Contact Expert v7.4 for Skype for Business Server
Deployment Guide
This is a detailed walkthrough of the installation of Contact Expert for Skype for Business Server.
Purpose
This document describes how to deploy Contact Expert (CE) contact centre solution for Microsoft Skype for Business telephony platform. It walks you through the minimum set of configuration required to launch a working system and helps testing the inbound voice media.
We assume that the environment is already equipped with a Microsoft Skype for Business Server system deployed with fully functioning audio/video, IM, presence and conferencing services including the Enterprise Voice feature and PSTN telephony connectivity. The Microsoft Skype for Business implementation tasks are described in the official Microsoft documentation and web articles in full detail - this documentation does not cover that.
Audience
This document is created for IT Administration personnel responsible for deploying and configuring Contact Expert.
Please note that this document assumes strong administrative skills for both Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft Skype for Business Server systems.
Navigating the Documentation
Use the navigation tree in the left and top to jump between chapters.
Prerequisites
Contact Expert needs to fulfill a demanding requirement when handling time-sensitive customer interactions in high numbers. This in turn requires able environment, including hardware. The following document describes the minimum hardware and software the product needs:
Deployment Sizing
Knowing the minimum hardware and software requirements, the next step is to specify the scale of your particular deployment. The following sections help by highlighting - through examples - the relation of load versus the minimum hardware requirements.
CE is built up of the following software components, each capable of residing on its own dedicated hardware:
| Host | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| CE Database Host | Server | Microsoft SQL Server and CE databases |
| CE Core Host | Server | CE server roles: core, admin and reporting |
| CE Recording Host | Server | CE recording |
| CE Administrator PC | Client | web browser, CE admin and designer tools |
| CE Agent (Operator) PC | Client | CE agent application and Microsoft Skype for Business client |
Lightweight Implementation Scenario (server co-location)
Depending on the load vs hardware specifications of the servers, a lightweight scenario might be capable of serving all human agents in a contact centre with co-locating some server software components on common hardware.
Situations where the Lightweight implementation scenario is allowed
Some CE services can be co-located on common servers in situations where the load is not expected to be over certain thresholds. The following specs are approximations to give you an overview; these are simply examples and should not be taken as guarantees. Actual figures depend on more specific criteria (call flow complexity, call load, etc) this document can not prepare for.
In general, you might opt to go for a Lightweight Implementation if
- Your hardware equipment barely meets the minimum requirements but you have low load:
- number of human agents: less than 20
- call frequency: low/average
- call flow complexity: low/average
- call recording: off or less than 100%
or
- Your hardware far exceeds the minimum requirements, in which case you can allow for higher loads:
- number of human agents: tops at 40
- call frequency: average
- call flow complexity: average
- call recording: 100%
Situations where the Lightweight implementation scenario is not recommended
- Your hardware equipment barely meets the minimum requirements and:
- number of human agents: around 40
- call frequency: high
- call flow complexity: high
- call recording: 100%
or
- Your hardware far exceeds the minimum requirements and:
- number of human agents: 50 - 150
- call frequency: high
- call flow complexity: high
- call recording: 100%
Note
The CE databases must be deployed on dedicated server(s), they should not be co-located with the core services!
Scaled Implementation Scenarios
Having more load requires deploying CE core and recording roles on separate servers. As a rule of thumb, an additional dedicated CE recording server is required for every additional 80 human agents.
Having many more agents and/or extreme call loads or call flow complexities might require setting up multiple instances of core and recording servers in a load-balanced manner. In general, a CE core server instance is required for every additional ~150 human agents due to the limited conferencing capabilities of Microsoft Skype for Business Server.
Installing CE in such a distributed way and setting up redundant services (e.g. High Availability) are out of scope of the current document. Please turn to the Administrator Guide for further details on these topics.
Note
The CE databases must be deployed on dedicated servers, they should not be co-located with the core and recording services!
Next Steps
Depending on whether you need to deploy the solution into a new environment (Clean Install) or upgrade an existing deployment, or maybe having to also upgrade the underlying telephony system, please proceed to one of the following guides: