Re: Cisco Finesse and Microsoft Teams

lise.arsenault1 · ‎01-12-2022

I have a scenario and wondering if any members here are from a call centre environment who have had similar issues.
My scenario is:
Our softphone system is Cisco Jabber
Our Agent call routing and dialer is Cisco Finesse
Our internal meetings and communications are Microsoft Teams
Our agents need to log into Cisco Jabber, then Cisco Finesse, then Microsoft Teams at the beginning of their shift.

What we have been encountering for the past year is that Cisco Finesse will disconnect or give a connection failure to our agents intermittently during their shift. They would then have to re-login to Cisco Finesse.
We've been investigating this issue for the past year.
We've updated Chrome browser, had agents use finesse in it's own browser and not minimize, switch agent to the Firefox browser for Cisco Finesse only.
The one thing we've tried that eliminated the disconnection is when we run Microsoft Teams on either a completely different computer (yes we supplied some agents with 2 computers for testing) or on their mobile phones. Once we eliminated Microsoft Teams from the same computer that Cisco Finesse was running on, they no longer had disconnect or connection failures.

Is it possible that the 2 programs, because they are both audio based, are fighting to take over the agent's audio controls? When on a Teams meeting, Microsoft Teams will disconnect Cisco Finesse?
Is there some type of add-on or connector that will allow for both programs to run together?

bill.king1 · ‎01-12-2022

This is an interesting scenario (conflict between Teams and Finesse).

Just to eliminate it as an issue, have you tried beefing up the specs of an agent machine (more than normal amount of RAM, etc.)?

I wouldn't think that would be an issue, but at least would eliminate if there was some type of resource constraint, especially if you also have Jabber running as well, plus whatever agent applications they may use.

When you have Teams and Finesse and the others running what happens (i.e. what code logs the agent out)? Does it typically happen after a certain amount of time/does the agent see like the red Finesse banner at top of screen, etc.? Do they lose the audio call on Jabber at the same time?

lise.arsenault1 · ‎01-13-2022

We've check all computers and all have more than normal amount of RAM.
Here is what we've done/tested so far
Chrome version 89 - upgrade to 90 and issue resurfaced again.
Asked agents to not minimize finesse, limit the number of open tabs and browser sessions
Keep finesse in it's own window the entire shift
Don't open any other streaming audio/video type apps or websites
Provided Wireshark reports to examine agent disconnection issue
Suggested agent use Firefox - still had same issue
Provided some agents with a second laptop to run Microsoft Teams only and the disconnection error disappeared.
Attached is a sample of the red bar message received on the agent's screen and a Cisco report we run.
The calls are not lost (which is a good thing) as the agent is not on a call but in a meeting at the time of the disconnect.

bill.king1 · ‎01-13-2022

So what if you just have a test user log into Finesse and login Teams and you just leave it set, does the same behavior happen? In you example, it looks like it happens every few minutes.

If not, if you send a test call to the test agent and just leave the call up, same thing, does it happen after X amount of time?

Have you had to open a TAC case/case with your partner/service provider?

lise.arsenault1 · ‎01-13-2022

Hi Bill,
if agent doesn't attend any phone calls or meetings in Teams, they don't receive the disconnect. We have opened a TAC case with the provider. I just thought I would ask here to see if anyone else was experiencing the same issue.

GregoryWenzel34638 · ‎07-20-2022

What did Cisco TAC say to do to fix this because we have same issue. MS Teams meeting while agent is in ready goes not ready - on call so makes it difficult for trainers to view new agents

lise.arsenault1 · ‎07-20-2022

They are still looking at the issue. No solution as of yet.
The solution they think is upgrade to Cisco but are not 100% certain.

GregoryWenzel34638 · ‎07-20-2022

We are on latest highest version packaged and jab is 14.x

lise.arsenault1 · ‎07-20-2022

Well that doesn't bode well for us.

bill.king1 · ‎07-20-2022

Have you tried the one laptop/PC solution but use a physical Cisco endpoint phone, just for testing? This would at least help narrow it down if it is something with Jabber and Teams fighting for instance, vs. something else going on that is impacting the Finesse connection. I've seen reports on other boards re: driver updates for Jabra resolving similar issue, but they don't quite have the same scenario you're describing.

jim-j · ‎01-13-2022

@lise.arsenault1 wrote:
We've check all computers and all have more than normal amount of RAM.
Here is what we've done/tested so far
Chrome version 89 - upgrade to 90 and issue resurfaced again.
Asked agents to not minimize finesse, limit the number of open tabs and browser sessions
Keep finesse in it's own window the entire shift
Don't open any other streaming audio/video type apps or websites
Provided Wireshark reports to examine agent disconnection issue
Suggested agent use Firefox - still had same issue
Provided some agents with a second laptop to run Microsoft Teams only and the disconnection error disappeared.
Attached is a sample of the red bar message received on the agent's screen and a Cisco report we run.
The calls are not lost (which is a good thing) as the agent is not on a call but in a meeting at the time of the disconnect.

That red bar error message looks like the browser simply can't reach your Finesse server (i.e. it doesn't look to be related to multiple apps fighting for control of your audio device). How/why Teams would cause that is beyond me. We have a similar setup here, Teams on all of our computers and don't have any Finesse issues.

lise.arsenault1 · ‎01-13-2022

Thank you for your response

garthman1 · ‎01-13-2022

Are the agents working remotely? We've had similar symptoms but not as predictable as yours Lisa. Agents can get not ready/connection or we can get a false RONA. (RONA with ringtime under our 30 second setting) I've more or less written it off to non-deterministic home networks causing race conditions between Finesse and Jabber. Jabber likely has QoS, and Finesse not. Seems worse when Teams in use or software updates being pushed. Curious if the wireshark trace yielded anything. But back to the client, does task manager show if one of the processes is dominating? Last and you probably tried already, but can you have Teams use the built in MIC and Jabber use the headset?

lise.arsenault1 · ‎01-13-2022

Yes some are working remotely. However, those on-site are also receiving the error and disconnect. We are concentrating and testing with those on-site currently. We've tried the mic and headset suggestion.

Martin Gottfried · ‎01-13-2022

Hey Lise,

have you checked if any logged out reason code was applied? it could also help to reveal the reason.

Cheers,

Martin