Contact Expert v7.5
Configuring Agents
Agents
Human Agents
It is possible to configure the entries for human agents or operators per tenant. In fact, a human agent entry is associated to a Team under a Business Unit in the given Tenant.
- Navigate to Operations → Agents → Human Agents in order to manage the list of human operators. You can create a new agent or edit or remove an existing ones.
- Use the New agent button to create a new entry.
- Specify the details described in the below sections.
- Click Submit to save changes to the database.
Specify the following general properties:
| Name | Operator (Agent) name to display in reports. |
| Gateway | Specify the gateway on which the agent is signed in to the voice platform. |
| Login Name | The login credentials used by the agent to sign in. In an SfB environment this should be either a valid AD principal user name (for Windows domain credentials) or an SfB ID (for local Windows credentials). |
| Password | Password should be entered by the agent when trying to sign in. In an SfB environment this is not used, enter a dummy value. |
| UC identity | The user name or extension used by system in the background to sign in the agent. For SfB this should be set to SfB user ID. For Asterisk this should be set to the agent's extension. |
| UC password | Password associated with the UC identity. In an SfB environment this is not used, enter a dummy value. In Asterisk environment this should be set to the secret of the agent's extension. |
| Huntgroup | Select which hunt group the agent should login to. For SfB and Asterisk this property is irrelevant. |
| Recording rule | Specify which rule to apply for call recording purposes. |
Importing an Agent Entry
An alternative is to use the 
button to open the search window and enter a valid username or SIP URI. Choose one of the retrieved contacts so the Name, Login Name and UC Identity fields will be filled automatically.
Note
Please note that this import feature is only available if Active Directory authentication is enabled, and the user is successfully logged in to both the CE portal and the Skype for Business web client built into the portal.
Organizational Details
Specify the following properties:
| Tenant | Choose the tenant associated with the agent. |
| Team | Specify the team associated with the agent. This determines where the agent belongs within the organization. |
| Organization Unit | Specify the name of the organization unit associated with the agent. |
| Photo URL | HTTP URL of the user's picture that is publicly accessible. |
| Disabled | Checkbox for temporarily disabling the agent. |
The Organization unit field has no relation to the hierarchy functionalities of CE, it is simply a free-text property. Read the Organizational Hierarchy And Access Control chapters for more details on the hierarchy.
Note
While the tenant definition can not be changed after the entry is saved into the database, you can re-assign the item to any business unit within the tenant.
Skill Assignment
Skills allow agents to participate in CC work in inbound queues or outbound campaigns. Specify the skill-set of the agent by using the checkbox menu structure. When assigning a skill, an associated skill level can also be specified.
The portal presents skills from an associated tenant. If empty, make sure you specified a tenant in the Organizational Details tab first.
When a skill-set is changed for an agent that is logged in, a message would shows up for him/her about this fact and that a logout/login is required to finish the activation.However, it is also possible activate the skill-set change without the popup message and having to perform the logout/login. You can read more about automatic skill activation at the Workflow Settings section.
Tip
After modifying the skill-set of an agent, perform a Batch Update to execute the changes.
For further descriptions about skill changes from the agent's perspective please read the Skill Modification by Supervisor chapters.
Note
When using Predictive dialing, it is best practice to only associate a single skill to the participating agents, so that the predictive algorithm is able to calculate call statistics correctly. However, the system won't block associating more skills to the agents. Please be aware of the risks and consequences, such as overdialing/nuisance calls in case of increased traffic on inbound skills.
Agent Allocation Rules
Agents are allocated for tasks based on their skills and skill levels. Even the ones having the exact same skill set might be loaded with tasks quite differently. Those who have more skills or have higher skill levels might receive many more tasks. The difference in agents' load might be quite significant, especially in blended environments where the system generates outbound requests in addition to routing inbound ones.
When initiating a new outbound request or trying to distribute an inbound one, the system will route to the highest skilled agent unless the queue is set-up with Prefer last agent selected. This is configurable on a queue by queue basis. If enabled, the system will check the history of the associated contact. If the given contact was already routed to an agent in the past, then the system attempts to allocate that same person again.
If the agent is not available or the contact was never routed to any agent previously, then the system tries to allocate an available agent having the highest level within the required skill. If multiple agents are available with the highest skill level, then the system allocates the longest idle one. If no agent having the required skill is available, then the request is placed into a waiting queue for a suitable agent to be available.
