Contact Expert v7.3 for Skype for Business Server
Contact Expert v7.3 Release Notes
Release news, recommendations and up-to-date information about this version of Contact Expert
This version was released on 17th May 2021.
Important
Cumulative Update 10 was released on 19th of August 2022
Notes and Recommendations
This document describes all enhancements and bugs fixed in the above product version. In addition, all major known issues not yet addressed are also listed in this document.
Versioning and Hotfix releasing Strategy
Starting from v5.9, Contact Expert version numbers have the following format: vMajor.Minor
Major Version
The first number represents the major version. When this number is increased, a new major version is introduced. Major versions contain significant changes in the product such as an extensive set of significant new features, new architecture or completely redesigned software components. Consequently a new major version might be backward incompatible with the previous major version (but not necessarily).
Minor Version
The second number represents the minor version which is increased when less significant features are added to the product.
Cumulative Hotfixes
In addition to minor versions, Geomant also releases cumulative hotfix packages to provide quick fixes to serious problems that should not wait until the next minor release. These hotfix packages are tied to a specific minor version and contain the fixes of all the previous hotfix packages for this minor version.
Version Compatibility and Upgrade Strategy
When upgrading, consider the difference ("distance") between the old and the new version. If the upgrade is within the same major version then we are talking about a minor version upgrade. If the distance between the old and new version overlaps at least one major version, then this is a major version upgrade.
Minor versions are always backward compatible. Example
- v6.0 - major version (architectural changes & new features & bug fixes; not compatible with v5.x)
- v6.1 - minor version (new features & bug fixes; compatible with v6.x)
A clean and a cumulative upgrade installation media is created for each major and minor version, so every package contains the fixes and feature additions of all previous releases. However Geomant proceeds to perform exhaustive compatibility tests with the last 2 minor versions only, therefore if the distance between your 6.x version and the currently available latest 6.x is greater than 2 minor versions, then you might need gradual, step-by-step upgrades.
Also, since major versions usually bring architectural changes that make them backward incompatible, the old version must be completely uninstalled and the new version must be installed from a clean installation package. An upgrade install is typically not usable in such cases. When a major upgrade (thus a clean install) is due, the system typically have accumulated a number of previous minor upgrades all of which must be uninstalled individually starting from the most recent.
Or, as an alternative, instead of uninstalling all the existing upgrades, the recommended way is reinstalling Contact Expert on a clean operating system (restored from a previous snapshot or installed newly).
Note
Client/Server Version Compatibility
Please note that if you upgrade Contact Expert server components to a new minor version, all Contact Expert agent client applications must also be updated at the same time. Older clients will not work with a new minor version of Contact Expert server.
However, the maintenance version of the server and the client does not matter as long as they have the same minor version. In other words, each client having the same minor version as the server's minor version is always compatible with the server, regardless of the maintenance version.
Note
Database Version Compatibility
Contact Expert databases are not removed or altered during a minor upgrade or uninstall process, therefore all the configuration data, except for the ones entered during an installation, are left intact. This includes all the business related data such as agent, campaign, contact and historical data.
Since a major upgrade typically contains database schema changes which might cause potential data loss, Contact Expert databases will need to be updated to reach compatibility with the new major version to be installed. This can be achieved by using the SQL scripts from the upgrade installation package of the concerned major version.
CE Agent Application Compatibility
CE v7.3 environments will only function properly with CE Agent:
- version 7.3
- version 7.2
- version 7.1
Microsoft Lync/Skype for Business Version Compatibility
Please review our CE Compatibility Matrix with SfB/Lync Platform on Microsoft Lync and Skype for Business support.
OnCall IVR Version Compatibility
Please review our official statement on OnCall IVR Engine and OnCall IVR Designer compatibility matrix.
Cloud Requirements
For chat functionality, a Buzzeasy subscription and cloud connection is required. For cloud based agent scripting, a cloud connection is required.
Important
64 bit Windows operating system is required for Cloud based agent side scripting!
Special Notes
Note
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is no longer supported by Contact Expert v7.3 customers are required to migrate to one of the supported versions.
