Configure forecasting

  • 9 minutes

Forecasting helps you predict how many customer interactions your contact center will handle in the future so you can staff appropriately. Dynamics 365 Contact Center provides volume forecasting to predict case and conversation volumes, and capacity planning to translate those volumes into staffing requirements.

Enable volume forecasting

Before supervisors can create forecast scenarios, you need to enable the feature as an administrator.

  1. In Copilot Service admin center, navigate to Operations > Workforce management.
  2. In the Forecasting section, select Manage next to Forecast volume.
  3. Set the Enable forecasting toggle to On.
  4. Select Save and Close.

After you enable forecasting, supervisors can create and manage forecast scenarios in the Copilot Service workspace.

Forecast scenario types

You can create two types of forecast scenarios, each designed for a different planning horizon:

  • Short-term forecasts display intraday predictions at 15-minute intervals for up to six weeks. Use short-term forecasts for daily staffing decisions and intraday adjustments.
  • Long-term forecasts display predictions at the daily level for up to six months. Use long-term forecasts for strategic planning, hiring decisions, and budget allocation.

Both forecast types use historical case and conversation data to generate predictions. If your administrator configured AI agents for conversation channels, the system excludes conversations that AI agents handle without a service representative joining, so your forecast reflects only human-assisted volume.

Create a forecast scenario

Supervisors create forecast scenarios in the Copilot Service workspace under Workforce Management > Forecasting.

  1. Select New, and then choose Short-term or Long-term.
  2. On the Details card, enter a Name and Duration (Days).
  3. On the Configuration parameters card, configure:
    • Forecast entity: Select Conversation or Case.
    • Channels: Search for and select one or more channels.
    • Queues: Search for and select one or more queues, or create new ones.
  4. On the Forecast run schedule card, configure:
    • Auto-extension: Set to Yes to run the forecast on a recurring schedule.
    • Day of the week: Select the weekday for the report to generate (long-term only).
    • Run time slot: Select the time window for the system to run the report.
    • Run time zone: Select the time zone for the run schedule.
  5. On the Historical data card, configure:
    • Data source: Select Internal (Dynamics 365 data) or External (imported CSV).
    • Historical data start date: Set how far back the system should look. The default is two years.
    • Seasonality: Select a holiday calendar if applicable.
  6. Select Save.

The forecast scenario runs within two hours of initial setup. After that, it follows the schedule you configured.

Note

You can have up to 10 forecast scenarios with Auto-extension enabled at the same time.

Interpret forecast reports

When you open a forecast report, you see several visualization options:

  • Duration slider: Set the date range for the forecast view.
  • Channel and queue filters: Narrow down the data to specific channels or queues.
  • Trend chart: Shows actual historical volumes (past) and predicted volumes (future).
  • Detailed view: Filter by All, Channel, or Queue to slice the data. Use the drill-up and drill-down buttons to navigate the time hierarchy.

Supervisors can also trigger an on-demand forecast run by selecting Run forecast scenario without waiting for the next scheduled run. When a forecast completes, the system automatically triggers a capacity planning job to refresh staffing requirements based on the latest output.

Configure capacity planning

Capacity planning translates your volume forecasts into staffing requirements. It answers the question: "Given this predicted volume, how many representatives do I need?"

Enable capacity planning

  1. In Copilot Service admin center, navigate to Operations > Workforce management.
  2. In the Forecasting section, select Manage next to Capacity planning.
  3. Set the Enable capacity planning toggle to On.
  4. Select Save and Close.

Capacity planning factors

When supervisors create a capacity plan, they configure several factors that affect the staffing calculation:

Factor Description
Service level (%) The target percentage of interactions answered within the threshold time.
Target time to answer The maximum wait time threshold for measuring service level.
Shrinkage (%) The percentage of time representatives spend on non-productive activities like breaks, training, and meetings.
Concurrency The number of interactions a representative can handle simultaneously.

The capacity plan generates a staffing forecast that shows the number of representatives needed with and without shrinkage, broken down by time interval. Use these numbers as input when you create shift plans in the next unit.