A Microsoft Excel workbook serves as a user interface to the eSIM DSS. One
worksheet within the workbook serves as a means of input (Figure 12), specifying the
"email environment" faced by the knowledge worker. The email environment describes the
email workload faced by the knowledge worker on a typical business day. The user first
describes a typical day of email by completing the shaded area of the worksheet shown in
Figure 12. Emails are categorized according to their acceptable resolution time (Urgent,
Within Business Day, or Within one Week), the time needed to process them (< 1 minute,
1-10 minutes, and > 10 minutes), and the timing of their arrival (8 a.m. - 10 a.m., ...,
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 a.m.). This information is used to estimate some of the parameters for the
Email Arrivals sub-models as described below.