Note
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2014 is deprecated, support will be removed in future releases of Contact Expert, customers are strongly recommended to migrate to a newer versions.
Deprecated API & Services
Legacy scripting is deprecated (since CE v6.1) and will be removed in future releases
Old scripting or legacy scripting is deprecated and will be removed from the product in future releases. Customers using old/legacy scripting are required to migrate to the new cloud based scripting platform.
Note
Legacy scripting is not tested to cooperate with other components of the product. While using it is not yet explicitly blocked, runtime errors might show up.
Skype for Business based chat service
Skype for Business platform based chat service has been deprecated and removed from Contact Expert 6.0 solution, components include:
- Chat Widget
- Chat Proxy
- WordPress plugin
Customers running chat service prior to 6.0 will need to update their corporate web site to include reference to the new cloud based chat services
Client Access Server - Administration methods removed (since CE v7.1)
Client Access Server Administration interface methods are removed, customization using this API are required to be rewritten using the REST API provided over Management Service, for more information please visit the following article.
Client Access Server - InformationService methods deprecated (since CE v7.1)
Client Access Server Information Service interface methods are deprecated, customization using this API are required to be rewritten using the REST API provided over Management Service, for more information please visit the following article.
Microsoft SQL Server versions deprecated
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2014 are deprecated, customers are strongly recommended to move to a newer edition of SQL Server.
Installation
Install the product as usual and apply all hotfixes released for this specific version as these fix every critical issues revealed.
Please read the Upgrade Guide for further details about the update process and our backup recommendations.
Feature Matrix
General
| 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic agent scripting |  |
|
|
| Highest priority queue ACD strategy added | |
|
|
| Built-in call recording | |
|
|
| Transfer to CE queues enabled | |
|
|
| Support for localization | |
|
|
| Support for TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 | |
|
|
| Support for secure HTTPS and TLS communication protocols | |
|
|
| Contact Expert enabled with predictive dialing strategy | |
|
|
| Queue and campaign linking & cloning | |
|
|
| Automated IVR outbound campaigns using On Call IVR | |
|
|
| Introduction of a new administration interface – CE Portal – replacing ACE Admin | |
|
|
| Enhanced Administrative Features using CE Portal | ! |
|
|
| Administrative Interface integrated with Skype for Business to display agent state and start chat conversation from CE Portal | |
|
|
| User management and role based access to resources | |
|
|
| RESTful web API is introduced to replace the Client Access Server | |
|
|
| Retention blending introduced – allowing to keep a number of agent retained for inbound interaction for a dedicated skill | |
|
|
| Enhanced predictive dialling strategy enables agents to work in a predictive and inbound mode | |
|
|
| Multi-tenant architecture – allowing multiple individual organization can share the system | |
|
|
| Ability to define custom voice messages. E.g. queue music, welcome message, hold music, etc. | |
|
|
| Enhanced agent owned recalls – task are delivered to agents regardless of their skill settings | |
|
|
| Enhanced skill update – supervisor performed skill updates to agent is automatically applied | |
|
|
| Multi-tenant architecture – alarms and resource updates is applied for each tenant separately | |
|
|
| Corporate address book | |
|
|
| Scheduled task filtering enhancement –type, -status, -preference, | |
|
|
| Ability to initiate a call over CE Automation API | |
|
|
| Automatic failover support on secondary server | |
|
|
| Campaign specific wrap-up timers | |
|
|
| Redirect calls on no answer – place agents to RONA auxiliary reason | |
|
|
| Support for initiating calls to response groups | |
|
|
| In queue messaging improvement / audio volume dipping during TTS messages | |
|
|
| Agent application automatic recovery in case of failure | |
|
|
| Automatic (configurable) closure of abandoned calls | |
|
|
| Support of multiple chat sources (website, social media, apps.) | |
|
|
| Real time queue display and ability to select next work item from the queue | |
|
|
| Control predictive start-up parameters | |
|