Permissions
The following permissions can be provided to agents:
| Search for Contact Records | Browse contact database. This is relevant for the agent to be able to use the Address Book service from the agent application. |
| Modify Contact Properties | Modify properties of existing contacts. |
| Add New Contact Records | Append new contacts to the database. |
| Change Contact Phone Number State | Change the state of any contact phone number. |
| Change excluded phone number | Change the state, value and retry count parameter of contact phone numbers in the Excluded state. For the state however, this parameter requires the Change Contact phone Number State permission to be also granted. |
Email Signature
Set up e-mail templates for the agents that they could use as a corporate signature, company logo, predefined welcomes, literal phrases, etc.
Skill Management
Contact Expert system administrators can assign multiple agents to a skill.
The Skill Management option can be used if there is at least one resource available in the particular tenant.
Navigate to Operations → Agents → Human Agents → More Actions → Skill Management in order to specify such skills.
Select a Skill, Media and Level at the upper portion of the form.
The Skill dropdown presents every item from all the business units in the relevant tenant. The list contains the name of the tenant and business unit names too in parentheses.
The Not Assigned list will show the name of the agents not yet possessing the selected skill. The Assigned list shows the agents who already have the skill associated.
Using left-click, control + left-click or shift + left-click select one or multiple agents from the Not Assigned list.
Agent lists are presented in a hierarchical tree view to show team membership. If you wish to select / de-select a whole team, click the team name.
There could be any number of teams relevant for the business unit the selected skill is associated to.
Click the >> icon to perform the assignment. The selected agent names disappear from the Not Assigned list and show up in the Assigned list.
Removing skill association is performed the same way except you select agents from the Assigned list and use the << icon.
Clicking an agent name in either the Not Assigned or Assigned lists will display a short summary of the particular agent at the bottom section of the form.
Note
Skill changes might need explicit activation.
In case the relevant Workflow Setting is not enabled to automatically activate agent skill changes, changes in skill association will not be activated immediately for the agents, the batch update process needs to be performed.
When the automatic skill change activation is not enabled, the agents will also need to perform a logout / login procedure for the skill assignment changes to take effect.
Virtual Agents
Virtual agents can be used to handle outbound email media tasks via associated skills. Virtual agents are associated to business units.
Navigate to Operations → Agents → Virtual Agents to create a new item or edit or remove existing ones.
Use the New virtual agent button to create a new entry.
Choose the associated Tenant and Business Unit, and specify a display name.
Click the Skill Assignment tab to associate the business unit skills, bearing in mind the details described in the Skill Assignment chapter above.
Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
Note
While the tenant definition can not be changed after the entry is saved into the database, you can re-assign the item to any business unit within the tenant.
Behaviour of Virtual Agents
When assigned an outbound task, Virtual Agents take the message template from the corresponding campaign, fill out the template parameters from the campaign's contact record fields, send the interaction via email, and close the task.
IVR Channels
IVR channels are used to handle voice media without human agent intervention. IVR channels are associated to business units.
Navigate to Operations → Agents → IVR Channels to create new or edit or delete existing items.
Use the New channel button to create new entries.
Specify the properties described below.
Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
An IVR channel has the following properties:
User id associated with the channel in the underlying unified communications platform. In Skype for Business environment this property should be set to the SIP URI of an IVR application endpoint plus the Channel ID appended as a SIP tag. The sip prefix can be omitted. A valid Extension might look like this: ivr@contoso.com;ce-chanid=1. In Asterisk environment, this property should be set to the SIP URI of an IVR endpoint plus the Channel ID appended as a SIP tag, plus the Asterisk endpoint and AoR used for dialing the endpoint appended as a SIP tag. The 'aor' SIP tag is optional. The sip prefix can be omitted. A valid Extension might look like this: ivr@contoso.com;endpoint=ivr_trunk;aor=ivr_trunk_aor;ce-chanid=1
| Tenant | Choose the tenant associated with the IVR channel. |
| Business Unit | Choose the business unit this IVR channel is associated to. |
| Name | Specify unique display name. |
| Extension | Specify the user ID associated with the channel in the underlying unified communications platform. In Skype for Business environment this should be set to the SIP URI of an IVR application endpoint plus the Channel ID (e.g. ivr@geomant.com;ce-chanid=1). In Asterisk environment this should be set to the SIP URI of an IVR endpoint plus the Channel ID appended as a SIP tag, plus the Asterisk endpoint and AoR used for dialing the endpoint appended as a SIP tag. The aor SIP tag is optional. (e.g. ivr@contoso.com;endpoint=ivr_trunk;aor=ivr_trunk_aor;ce-chanid=1) |
| Gateway | Choose the associated voice gateway. |
| IVR | Choose the associated IVR. |
| Channel ID | Numeric channel ID. This should be unique for a given IVR instance and be the same as ce-chanid in the extension property. |
| Recording Rule | Channel specific recording rule. Leave it empty if no recording is required. |
| Skill Assignment tab | Assign the skills available in the selected business unit to the IVR channel. |
Note
While the tenant definition can not be changed after the entry is saved into the database, you can re-assign the item to any business unit within the tenant.
