Contact Expert v7.6
Infrastructural Settings
These chapters explain the core multimedia infrastructural configurations of Contact Expert: voice including IVRs, and email.
Voice Gateways
Provides the ability to administer the telephony connector component serving and ensuring connection to the Microsoft Skype for Business Front End Servers or to the Asterisk telephony server. You can specify a new gateway or edit or remove existing ones.
- Navigate to Infrastructure → Voice Infrastructure → Voice Gateways.
- Click +New voice gateway.
- Specify the properties described below.
- Click Submit to save the modifications to the database.
Note
Only a single Voice Gateway should be assigned to a Domain (Application Server HA Pair).
While the system allows adding more gateway entries to a Domain, having more than one is not a supported scenario. CE provides high availability in different ways.
Voice Gateway General Properties
| Name | A unique name of the gateway. |
| Platform Type | Designate the telephony platform in use: Avaya, Skype for Business or Asterisk |
| Primary FQDN | Remote FQDN is used to access the primary unified communications infrastructure. In Skype for Business environment, the FQDN refers to the Front End pool. In Asterisk environment, the FQDN refers to the Asterisk HTTP server. |
| Port | Remote transport port to access the unified communications infrastructure. In Skype for Business environment, this property should be set to 5061. In Asterisk environment, the port of the Asterisk HTTP server. |
| Node | The domain name of the MS SfB Front-end pool. In Asterisk environment, this property is not used. |
| Error DN | Enter the name of a valid SfB user. This user will be notified when: temporary system failures occur, the call has invalid properties, the call cannot be matched to a campaign. In Asterisk environment, this property is not used. |
| User | In Skype for Business environment, this property is not used. In Asterisk environment, the username of the ARI user. |
| Password | In Skype for Business environment, this property is not used. In Asterisk environment, the password of the ARI user. |
| Domain | Select the domain the given gateway is assigned to. |
| Transport | Set the transport protocol for UDP or TCP. In Skype for Business environment please use TCP. In Asterisk environment, this property is not used. |
| Security | Specifies if SSL transport security is used, in Skype for Business and Lync environments this setting is irrelevant. |
| Prefix | Specifies the dial out prefix that is in use on the given voice gateway in Skype for Business and Lync environments this setting is not used. |
Note
Please note that creating a Voice Gateway, will result in two separate entries in the Audit Log, a create and an update entiry - this is due to the Skype gateway paramters being added to the gateway after creation.
Redundancy of a Voice Gateway
You can specify a secondary FQDN for the same gateway. This is useful when you have a secondary unified communication server. If this property is defined, the secondary CE server is going to use this FQDN to connect to the secondary unified communication server. When this property is not defined, the primary FQDN is going to be used on both primary and secondary CE servers.
Note
In Skype for Business and Avaya environments, the secondary FQDN should not be set.
Skype Parameters of a Voice Gateway
| Audio/Video MCU URI | Internal parameter, cannot be modified. |
| Observing URI | Internal parameter, cannot be modified. |
| Trusted Skype for Business Domains | Specifies the Skype for Business domains through which CE transmits calls. Separate domain names with a semi-colon and start domain names with a dot. |
| IM MCU URI | Internal parameter, cannot be modified. |
| Trusted Other Domains | Specifies the non-Skype for Business domains through which CE transmits calls. Separate domain names with a semi-colon and start domain names with a dot. |
| Dialing Info Service Port | This parameter only used by the Verba add-on. Cannot be modified. |
| DNS Load Balancing | Specifies whether Contact Expert uses DNS load balancing or not: True: Contact Expert will be able to interact with Skype for Business Server Enterprise Edition pools. False: Contact Expert can work only in Skype for Business Server Standard Edition environment. |
| Dialing Info Service SSL | Specify whether to use secure HTTP connection to reveal dialog information. |
Dispatcher Messages of a Voice Gateway
These messages are played to the caller when the registration of the designated CE queue or campaign endpoint is lost between CE and the Microsoft Telephony back-end, but there are other endpoints for which the telephony connection is still OK.
