Here are some answers to common questions we get here at TASKE. Be sure to also browse the rest of the articles in this Knowledge Base for more solutions to your issues.

Administration and Licensing

• What kind of computer do I need in order to run TASKE applications?

  TASKE recommends an entry-level server computer that is equipped with a Microsoft^® server-level operating system as a minimum for a TASKE server computer. Microsoft has partnered with several computer manufacturers that produce affordable entry-level servers and offer Microsoft server-level operating systems as options. Some of the Microsoft partner companies that produce entry-level server computers are:

  Dell™ Gateway^® Hewlett Packard^® IBM^®

  For specific server computer requirements, refer to Article 10000: System Requirements for TASKE Applications.

• Are additional Microsoft Client Access Licenses (CALs) required?
  No you don’t require additional CALs for TASKE applications. Web clients do not require CALs to connect to the server. Client computers running TASKE desktop applications do not employ any additional devices or users during operation, and therefore, do not require additional CALs. For more information read  Microsoft Client Access Licensing (CAL) Guide on the Microsoft website.
• Which version of TASKE do I have?
  Find the version number of your TASKE product by choosing About from the Help menu of a TASKE Windows application or clicking the Help link in the header bar of a TASKE web application then click the Version Information link at the bottom of the online help Welcome page.
• Can I upgrade my version of TASKE?
  If your Total Care support agreement is current, you can request the latest version of TASKE to receive an update. If your Total Care support agreement has lapsed, you must renew your support plan first.
• Are there any tools I can use to troubleshoot issues with the web server or client browsers?
  It is important that both the web server computer as well as the client browsers are correctly configured.  TASKE products include the Troubleshooting Wizard which will help you ensure the client browser meets all requirements as well as has connectivity to the server. To access the Troubleshooting Wizard, click the Help link from any page of your TASKE web application and click the Troubleshoot link at the bottom of the online help Welcome page.
• Can TASKE Contact monitor more than just my call center?
  TASKE Contact will not allow you to monitor extensions in real-time however you can use the Extension reports to view activity on extensions and you can use Visualizer to investigate specific extension activity. Create Extension Groups for your departments so you can report on departments as a whole. You just need to ensure that the TASKE Administrator includes all the extensions that you want to report on. If you need to monitor extension activity in real-time then we suggest you purchase TASKE Essential.
• How can I tell what TASKE licenses I have?
  Find what your TASKE license includes by selecting the Information Server in the TASKE Console on the TASKE server computer and clicking Open. The License tab lists the basic license counts and what is currently in use. Click the Advanced button to see more advanced license options such as when your license expires or if you can use TASKE Integrations with workforce management solutions.
• How do I send TASKE a Support Package?
  In order to more easily diagnose your problems, TASKE support often requests a Support Package. Select Support Packager from the TASKE Console Tools menu on the TASKE server. You can choose to save the package locally or upload it directly to our FTP site. When you call in to Support, ensure you let them know if you’ve uploaded a package for their analysis.
• What happens if I need to change the TASKE server computer’s name or IP Address?
  After you have changed the computer name or the static IP address of the TASKE server computer, you will need to update all server components installed on the server as well as all clients that connect to the server.

  To update the TASKE server components, on the TASKE server computer open TASKE Administrator. In Configuration view, click the Utilities button, and click the Configure button in the Server IP Address section to launch the TASKE IP Address Configuration Wizard. Follow the directions in the wizard to complete the IP address change.

  When client desktop applications are launched, users will be presented with a message indicating that they cannot connect to the server and by clicking Yes on the message, they will be able to enter the new information for the server connection. Article 10133 contains more information on using the Client Configuration Utility.

  TASKE web portal users will have to alter the URL that they use to access the TASKE website, by default: http://<server name>/taske/login.htm.

Reports and Calculations

• How are call durations calculated?
  For incoming calls, call durations are measured from when the agent or extension connects to the call to the point where the last device disconnects from the call.

  Outgoing call duration is measured from when the extension or agent initiates the call to when they disconnect. The receipt of call events for outgoing calls is highly dependant on the type of information the central office relays back to the telephone system and the type of trunks (phone lines) involved in the call (analog or digital). Digital lines tend to provide full call details, whereas analog lines tend to provide little or no data. Therefore, outgoing call duration will always include the ringing and talk time (if any).

• What is ASF%?
  The Answer Service Factor (ASF) is a calculation that shows the percentage of calls answered for a queue. The calculation is slightly different between TASKE real-time monitoring and reporting areas.

  The calculation for the ASF in Real-Time and Review is as follows:

  Answered Calls

  All Calls Offered to the Queue

  The calculation for the ASF in Reports is as follows:

  Answered Calls

  All Calls Offered to the Queue – (short abandons + interflows)

  The difference in the calculations between the real-time and reporting applications is that the calculation for real-time applications includes short abandons and interflows and the calculation for the reporting applications does not.

  Short abandons are calls that abandon within a defined threshold time. The default threshold for short abandons in TASKE reporting applications is 6 seconds. This value can be changed on the Generation tab of the Report Options page in TASKE Administrator. Interflows are calls that move to another answering point after reaching a defined threshold time without an answer from the queue. The time to interflow and destination are defined in the telephone system programming.

• What is a Re-Queue?
  A re-queue occurs when the queue sends an available agent an ACD call, but the agent does not answer. The call is typically returned to the queue to be answered by the next available agent but some call centers may configure their ACD to behave differently. For example, send the call up an escalation path.

  Re-queues are displayed in the Review area, in the Notifications section of the My Call Center page.

  To report on how many times calls have been re-queued by an agent run an Agent by Queue daily report.

• What is TSF%?
  The Telephone Service Factor (or TSF) is a quality measurement of the percentage of the calls offered to the queue that are answered, outflowed or abandoned within the your defined TSF time. For example, if your goal is to have an average speed of answer of 100 seconds and 80% of your calls are answered (or abandoned or outflowed) within 100 seconds, then your TSF is 80%

  Calculate the TSF for a queue by dividing the number of calls answered, outflowed or abandoned within the TSF time by the total number of calls offered to the queue. Abandoned calls are included in this calculation because sufficient resources are generally available to answer the calls, but some callers choose to abandon the call anyway. Both short and long abandoned calls are included.

  Your TSF time threshold is defined on a queue by queue basis. To define your TSF time threshold for a given queue, in TASKE Administrator click the Queues button on the main control panel in Database mode. Select the queue for which you want to set the TSF time in the list of queues panel. Input in seconds your TSF time threshold in the TSF time field.

• What is a short abandoned call?
  Short abandons are calls that are abandoned before waiting in a queue for a set number of seconds. This value is set in the Report Options page of TASKE Administrator and the default is 6 seconds. Calls that fall into the short abandon category are not considered to be true abandons as they are typically callers who have routed themselves to the wrong location and, because of this, abandon the call shortly after reaching the queue. Short abandons are only included in the Total Short Aband (total number of short abandons) and Sh Ab Avg Secs (average number of seconds for a short abandon to occur) columns of the queue and queue group by time interval reports. If you want all abandons to be counted for all abandon statistics on the queue, set your short abandon threshold to 0.

  Long abandons are calls that are abandoned on or after the short abandon threshold time. Long abandons are considered to be true abandons, meaning these callers truly intended to wait in the queue before abandoning the call. A long abandon is credited to a queue when a caller waiting terminates the call before it is answered. All queue and queue group reports that credit abandoned calls are crediting long abandons. This includes the queue and queue by time interval reports, which in addition to the long abandon statistics, also include statistics for short abandons.

