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Introduction to Erlang for Excel
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| Erlang for Excel is
included free with every copy of Westbay Traffic
Calculators. It is an Add-In for Microsoft Exce that introduces eight new
functions to Excel, allowing you to incorporate Erlang B, Extended Erlang B and Erlang C
calculations in your own spreadsheets. These functions assist in estimating the number
of telecommunications lines required to make up a trunk group; to analyse the performance
of an existing trunk group and to estimate the number of call center agents required at an
inbound call center.
Erlang for Excel is
included free with Westbay Traffic Calculators,
which is available for 139 US Dollars. Click here to find out how to purchase. |
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| Erlang for Excel brings eight additional functions to Excel 97 or higher
spreadsheets. They allow you to perform Erlang B calculations within your own
spreadsheets. The calculations work up to 80,000 Erlangs / Lines! 
This picture shows one of the Call Center Add-In functions in use.
The right hand column contains the results of calculations using the ErlCAgents()
function to work out how many agents are required to answer the calls shown in the left
hand column.
The eight functions which the Add-In offers are:
* Extended Erlang B examples have not been included
below. The functions are exactly the same as their Erlang B equivalent, except that
they have an additional parameter for the recall factor.
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| How many lines are required? This function is used to work out how many lines are required to meet given
blocking (service level) targets, if the busy hour traffic and number of lines are
known. For example:
if the busy hour traffic is 100 Erlangs,
and the maximum acceptable blocking is 0.025 (2.5% of calls)
then the following formula will return the number of lines required
(111).
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| What blocking will be experienced? This function is used to work out how much blocking would be experienced if the
busy hour traffic and number of lines are known. For example:
if the busy hour traffic is 1500 Erlangs,
and there are 1000 lines,
then the following formula will return the blocking encountered (0.335).
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| How much traffic can a trunk group handle? This function is used to work out how much traffic a trunk group can handle
number of lines within that trunk group are known. For example:
if the target blocking figure is 0.03 (3% of calls blocked)
and there are 200 lines,
then the following formula will return the busy hour traffic in Erlangs
which the trunk group could handle (190.881).
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| How many agents does a call centre require? This function is used to estimate the number of agents required at an inbound
call center for given call volumes. For example, to answer the following question:
if 3000 calls are received in a call center in one hour, and the average
call duration is 300 seconds, how many agents are required if 85% of calls must be
answered within 20 seconds?
then the following formula will return the number of agents required
(263).
=ErlCAgents(3000,300,85,20)
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| How many inbound calls can a call center handle? This
function is used to estimate the number of calls a call center can handle for a given
number of agents. For example, to answer the following question:
if 115 agents are available to handle inbound calls, and the average call duration is
250 seconds, how many calls can be handled agents if 80% of calls must be answered within
20 seconds?
then the following formula will return the number of calls that can be handled (1547).
=ErlCCalls(115,250,80,20)
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Westbay Traffic Calculators
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| Erlang for Excel is included free with Westbay Traffic Calculators. Westbay
Traffic Calculators includes four traffic engineering calculators in one programme, and
selected using tabs. They assist in trunk group dimensioning and call centre staffing
analysis. Historical reporting and printing is also included. 
"How many lines do I need in a trunk group if that
trunk group is offered 200 Erlangs of traffic during its busy hour and I accept that 1.2%
of calls will fail due to blocking?" - Answer 220.
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| Instructions for installing and using the Erlang for Excel Add-In are
provided in a spreadsheet which is installed with Westbay Traffic Calculators, and can be
started using an option on the Start menu. Westbay Traffic Calculators is
provided with a fully formatted and illustrated User Guide which is distributed
electronically in the form of Web pages. This User Guide explains how to use the
calculators and offers many examples of their use. There is also a Windows help system
installed with the software.
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Purchasing
Erlang for Excel and Westbay Traffic Calculators
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Westbay Traffic Calculators, which comprises Erlang for Excel and the four
calculators described above, costs 139
US Dollars for a single user licence. You can pay using any major credit card.
Transactions are with Westbay Engineers Ltd. (our parent company) and
are handled on our secure server. You can have the software running on your PC five
minutes from now!
Erlang for Excel supports all Windows versions of
Microsoft Excel from Excel 97 onwards. |
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Please choose a licence type
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| Please take a moment to consider the type of licence you require. Your honesty
in this matter helps us to continue developing our products. Software piracy is
illegal. |
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| Alternatively, if you would prefer to pay by cheque or
money wire, please contact us. |
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| Try looking in the FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions). Someone else may already have asked the same question.
Failing that, please send us an email. |
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Erlang B / Ext. Erlang B |
Erlang C |
| Excel requirement |
Excel 97 or higher; Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4,
2000, XP or Vista. |
| Traffic model used |
Erlang B / Ext. Erlang B |
Erlang C |
| Operational limits |
BHT 80,000 (max) Erlangs
Blocking 0.001 - 0.500
Lines 80,000 (max)
Retries 95% (max) |
Agents 5000 (max)
Calls per hour 300000 (max)
Duration 3600 (max) seconds |
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