Getting Started - The SIMdecisions Web-site

Our web-site is divided into three main sections:

• Start - General information, news, site introduction.
• Simulate - All you need to create and run a simulation.
• Support - Help files, FAQs, and member forum.

First...

Join us, for free! Your basic SIMdecisions membership is free and we will never increase the cost. As a member, you will be able to create your own simulations, save them in our secure database, even share them with colleagues.

Second...

Run a sample simulation or a lesson simulation. Before you create your own simulation, you will learn a lot by seeing what others have done. Our lessons are based on real life problems that managers commonly face.

Third...

Explore the simulation Wizard. Think about your own business; our simulation building blocks are designed just like your call center.

• Contacts - Calls, e-mails, et cetera. Contacts describe the incoming work that your agents handle.
• Queues - Contacts wait in line (or queue) to be answered. Simple enough.
• Groups - Workers that handle the same types of contacts. You might have separate groups, or one big agent pool.
• Simulations - You can save more than one Simulation.
• Assemble - What building blocks do you want to include in this Simulation?
• Volumes - How many Contacts will arrive? What is the handling time (AHT)?
• Staffing - How many agents do you have in each Group?
• Link - Put it all together, Contacts are routed to Queues; Queues are handled by agent Groups.

Finally...

Create your own simulations. Start by thinking about your own call center. What questions do you have? What challenges does your business face? What puzzles do you turn over in your mind? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• How many agents do we need for a 30-second speed of answer?
• If we combine our two call centers what productivity can we expect?
• Our AHT has gone up 7%, what will that do to our customers' wait time?
• The list goes on and on...

Create your simulation, then click Go!

• Run your simulation - See events happen in real time or watch hours fly by each second.
• Get results - Download a Microsoft Excel workbook with real simulation data.
• Decide - Armed with results you can take action: compare your simulation data with your business' real performance or do another simulation.
• Not sure what direction to take? Log in to the forum and ask our community of members for their opinion.