A call center is a service network in which agents provide telephone-based services. Customers that seek these services are delayed in tele-queues.<p> <p>This paper summarizes an analysis of a unique record of call center operations. The data comprise a complete operational history of a small banking...</p></p>

Customer arrival patterns observed in the real world typically exhibit strong seasonal effects. It is therefore natural to ask: Can a nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) with a rate function that is the simple sum of sinusoids provide an adequate description of reality? If so, how can the...