|
| Predictive healing - Campaign dialing remains in predictive even if reference control values are breached | |
|
|
| Campaign level contact phone number exclusion - Excluded numbers are not dialed | |
|
|
| Before connect compliance messaging | |
|
|
| Time zone support | |
|
|
| Support for Business Unit organization layer | |
|
|
| Multi-skill power dialling | |
Agent Desktop
| 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agent consult and transfer enabled | |
|
|
| Enhanced agent experience in full screen and toolbar mode | |
|
|
| MSI Installer provided for client application | |
|
|
| Enhanced agent script pages and designer | |
|
|
| Customizable agent dashboard – including global, team and agent statistics | |
|
|
| Agents are able to initiate or revoke a break request during work | |
|
|
| Agent dashboard replaces skill statistics with queue statistics | |
|
|
| Agent can leave a comment for each interaction as is shown in the contact history | |
|
|
| Business tags are presented in the order of administration | |
|
|
| Email Search interface | |
|
|
| Quick Email | |
|
|
| Support for Arabic language localization - Agent & customer facing interfaces | |
|
|
| Voice and email concurrent handling, ability to handle/park multiple emails and be available for voice interactions | |
|
|
| Agent can accept internal IM’s during call handling | |
|
|
| Agent’s ability to handle multiple concurrent chat request | |
|
|
| Agent’s ability to handle multiple concurrent chat and email and be available for voice | |
|
|
| Russian language support on Agent facing interfaces | |
|
|
| Document sharing during chat session | |
|
|
| Spell checking support when using the email editor | |
|
|
| Agent scripting powered by Adaptive Scripting | |
|
|
| Companion | |
|
|
| Campaign based scripting tool support | |
|
BI and Reporting
| 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reporting enhancement, filtering options added | |
|
|
| Enhanced call detail reports showing hold and talk time | |
|
|
| Introduction of Personal BI - Excel based personal business intelligence reporting providing flexible and comprehensive business reports | |
|
|
| Introduction of a new reporting interface – CE Portal – replacing ACE Supervisor | |
|
|
| CE Portal reporting interface provides daily operational reports and allows thresholds to be defined to agent and queue states | |
|
|
| Enhanced Analytical and Executive Reports | |
|
|
| Reporting capabilities on predictive dialling strategy – Overdialing Rate and Nuisance Call Rate | |
|
|
| Operation report extended, time range support extended on Agent status, performance, Business Tag, Queue Service Level report | |
|
|
| Call result – operation report introduced / detailing call activity outcome | |
|
|
| Tracking report support displaying 5000 records | |
|
|
| New BI Agent Break type report added | |
|
|
| Comment collected are displayed on CE Portal reports | |
|
|
3rd Party Compatibility
| 7.1 | 7.2 | 7.3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verba call recorder native integration | |
|
|
| Support for Active Directory service accounts | |
|
|
| Support for Skype for Business Server 2015 | |
|
|
| Support for Skype for Business Client 2015 | |
|
|
| Support for Skype for Business Client 2016 | |
|
|
| Web chat JavaScript API enabling chat integration for custom web pages | |
|
|
| Support for SQL Server 2016 and JDBC 6.0 driver | |
|
|
| Contact Expert is integrated with Afiniti agent and optimized customer pairing | |
|
|
| Ability to integrate with an external ACD | |
|
|
| Embeddable web chat widget | |
|
|
| SQL Server 2017 support | |
|
|
| Windows Server 2019 support | |
|
|
| Support for Skype for Business Server 2019 | |
|
|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 support | |
|
Highlights
Contact Expert 7.3 provides additional outbound dialling capabilities, the new version is able to use agents with multiple skill in a power dialling mode. When calculating dialling rate the system takes into account the maximum nuisance rate for each campaign, number of retained agents for inbound skills and the relative campaign priority, as configured on the campaign level
Contact Expert 7.3 provide a more cost-effective Azure resource usage when enabling chat as a media. Every customer requiring chat via Buzzeasy is accommodated on the same Azure infrastructure, “Cloud CE” solution enables integration between Buzzeasy and on-premise CE. CE cloud service is multi-tenanted and is able to support multiple deployments
Note
Chat Queue (information on queue status) and Call-back (ability to add call-back via chat) service is provided on on-demand for each tenant.
