Genesys Quality Management Suite 8.1.520 : Inputs to Calculate Expected Load, Disk Space and Licences

This chapter describes the types of information required, to plan recording solutions for contact centers or offices. The contact center's data collection requirements, data retention policy and storage estimation are a critical part of the solution design. Ensure that the inputs used in this section are as accurate as possible.

The information outlined in the following sections must be available to calculate the disk space required to store the recorded media. It is far better to over estimate than to underestimate disk space. If there is insufficient storage then no calls can be recorded after a period of time.

Business Environment

The type of business being recorded is relevant because each industry has its own requirements for recording.

Some businesses are compelled to record all calls and to comply with regulations for retention of the media, for example, in many countries all financial transactions have to be recorded stored for at least 7 years.

The recordings may also be required for training and quality control purposes or to ensure that agents are representing the company properly.

The Number of Sites

If not all the staff work in the same location then it is possible to record calls over multiple sites. It is important to understand the topography of the network and the signaling protocols available to provide the events that Call Recording requires to detect and record calls. It is also important that the recordings are available where the business needs them.

The Number of Seats

The number of seats is the number of physical terminals where an agent can call or answer a call, usually with an agent desktop (computer). To calculate the maximum capacity, count the number of seats to be recorded including any expected expansion.

The number of seats is used to calculate the maximum capacity so that there a sufficient number of recorded calls in the Call Recording License to record all the calls without losing any. Theoretically all agents on duty could be on calls at the same time.

For a small call center (up to 100 agents), the following is true:

 number of seats = maximum number of concurrent calls

 

If less than 100% of the agents are likely to be calling at the same time, based on data from the contact center platform then:

number of seats * percentage of agents calling simultaneously = maximum number of concurrent calls 

The Number of Agents

This is the total number of agents. If the company runs a shift system there can be more agents than seats. This increases the number of hours recorded per day and the amount of recorded data .

The Average Number of Working Hours per Day per Seat

This is the average total number of hours per day that the contact center operates for, not the number of hours that an individual agent works. For example, if the call center seats are occupied and therefore producing calls for 16 hrs a day, then the average numr of wong hours per day is 16, even if each agents only works for 8 hours a day. This affects the total number of calls per day.

If the number of hours varies then:

average number of working hours per day = average number of hours per week / number of working days 

The Average Number of Working Days per Month

The average number of working days per month for the call center.

For example if the contact center works 5 days a week all year ( 52 weeks) and closes on 15 days of National holidays that occur on working days then this is:

((5 * 52) -15) / 12 = 20.47 working days per month.

If your call center works national holidays then the calculation is:

(5 * 52) / 12 = 21.72 working days per month.

Expected Load

The following sections explain how to calculate the expected load of the call center.

The Number of Calls Recorded per Day

If real data is available from the call center then use this. The number of calls recorded per day is required to plan for the amount of storage required for the media.

If real data is not available to use then it is possible to provide a rough estimate of the calls per day using the Calls per day Estimator .

Storage required per day for calls is calculated as follows:

(the number of calls per day) * (the average length of call) * (multiplying factor for bitrate and media format) 

If capturing screens then add this to the storage required.

The Maximum Load

Maximum load occurs when the maximum possible number of available agents are engaged in calls. In a fully occupied contact center this will usually be close to the number of seats. For example, if you have 100 agent seats and at the peak all of the agents are engaged in calls then the maximum load is 100 concurrent calls. Your call center software should be able to provide you with information on maximum load.

The Average Call Length in Seconds

The call center platform should be able to provide a report of the average length of call. Be careful to exclude any data concerning calls that do not need to be recorded.

average length of call = total duration of calls in seconds / number of calls. 

Wrap-up (After Call Work)

Wrap-up or After Call Work is post-call clerical work which a contact center agent completes after the call has ended. This figure is important because all the time that an agent is performing after call work they cannot be on a call but it may wish to record screen captures.

The Average Handle Time

The total amount of time from when the call starts until the agent wraps up including any hold time.

Idle time

Idle time is any time when the agent is not calling or performing after call work.

Media Storage

Media storage is one of the most important factors to plan because the media files accumulate rapidly and if there is no available storage then no more media can be recorded.

The Length of Time to Store Calls on the Recording Server

How long the calls must be stored for depends on the type of contact center whether there are laws that mandate a certain length of storage.

If there are no laws that mandate how long the media must be stored then the company may have policy on retention of records. Only store the media on the recorder server for the duration of time that the media needs to be accessed quickly. After this period archive, relocate or backup the media files and then delete them from the recorder server using the media lifecycle tools provided with Call Recording.

The Length of Time to Store Screen Captures on the Recording Server

Screen capture media files are relatively large. The length of time to store screen captures is usually shorter than the length of time calls are stored.

Percentage of Screens to Capture

It is not necessary to capture 100% of screens. To reduce the amount of media stored, record just a representative percentage of screens (each captured screen is associated with a call). The percentage of screens recorded is set in the recording rules and itself is dependent on the percentage of calls recorded. For example, for 100 calls and with 50% of all calls recorded and record 20% of screens the ten screens are recorded.

Screen Resolution

The higher the screen resolution is, then the larger the media file for screen capture is. If the screens captured are low resolution then the media file is smaller. The bitrate is variable, because the capture technology uses MPEG compression technology. The more each screen capture differs from the previous screen capture then the larger amount of data each capture is.

recd Storage calculation

The recd files are generally smaller than the fully mixed MP4 file, the MP4 file is typically twice the size of recd for the same screen capture.The size of the recd file varies depending on how much the image being captured changes.

The bitrate for an recd file = approximately 2000 kB/min.

MP4 Storage Calculation

video bitrate = Dx * Scale/100 * Dy * Scale/100 * FR * Q 

Where:

  • Dx is the X axis of the desktop size in pixels, for example, 1024.
  • Dy is the Y axis of the desktop size in pixels, for example, 768.
  • Scale is the scale of resulting video in % (default = 100; range 20 - 100).
  • FR is the video frame rate in frames per second, fps) (default = 2 ; range 0.5 - 5).
  • Q is the quality coefficient (default = 0.25; max = 0.5, high = 0.25; medium = 0.2; low = 0.125).

audio bitrate = MP3 bitrate (24 kbps) or 32 kbps for wav.

MP4 bitrate = video bitrate + audio bitratekbps.

MP4 size = (video length * video bitrate + audio length * audio bitrate) * (1 + overhead)

kb where the overhead coefficient is about 0.002% of the MP4 size.

Call Recording License Requirements

To operate Genesys Quality Management Suite there must be sufficient Registered Terminals, Recorded Calls and Concurrent Screens attributes in the license.

Concurrent Calls

Concurrent calls are the number of observed terminals. To ensure that all seats are observed, the number of concurrent calls should be the same as the total number of seats.

Concurrent Screens

This is the maximum number of screens that can be recorded at once.

Recorded Calls

It is important that the Call Recording License properties have sufficient Recorded calls to record all the agents that need to be recorded. If there are 100 agents and a license with only 50 recorded calls then Call Recording will only record a maximum of 50 agents at one time.

 

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