Question: What questions do you ask someone who is thinking about using your Alpha ACD system and readerboards?

Answer:

1. What ACD phone system do you use?
2. Does the ACD phone system provide a readerboard connection already? A few phone systems do. Most don't. Avaya (formerly Lucent and AT&T), Nortel Meridian 1, Nortel Symposium, Rockwell, Siemens, and Aspect all don't.
3. How many queues (also called skillsets, application areas, splits or groups) do you have? Note: these are your groups that answer calls. Examples: English and Spanish, or Customer Service, Loan Processing, Activations, etc.
4. How high are the cubicles that agents sit in? Note: if they are high, then you'll several smaller readerboards, probably Alpha 215's or Alpha 220C's. If the partitions are lower, then one or a two Alpha 4160's or Alpha 4200's could do nicely. Sit in the agents' chairs. Figure out where the signs should be.
5. What ACD statistics do you want to see? This helps us to determine what readerboard they will need. Calls in Queue, Longest Call Waiting, Agents Available and Service Level are the most asked for statistics. To determine how long the sign needs to be, use this example:

   EN 12 2:05 15 100%

   Where:

   • EN=English Queue
   • 12=12 Calls Waiting
   • 2:05=Longest Call Waiting of 2 mins 5 sec
   • 15=15 Agents Available
   • 100%=100% Service Level.

For this example, you need an ACD readerboard that will display 18 positions:

1. An Alpha 220C that displays twenty 2-inch characters.
2. An Alpha 4200C or 4200R that displays twenty 4.8-inch characters.
3. An Alpha 4120C or 4120R readerboard that displays two rows with twenty 2-inch characters on each line.