An empirical investigation of workflow management systems queues: A case study of telephone call center systems queue performance

In recent years organizations are increasingly utilizing workflow management systems technology, based on queuing models, to automate manual business processes. One industry that has seen one of the most rapid implementation and deployment of workflow systems in recent years is the services/call center industry. Despite the great promise, workflow queue monitoring and work distribution continue to pose great challenges to organizations in terms of operational efficiency and performance. The primary reason for the inherent performance problems is whether the queues are configured as static or dynamic queues. In this study, static and dynamic queue configurations, based on M/M/c and M/M/1 queuing models in the call center context are compared across several performance dimensions. An empirical study was used to compare the performance of a static versus a dynamic configuration in a call center context. Results suggest that dynamic queue configurations perform better than static queue configurations. A simulation model using parameter estimates from the real-life case was used to understand the results further. Overall, the superiority of dynamic workflow systems over static workflow systems in the call center context is confirmed in this study.