Ask the Expert: Finesse for UCCX, next generation agent desktop and transitioning from CAD

[ciscomoderator]

This topic is a chance to discuss more about the new agent desktop from Cisco - ‘Finesse’. The discussion will be more about generic capabilities of Finesse and how it fits into the UCCX environment. This is a chance to discuss more about the new features introduced into Finesse UCCX to provide a 100% parity with the features of CAD. We can also discuss about the transition from CAD to Finesse – best practices, support for migration, limitations and things to look out for.

Ask your Questions from March 13 through March 27, 2015

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 four 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 voice (40065).

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[Aaron Harrison]

Hi Abhiram

What is the current plan for Finesse coexistence in 10.6?

I'm familiar with the planned restrictions (i.e. each team should be CAD or Finesse as a complete, selfcontained unit)...  will the patch be available generally?

Thanks

Aaron

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your question. The support for co-residence of CAD and Finesse will be available in UCCX 10.6. We are currently in the controlled-release phase - what this means is that the support for the mixed mode is only being given out to a few customers whose migration plan is reviewed by internal teams and a COP file is provided for that customer only. This is to ensure that any feedback is incorporated before the official support is announced. The supported will be announced soon and the COP file which provides the support will be available for all customers in version 10.6. 

In the meanwhile, if you do have a customer who would is looking to migrate in the next few weeks and would like to get into the controlled release phase, just drop me an email at akramadh@cisco.com and we can discuss the possibilities to address the customer's requirements. 

Cheers,

Abhiram Kramadhati, CCIE Voice # 40065

[Sivanesan Rathinam]

Hi Abhiram - Why can't finesse communicate with Exchange Server directly to fetch Email as like CAD why should it depend on social Miner 

When we are proposing BE6K where most of the customers requires EMAIL in finesse which we cannot build Social Miner in BE6K as per best Practice and we are in situation to propose UCS for Social Miner Server alone which is the drawback from Sales when we are focusing on UCCX  

Would like to know road map of below features 

For Chat and Email there is no separate Control like Ready and Not Ready as like CAD is there any road map in future release 

No Real-time for Chat CSQ info for Agent Gadget and No-Real Time info for Finesse Email 

Multi-line info is not updated in Reports as like CAD 

No customized icon to perform Blind Conference/Transfer which will be very useful during Connect Back to IVR Scenarios 

Last Agent Email Routing applicable to email which was handled by agents already, Lets take an example when customer respond to same without any modification in that case Last Agent Email Routing is applicable suppose if the agent is not available it has to wait for Last Agent Email Routing to expires and the value is configurable only in Hrs which i believe drawback since the Email has to wait in queue for an configurable hrs to route back to same agents

For Dailer calls is there any option to show only Dailer call Variables in Finesse Screen rather than showing all the Variables, Incase of Inbound calls it showing only Inbound call variables 

[Sivanesan Rathinam]

Hi Abhiram - Why can't finesse communicate with EXCHANGE Server directly to fetch Email as like CAD why should it depend on social Miner 

When we are proposing BE6K where most of the customers requires EMAIL in finesse which we cannot build Social Miner in BE6K as per best Practice and we are in situation to propose UCS for Social Miner Server alone which is the drawback from Sales when we are focusing on UCCX  

Would like to know road map of below features 

For Chat and Email there is no separate Control like Ready and Not Ready as like CAD is there any road map in FUTURE release 

No Real-time for Chat CSQ info for AGENT Gadget and No-Real Time info for Finesse Email 

Multi-line info is not updated in Reports as like CAD 

No customized icon to perform Blind Conference/Transfer which will be very useful during Connect Back to IVR Scenarios 

Last AGENT Email Routing applicable to email which was handled by agents already, Lets take an example when customer respond to same without any modification in that case Last Agent Email Routing is applicable suppose if the agent is not available it has to wait for Sticky Email Routing to expires and the value is configurable only in Hrs which i believe drawback since the Email has to wait in queue for an configurable hrs to route back to agent based on Skill and competency based routing

For Dailer calls is there ANY OPTION to show only Dailer call Variables in Finesse Screen rather than showing all the Variables, Incase of Inbound calls it showing only Inbound call variables 

CTI Ports are updating in Finesse Screen during Reserved State, where as on phone we can disable the same by enabling CLID, why cannot we achieve the same in Finesse.

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Sivanesan,

The SocialMiner is utilized as the centralised engine for all non-voice interactions for the customer in an omnichannel contact center going forward. This is aligned with the strategy where the Finesse desktop is built to establish a connection to the SocialMiner for both chat and email. So if you have agents already on chat, you don't have to do any further configuration. This eliminates a lot of issues seen around client IMAP connections which were caused due to client side connectivity issues. However, I understand the challenge you have cited regarding the BE6k and I will pass on the feedback to the product development teams. 

For Chat and Email there is no separate Control like Ready and Not Ready as like CAD is there any road map in FUTURE release 

<Abhiram> UCCX 10.6 has a consolidated non-voice state management. What this means is that READY/NOT READY for non-voice will affect both chat and emails. When an agent becomes ready for non-voice, he will become ready for both voice and email. This will be the unified state management for non-voice going forward and an agent will be considered busy for non-voice only when he/she exhausts both the email and chat sessions. I will update if there are any plans to change this going forward.

