Create forecast groups - Amazon Connect
Important things to knowHow to create forecast groupsNext steps

Create forecast groups

Forecast groups are a way for you to combine different queues into one forecast. This enables you to create a forecast from aggregated data from multiple queues, instead of from just one queue.

Important things to know

  • Forecast groups are associated with a staffing group for scheduling purposes. Therefore, we recommend you group queues that share the same pool of staff (agents) under the same forecast group. It enables you to generate a more accurate forecast.

  • Each queue can belong to only one forecast group. This prevents duplicates in the forecast.

  • You must create at least one forecast group before you can generate any forecast.

  • We strongly recommend that you create all forecast groups before creating any forecast.

    Amazon Connect uses historical data for queues included in all forecast groups to train your forecasting model. By creating forecasts after all forecast groups are created, you ensure historical data of all relevant queues are included in the training.

  • If a queue is associated with a forecast group and is later disabled, you don't have to remove this queue from the forecast group. This is because: Although the queue is included by the forecast group and the historical data associated with it is included in the forecast, over time, no contact reaches the disabled queue, and thus stops impacting the forecast. Only the active queues contribute to the forecast.

How to create forecast groups

  1. Log in to the Amazon Connect admin website with an account that has security profile permissions for Analytics, Forecasting - Edit.

    For more information, see Assign permissions.

  2. On the Amazon Connect navigation menu, select Analytics and optimization, Forecasting.

  3. Select the Forecast groups tab, and then choose Create forecast group.

  4. On the Create Forecast Groups page, under Queues, you'll see a list of queues that are not yet associated with a forecast group are listed. If no queues are listed, it means they are all associated with a forecast group already.

  5. Drag and drop one or more queues to the forecast group, as shown in the following image. You can press and hold CTRL (COMMAND for macOS users) or SHIFT to select multiple queues at a time.

    The Create forecast groups page, a list of queues.

  6. Choose Save. The following image shows the new forecasting group, along with the number of queues in the group and the date it was last changed.

    The Forecasting page, the forecast groups tab, the new forecast group.

  7. After creating a forecast group, you can add or remove queues. However, doing so might initiate an immediate change in associated forecasts.

    For example, if you made a change for forecast group today, Amazon Connect automatically computes the new short-term and long-term forecasts tomorrow. Your change to the forecast group also impacts downstream capacity plans and schedules that are created based on the forecast group.

    The following image shows a sample warning message when adding a queue may trigger an immediate change in associated forecasts. You must choose Confirm if you want to continue.

    The warning message, a prompt to confirm you want to add the forecast group queue.

  8. You can remove the forecast group by using the Remove function.

    1. delete the forecasts that are associated with the forecast group you want to delete.

      For example, in the following image, a forecast group named Network_Issues cannot be deleted because this forecast group was used to create forecasts.

      The Forecasting page, the forecasts groups tab, a message that the group cannot be removed.

      Therefore, go to Forecasts tab to delete those associated forecasts.

    2. Delete the forecast group.

Next steps

Now you're ready to create a forecast. For instructions, see Create forecasts.