By default, the Dispatcher Messages will speak a standard TTS message and then provide the list of other queue names the caller can choose to get redirected to – this is accomplished with the use of the following special tags in the Message text:
| $OPTION$ | The menu option generated automatically for the caller to select another queue that is still operational. Potential values are 0 to 9. |
| $EP_NAME$ | The name of the relevant queue as defined in the Queues & Campaigns form. |
These tags must be inserted into the Message in curly brackets, for example the Dispatcher Message text format for listing available queue names:
Please {press $OPTION$ for $EP_NAME$}
The text in the brackets is going to be repeated as many times as the number of available queues.
Dispatcher Messages' Behaviour in Multi-tenant Environment
Note
This automated announcement of the list of the available queues is disabled when the CE deployment contains more than one tenant!
This is because there can only be a single Voice Gateway per Domain, this resource is 'above' Tenants. Would you have more tenants, the system would not be able to decide which queues and campaigns to list from which Tenant.
In case you have the above tags still embedded in your Dispatcher Message, then the system will announce these texts literally – it will not translate them to queue names and menu options!
Stopping a campaign does not prevent Microsoft Telephony from forwarding calls to the associated endpoint that are then treated by the Dispatcher Messages.
Read more about message specifications.
Administrators can designate audio files already uploaded into an associated Storage resource to be played as Dispatcher Messages. If the Type setting of the message is set to WMA, the audio file will be listed in the File column.
Read more about uploading voice files.
Asterisk Parameters of a Voice Gateway
| Stasis app name | Name of the Stasis application that is configured in Asterisk dialplan. |
| WebRTC endpoint url | URL template for the WebRTC endpoint of the Asterisk instance. e.g.: wss://[pbxAddress]:8089/ws |
Service Endpoints
This page displays the list of service endpoints which are serving access to Voice and Chat media campaigns through which communication requests are transmitted.
There is a 1:1 relationship between Service Endpoints and Tenants. A Service Endpoint can only be assigned to a single Tenant. It can also be revoked by a Deployment Administrator, in which case an alarm is raised.
Deployment-level administrators can manage and maintain existing entries and create new ones.
Tenant Administrators can assign Service Endpoints to Campaigns as Entry Points.
Read more about Designing Queues and Campaigns.
- Navigate to Infrastructure → Voice Infrastructure → Service Endpoints.
- Use the +New service endpoint button to create a new entry.
- Specify the properties described below.
- Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
Specify the following details of the new entry:
| Name | Specify the unique designation of the service endpoint. |
| Gateway | Specify the gateway on which the URI is served. |
| URI | Specify the URI address to access the resource on. This is a SIP URI with SfB, and a VDN in an Avaya environment |
| Tenant | Specify the tenant associated with the service endpoint. |
You can define multiple Service Endpoints using the same Voice Gateway, but the SIP URI values must all be unique.
IVRs
Administration of voice response unit services. An IVR is external to CE, but the system can cooperate with compatible solutions to receive calls from and transfer calls to these and also to use these as non-human agents behind a queue or campaign.
- Navigate to Infrastructure → Voice Infrastructure → IVRs.
- Use the +New voice response button to specify the required gateway properties.
- Specify the properties described below.
- Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
A response unit has the following properties:
| Name | Display name for the unit. |
| FQDN | FQDN of the IVR application server. |
Email Gateways
The modular architecture of CE facilitates the usage of a wide range of 3rd party email servers. Any email server having standard SMTP/POP3/IMAP interfaces is supported by CE email media. Follow the below steps to set up and manage the email gateways in your environment.
Deployment-level administrators can administer new email gateways or edit or remove existing ones. Email gateways can be used by the Tenants via the Email Connections - these connections are being referenced under Mailboxes which can be applied in relation to Queues & Campaigns.
- Navigate to Infrastructure → Email Infrastructure → Email Gateways.
