"We had a preliminary version of SimACD at the ICMI show last summer and people loved it", said Portage President Stuart Harris. "Simulation is the most accurate method for predicting call center performance, and we've got something that's practical and productive for smaller call centers".

The SimACD user enters or downloads expected call volumes with the number of agents and trunks they plan on using for each time period in a workday, along with the abandon and re-try behavior of their callers, and the ring delay and overflow characteristics of their ACD.

SimACD then performs minute-to-minute, call-by-call simulation of the call center's day. The results of calls randomly arriving, being handled or queued, given busies, abandoning, re-trying, and overflowing are displayed. The resulting performance statistics and graphs tell the manager how their call center would perform with the agent and inbound line setup that they have chosen.

Simulations can then be re-run with different agents and inbound line levels until the desired optimal service levels, queue lengths, and agent occupancy results have been reached.

SimACD costs $410.00 and requires Call Center Designer version 2.2 or later. It runs on Windows 95, NT, or later.

Founded in 1993 and located near Seattle, Portage Communications develops and sells call center management software. They currently concentrate on affordable forecasting, staffing, and scheduling software for call centers with agent groups under a hundred seats. Over five hundred copies of their Call Center Designer have been sold worldwide.