Welcome to holiday edition of The Intelligent Spin, the newsletter that keeps you up to date on the latest and greatest here at Symmetrics and the world of reporting, analysis and performance management for the contact center.

We have had another tremendous year here at Symmetrics, and as is always the case, you - our customers, partners and employees - have been central to our success.  Last year, we started a new tradition based on one of our core values here at Symmetrics: giving back to our community in meaningful and productive ways. Instead of spending money to send gifts or cards to the people we value, we have chosen to take that money and donate it on behalf of our employees, customers and partners to a local charity. Based on the many supportive responses to this action, and in keeping with an important part of our culture, we are are proud to say we are doing the same thing again this year.  We will be making a donation to The Children’s Wish Foundation - an international organization that grants wishes to children with high-risk life-threatening illnesses.

From all of us at Symmetrics, we want to thank you for your support, loyalty and friendship over the past year. We wish you a safe and joyful holiday season and a prosperous and healthy 2008.

Sincerely,

Richard McElroy

Vice President

NEWS & EVENTS

Webinar: Improve & Simplify Your Nortel Contact Center Reporting and Analysis Capabilities with the nVISION Data Mart

Wednesday January 23, 2008 - 9am PT/Noon ET
Join us for this web seminar to learn about the Symmetrics nVISION Data mart solution, specifically designed to enhance and simplify reporting in your Nortel Contact Center (formerly call Symposium) environment.
More Info/Register Now

Symmetrics Continues to Grow its Customer and Partner Community

Symmetrics continues to add both new customers and partners to its growing nVISION Contact Center Performance Management community.  We`d like to welcome the follow customers who have chosen to deploy nVISION in the past quarter:

• ABSG
• City of New York
• Accredo
• Bank of the West
• Medline  

Trying to Build Internal Reporting Expertise? Symmetrics Has the Training You Need

Looking to improve your in-house reporting Skills? Want to maximize the return on your investment in Nortel CCMS/SCCS? Symmetrics' highly acclaimed Nortel Authorized training services can help you achieve this.

Report Design for Nortel CCMS/SCCS (Classroom)

Classroom based technical courses are available that will teach you everything you need to know in order to design and create your own reports against Nortel CCMS/SCCS data.

• NEXT CLASS:
  St. Pete's, FL: February 4-8, 2008
  More Info/Register Now

Nortel CCMS/SCCS Reporting Overview (Web Delivered)
Symmetrics’ popular web-delivered Reporting Overview series for Nortel CCMS/SCCS is back again in 2008! This 5 module series is a highly convenient, cost-effective way to receive invaluable information on the reporting capabilities within Nortel CCMS/SCCS.

• NEXT SERIES:

  Feb. 14, 21, 28, Mar 6 & 13, 2008 (Thursdays)

More Info/Register Now

INDUSTRY MUSINGS

A New Look at the Call Center “Top Twenty” Performance Measures

From our friends at the The Call Center School, this article explores the most important measures in today’s multi-channel contact center. 

The evolution of a simple call center into a multi-channel contact center doesn’t just happen overnight. You many need to add or upgrade technologies, and certainly staff skills will need to expand as customer contacts begin to include email and Web chat in addition to incoming calls. It’s also important to re-think what performance measurements are important for this new breed of operation. Are the measures of performance that have served you well in the call center the same ones that will determine how well the multi-channel contact center is working?

Read Full Article (from The Call Center School)

TIPS & TRICKS

Using Top N/Sort Group Expert in Crystal Reports

The TopN/Sort Group Expert in Crystal Reports allows you to do two things:

• Sort the groups on your report according to their subtotal/summary values.
• Show top or bottom performers (you decide how many by assigning a number to N) based on a subtotal or summary.

Note: The TopN/Sort Group Expert is not available until you have at least one group and one summarized value based on that group in your report.

Sort the Report Based on Summarized Values
Perhaps you want to change this report to show all shifts, but change the order they appear according to the number of Calls Answered. The highest number of Calls Answered should show first.

To do this:

1. Invoke the TopN/Sort Group Expert by choosing Report | TopN/Sort Group Expert (or click the corresponding icon).
2. The TopN/Sort Group Expert (Figure 3-7) will appear with a tab for each group in your report that also has a summarized value based upon it. Choose the tab that reflects the value you are sorting on (in this case wAgentBySkillsetStat..AgentLogin).
3. From the box on the left, change the “sort type” to All.
4. Change the “based on” value to reflect the summary value you are sorting on, in this case Sum of wAgentBySkillsetStat.CallsAnswered.
5. Change the order to “Descending”.
6. Click “OK”.

View the report to see which shift has the most calls answered, the second most, and the lowest.

ABOUT SYMMETRICS

Symmetrics is changing the face of Business Intelligence. The company develops best of breed analytical software applications and provides a range of Business Intelligence services and solutions. Strategic partners include Business Objects, Microsoft, Nortel, IEX and others. Symmetrics helps customers realize their visions by providing reporting, analysis and performance management solutions that turns data into useable information, ensuring they can make mission critical decisions in a timely manner. With particular expertise in the Contact Center marketplace, Symmetrics is uniquely positioned to help customers improve contact center efficiency through effective analysis of performance trends and the optimization of their operations and workforce.

Visit us at www.symmetrics.net