I am 'attempting' to calculate our phone line utilization at work. The
end goal is to determine how many lines we actually use at any given
point. I thought this would be an easy problem, however the more I
work on solving it, the more difficult it becomes.



I have roughly 250,000 calls (I'm obviously using excel 2007) that I
am attempting to run calculations against. Here is a sampling of the
data.



Start Duration End

3/19/07 6:39:59 AM 143 3/19/07 6:42:22 AM
3/19/07 6:45:7 AM 9 3/19/07 6:45:16 AM
3/19/07 6:54:25 AM 14 3/19/07 6:54:39 AM
3/19/07 7:03:25 AM 50 3/19/07 7:04:15 AM
3/19/07 7:04:4 AM 18 3/19/07 7:04:22 AM
3/19/07 7:07:6 AM 25 3/19/07 7:07:31 AM
3/19/07 7:10:41 AM 267 3/19/07 7:15:8 AM
3/19/07 7:12:30 AM 29 3/19/07 7:12:59 AM
3/19/07 7:12:41 AM 18 3/19/07 7:12:59 AM
3/19/07 7:37:45 AM 37 3/19/07 7:38:22 AM
3/19/07 7:42:50 AM 9 3/19/07 7:42:59 AM
3/19/07 7:43:37 AM 7 3/19/07 7:43:44 AM
3/19/07 7:44:58 AM 43 3/19/07 7:45:41 AM
3/19/07 7:53:46 AM 75 3/19/07 7:55:1 AM
3/19/07 7:56:30 AM 34 3/19/07 7:57:4 AM
3/19/07 7:59:38 AM 312 3/19/07 8:04:50 AM
3/19/07 8:00:2 AM 9 3/19/07 8:00:11 AM
3/19/07 8:00:7 AM 28 3/19/07 8:00:35 AM
3/19/07 8:01:7 AM 32 3/19/07 8:01:39 AM
3/19/07 8:01:13 AM 45 3/19/07 8:01:58 AM
3/19/07 8:02:36 AM 23 3/19/07 8:02:59 AM
3/19/07 8:05:53 AM 2 3/19/07 8:05:55 AM
3/19/07 8:10:33 AM 21 3/19/07 8:10:54 AM
3/19/07 8:12:14 AM 21 3/19/07 8:12:35 AM
3/19/07 8:13:5 AM 43 3/19/07 8:13:48 AM
3/19/07 8:14:13 AM 32 3/19/07 8:14:45 AM
3/19/07 8:14:17 AM 33 3/19/07 8:14:50 AM
3/19/07 8:14:21 AM 6 3/19/07 8:14:27 AM
3/19/07 8:14:21 AM 33 3/19/07 8:14:54 AM
3/19/07 8:14:29 AM 32 3/19/07 8:15:1 AM
3/19/07 8:14:39 AM 41 3/19/07 8:15:20 AM
3/19/07 8:15:30 AM 81 3/19/07 8:16:51 AM
3/19/07 8:18:21 AM 587 3/19/07 8:28:8 AM
3/19/07 8:18:55 AM 56 3/19/07 8:19:51 AM
3/19/07 8:20:44 AM 148 3/19/07 8:23:12 AM
3/19/07 8:20:52 AM 1002 3/19/07 8:37:34 AM
3/19/07 8:21:42 AM 23 3/19/07 8:22:5 AM
3/19/07 8:22:43 AM 33 3/19/07 8:23:16 AM
3/19/07 8:22:59 AM 855 3/19/07 8:37:14 AM
3/19/07 8:23:50 AM 1087 3/19/07 8:41:57 AM
3/19/07 8:25:58 AM 22 3/19/07 8:26:20 AM
3/19/07 8:27:57 AM 42 3/19/07 8:28:39 AM
3/19/07 8:28:53 AM 17 3/19/07 8:29:10 AM
3/19/07 8:29:8 AM 10 3/19/07 8:29:18 AM
3/19/07 8:30:1 AM 58 3/19/07 8:30:59 AM
3/19/07 8:30:27 AM 196 3/19/07 8:33:43 AM
3/19/07 8:31:49 AM 2 3/19/07 8:31:51 AM
3/19/07 8:31:56 AM 221 3/19/07 8:35:37 AM
3/19/07 8:32:16 AM 535 3/19/07 8:41:11 AM
3/19/07 8:32:26 AM 178 3/19/07 8:35:24 AM
3/19/07 8:32:35 AM 18 3/19/07 8:32:53 AM
3/19/07 8:32:47 AM 35 3/19/07 8:33:22 AM
3/19/07 8:33:5 AM 28 3/19/07 8:33:33 AM
3/19/07 8:33:11 AM 1 3/19/07 8:33:12 AM
3/19/07 8:33:19 AM 68 3/19/07 8:34:27 AM
3/19/07 8:34:11 AM 143 3/19/07 8:36:34 AM
3/19/07 8:34:17 AM 177 3/19/07 8:37:14 AM
3/19/07 8:36:20 AM 17 3/19/07 8:36:37 AM
3/19/07 8:36:26 AM 57 3/19/07 8:37:23 AM
3/19/07 8:36:39 AM 333 3/19/07 8:42:12 AM
3/19/07 8:38:22 AM 44 3/19/07 8:39:6 AM
3/19/07 8:39:0 AM 2 3/19/07 8:39:2 AM
3/19/07 8:40:4 AM 85 3/19/07 8:41:29 AM
3/19/07 8:40:28 AM 2 3/19/07 8:40:30 AM
3/19/07 8:41:3 AM 30 3/19/07 8:41:33 AM
3/19/07 8:42:14 AM 511 3/19/07 8:50:45 AM
3/19/07 8:42:22 AM 882 3/19/07 8:57:4 AM
3/19/07 8:42:24 AM 94 3/19/07 8:43:58 AM






This 'simple' problem is probably the most difficult issue I have
encountered. The issue is a short phone call ties up the line but then
releases it again - so getting totals has proved difficult.



In the end, I would like to be able to graph the results to visually
be able to tell how many times we have hit certain numbers.



I am hoping to merge several sites together via VOIP and need a way to
determine how many lines we actually need.



Good Luck and Thanks,



Nathaniel