Other improvements
Geomant IVR Engine introduces a new reporting type, IVR Node logging, that provides information (nodes covered, conversation id, context id, SDU id, exit point) on the customer journey within the IVR system. The new report can be downloaded via the IVR Administrative interface or API's and is Excel compatible.
Geomant IVR Designer introduced a new IVR input field - password field The new field types are not logged anywhere in the system, allowing the designer to create flow where sensitive data is handled .
Contact Expert 7.3 enables agents to dial back the customer, on any saved number, if the call has terminated without the need of closing the task
Supervisor can select a script by name from the list made available on the campaign/queue form.
Comment field has been added to the CallStat view. ConversationID field has been added to the CallStat view.
Contact Expert outbound dialling strategy allows contacts to be sorted based on contact priority or contact phone number retry count. To ensure a better dialling performance there is a caching mechanism in place that select the top 1000 contacts from the list based on the configured priority and starts dialling them, contact cache mechanism however has an impact on the sorting order, and does not guarantee that the contacts in the cache have the highest priority at any moment in time. Contact Expert 7.3 allows the caching mechanism to be turned on or off for each campaign
Contact Expert 7.3 introduced an experimental support for early media on Skype for Business platform. Playing early media allows an agent to hear if the far end is an answering machine, is busy tone or is a valid number. Enables the agent to classify the call manually and accordingly. Terminate the call earlier, shaving important seconds from the call handling process
Note
Can be configured per tenant basis (“Allow Early Media for Outbound Preview Calls”). When set, the system will perform a peer to peer call between the agent and the far end, and when the far end connection is successfully established escalate it to a conference. Using this method it takes more time for the conference to be setup and at the beginning of the call there is a short (1-2 seconds) disruption.
Note
BETA: There can be scenarios where the customer leg and agent leg of the call is not joined properly, left in held state - so that agent and customer cannot hear each other. In such scenarios the agent will also see the held/resume button being disabled on the Skype for Business Client.
Important
Early media is available with Agent Client Application 7.3 version or newer. If you want to use the early media feature, you can not use older Agent Client Application version event if it has the same major version number.
Fixed and known issues
These are product defects addressed in this version.
| Issue ID | Telephony | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4155 | All | Agent stays in retained state after the inbound campaign is closed |
| 7051 | UCMA | Recording - Recording Criteria - Calls are not recorded when using a PTSN number starting with the "+" character |
| 31562 | UCMA | IVR Standalone: the IVRWS admin page allows saving a Tree Mapping with illegal characters in SIPURI field |
| 31736 | All | AgentApplication - Answering a call with starting 3rd party app may freezes the app on weak machines |
| 32013 | All | No agent and call stat records are written to the report database for 2 hours |
| 32398 | All | StatisticServer stops storing RoutingState events to DB and starts eating up memory |
| 32473 | All | StatisticServer does not stop; it keeps Tomcat hanging in Stopping state |
| 32488 | UCMA | SfB Queue Message .wma not played. |
| 32493 | All | CEAgent - Max email size error message does not displayed |
| 32521 | All | ServerAgent - Windows Service does not killed when it can not stop within the shutdown delay |
| 32578 | All | HA: passive server raises false "activated" => "passivated" alarms within 1 minute |
| 32603 | All | CEPortal - Can't de-select ACD Policy for skills. |
| 32633 | All | AgentApplication - Parked tasks closed one-by-one when agent logs out |
| 32659 | All | AgentApplication - Agent can not go to Active from ACW if she/he has parked tasks |
| 32663 | All | AgentApplication - The closure code selects the Reschedule option even after the rescheduled call has ended |
| 32708 | All | Upgrade installer breaks CloudAdapterServer config |
| 32896 | All | AgentApplication - Task not terminated. Two voice task displayed to the agent. |
