Designing a simulation and forecast model for PruHealth's call centre

Abstract

PruHealth was launched in 2004. It provides health care in the UK. PruHealth is struggling to forecast what future caller volumes will be and the effect on the call centre. The project consists of building forecasting tools for the call centre and simulating the call centre. The forecast models have been broken down in 3 parts, namely: Short-Term -, Long-Term - and Event Forecasting. The Short-Term Forecast Model will forecast caller volumes on a half-hourly, daily and weekly base. The Long-Term Forecast Model will forecast caller volumes on a monthly base. The Events Forecast Model will forecast caller volumes for a certain event. A Simulation model was build to emulate the call centre. Agents can now adjust variables, including service levels and incoming calls, to simulate the effects on the call centre. Simulation and forecasting tools have been effective in predicting the effects on and efficiency of the Call Centre.