Ask the Expert: Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (Unified CCX) 11.0 and Beyond: Feature Design, Deployment, and Troubleshooting

[Monica Lluis]

This topic is a chance to discuss more about  the new features in Unified Contact Centre Express 11.0 and what to expect in 11.5. The discussion will be focused around the new features and functionality such as Finesse IPPA, Remote Expert Mobile integration and so on. This is also a chance to discuss about upgrade mechanisms and planning for the 11.0 upgrading, while also positioning your customers for the 11.5 release coming in the next few months.

To participate in this event, please use the  button below to ask your questions

Ask questions from Monday, July 25 to August 5th, 2016

Featured Expert

Abhiram Kramadhati is a Technical Solutions Manager with the Contact Centre business unit. He has been working with Cisco Contact Centre since he joined Cisco. During his five years at Cisco, he has built his expertise around Cisco UCCX telephony applications, Java Telephony API (JTAPI) integration, Cisco UCCX system behavior, LDAP components, and Cisco UCCX as IP interactive voice response in Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) environments. He also works on other technologies, including Unified Communications Manager and UCCE. He has been involved in many technical escalations in the Asia Pacific region. Abhiram also holds a CCIE in collaboration (40065).

Abhiram might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the  Contact Center Community 

Find other  https://supportforums.cisco.com/expert-corner/knowledge-sharing.

**Ratings Encourage Participation! **
Please be sure to rate the Answers to Questions

[e.gailiss]

Regarding "Double clicking on a script editor step to bring up it properties, any plans of implementing this?"

It's already there and has been for a long time. Just go to "Settings->Options..." then go to "General" tab and there check in "Double-click to open customizers" option.

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi there, 

Yes, thanks for pointing that out! I was actually referring to the enhancement where the menu can be accessed while still in the palette so that you don't have to add the step to explore it's options - where we have had complaints of a stray step remaining in the script because somebody wanted to test it. 

@David - the above suggestion along with the enhancement should make it seamless!

Regards,
Abhiram Kramadhati
Technical Solutions Manager, CCBU
CCIE Collaboration # 40065

[Seth Kusiak]

Hello Abhiram,

Thank you for this opportunity to allow the community provide feedback. Here is my list of items (long list I know!)

Finesse

• Add back BlindTransfer support.
• Add back the ability to edit Enterprise Data fields.
• For supervisors: allow ability to view all calls in queue and allow manipulation, such as change call priority, initiate a workflow on the contact (such as transfer to another DN/Trigger, etc.)
• Implement a WebRTC softphone that controls their physical/cipc phone – useful for home/remote agents.

UCCX Core

• Implement full featured virtual queuing capabilities, including the ability to maintain the caller’s position in queue and properly reflected reporting.
• Allow a configurable time period for the expect wait time stat. i.e. generate an estimate based on the last 5, 10, 15, etc. minutes and not from midnight.
• Implement system-wide events and event handlers. This would overcome some of the feature parity issues between CAD/Finesse and also provide a new level of integration. For example, when a contact with a specific enterprise data value, call a web hook.

UCCX Development

• Allow scripts to be edited with a generic text editor. The existing CCX Editor slows down a proficient developer and doesn’t allow for version control in git, for example.
• Add node.js as a fully supported development platform for UCCX scripts. This would increase developer adoption and allow the use of established tools/editors.
• Provide an option for an on-premise version of Tropo, specifically its ASR/TTS features. Essentially provide those features as a MRCP server for on-premise use.
• Allow access to Call Progress Analysis (CPA) on voice gateways for PlaceCall step. Another option would be to add that feature using on-premise of Tropo.
• Provide an option for an on-premise version of the Context Service.
• Implement external scheduling capabilities, like those provided in Unity Connection. Would be nice to be able to reference a schedule (and holiday schedule) within a workflow. Like Unity schedules, ability to edit them live without having to update a script.

Reporting

• Provide full cradle to grave reporting capabilities that span in and outside of UCCX.
• Provide supported process for replicating the UCCX databases to a data warehouse for custom reporting.
• Ability to report on specific time intervals. Such as July 1 through 31, but only between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 PM and only on Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and Friday’s within that range.

Outbound

• Expand support for more than 15 active campaigns. Current limit is too low especially when agents want their own exclusive campaigns for their call lists.
• Allow users agents to manually work a campaign. I.e. let them log into a campaign during specific times of their choosing. Essentially, don’t force a blended inbound/outbound campaign.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

thanks!

Seth

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Thanks for your questions, Seth! I will go through this list and respond back to you (and take the appropriate action). 

Regards,
Abhiram Kramadhati
Technical Solutions Manager, CCBU
CCIE Collaboration # 40065

[Anthony Holloway]

Great list!  Is there a community for us to submit ideas and vote on them, like there is for Jabber?