There are plans to include more live data reports for chat and emails too, we should have updates in the future releases. The same answer applies for the other questions regarding blind transfer too. 

Could you please elaborate on the call variables about outbound? I want to make sure I address the right requirement.

Cheers,

Abhiram Kramadhati, CCIE Voice # 40065

[Sivanesan Rathinam]

Hi Abhiram - Thanks for your response, Please find the below update on the call variables about outbound

// CAD 

In CAD by default we get two Layout default: for Inbound and OODefault for Dailer Calls 

when CAD is getting Inbound Calls it will display only Inbound Variables which we defined in the Script 

Incase of Outbound it will display only Variables which is configured in OODefault 

// Finesse 

In Finesse there is no sperate Layout for Inbound and Dailer Calls 

when Finesse is getting Inbound Calls it will display only Inbound Variables which we defined in the Script 

Incase of Dialer calls it display both Incoming Variables and Dialer variables on the Finesse Screen 

Attached snapshot for reference.

Also would like to know road-map of avoid showing CTI Ports on finesse Screen during Reserved state 

// ISSUE

Recently we are facing below issue on UCCX 10.0 

Issue: The sign-in process is taking longer than expected. You can try signing in again, or contact your administrator if the condition persists. 

To overcome we have restarted Finesse and notification service, Post which issue got resolved

Hope we are hitting the Bug:CSCuj44903 but i couldn't find the same in Bug Tool Kit 

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Sivanesan,

Thanks for that information. Yes, you are right. The reason for that is that unlike CAD, Finesse does not refresh the whole layout but instead updates only the variables for that layout. Therefore, the other variables remain but are blank. There is currently no option to do a layout on a team-by-team basis too. Will document your feedback - is there a certain use case where you think this is critical for your customer?

In regards to your other question, which is the exact version you are facing the issue with?

Cheers,

Abhiram Kramadhati, CCIE Voice # 40065

[Sivanesan Rathinam]

Hi Abhiram - Yes we are proposing 10.x for our existing customer and pitching them to upgrade the system whenever we are doing POC we used to get this question and its really hard to make them convenience as  they are comparing with CAD and it doesn't make any sense by updating those variables as none when we are not using it, When it comes to inbound at least it shows all inbound variable alone even we are not passing any value, but for Dailer calls it shows both inbound and Outbound which we need to consider and take this up with BU for further enhancement.

W.R.T issue please find the below version.

10.0.1.10000-56 

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Sivanesan,

I agree and see where you are coming from. I have filed this enhancement request CSCut39559 for the same. The product team will evaluate the same and decide on a timeframe. 

Regarding the issue you mentioned, I see that the defect you mentioned - CSCuj44903 - is specific to the standalone Finesse. Although it does not mean it should not affect the UCCX, the defect is fixed in 10.0. So I would suggest opening up a TAC case for a detailed investigation. You can reference my contact and this thread while opening up the TAC case so that the engineer has a context. 

Please let me know if you need any clarifications. 

Cheers,

Abhiram Kramadhati, CCIE Voice # 40065

[Sivanesan Rathinam]

Hi Abhiram - Currently we are facing below issue in Finesse - 10.0 

1. Silent Monitoring Issue - Agents/supervisor are using wireless Headset (plantronics cs540A) to handle both Inbound/outbound  (ACD/Non-ICD) which working fine for long duration of calls without any issue.

When supervisor tried to make Silent Monitoring calls are disconnecting from supervisor Headset after 45 Sec but the calls stays on supervisor phone.

2. Finesse desktop is minimized or behind another browser window, the browser
window is restored or brought forward is not working 

Agents are using FF browser and we have set dom.disable_window_flip to set the value to false and its working intermittently, for few calls its working and for most of the calls it deosn't work.

Any help on above mentioned issue.

Regards,

Sivanesan K.G.R

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Sivanesan,

I would need more details such as FF version, the phone model etc. and might need a TAC case too. The event is closing, so I might not spend much time on this here. Could you please drop me an email at akramadh@cisco.com. 

We can discuss at length and we can come up with an action plan. 

Cheers,

Abhiram Kramadhati, CCIE Voice # 40065

[Sivanesan Rathinam]

Hi Abhiram - Thanks for your update, Is there any Road map for Finesse Desktop to support Arabic language, Customer here in ME prefer Arabic language and it would be great if you take this up BU team for future Road Map to cover ME Market as we are losing few orders due to this. 

[jimmy-mcintyre]

Can you confirm if there is a workflow that can auto logout a Finesse agent?  Is this even desirable, or should agents be taught to log out manually? 

[Abhiram Kramadhati]

Hi Jimmy,

Currently, there are no workflow options to change the state of an agent in Finesse like that in CAD where you can change the states of the agents. In Finesse, you have 'Browser Pop' and the 'HTTP action' as the two workflow options. 

However, the real power of Finesse is that you could pretty much build your own custom gadget to service any customer needs. Example: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/customer-collaboration/finesse/white-paper-c11-730904.html

To address the second part of the question - the agents have to manually click on 'Logout' after moving to the 'Not Ready' state. Do you see any scenario which would need the agents to be logged out automatically or if you have any customer already doing this on another system?

Cheers,

Abhiram Kramadhati, CCIE Voice # 40065