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<h2>Introduction</h2>

<img id="border" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/busy_channels.png" alt="Busy channels" />

<p>The Busy channels report allows you to break down each business day 
into half-hour periods, showing the maximum and average number of 
telephone lines in use in any particular half-hour.  You can run the 
report for your entire organisation or for any entity within your 
organisation. You can even add filters e.g. to see how many channels 
were used answering calls to a specific number.</p>

<p>You can also opt to exclude weekends, when perhaps not many calls are
 being made or received, and so as not to distort the averages.  You can
 also concentrate on incoming or outgoing calls or look at all calls.</p>

<p>This report is ideal when trying to determine if you have enough 
lines or indeed if you require more lines. Please note that if your call
 traffic tends to fluctuate throughout the year, you may want to run the
 report for a period that includes busy times before deciding to reduce 
lines!</p>

<p>This report is also ideal if you have a number of legacy switches 
throughout your organisation and are looking to replace with an IP 
solution which will allow you to streamline and save on redundant line 
costs.</p>

<h2>Understanding the Results</h2>

<p>All reports can be exported in five different formats; Web, PDF, XML, CSV and Excel.</p>

<h4>Output to Web</h4>

<p>When selecting <span class="reference">Web</span> as the output format, the Busy channels report will appear as above.</p>

<p>Web format allows for complete flexibility when viewing any report. To view details of any filters or selection parameters used in creating this report, simply click on <span class="link">About this report</span> at the top right of the page.</p> 

<p>All headers are clickable allowing you rearrange the report layout in seconds. The headers of this report are as follows:</p>

<table class="confluenceTable">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th class="confluenceTh" width=196>Header</th>
			<th class="confluenceTh">Description</th>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Time slot</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">To sort by time slot, simply click on the <span class="reference">Time slot</span> header to sort. On web reports all headers are clickable so you can alternate between 
				ascending and descending order of time slot.
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Max busy</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">To reorder the report to show the average number of busy lines per time slot, simply click on the <span class="reference">Max busy</span> header. The report will 
				immediately rearrange itself in descending order to show which time slots were busy on average. To see the least busy time-slots, simply click once again to rearrange in ascending order of average busy.
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Average busy</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">To reorder the report to show the average number of busy lines per time slot, simply click on the <span class="reference">Average busy</span> header. The report 
				will immediately rearrange itself in descending order to show which time slots were busy on average. To see the least busy time-slots, simply click once again to rearrange in ascending order of average busy.
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td class="confluenceTd"><b>Total duration</b></td>
			<td class="confluenceTd">The total duration is the sum of all time when lines were busy in the half-hour slot alongside. To sort and see which half-slot contained the longest duration of time 
				when channels were busy, click on the <span class="reference">Total duration</span> header.
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>If you would like to go back and view the Custom report for a larger section of the organisation, simply click on the appropriate link in the breadcrumb as shown below:</p>

<img src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/breadcrumb.png" alt="Breadcrumbs" />

<h4>Output to PDF</h4>

<p>This report format appears as a three page PDF report. The first page shows the name of the person who has prepared/scheduled the report. This name is picked up from your login. It also contains the entity you report on, the period covered and any filters used in the report.</p>

<img id="border" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/busy_channels_pdf_1.png" alt="Busy channels PDF" />

<p>The second page has a graph depicting average and maximum number of channels used as shown below:</p>

<img id="border" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/busy_channels_pdf_2.png" alt="Busy channels PDF" />

<p>The third page breaks this graph down into detail showing the time slots with the maximum and average number of channels busy and the total duration of time spent on calls for each time slot depicted.</p>

<img id="border" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/busy_channels_pdf_3.png" alt="Busy channels PDF" />

<h4>Output to XML</h4>
<p>You can choose to output information as an XML feed for use in external applications. This may look a little odd when presented as shown below but is ideal when you need to provide a call logging feed to other applications.</p>

<img id="border" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/busy_channels_xml.png" alt="Busy channels XML" />

<h4>Output to CSV</h4>
<p>The CSV option allows you to output the data to a CSV file. This can be either opened immediately or saved for future use.</p>

<img id="border" src="http://www.tri-line.com/common/img/documentation/tim_enterprise/busy_channels_csv.png" alt="Busy channels CSV" />

Overview

The Busy Channels report allows you to break down each business day into half-hour periods, showing the maximum and average number of telephone lines in use for each half-hour period. This report is useful for determining whether or not you have enough lines or if you have too many.

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Running the report

Click on the Reports tab and select Busy channels from the left-hand pane. The screen displaying the parameters of the report will appear, where you can configure the entity, period, filters, options and format of the report.

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For details about how to configure these parameters, refer to the relevant page in the list below:

Creating the report

When you have configured the report's parameters, click on the Run now button to run the report immediately; alternatively, you can save the report's definition or schedule the report for future delivery.

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The report's results

Web format

Below is an example of this report's output in Web format, displaying the activity of your telephone lines grouped in half-hour time slots:

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The Web format is the most interactive of all formats: all column headers are click-sortable and most graphical and tabular elements can be drilled down into, allowing deeper analysis of your results. By clicking on the About this report link at the top-right corner of the page, you can review any filters and options that have been applied to the report.

As with all reports produced by TIM Enterprise, each page of the report includes the following information:

  • the report's title
  • the date and time that the report was generated
  • the name of the report, if applicable

The body of the report consists of a graph and a table:

  • The graph is a quick and easy indication of your line usage, broken down into half-hour time slots. The percentage on the y-axis shows the number of lines utilised, and the x-axis shows each half-hour of the day. The bars on the graph coloured light-purple show the maximum number of busy trunks in each particular half-hour, and the overlaid dark-purple ones show the average number of busy trunks within the same time period.
  • The table displays the actual data organised in columns for maximum and average busy lines and the total duration for each half-hour time slot. Each column is described below:
HeaderDescription
Time slotThe time of day in half-hour periods
Total durationThe total duration of all calls made or received within the time slot shown
Max busyThe maximum number of trunks in use during the time slot shown
Average busyThe average number of trunks in use during the time slot shown
Tip

All column headers are clickable, allowing you to dynamically reorder the results.

To modify your report to cover a larger organisational scope, click on an element of the breadcrumb as shown below:

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PDF format

If you chose to run the report in PDF format, the report will consist of three pages.

The first page shows the login name of the person who has prepared/scheduled the report, the entity you are reporting on, the period covered and any filters used in the report.

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URL/download/attachments/2785304/busy_channels_pdf_1.png

The second page has a graph depicting the average and maximum number of channels used, as shown below:

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URL/download/attachments/2785304/busy_channels_pdf_2.png

The third page contains a table of time slots, showing the maximum and average number of channels that were busy, along with the total duration of time spent on calls during each time slot.

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