Contact Expert v7.4 for Skype for Business Server

Business Intelligence

Introduction

This guide explains how Contact Expert business intelligence (BI) reporting works utilizing the Microsoft Power BI platform to offer insight into trends and processes in the contact centre. The Contact Expert BI solution consists of the database schema specifically designed for this reporting purpose (BI schema) and the Microsoft Power BI applications and services used to take data from the schema and apply additional calculations, filters and visualize results.

Note

BI reporting requires a certain level of expertise with databases. This document is not meant to cover the data analysis techniques and ways to acquire the skills to create new reports or to tweak Geomant default Power BI report templates. There are professional trainings and documents offered by Microsoft and partners for these, please start by visiting the official website (link above).

BI Reporting Prerequisites

The Microsoft Power BI solutions contain freely downloadable desktop or mobile applications as well as services accessible over the web. The Contact Expert BI report templates can be loaded into and used in all of these Power BI tools. The applications' software and hardware prerequisites are available at the Microsoft download site, the Microsoft Store or at the app store of the respective mobile platforms (Google or Apple).

Prerequisites for the BI Schema

The BI schema is deployed onto the Contact Expert Database during Contact Expert installation and is getting populated with data automatically as the contact centre operates. However, this data will only be visible to users having the BI report access enabled on their user account on the Contact Expert portal.

Tip

The Contact Expert BI reports present data pertaining to the tenant of the user account logged in to the Power BI applications.

Registering User Accounts in the Database

When the Contact Expert system is configured with CE Authentication – meaning the accounts used to connect to the Contact Expert portal are verified in the Contact Expert database only – then the user accounts must all be individually registered in the SQL Server, in addition to the Contact Expert portal.

When the Contact Expert system is set up with Windows Authentication – the user accounts are verified in Windows or Active Directory – then the user accounts can all be members of a dedicated Windows / AD security group and it is only this group that needs to be registered in SQL Server, the individual accounts won't have to be registered.

The register user accounts (or Windows / AD user groups) to access the BI Schema:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio with an administrative user account (sysadmin privileges).
2. Navigate to Server » Security » Logins.
3. Right-click on Logins and choose New Login... and supply the account details.
4. Select ACEReport as the default database.
5. Navigate to User Mapping folder and set Default Schema to BI on both on ACEReport and ACESystem database.
6. Add User to BI_ROLE in ACEReport and ACESystem database.
7. Click OK.

BI Reporting Overview

BI Schema Documentation

Please read the BI Schema article to understand the raw data fields fed into the BI reports.

Contact Expert BI Report Calculations

Please read the BI Report Calculations article to gain insight how the raw data from the BI Schema is used for the various reporting measures.

Getting Started with the Contact Expert BI Report Files

As opposed to the BI Schema the Contact Expert BI report files are not part of the standard Contact Expert installation, these need to be collected from Geomant or affiliated partners. These reports typically contain high level contact centre performance measures and agent performance statistics. In case the default statistical measures (charts, diagrams, tabular reports, etc.) would not fit the business requirements, Geomant is happy to engage in a solution discovery discussion with customers to identify gaps and means to address those to provide a customized report.

The Contact Expert BI report files will contain a user account for the customer to be able to log in to access the BI Schema and the correct set of data.

Reporting on Contact Centre Performance

The Contact Expert BI report files typically contain "KPI" measures providing overall views of the entire CC or any organizational unit(s) as deemed necessary during the solution discovery phase. These usually cover metrics such as service levels, lost calls, success rate or first call resolution, etc.

Reporting on Agent Performance

Another key area of interest the Contact Expert BI reports focus on is the performance of the CC agents. These usually detail call (contact) summaries, active times, agent state summaries, lost / abandoned calls (contacts), etc.

Opening and Using the Contact Expert BI Report Files

The report files received from Geomant or partners can be opened in the Power BI Desktop application or Geomant can upload it to the Microsoft Power BI website for accessing it in a web browser or mobile app.

Accessing the BI Schema from the Contact Expert BI Reports

The Contact Expert BI report files need access to the Contact Expert Database in order to present relevant data. This access is accomplished upon opening the file in Power BI Desktop application and the user account was provided in the login screen.

In case the Contact Expert BI report file is shared over the web, a different login is necessary to access the report itself. The user account required for this is a Microsoft O365 credential and is not necessarily the same as the database user account covered in the registering user accounts in the database section – but it could be.