Tag: dynamics-365-contact-centre

Stay organized with the schedule calendar in Contact Center (Empowering service representatives with personalized, real-time visibility into their work schedules).

Real-time User Journey

This journey illustrates how an agent uses the new integrated calendar to manage their workday effectively:

1. Morning Check-in: The agent logs into the Dynamics 365 Customer Service workspace. Instead of looking for an external email or PDF, they click the My Schedule icon in the site map.
2. Daily Overview: The agent views their Personal Calendar, which displays color-coded blocks for their “Work” shifts, scheduled “Training,” and “Breaks.”
3. Real-time Updates: A supervisor makes a last-minute change to the afternoon schedule to cover a volume surge. The agent’s calendar automatically refreshes in real-time, showing the updated shift.
4. Activity Detail: The agent clicks on a specific “Training” block to see notes or links related to the session, ensuring they are prepared without leaving the workspace.
5. Status Sync: As the calendar moves into a “Lunch” block, the agent updates their presence status. Because the calendar is integrated, the Unified Routing engine already knows not to assign new chats to this agent during this window.

Step-by-Step: How to Enable This Feature

To make the Schedule Calendar available to your service representatives, follow these administrative steps:

• Step 1: Admin Center Access

Sign in to the Customer Service admin center or Contact Center admin center.

• Step 2: Enable Workforce Management Settings

Navigate to Operations > Workforce Management. Ensure that the core Shift Planning and Scheduling features are enabled, as the calendar pulls data from these modules.

• Step 3: Configure Agent Experience Profiles

Go to Agent experience > Workspaces > Agent experience profiles. Select the profile assigned to your service representatives (e.g., “Customer Service Representative”).

• Step 4: Add the Schedule Component

In the Sitemap editor for the profile, add a new sub-area. Select Type: Entity and search for the Schedule or My Schedule component.

• Step 5: Define View Permissions

Ensure the “Service Representative” security role has Read permissions for the msdyn_shift and msdyn_schedule entities so they can view their assigned time blocks.

• Step 6: Save and Publish

Save the profile changes and click Publish. Agents will now see the “My Schedule” option in their navigation menu.

Infographic: Benefits of the Integrated Schedule Calendar

Feature	Impact on Agent	Impact on Organization
Personalized View	Reduces “tool switching” by keeping the schedule inside the CRM.	Increases employee satisfaction by providing clear expectations.
Real-time Sync	Agents are instantly aware of shift changes or added meetings.	Reduces missed shifts and “ghost” log-ins.
Activity Breakdown	Clearly distinguishes between productive work and “off-queue” time.	Improves adherence to planned capacity and SLAs.
Unified Routing Link	Agents don’t have to worry about receiving calls during scheduled breaks.	Ensures workload is only distributed to agents on an active “Work” shift.

References

Stay organized with the Schedule Calendar in Contact Center

Forecasting case and conversation volumes in Dynamics 365 Contact Center (Advanced AI-driven demand prediction for strategic and operational planning).

Real-time User Journey

This journey describes how a Contact Center Supervisor uses forecasting to ensure operational readiness:

1. Trend Analysis: The Supervisor opens the Forecasting dashboard and reviews AI-generated predictions for the next quarter (Long-term) based on historical data.
2. Slicing the Data: They filter the forecast by Channel (e.g., Voice vs. Chat) and Queue to see where the heaviest volume is expected.
3. External Data Integration: To get a complete picture, the Supervisor Imports workload data from an external legacy system to include channels not yet migrated to Dynamics 365.
4. Operational Adjustment: Seeing a predicted surge in chat volume for the upcoming week (Short-term), the Supervisor adjusts agent shift schedules to ensure SLA compliance.
5. Export for Stakeholders: The Supervisor Exports the interactive charts into a spreadsheet for the monthly budget meeting to justify hiring additional seasonal staff.

Step-by-Step: How to Enable This Feature

To enable and configure forecasting, follow these steps in the Dynamics 365 admin interface:

• Step 1: Access Configuration

Sign in to the Customer Service admin center or Contact Center admin center.

• Step 2: Navigate to Insights

Go to Operations > Insights > Forecasting.

• Step 3: Create a Forecast Scenario

Select Create to set up a new forecasting scenario. You will need to:

• Choose the Channel type (Case or Conversation).
• Select the Historical period (Microsoft recommends at least 6–12 months of data for accuracy).
• Step 4: Configure Data Slicing

Define the attributes for slicing (e.g., by Queue or Organization Unit). This allows the AI to generate more granular predictions.

• Step 5: Run and Schedule

Save the scenario and run the initial forecast. You can set the forecast to Auto-refresh (daily or weekly) so the predictions stay current with the latest interaction data.

• Step 6: (Optional) External Import

If using external data, navigate to the Import section within the forecasting tool and upload your .csv file following the provided schema.

Infographic: Forecasting Capabilities

Feature	Scope	Key Benefit
Long-term Forecasting	Daily volumes for months/years.	Strategic hiring and budget planning.
Short-term Forecasting	Intraday (15/30 min) intervals.	Precise agent scheduling and shift management.
Data Slicing	By Channel, Queue, or Skill.	Identifying specific bottlenecks before they happen.
External Integration	Supports 3rd party workload data.	Holistic view of the entire contact center.
Interactive Charts	Visual trend comparison.	Quick interpretation of complex demand patterns.

References

Forecasting case and conversation volumes in Dynamics 365 Contact Center