Media Properties
| Codec | Specify the IP codec that is used to transmit media. This is irrelevant in case of SfB and Asterisk environments. |
| Password | Specify the password associated with the extension. This is irrelevant in case of SfB and Asterisk environments. Specify a dummy value. |
| Media IP | The IP address used to transmit media streams. This is irrelevant in case of SfB and Asterisk environments. |
| Media Port | Local transport port used to transmit media streams. This is irrelevant in case of SfB and Asterisk environments. |
Skills
Contact Expert uses skills based routing to route calls to the highest skilled human agent or IVR channel. Skills are associated to business units.
Navigate to Operations → Agents → Skills to create new items or edit or delete existing ones.
Use the New skill button to specify a new skill.
Specify the properties described below.
Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
General Properties
| Property | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | The display name of the skill. |
| Number of Agents Retained for Inbound Calls | Specifies the number of agents that are retained for inbound call handling when used with an outbound dialing strategy. The system decides which agents will be retained based on random measures – there is no option to name these persons. These agents will never receive outbound calls from campaigns having this skill assigned – the dialing mechanism simply removes this amount of agents during the outbound call process. |
| Service Level Target (sec) | Specify the service level value in seconds. The next interaction request is retrieved from the queue where the longest waiting time exceeds this target value the most. Find more information about priorities in the CE Priorities article. |
| Tenant | Specify the tenant the skill is associated to. |
| Business Unit | Specify the business unit the skill is associated to. |
| Emergency Queue | If checked, CE will deliver work items from this queue to the agents as soon as possible. |
| ACD Policy | Choose which ACD policy should be active when external interaction routing is enabled for the skill. |
Note
While the tenant definition can not be changed after the entry is saved into the database, you can re-assign the item to any business unit within the tenant.
Predictive Parameters
| Property | Notes |
|---|---|
| Maximum Nuisance Rate [%] | Specifies the maximum rate of outbound calls dropped /redirected due to no agent availability at the time the called party answered the call when used with a campaign set to predictive dialing strategy. If this value is reached, Contact Expert switches back to progressive dialing mode automatically until the nuisance rate drops below this threshold again. The Maximum Nuisance Rate is measured on a daily basis. Switching back to progressive mode occasionally will make sure this threshold is not violated for the day. |
| Maximum Number of Calls Per Agent | Specifies the maximum number of calls initiated per agent when used with a campaign set to predictive dialing strategy. |
| Minimum Agent Count | Specify the minimum number of agents required for the predictive dialing to start. If you provide a low number of agents, it can lead to insufficient functioning of the predictive dialing and may cause unexpected effects on the statistical data. |
| Agent On Call Backoff [%] | Specify the percentage of calls to be initiated for agents already being occupied with interactions. |
Emergency Queue
Emergency skills have their target service level properties set to 0 (zero) and this is not modifiable. So any campaign /queue elected to be an emergency queue would always have the highest effective priority. This also means that it is best practice to keep only a single skill in Emergency. If more than one skill is elevated to Emergency state, those will compete as they will be 'equal'.
Note
The Emergency skill feature is only available when the Priority Queues option is enabled.
Skills for Predictive Dialing Mode
Predictive dialing algorithm calculates historical call statistics and target rates for a given skill. When administering a new skill to a campaign with predictive dialing strategy, the following parameters must be set, otherwise the predictive algorithm will not start:
- Maximum Number of Calls Per Agent
- Maximum Nuisance Rate [%]
- Number of Agents Retained for Inbound Calls
These parameters affect the predictive dialing mechanism as explained in the following formula:
Maximum # of predictive calls initiated = # of agents suitable for outbound predictive calls x max # of calls per agent _ # of agents on call x max # of calls that can be initiated for agent on call - # of ongoing calls
As with any other skill, the ones that have the predictive parameters set can be assigned to multiple campaigns. However, skills tailored for predictive this way can only be assigned to these type of campaigns:
- Inbound Voice
- Outbound Progressive
- Outbound Preview
- Outbound Predictive
The predictive algorithm will not start unless the retainment mode is set to Fixed.
Notes and Limitations of the Predictive Dialing Strategy
The predictive algorithm works best if the agent who is part of the predictive campaign has only one skill - the one that is assigned to the predictive campaign. However, there is an option to reserve some agents in order to respond to inbound interactions in a timely manner even in a massively over-dialed campaign. The limitation of this blended configuration is that only a subset of agents working with outbound interactions can receive inbound tasks and they cannot have multiple skills assigned, only the one that is used for the outbound dialling in predictive mode.