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

My comments below, more to come :)

Finesse

• Add back BlindTransfer support. [AK - this is on the roadmap, this requires some work on the call control gadget and the CTI messaging, but this is being worked on]. 
• Add back the ability to edit Enterprise Data fields. [AK - I have filed CSCva64687 as an enhancement request. However, the way forward for this would be to leverage the context service cloud service that is provided from 11.0. This could be achieved by using the context service gadget where the agent can type in the enterprise variable and the same can be updated in the context service cloud and made part of the POD data]
• For supervisors: allow ability to view all calls in queue and allow manipulation, such as change call priority, initiate a workflow on the contact (such as transfer to another DN/Trigger, etc.) [ AK - This is certainly a great feature, but I know there are some actions being taken in the collaboration portfolio overall - there were some demos in Cisco Live. But let me check what we can do to get this into UCCX]
• Implement a WebRTC softphone that controls their physical/cipc phone – useful for home/remote agents. [AK - this is unfortunately beyond the UCCX BU. Have you had a chance to look at the remote expert capabilities where the client side SDK leverages the WebRTC to initiate a video and voice call. Do you see a similar use case for something on the agent side as well? More importantly, I'd like to understand the challenges you face with the current options and what is not possible with the current options]. 

[Seth Kusiak]

Thanks for all the great feedback so far. Really appreciate it!

Regarding BlindTransfer, when do you anticipate this being available? This is one of the main sticking points that I have with moving to Finesse as we use this to send calls to a post call survey. I know that v11 has PostCallTreatment I don't think it will meet our needs. the reason being that agents are people and people get used to a process. They wouldn't like a process that says if the customer wants to take a survey, you need to use the end call button but if they don;t want to take the survey, let them hang up first or hit end call on your phone. Today, in CAD, I have a button that triggers a workflow that does a blind transfer to a 3rd party survey. Works like a champ. I'm revieing and considering 2Ring gadgets for both BlindTransfer and editing enterprise data but as a customer, I don't like losing functionality between upgrades and having to pay for a third party solution.

As for the WebRTC, honestly, I's more of a cool factor and the item least needed from my list. the use case would be if an agent needed to work from home, they would essentially have all the tools necessary to take calls using a browser -- i.e. no need to deploy CIPC (or Jabber) last minute because someone needs to work remotely. 

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Seth, 
I might have some good news for you. We are targeting to introduce Blind Transfer on UCCX Finesse in UCCX 11.6. Yes, we just approved 11.6 a few days back and this is very similar to 10.6 where we will try to increase the speed of bringing popularly asked backlog items to the market. 

Please note that the disclaimer is that this might be pushed out to 12.0 based on development challenges, but our commitment is to target this for 11.6. We'll have more clarity on the ETA for the release in the coming weeks (or month).

Regards,
Abhiram Kramadhati
Technical Solutions Manager, CCBU
CCIE Collaboration # 40065

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Seth, 

Again, thanks for sharing this list. There is a lot of items that we discussed on and have added to our field enhancement lists. What this means is that this has been brought to the attention of all the right people - the product managers and the architects. While each of the items might not be implemented as it is, the focus is always to build features that ultimately cater to the business need that the below requests are trying to meet. 

As far as the scripting enhancements go, there are a few things that have been happening in the background. We have looked at a few of the partner applications and there are discussions to make them integrate them into the mainstream. We are not sure when and if this will happen, but scripting is something that we will look to work on. For Tropo integration, there are a few gadgets that are there on the developer forums where we can enable the agent to fire off a request to Tropo and send an SMS. But from the script, we could look at using the REST API steps to make the call and integrate that to a UCCX script. But if there is a more descriptive use case, do let me know. 

With respect to on-prem context service, I can again say that this is not the first time we are hearing about it. There are requests to have this on private cloud and so on, but one of the main characteristics of the CS cloud is that any maintenance is down centrally by us and not get into the regular on-prem model of upgrades and patches. But do watch out for more CS announcements in the partner summits and other forums. 

Anthony too has expressed a need for the cradle-to-grave reporting and we'll evaluate this. Talking of reporting, checking out the new CUIC 11.5 is worthwhile. The new updated UI/UX has received positive feedback and there are multiple enhancements on the chat and grid reporting.  We have an enhancement item to have multiple timeframes in the filter input, but for now if that timeframe is kind of set we can look to have a custom report with the timeframe hardcoded in the SQL statement. 

Provide supported process for replicating the UCCX databases to a data warehouse for custom reporting.

UCCX 11.0 supports a standalone CUIC which can run reports directly off the UCCX database. So that way, you can use the UCCX data and create custom reports on the standalone CUIC which can have a premium license. Now, you can choose to import that back to the co-res CUIC or continue to run on the standalone CUIC. 

Outbound

• Expand support for more than 15 active campaigns. Current limit is too low especially when agents want their own exclusive campaigns for their call lists.
• Allow users agents to manually work a campaign. I.e. let them log into a campaign during specific times of their choosing. Essentially, don’t force a blended inbound/outbound campaign.

I discussed this with the architect and the current challenge is the amount of load the engine can handle. So the number 15 and the number of CSQs associated with a campaign is derived from the load test where the system is pushed to the limit and number are derived for regular operation. So for now, there is no immediate plan (ability) to increase that limit, but if something changes in the future we'll be sure to communicate on the forums/release notes/summits. 

Regards,
Abhiram Kramadhati
Technical Solutions Manager, CCBU
CCIE Collaboration # 40065

[Seth Kusiak]

Hi Abhiram,

Thanks for getting these requests in front of the right eyes. I'd like to echo Anthony's suggestion for the community to suggest and vote on features to help the product team implement the features that mean the most to customers and partners.

I see value in a cloud-based context service but the drive being an on-premise option resolves around stability and reduced latency. I don't want scripts bombing out because there's a outage and I wouldn't want to incur performance penalties when reading/writing data. Interestingly enough, in my environment, we wrote a webAPI service that we host internally to perform a similar function - we just make API calls to the web service and parse the resultant xml. works like a champ and allows us to overcome issues with store large amounts of session data on the uccx hosts, etc.

For Tropo, the specific feature set is the text-to-speech and automatic speech recognition - in UCCX today, we need to purchase a third-party system (such as Nuance) I think it would be a win for Cisco and customers to bundle those features from Tropo into an on-premise appliance so we have have those features available to uccx.

Regarding reporting directly off of the uccx databases, it's been advised that heavy queries can impact call operations -- have additional protections been added to prevent someone using a very inefficient query from impacting calls? BTW, I liked the announcement made at Live that the premium version of uccx includes CUIC enterprise!

For cradle-to-grave reporting, I think this is really important feature to have. Internally, I started to review pulling this data together using a combination of data contained in the uccx databases, communications manager, and CDR logs -- not the easiest data to correlate. Our users are asking for simple things that we can't provide a built-in report such as whose within our company are transferring calls into our queues and where are our agents transferring calls to. 

thanks again!

Seth

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Apologies if I have missed out any question here. But I will work on creating a community where we can discuss and share ideas in an on-going manner. 

With regards to the reporting piece, we have to evaluate how this can be done because many pieces of information are not available to the UCCX. Example: direction of disconnect. We don't have that information; all we have is a Session_Terminated message from CUCM (unless the agent clicks the 'End Call' on the Finesse Desktop, which is not always the case). We are evaluating options for this and we'll work on this in the background. 

I have shared the Tropo feedback to the Product management, great ideas! Thank you for that.

Regards,
Abhiram Kramadhati
Technical Solutions Manager, CCBU
CCIE Collaboration # 40065

[pkotnala]

Hello Abhiram ,

Thank you for this opportunity to ask our concerns with you .

I have a concern related to the CUIC data source .

During the troubleshoot in my lab , the changed the password for CUIC data source after that CUIC data source not showing connected . 

I tried to changes the password for CUIC data source in the root of the Server

++ Tried to change the cuic datasource password in the lab server with the help for cat /usr/local/cm/db/ifx.txt

++ change the password for 

cuic_dbuser, cuic_reportuser, mmca_dbuser, mmca_dbadmin

But it didn't worked . Do we have any way around to bring the CUIC up and running ?

Thanks

Prashant

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Prashant, 

Are you referring to the CUIC standalone? The user that is used to connect to the UCCX using the reportinguser. The username is uccxhruser and the password is set on the password management page. So if this is for a standalone CUIC, then you can delete it and add it with the right details after resetting the password on the UCCX. Rest of the details can be copied from the co-res CUIC:

The passwords you are correcting now are in the platform DB, and not the ones for connecting to the UCCX. To put the datasource config back into a good state on the co-resident CUIC, you can set the number of DB connections again and click on update. That will reset the datasource configuration and connection:

Specific issues with modifications on the root, we can discuss on TechZone or you can unicast the details to me. Thanks. 

Regards,
Abhiram Kramadhati
Technical Solutions Manager, CCBU
CCIE Collaboration # 40065

[michaldub]

Hi Abhiram,

thanks for the opportunity to ask here. I would have few questions for you regarding UCCX.

CUIC

- When the reporting user/supervisor logs into CUIC to run the reports he/she has permissions for, there can be certain collections available to make sure, that the desired queues/agents can be selected to run the report on. Nevertheless, if you run the report only with the time range selected and other fields are left blank all of the data ( all queues, agents, etc) is shown. Any plan options how to make all of the fields of the filter as mandatory meaning, that the supervisor will be forced to select appropriate values without the possibility to leave the fields blank?

UCCX

- Any chance to have shared line on more devices, where the agents would select which device is going to be active during the login process?

Finesse

- Any options - how to trigger external application on agents PC from Finesse? (Similar to what is done from the Desktop Admin for the CAD?)

That is all, I'd have. Thank you.

Michal

[Seth Kusiak]

Hi Michal,

I wonder if using Extension Mobility (EM) would address your issue with having multiple devices. We use EM within our contact center so that agents can work at their desk (physical phone) or work from home using (CIPC) - use of EM is a supported implementation.

BTW, I do like the option of letting the agent select the specific device at login. It would be simpler solution than switching to EM.

Hope this helps,

Seth