What is new in AVAYA Call Management System (CMS) 16.3?
Avaya Call Management System (CMS) Release 16.3 – Generally Available as of 28 November – includes the highly anticipated web-based reporting. Browser-based CMS Supervisor Web reporting provides an alternative to the desktop client, helping companies reduce the costs associated with downloading and maintaining thick clients on contact center supervisor. Look for updates on Avaya.com.
How can I automate and align business objectives with calls as they arrive in my contact center? We have to do a lot of changes throughout the day based on certain performance thresholds.
Business Advocate offers contact center managers and customer service executives a new methodology for intelligently automating alignment of enterprise objectives with agent and management performance as well as customer needs.
Product Details
Business Advocate helps businesses deliver a superior customer experience through predictive monitoring and matching technology, that intelligently assesses customer needs and then executes a real-time match to the right agent in the right time.
Using sophisticated routing techniques created in Avaya Labs, Business Advocate eliminates the randomness and delays associated with matching of voice, email, and web chat requests. Business Advocate manages all voice, email, and web chat interactions via a single universal queue from which the preestablished business objectives, customer needs, as well as agent skills and availability are utilized to optimize selection of the most qualified agent to optimize the customer service experience.
Business Advocate actively monitors customer needs and business value, customer segmentation policies and service level objectives, as it analyzes the qualifications and availability of agents to predicts how soon they will become available. By managing all agent resources via a single enterprise wide pool, Advocate then decides which agents should be matched to which customer. This does not necessarily mean connecting the customer who has waited longest, but the customer whose immediate service may bring the greatest value to the business.
Take a look at this llink for a detailed brochure on Avaya’s Business Advocate solution https://stlcom.com/document-library/17/contact-center
What are the features of IP Office Contact Center (IPOCC)?
There are several items included with IPOCC that make it much different than the standard ACD offering of IP Office:
- Desktop software for Agent access and control
- Integration with Voice, Email, and Web Chat (Fax and SMS Support in a future release)
- Contact Recording for all agents, separate from Voicemail Pro ports
- Skills Based Routing for faster call resolution
- IVR functionality with support for Third Party voice access from Nuance
- Outbound Dialing Campaigns
When will the IP Office Contact Center (IPOCC) be generally available?
It is now a currently available product. It became Generally Available March 2014
What platforms support IPOCC?
IPOCC is supported on a single IP500v2 chassis, and IP Office Server Edition.
What release of IP Office is required?
For IP Office to support IPOCC, it must be upgrade or installed at release 9.0.2 or higher.
I currently have a multisite installation of IP500v2 units in a Small Community Network (SCN). Am I able to support agents located at other sites?
There is only one instance of IPOCC allowed within an SCN. While remote agents are supported, they must be endpoints off the IP500v2 that the IPOCC is associated with. You cannot have multisite IPOCC servers today.
What redundancy is supported with IPOCC?
There is not a high availability option available today, but will be available in a future release.
What are the requirements for installing IPOCC?
IPOCC must be installed on a Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 2012 Server. Optionally, it is available as an .OVA file for installation in VMware vSphere environment Release 5.0/5.1.
Can IPOCC be installed on a Preferred Edition Voicemail Pro server, or directly on the IP Office Server Edition platform?
Only the Contact Recorder portion may be installed on the Voicemail Pro or the IP Office Server. The IPOCC must be maintained on a separate server. A second hard drive is recommended when installing Contact Recorder on the Voicemail Pro or IP Office Server. A Raid environment is recommended for installation of IPOCC. Co-Residency of IPOCC with any other application is not supported.
Are migrations from older call center applications for IP Office supported?
There is not a license migration path at this time from Compact Contact Center (CCC) or Customer Call Reporter (CCR). A customer running IPOCC on an IP500v2 solution that upgrades to IP Office Server Edition can migrate licensing at no charge.
Is there a form of Software Support for the IPOCC?
Yes. For IPOCC to be installed, the IP Office must be covered by a current IP Office Software Support (IPOSS) contract. There is separate IPOSS required for the IPOCC software itself.
Are integrations of IPOCC availablewith other, third party products?
Other products may access the IPOCC database through standard ODBC. This currently must be done through custom programming, and is not supported by Avaya Professional Services.
How many agents are supported by IPOCC?
The IP500v2 edition will support up to 30 active/logged-in agents, with 150 configured agents. The IP Office Server Edition will support up to 100 active/logged in agents, with up to 500 configured agents.
How many supervisors are supported by IPOCC?
There is a separate license for supervisors required, but there is not a limit on the number of supervisors. Please keep in mind, though, that a supervisor counts as a logged-in agent for purposes of active agent support. So, a IP500v2 with 20 logged-in agents and 5 logged-in supervisors will be using 25 of the supported 30 logins supported.
We are already at 80 agents by that count, and are expecting a good amount of growth over the next two years. Is the allowed agent count expected to be expanded in future releases?
This has not been announced at this time. In June 2014, there will be second call center product released called Avaya Contact Center Select, expected to be supported on the IP Office and Aura Communication Manager platforms. This will support 30-250 agents, and may be a better fit for your call center. Please contact your sales representative for more information.
Will there be an upgrade path from IPOCC to Avaya Contact Center Select?
There is not an upgrade path announced at this time.
There was mention of Chat and Email support? Is this part of the base agent license?
No, there is a voice agent license and a multichannel license that includes voice. There are also upgrade licenses available that will convert a voice agent to a multichannel and voice agent.
We use a fax server in order to receive faxes. This converts them to email for distribution. Is this compatible with IPOCC?
While IPOCC does not directly support Fax or SMS today, it is fully able to support faxes that have been converted to Email by a fax server.
How can remote/work at home type agents be supported?
Remote agents are supported through the IP Office Softphone, or an IP Phone registered to the primary IP Office location. Their PC must be able to connect to the IPOCC server in order to have access to the IPOCC agent interface.
Is the PC Desktop Interface required for all agents of the IPOCC?
Agents must use the desktop interface in order to access the features of IPOCC
Are there multiple interfaces used for IPOCC?
All agents, supervisors, and administrators use the same interface for IPOCC. Different levels of users have access to different options on the interface.
Are the core call center features of IP Office or the announcement features of Voicemail Pro used for IPOCC?
No. IPOCC is treated as a soft ACD server that connects to the IP Office through SIP. Customers accessing the call center will be transferred from IP Office to IPOCC for the duration of their call. This is what keeps ports of Voicemail Pro from being used to record all agents.
Is there separate licensing for Contact Recording?
No. All agents and supervisor licenses including recording enablement. There is not a separate license.