical or highest value tasks, regardless of media type, at the right time.
As shown in the figure below, iWD supports three main areas:
- Capturing tasks from multiple sources
- Calculating task values
- Distributing tasks
Capturing Tasks from Multiple Sources
The iWD solution can capture work from the multitude of work sources in the enterprise, such as documentation management systems, CRM systems, workflow systems, claims administration systems, legacy host systems, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) systems and so on. iWD integrates with these source systems through Capture Adapters (also referred to as capture points).
The out-of-the-box Capture Adapters are:
- Web Service—To use with source systems that have service-oriented interfaces.
- XML—To integrate with source systems that include the ability to generate XML files.
- Database—To use with systems that do not offer service-oriented interfaces or provide XML output capabilities.
- IWD Web—Enables the automatic upload of XLS/CSV files generated by third-party source systems.
In addition to these out-of-the-box capture adapters, there is an optional Java Message Service (JMS) capture point available that can be used as an add-on to capture tasks from enterprise source systems that support the JMS enterprise messaging system. JMS is a popular messaging infrastructure that is supported by many enterprise applications and middleware components, including SAP NetWeaver, TIBCO, Oracle Fusion, and IBM WebSphere MQ Server.
Capture Points are enabled by a Capture Adapter. Each Capture Point is a specific instance of the Adapter for capturing a specific sort of work that is often associated with a specific business process, such as an order, refund, or return. The Adapter is technology-specific, while the Capture Point can be specific to a source system, a category of work that is derived from a particular source system, or even a specific business process.
Capture Point Process Diagram
To establish a connection with the correct source system, each Capture Point requires the configuration of specific properties such as file directories for Capture Points that use the XML Capture Adapter or SQL queries for Capture Points that use the Database Capture Adapter.
In some configurations, the Capture Point is not necessarily specific to a business process. For example, one Capture Point can support capturing orders, billing, and complaints.
Calculating Task Values
Using business rules that are configured by users, iWD calculates service-level values such as task due date, business value, and priority. By using these values, iWD places tasks in order, from most important to least important, and monitors and proactively manages tasks to ensure compliance with service-level objectives that are specific to your business.
Prioritization of Tasks
Prioritization is the process by which iWD arranges the Global Task List (GTL) in order of priority or importance, based on business rules that are configured at the Global level, or for the Department or Process. The fulfillment of one task over another might provide a benefit to the business, such as increased revenue, decreased costs, improved customer satisfaction, or avoidance of a penalty or fine.
Business rules within iWD are based on business rule templates that are provided out-of-the-box with the iWD installation. These templates, which are the foundation for the business rules that govern iWD, are normally created or modified by IT personnel by using the Genesys Rules Development Tool (GRDT). After the rule templates are published, business users can create or modify rules by using the Genesys Rules Authoring Tool (GRAT), without having to involve IT personnel.
Reprioritization of Tasks
At any time, the information that is related to a task can change and affect the task’s priority. A simple example of where reprioritization can affect the initial priority that is set is the time that remains before the due date of a task. For example, assume that you have a time-sensitive process that includes tasks that involve dispute resolution. If the disputes are not resolved within a specific number of days (for example, 10 days), the organization might be fined. You can configure a business rule that specifies that if such a task is within two days of its due date, the task should be reprioritized with the highest priority, so that it is immediately assigned to an employee.
iWD can be configured so that each captured task receives a task reprioritization interval, when business rules are applied and new values are set for the task. Some tasks might increase in priority, while others might decrease.
Distributing Tasks
iWD distributes tasks to front- or back-office resources, or to external partners like business process outsourcers, working in concert with the Genesys CIM Platform.
All iWD tasks are managed through the Genesys Interaction Server and are assigned (routed) to employees by the Genesys Universal Routing Server (URS). Although iWD performs prioritization and reprioritization, it does so only to set values for priority routing within the Genesys CIM Platform. URS can leverage the iWD-calculated priority and business values in its routing strategies, or it might calculate its own; in either case, URS ensures that the most critical tasks are presented to agents first. URS continues to re-evaluate priority for tasks that it has received against real-time voice and other non-voice interactions—ensuring that the most important is presented next.
Reporting
See the main iWD Reporting topic for more information.
Task Archiving
Task archiving allows business users, through the Global Task List, to view tasks that are not currently in process. Moreover, tasks archived by the Removal strategy can optionally be maintained in a separate database partition in Interaction Server, to improve system performance.
The Removal strategy simply deletes (stops processing) the interaction. This removes the interaction from Interaction Server's Interactions table but maintains the associated events in the Interaction Server Event Log database tables, which is necessary for iWD Data Mart.
Backwards Compatibility
The rule action called Archive destination "{archive}" (from releases prior to 8.1.1) is no longer needed, because expired tasks will always be deleted by the logic in the out-of-box IWDBP Business Process.
However the archiving rule phase is still provided in the iWD Standard Rules Template, as is the rule action Archive destination "{archive}", for migration purposes. Customers could choose to customize the Removal routing strategy if they had a business reason to do some special processing on tasks that have reached their expiration date, other than simply deleting them.
Centralized Logging
iWD also has a centralized logging feature that supports logging of iWD log messages through Genesys Message Server. This feature provides the additional capabilities of viewing these log messages through a centralized log viewer (such as that included in Genesys Administrator) as well as the ability to generate alarms and SNMP traps through Genesys Solution Control Server.
Technical Licensing
To view tasks (interactions) in the iWD Global Task List, iWD Manager connects to Interaction Server on behalf of an agent. The user who is logged into iWD Manager must have a Place ID configured, and the connection to Interaction Server is made on behalf of this user who has this Place ID.The number of iWD Manager users cannot exceed the number of ics_multi_media_agent_seat technical licenses that you have provisioned in your Flexlm license file.
Keep in mind that Interaction Server also uses agent seat licenses for agents who will be accepting and processing tasks (interactions) at their agent desktops, so that the total number of ics_multi_media_agent_seat technical licenses that you have should account for not only the number of concurrent agents who are processing tasks at their desktops, but also the number of concurrent users who will be accessing the Global Task List.
To process the iWD tasks at the agent desktop, Interaction Server also checks the number of licenses that are provisioned in the Flexlm license file for each media type that is being handled by the agents. These media type technical licenses are not required for any iWD Manager usage.
If you plan to use iWD to process emails that are not being “captured” through the Genesys E-mail Server, then it is best to use a custom media type, rather than the media type email. This is because handling the media type email requires a specific Flexlm license to be checked out (ics_email_webform_channel), whereas there is a separate general Flexlm license used for all custom media types (ics_custom_media_channel). For this reason, it is recommended to create a custom media type (such as email1) for work items of type “email” that are not being captured by the Genesys E-mail Server. For more information, see the Genesys Licensing Guide.