Here's the long answer
Peter Buswell wrote:
I know this question has been asked before but it needs to be asked again, as previous answers do not seem to apply. The simple quesiton is: If you have a UCCX and if after install you check you check License information and you note that you have 150 IVR ports; how do you increase the number of ports to 300?
Since I see below that you mentioned that the system in question is Enhanced, the answer is simply, install on faster hardware. Presently the best hardware you can get is VMWare ESXi with the 400 Agent License OVA, which gives you 400 IVR Port Licenses.
Standard licensing works the same as Enhanced, as far as IVR Port licenses go.
If you were wondering about Premium, then it's a 1:2 ratio of agent:ports. You cannot buy Premium ports directly, instead you buy them indirectly through the process of buying Premium Agent seats. So if you had a Premium UCCX with 100 Agents, you would have 200 ports, and if you desired to have 250 ports, you simply buy 25 more Premium Agent seats. Premium does still need to adhere to the hardware limits. I have seen partners sell someone an Enhanced UCCX which gave them 300 ports, but they only had like 50 Agents. A year later, the customer upgraded to Premuim, but only bought 50 seats, and thus downgraded their port license count to 100. A third of what they had! The solution? Buy 100 more Premium Agent seats so your total goes up to 150 Agents, and thus your ports go up to 300.
Peter Buswell wrote:
I have been told that the number of ports is set by the class of the machine hardware and is not a license issue. Others have suggested it is a license issue?
These are both correct statements. Just remember, that it's licensed based first for Premium, then hardware limited. Standard and Enhanced are hardware limited only.
Peter Buswell wrote:
At the end of the day, however, I want a step by step procedure for adding more IVR ports to my deployment. Even if that means buying more licenses (though I can not find a SKU).
Again, for Standard and Enhanced, you need to move to bigger/better hardware to get more ports, assuming you're not already at the meximum of 400.
Here is the document which walks you through moving to bigger hardware: Disaster Recovery Guide
And for Premium, you need to purchase the SKU for a Premium Agent Seat license. It's a 1:2 ratio for agents:ports.
Peter Buswell wrote:
I have several clients that have UCCX and are having calls that exceed the number of IVR ports.
I'm not a partner, nor in sales, but I thought there was an A2Q process which validates CC designs for sales people. At any rate, it sounds like they were either under sized or outgrew their overhead, and something needs to be done.
Sometimes you can simply dump excess calls off. Think about playing a high call volume message to callers and then drop them.
Other times you can drop them into voicemail, and come back to it later.
I've seen some basic call back functionality implemented with an external data source, which could alleviate ports.
Lastly, I've seen improperly designed scripts which loop on themselves or other scripts, causing a high port usage.
My point is that there's a few options here, outside of simply increasing the size of the server or purchasing new licenses. There's no one size fits all answer though.
Peter Buswell wrote:
Before we get into a discussion of CTI ports or Call Controll Groups, let me identify that I think they are the same.
Are you saying that CTI Ports and Call Control Groups are the same? Or that CTI Ports/CCG's are the same as IVR Port Licenses? Cause the former is true, while the latter is not. Think "oversubscribed" CTI Ports.
Sometimes it is advantageous to oversubscribe your CTI Ports, to achieve a more dynamic environment. E.g., I have 100 ports, and all 100 are used for inbound calls. I develope a single inbound app, which is limited to 10 ports, and handles small bursts of calls. What happens is that, if the new inbound app is running, the most it can "steal" from the inbound calls is 10 ports. However, if the app is not running (because it doesn't run all day, it's mostly