| 32996 | All | Predictive dialing process gets stucked in healing state forever |
| 33109 | All | Predictive dialing: nuisance rate does not fall back below the limit |
| 33241 | All | The outbound dialing process does not use the outbound contact cache (SESSIONS_CACHE) and the performance improvement it offers |
| 33279 | All | CE server shut down the endpoint after a certain amount of queries if no info is found for a call id |
| 33538 | All | Queue sorting does not work on agent wallboard |
| 33906 | All | Agent Application - Wrap-up timeout action missed |
| 34039 | All | Email attahcments mixed up (Important!) |
| 34365 | All | Agent app silent installer - CefSharp.Core.dll module could not be found |
| 35177 | All | Initial Statistics calculation |
| 35456 | All | Predictive dialing: in case of 3-4 agents, the dialer initiates less calls than expected |
| 35697 | All | CE Portal - Chat History reports does not display entries without contact |
| 36446 | All | CEPortal - Service endpoints not listed on campaign edit for tenant admins. |
| 36447 | All | CEPortal - Localization missing on user role permissions list. |
| 37258 | All | OnCall IVR PrompJump node repeat_at_errors does not work |
| 37288 | All | Tenant level skype parameters are disregarded when HTTPS is used |
| 37451 | All | Agent application crashed due to href links being opened in CefSharp |
| 37566 | All | Automatic import creating duplicated records |
| 37590 | All | Call result is not shown in closure windows using quick dial |
| 38019 | All | Agent Application - Chat - Phrases are not being pasted in the chat window when chat window not in focus |
| 38035 | All | CEAgent - Email attachment functionality is broken |
| 39583 | All | CE Portal - Workflow Settings - Maximum phone number per contact does not work |
| 39948 | All | System database upgrade takes more than 2 hours |
| 40055 | All | Recording: media file is deleted before Maximum File Lifetime expires |
| 40056 | All | CE Portal - Telephone number sorting is out of order when a contact has more than 10 phone numbers |
| 40342 | UCMA | TelephonyRecorderServer: high CPU usage |
| 40394 | All | CloudCE IdentityProvider - Authentication with login hint is broken |
| 40676 | All | Management SVC - Contact PUT allow session modification for different contact. |
| 40800 | All | CE Portal - Script Designer URL construction is incorrect |
| 40912 | All | Callstat and Agentstat BI views load very slowly |
| 41113 | UCMA | IVR Node logger field separator conflict |
| 41147 | All | Agent Application - Chat - Chat frame is not loaded in CE 7.1 agent application |
| 41678 | All | CloudCE CEGateway - Unit test are broken after Customer Manager package upgrade |
| 41917 | All | Contacts stuck in processing state |
| 41931 | All | Agent Application - Redial contact button does not work when not the LOOKUP code is selected |
| 41968 | All | Email - Bulleting part disappears from email when put in reply template |
| 42234 | All | DB - Transaction in stored procedures block the reporting DB. |
| 42350 | All | Remove-CECloudBasedScriptingProperties does not remove ScriptDesignerApiUrl |
| 42360 | All | CE Portal - Failed to retrieve available scripts error toast is thrown every time the campaign form is accessed |
| 42480 | All | CloudCE - Wrong Cutomer Manager URL is used |
| 42505 | All | Campaign snapshots are calculated for campaigns already deleted |
| 42509 | All | Agent App - Reschedule time input on closure form contains date part. |
| 42672 | All | Add conversationID to call history report on ManagementSvc |
| 42704 | All | Portal: sorting by columns on Campaign Status report does not work |
| 42786 | Avaya | Avaya - Second leg of a consultative transfer is not recorded |
| 42797 | UCMA | SfB: outbound preview call is not recorded if "Allow Early Media for Outbound Preview Calls" = yes |
| 42850 | All | CloudCE - Wrong subscription for production resources |
| 42947 | All | ManagementSvc - ContactListProcesses for deleted campaigns are not retreived |
| 42959 | All | CE Portal - Agent Status Real-time report - the tooltip for monitoring and barging in contains a typo |
| 43060 | UCMA | CE Portal - Recording Channels can not be modified |
| 43123 | UCMA | SfB features AllowEarlyMediaForPreviewCalls, AllowAllModalities do not work together |
| 43127 | All | DBConnectorServer - GetResource() returns the same IVR channel multiple times |
| 43145 | All | Public holiday tenants are ignored. |