Work with forecasts

Prerequisites

The following permissions:

Workforce Management > Forecast > Add, Delete, Edit, and View
Analytics > conversationsAggregate > View

Forecasts help you plan how many interactions to expect in future weeks. Forecast data includes such metrics as pattern, volume (interactions offered), and average handle time (composed of average talk time, average hold time, and average after call work time). These forecasts are visible in two views. The short-term forecast view shows interval-level data for one week at a time for up to six weeks, depending on the length of the forecast, and can be used to generate schedules. The long-term forecast view shows day- and week-level data for up to one year at a time, for up to two years depending on the length of the forecast. This view helps the forecaster see seasonality and trends but cannot be used to generate schedules.

Notes:

Structure business units with a clear separation of resources and load to ensure that no shared load exists across business units. If you cannot guarantee a separation of resources and workload, administrators must manually adjust forecasts each week to account for a percentage of allocated volume handled by a different business unit.
Schedules can only be generated based on the short-term component of a forecast, which has a maximum of six weeks. Scheduling for more than six weeks in the future requires multiple forecasts.

About the forecasts list

The forecasts list displays up to a maximum of 26 weeks prior and 26 weeks forward from the earlier of the current week or the last week in which a forecast exists. Use the search feature to find forecasts, including those outside the +/- 26-week window.

Note: When creating a forecast, the start date must be within 26 weeks of the current date.

Column	Description
Add	Create a new forecast.
Search	Each column contains a search text box or a list of options by which to filter the items. Depending on your view, locate the category by which you want to filter and do one of the following: If the category column by which you want to filter contains a text box, enter a few letters of the search term. A message appears, informing you that you have changed the filter. Click Apply. If the category column by which you want to filter contains a list, click the arrow at the end of the list and select the value by which to filter.
Refresh	Refresh the list of displayed forecasts.
Start Date	Open a forecast by clicking an item in the list.
Number Of Weeks	The number of weeks in the forecast range.
Short-Term Weeks	The number of weeks that you can use for scheduling purposes.
Date Modified	The last date and time the forecast was modified.
Available for Schedule	Enable the check box to indicate that this forecast is available for schedule generation. Note: If you do not enable this check box, the forecast does not appear as an option in schedule generation.
Date Created	The date and time that a user created the forecast.
Date Modified	The date and time that a user modified the forecast.
Modified By	The name of the person who last modified the forecast.
Description	Descriptive information about the forecast, if entered.
Creation Method	The forecasting method used to generate the forecast: Automatic Best Method Selection, Weighted Historical Index, Weighted Historical Index with Source Data Import, or Import Forecast Data. Click any forecasting method, excluding Import Forecast Data, to view details about planning groups, metrics, forecasting method, and forecast type included in the forecast.
Delete all selected	When you select one or more schedules, the Delete all selected option appears. Click it to remove the schedules.
More	Click this button and from the menu that appears, select Show/Hide Columns or Reset Defaults. These options allow you to add or hide more columns, or reset the view to default settings.

View from a different time zone

By default, this view uses the business unit’s time zone. Users with administrator permissions can change the displayed time zone by selecting from the list in the upper right corner of the view. The time zone of the business unit is listed at the top of the list of time zones for reference. This option is helpful for administrators who access the view from a different time zone. Click the image to enlarge.

For more information about forecasts, see the tasks outlined in the following articles.

Task	Description
Navigate the forecast	View information about the expected interactions offered, analyze forecast metrics, export forecast and source data, manage forecast modifications, and filter information by metrics, days, queues, media types, and skill set.
Add a forecast	Add a new forecast, configure a work plan, and configure the forecast week, description, and data source.
Filter and sort workforce management items	Depending on your view, you can narrow or categorize workforce management items for search purposes.
Export a forecast	You can export a forecast and download the information in CSV format for importing into future forecasts. The system enables you to export the forecast data in the desired time zone.