Distribution Availability

You can set Distribution Engine teams to run 24 hours a day so that records are assigned whenever they arrive. Or you can control the availability of teams and team members to limit when they can receive assignments.

The options for controlling when team members are available are:

• Team distribution hours - set the default working hours for a team
• Team member distribution hours - optionally override the team hours for certain team members (e.g. part-time workers)
• Shift hours - create reusable shift patterns which can be shared between teams
• Distribution regional holidays - regional company holidays to shut down teams by region (e.g. Christmas day)
• Distribution out of office - out of office calendars at the user level for vacations / sick days etc.
• User login mode - an online / offline toggle which users and managers can control for short periods of unavailability (e.g. lunch break)

Why limit distribution hours?

There are a number of reasons you may choose to set Distribution Hours:

• You have teams or team members in different geographies and assignments should go only to someone currently working
• Teams work different shifts
• You want to ensure assignments only happen during working hours in order to track time to contact accurately

Offsetting distribution hours

It is common to offset distribution hours from the actual working hours e.g. start distribution 20 minutes before people come to work and stop 20 minutes before they leave. That way, you can ensure they have assignments ready when they arrive at work, and don't receive assignments just before they leave.