• What is an interflow?
  A queue is credited with an interflow when, for whatever reason, a call is redirected elsewhere. This can happen when a call that is queued to multiple queues is answered by one of them, then all others will get interflows. Or when a call is redirected to another queue or extension after a set period of time, the queue the call was originally queued to will be credited with an interflow.
• What do the Answered by 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th columns mean?
  The answer to this depends on the telephone system you are using with TASKE. In general, these columns attempt to give an indication of which calls were queued and answered by that queue in a straightforward manner (Answered by 1st) versus those calls that were possibly sent to a second group coverage path that answered the call (Answered by 2nd) or third (Answered by 3rd), etc. You should refer to the help documentation that came with your system for an exact explanation of what calls land in which column.
• Why does my daily report start at 9am yet I know there are calls that occurred earlier than that?
  Reports show data limited by the start and end times set in TASKE Administrator. We recommend that the start time and the end time be a minimum of 1 hour outside the regular call center hours on both ends.

  To change the start time and end time for reports, in TASKE Administrator click the Report Options button on the main control panel in Database mode. Change the values for Start time and End time. This will change for all users.

• Why is my weekly report generated for the 7 days starting the Monday before the day I actually picked?
  Weekly reports will always start on the day of the week set in TASKE Administrator, in Report Options, the Week Starts On selection box. Changing this will change it for all users.
• Can I change the values used to create the intervals in the Spectrum Reports?
  TASKE Reports generates spectrum reports that provide a spectrum, or profile, of the timing of calls into and around the call center. There are three types of spectrums: answer spectrums, abandon spectrums, and interflow spectrums.

  To change the intervals used in the Spectrum reports, in TASKE Administrator click the Spectrums button. Input the interval values (measured in seconds) for each spectrum type.

• Why is there a discrepancy in ACD call start times between Queue reports and Agent reports?
  A Queue report will begin calculating the start of the ACD call from the time the call is delivered to the queue. An Agent report will calculate the time of the Call when the call is established on the an agent’s extension.

  For example, a call arrives in queue at 4:59:58 p.m. and is immediately delivered to an agent’s extension. The agent’s telephone rings for 10 seconds before being answered (established). If you ran a Queue report by 15 minute intervals it would credit the call in the 4:45 time frame (delivered at 4:59:58 p.m.) with a TTA (Time to Answer) of 10 seconds. However, the Agent report credits the call in the 5:00 p.m. time frame (established at 5:00:08 p.m.).

• Why are there no internal calls on the Queue by Abandon Caller report?
  The absence of internal calls from the Queue by Abandon Caller reports is intentional. Queue by Abandon Caller reports use Automatic Number Identification (ANI) information to identify the location of abandoned callers. ANI information is provided as a service from the telephone service provider. Because internal calls do not pass through the telephone service provider, ANI information is not available for these calls.

Avaya Installations

• What are Queues? Why don’t I have Splits and Skills?
  In TASKE Contact applications, splits and skills are treated as queues. The term split is used for hunt groups when the ACD feature is enabled but the EAS (Expert Agent Selection) feature is disabled on the telephone system. The term skill is used for hunt groups when both ACD and EAS are enabled. TASKE applications do not behave differently based on EAS, therefore all hunt groups with ACD enabled are considered queues.
• Why do some statistics, such as duration, appear as 0 yet I know there has been activity on that agent/extension?
  In TASKE-Avaya installations, in order for statistics to be accurately credited, devices must be in both the TASKE Administrator and the Avaya TSAPI Service Security Database (SDB). We have two knowledge base articles that may be of assistance to ensure both the Administrator and the SDB are correctly set up. Article 70030 describes how to initially program your system and Article 70037 discusses using a TASKE utility to find discrepancies between Administrator and the SDB.

Other

• How do I print the online Help?
  Each application’s online help has been consolidated into a PDF for easy printing.

  If you have version 8.9, you can access the PDF of each application using its online help. Open the online help of the required application and browse to the Welcome page. A hyperlink to the document is included on the page.

  Installations with earlier versions of TASKE may request the PDFs from our technical support team.