Understanding Automatic Call Distribution - Avaya Communication Manager Administrator's Manual

Understanding Automatic Call Distribution

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is an Avaya Communication Manager feature used in many
contact centers. ACD gives you greater flexibility to control call flow and to measure the
performance of agents.
ACD systems operate differently from non-ACD systems, and they can be much more complex.
ACD systems can also be more powerful because they allow you to use features and products
that are not available in non-ACD systems. See the Avaya Communication Manager Call
Center Software Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Guide, 07-300301, for more information on
ACD call centers.
Enhancing an ACD system
First, all call center management systems (such as Avaya's Basic Call Management System
(BCMS), BCMSVu, and the sophisticated Avaya IP Agent Call Management System) require
ACD. These management systems give you the ability to measure more aspects of your
center's operation, and in more detail, than is possible with standard Avaya Communication
Manager reports.
Call vectoring greatly enhances the flexibility of a call center, and most vectoring functions
require ACD. Vectoring is a simple programming language that allows you to custom design
every aspect of call processing. See
Together, ACD and vectoring allow you to use Expert Agent Selection (EAS) For a variety of
reasons, you may want certain agents to handle specific types of calls. For example, you may
want only your most experienced agents to handle your most important customers. You may
have multilingual agents who can serve callers in a variety of languages.
EAS allows you to classify agents according to their specific skills and then to rank them by
ability or experience within each skill. Avaya Communication Manager uses these
classifications to match each call with the best available agent. See the Avaya Communication
Manager Call Center Software Call Vectoring and Expert Agent Selection (EAS) Guide,
07-300303, for more information on call vectoring and EAS.
Understanding Automatic Call Distribution
What are vectors? on page 236 for more information.
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