- Use the +New email gateway button to specify the parameters of a new email gateway.
- Specify the properties described below.
- Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
An email gateway has the following properties which are handled by the Deployment Administrator:
| Name | Assign a unique name to the email gateway. |
| Store Protocol (Inbound) | The protocol used to retrieve emails from the email server (POP3 or IMAP). |
| Store FQDN (Inbound) | The IP address of the email server's POP3/IMAP interface. |
| Store Port (Inbound) | The number of the TCP port used by the POP3/IMAP protocol. |
| Transport FQDN (Outbound) | The FQDN of the email server's SMTP interface. |
| Transport Port (Outbound) | The number of the TCP port used by the SMTP protocol. |
| Security | Specifies whether the communication over the given gateway should be encrypted or messages should be passed in plain text format. If secured communication is selected, then the POP3/IMAP port and SMTP port properties should be set to the SSL/TLS based ports on the email server. Select the option Encrypt: yes, Auth: yes. |
Secure Email Transaction Requirement
CE supports only secure and authenticated protocols for email transmission. This means you need to set up the POP3/IMAP and SMTP over SSL/TLS security configuration in your email server with authentication enabled. It will not work with default, unauthenticated protocols. This is true for the email gateways as well as for the alarm notification emails.
The following table contains the typical TCP port numbers assigned to the mentioned protocols:
| Default | Secure (over SSL or TLS) | |
|---|---|---|
| POP3 | 110 | 995 |
| IMAP | 143 | 993 |
| SMTP | 587 | 465 |
To set up prerequisites for secure emails in a Microsoft Exchange server:
- Set up secure email retrieval and email forwarding protocols and ports on the Exchange Hub Transport service of choice.
- Enable Secure logon option for the secure email retrieval.
- Enable TLS for SMTP.
- Enable at least the Basic Authentication option for secure SMTP but Integrated Windows authentication is recommended.
- Grant connectivity permission to at least the Exchange users group.
Contact Expert does not support anonymous relays in the email server.
Email Connections
This page displays the list of email connections which are related to Mailboxes.
Deployment-level administrators can manage and maintain existing Email Connection entries and create new ones.
Tenant-level administrators can then assigne Mailboxes to these Email Connections.
The process of campaign creation is described in the Designing Queues and Campaigns section.
Creation of an Email Connection:
- Navigate to Infrastructure → Email Infrastructure → Email Connections menu.
- Use the +New email connection button to create a new entry.
- Specify the properties described below.
- Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
Specify the following details of the new entry:
| Name | Specify the unique designation of the email connection. |
| Email Gateway | Specify the gateway used to transmit emails. |
| Domain | Specify which domain can access this email endpoint. |
| Tenant | Specify the tenant associated with the email connection. |
An Email Gateway resource can have any number of Email Connections associated.
Mailboxes
This page displays the list of mailboxes that are used to download, store and transmit emails.
Tenant-level administrators can manage and maintain existing entries and create new ones and also associate these to email campaigns or queues.
Every Mailbox resource must have an Email Connection assigned in order to conduct email requests.
Creation of a Mailbox:
- Navigate to Infrastructure → Email Infrastructure → Mailbox menu.
- Use the +New mailbox button to create a new entry.
- Specify the properties described below.
- Click the Submit button to save the modifications to the database.
Specify the following details of the new entry:
| Name | Specify the unique designation of the mailbox. |
| Email Connection | Specify the email endpoint used to transmit the email messaging. |
| User | Specify the owner of the mailbox. This address will be used to download inbound messages. |
| Password | Specify the unique password associated with the mailbox. |
| Sender | Specify the email address used to send outbound messages. |
| Reply To | Specify the email address to which users can reply. This address is included in all outbound messages in the Header section. |
| Importance | Specify the priority of the mailbox relative to other mailboxes within a tenant. This means that more emails are downloaded from email servers to a mailbox having a higher priority. |
Other Infrastructure
Read about the configuration of the following other infrastructural resources: