Contact Expert v7.1 for Skype for Business Server

Skype Parameters

The Skype Parameters menu is where you can manage the SfB voice platform settings for a particular tenant.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → General Infrastructure → Skype Parameters menu.
  2. Click Edit of a preferred parameter in order to modify its properties.
  3. Always click Save when finished modifying.

List of Parameters

The parameters can be modified one by one. The following table lists the types of parameters that can be configured:
Answering Machine Messages When the system is set up to detect answering machines on outbound calls, and it detects one, then it plays this message for the customer to listen later on.
Compliance Messages Message played by the system after the agent is joined to the customer call. This can be used to provide standard privacy / other messages to customers before real business communication is started with the agent.
Connect Messages Message played/sent to the caller immediately before delivering call to the selected operator.
Idle Timeout Messages Message played/sent to caller and operator when no activity is detected in a predefined time-frame.
IM Filters Regular expressions used to filter IM messages sent between the operator and the customer. Every rule is applied and they are applied in the order they appear in the list.
Normalization Rules Regular expressions used to transform dialed numbers. Only the first matching rule is applied.
No Service Messages Message played/sent to the caller when call arrives at an inactive queue endpoint (see Dispatcher Messages) and there are no other active queue endpoints to redirect the call to.
Out of Business Hours Messages Message played/sent to the caller when the call arrives outside of business hours configured in the Business Hours General Parameter. The call is disconnected after the message is played/sent, it does not get repeated. For further details on how the system decides which business hours time period to use (e.g. Business Hours in Generic Parameters, and/or the Active Daily Periods in the Dialing Rules) please visit the How to manage opening hours and out of business hours messages
Queue Messages Message played/sent to the caller while waiting in queue.
Redirect Messages Message played/sent to caller when call cannot be delivered to operator (e.g. dial rule is inactive, caller is not allowed to access the service, no operator is logged in with the required skill)
General Parameters General Skype for Business configuration parameters governing certain aspects of the customer interactions flowing through this telephony backend system. Read more about How to configure general Unified Communications parameters
Welcome Messages First message played/sent to the caller when call arrives at an active queue endpoint.

General Parameters, Normalization Rules and IM Filters

The General Parameters, Normalization Rules and IM Filters parameters have a different data structure compared to other Messages. The following data can be configured for these resources:
Name Unique designation of the selected parameter (General Parameters).
Value Value of the parameter (General Parameters).
Description The definition or name of the parameter (IM Filters, Normalization Rules).
Matching The value to replace by the parameter (IM Filters, Normalization Rules).
Replace The value that replaces the Matching value (IM Filters, Normalization Rules).
Delete Removes the selected parameter.

Use the following buttons to verify the operation of the parameters:

  • Test rules for Normalization Rule verification
  • Test filters for IM Filter verification

Creating Messages

The construction of messages is like creating rules: they consist of a condition (who is calling and which campaign is called) and an action (a message to play). In case an incoming call matches the condition of a rule, the corresponding message (music, announcement, etc.) is played to the caller.

It is possible to create new messages from within a parameter.

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → General Infrastructure → Skype Parameters menu.
  2. Click Edit of a preferred parameter in order to modify its properties.
  3. Click _New button in the top-left corner to create new rules or messages.
  4. The details of the new message will pop-up in a portlet on the right-hand side of the page.
  5. Fill in the details of the new message depending on the audio type (TTS or WMA). See the New Message Specifications section below.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Submit the entry to be saved in the database.

Condition evaluation order

Please note that these conditions are evaluated in a specific order as described in Announcement selection algorithm article.

After modifying the parameters you have to click the Update link and then perform a Batch Update to activate the changes.

New Message Specifications

Specify the conditions of the new message. These details are available as the main specifics for most of the message types, as well.
Calling Choose the country from where the call can arrive.
Called Choose the campaign to which the call can arrive.
Audio Type Choose the audio type of the message. It can be either TTS or WMA.
Timeout Specify a time-frame in seconds to wait for the caller to provide a DTMF response to the message. Only relevant for Queue Messages.
Message Type the text of the message that will be played. (for TTS messages.) See further details below
File Choose the audio file of the message to be played. (for WMA messages.)
Period Specify a time-frame in seconds to wait before repeating the message. Only relevant for Queue Messages.
Repeat Check this box if the message should be replayed. Only relevant for Queue Messages.
Voice (TTS Only) Choose the voice of the message to be played.
Volume The volume of the text-to-speech messages.

Associating Audio Files to Skype Messages

Administrators can specify the audio files to play when creating a new message.

  1. Choose WMA as the Audio Type for the new message.
  2. Notice that less details are available for editing.
  3. File detail will appear in the table.
  4. Specify the file path of the audio file that is uploaded to the related storage.

Read more about uploading audio files.

Editing Messages

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure → Multimedia Infrastructure → Skype Parameters menu.
  2. Click Edit of a preferred parameter in order to modify its properties.
  3. Click on a specific message in order to see its settings.
  4. The Message Details portlet will appear on the right-side of the page.
  5. Click Save after modifying the properties of the message.

Redirect Messages

When creating a Redirect Message, besides the Calling, Called, Text etc. fields you can also specify a reason code. The condition is met (i.e. the message is played to the caller) when the value of the Calling and Called fields are matched (as usual) and the reason code is in effect (e.g. there is a public holiday), too. Note that you can also specify these messages without reason codes under the Redirect Messages (no reason) tab.

Queue Messages

A Queue Message has a the following special properties to set above the standard details.
Repeat Check this to enable repeating of queue message.
Timeout Time allowed for the caller to provide a DTMF response to callback request.
Period Specifies a time (in seconds) to wait before repeating the queue message.
Callback Message If you want to offer callback in queue option for callers then you can specify that here in the form of {DTMF digit}{callback message} where the DTMF digit refers to the digit CE waits from the caller. Message refers to the message CE plays after the callback request is registered but before the call is disconnected. The message type should match the type of the Queue Message. It should be a TTS message if Queue Message is a TTS message. It should be pre-recorded audio if Queue Message is a pre-recorded audio.
Transfer Message If you want to offer transfer in queue option for callers then you can specify that here in the form of: {DTMF digit}{URI}{transfer message} where DTMF digit refers to the digit CE waits from the caller. URI refers to the SIP or tel-URI of the endpoint the caller is being transferred to (prefix is required). Message refers to the message CE plays before performing the transfer. The message type should match the type of the Queue Message. It should be a TTS message if Queue Message is a TTS message. It should be pre-recorded audio if Queue Message is a pre-recorded audio.

System Tags to Announce in the Message Field

The following tags can be used in the Text field to provide certain system state figures to the callers:
$ERT_SEC$ Expected remaining time in seconds. CE re-calculates the average expected wait time (EWT) for each queue on a periodic basis – providing a moving average. The formula is: ERT = max( EWT - WT ) where EWT is the expected wait time (see below), and WT is the amount of time in seconds the particular caller has already spent waiting in the queue.
$ERT_MIN$ This equals to $ERT_SEC$ / 60
$EWT_SEC$ This is the expected wait time in seconds for the particular call.
$EWT_MIN$ This equals to $EWT_SEC$ / 60
$QUEUE_POSITION$ This number provides the position of the call in the queue. In other words, there are $QUEUE_POSITION$ - 1 number of other calls that are also waiting in the queue and will be treated before this call.
$EWT_NAT_SEC$ The expected wait time in natural time format. This equals to the 'seconds' part of the format, as in '1 hour 10 minutes 26 seconds'.
$EWT_NAT_MIN$ The expected wait time in natural time format. This equals to the 'minutes' part of the format, as in '1 hour 10 minute 26 seconds'.
$EWT_NAT_HOUR$ The expected wait time in natural time format. This equals to the 'hours' part of the format, as in '1 hour 10 minutes 26 seconds'.
$ERT_NAT_SEC$ The expected remaining time in natural time format. This equals to the 'seconds' part of the format, as in '1 hour 10 minutes 26 seconds'.
$ERT_NAT_MIN$ The expected remaining time in natural time format. This equals to the 'minutes' part of the format, as in '1 hour 10 minutes 26 seconds'.
$ERT_NAT_HOUR$ The expected remaining time in natural time format. This equals to the 'hours' part of the format, as in '1 hour 10 minutes 26 seconds'.

Example for a TTS Message:

$CALLBACK_OFFER_MSG$. The expected waiting time is $EWT_NAT_HOUR$ hour $EWT_NAT_MIN$ minute $EWT_NAT_SEC$ second. The expected remaining time is $ERT_NAT_HOUR$ hour $ERT_NAT_MIN$ minute $ERT_NAT_SEC$ second.

Sorry, your browser does not support inline SVG. article updatedarticle updated6/8/2023 3:51:14 PM (UTC)6/8/2023 3:51:14 PM (UTC)