The current calculation of the dialing is based on average task processing times of both inbound and outbound interactions of the specific skill.
Note
When using Predictive dialing, it is best practice to only associate a single skill to the participating agents, so that the predictive algorithm is able to calculate call statistics correctly.
However, the system won't block associating more skills to the agents! Please be aware of the risks and consequences, such as overdialing/nuisance calls in case of increased traffic on inbound skills.
Warning
Overdialing can cause an increased number of nuisance calls. Contact Expert does not switch back from predictive mode to progressive mode if the predefined maximum nuisance rate is reached.
If you use predictive multi-skill mode, it is not guaranteed that you can control the nuisance rate.
Contact priority handling in predictive dialing mode
Please note that CE utilizes a caching mechanism in predictive dialing mode. This means that the system stores the top 50 contacts that need to be called. It takes the next contact in priority order when processing the cache and dials it if it suits the prediction. If it is not, the contact will be sent back to the pool.
This can create scenarios where contacts in the cache will not be dialled according to their level of priority, because there is no available agent or the prediction does not allow dialling them.
Multi-skill for Predictive Dialing Mode
This is the same predictive dialing strategy without the restrictions of the classic predictive mode. The calculation has been altered, so that the predictive dialing strategy would work even when affected agents are having more than one skill associated.
In this scenario, every agent can be assigned to a single skill associated to an outbound campaign and can have multiple skills associated to inbound queues. The predictive algorithm does not measure inbound traffic on these skills when calculating call statistics for the outbound campaign. Outbound dialing will initiate the proper number of calls as long as the traffic is relatively low on the affected inbound queues.
The following parameters are required for the Predictive dialing with multi-skill:
- Minimum Agent Count
- Agent On Call Backoff [%]
- Maximum Number of Calls Per Agent
- Maximum Nuisance Rate [%]
- Number of Agents Retained for Inbound Calls
Follow the steps below in order to enable multi-skill predictive dialing:
- Navigate to Operations → Workflows → Workflow Settings.
- Click Edit of the specific tenant.
- Tick the Predictive Inbound Multiskill checkbox in order to enable the function.
- Click Submit to save the changes.
Note
When using Predictive dialing, it is best practice to only associate a single skill to the participating agents, so that the predictive algorithm is able to calculate call statistics correctly.
However, the system won't block associating more skills to the agents! Please be aware of the risks and consequences, such as overdialing/nuisance calls in case of increased traffic on inbound skills.
Warning
Overdialing can cause an increased number of nuisance calls. With multi-skilled agents Contact Expert does not switch back from predictive mode to progressive mode if the predefined maximum nuisance rate is reached.
If you use predictive with multi-skill enabled, it is not guaranteed that you can control the nuisance rate.
Work Codes
You can specify work codes for human operators to use for different agent states. This resource is tenant level.
- Navigate to Operations → Agents → Work Codes in order to specify the entries.You can create new entries or edit or remove existing ones.
- Use the _New work code button to create a new work code entry.
Specify the properties described below.
Tenant Specify to which tenant the work code belongs. Key Specify a unique numerical value to identify the work code. Name Assign a unique display name to the work code. Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
Operators can select from the defined codes when going to AUX (CE-Break) state. Supervisors can generate reports in order to check which codes were used and how long by operators. A maximum of 20 codes can be defined, with the first 3 of them (AUX, ACW, LOOKUP) reserved for internal usage.
Agent policies
Agent Policies are a set of guidelines (parameters) that applies to the agents using the CE application. Such parameters are forcing the agent to select a business tag after completing a call or the URL of the campaign's help page, for example.
Agent policies can be set and applied separately for different tenants.
- Navigate to Operations → Agents → Agent Policies.
- Choose the tenant to be configured and click Edit.
- Specify the parameters of the UC platform that affect all agents in the CE of a specific tenant.
- Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
The Getting Starter With The Agent Application articles provide further details on the CE Agent Application details.
Please visit the Agent Policies article for more information.
Hunt Groups
Hunt groups or operator groups represent a set of operators or agents that are to be reported together. It is possible to configure the hunt groups per tenant, so it is specific to a particular unit within the organization.
- Navigate to Operations → Agents → Hunt Groups to create and modify such groups. Operators and agents then can be assigned to these groups.
- Use the _New hunt group button to specify such groups.
Specify the properties described below.
Name Assign a unique name to the new hunt group Extension Specify the user group used to sign in agents to. In case of SfB this value is irrelevant. Tenant Specify the tenant the hunt group belongs to. Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
Please note that for the Microsoft Skype for Business edition of Contact Expert the Hunt Groups feature is merely a reporting feature. However, you do have to have at least one Hunt Group for the reporting to work properly even for SfB.