Author: DrVoIP

Dextr a Customized Agent Dashboard for #Amazon Connect Call Center!

Posted on by DrVoIP

AWS Connect CCP

Building out call centers on AWS, you learn a lot about opportunities for productivity enhancements!   One of the first issues that we noted was that the standard Contact Control Panel or CCP, which is basically a WebRTC soft phone client, though very useful has many opportunities for improving the Agent experience.   The list of request features is growing and as a result, we have taken on the development of  a customizable AWS Connect Agent Dashboard!

 

Call DrVoIP for AWS Call Center migration assistance.

If your only introduction to AWS is Connect, their cloud based call center product, you have successfully created your first call center instance and you are now taking inbound phone calls!   It was remarkably easy and with no real ‘geek” training, most call center professionals were able to log in, setup an instance, organize a call flows, create agents and voice prompts, obtain a phone number an in a few hours, you were taking phone calls!  Wow!

AWS Demo API’s

Did you know that the Agent CCP is completely customizable?  AWS provides a number of API’s and Connect Streams that a software engineer can access toward the goal of building an Agent Dashboard with a set of features and tools that are unique to your call center environment.  There is even a site you can log into and test some of the available API’s.   If you go to http://connectdemo.com and click on the “demo sites” you can see some examples of customized CCP, Click to Call, Screen Pops and other tasty code bits.

Agent Streams

We note that there are many “connect streams” that a developer can tap to create their own version of CCP.   The supervisor side, however is not as fully formed and there are not as many streams and API’s available to support Supervisor requirements like real time queue and agent metrics.   In fact we had to develop our own socket layer communication strategy to implement the features we envisioned in our dashboard.

Recently we have discovered new and not readily available API for other AWS streams.  Some are only available depending on your support contract status.

Agent Dashboard Feature Set

The list of functions and features that we have added to our CCP is still growing but we set a goal of making the dashboard painless!   For example there is nothing to install.  Our application needs to be added by your instance administrator as an application end point in the Connect dashboard.  Once that is complete, the user just points at our portal and enters their instance name (you can even upload your own logo).   The traditional AWS Connect CCP shows up and you login as normal.   Once your credentials are established, you are then presented with the revised Agent Dashboard as shown below.

AWS Connect Dextr Agent Dashboard feature set

Most folks have asked for a “team status” display.  As an Agent I want to see the status of the other agents on my team.  So the first attribute we added was just that, a team status display.    Each agent has their own Activity List showing all of their calls both inbound and outbound.   Next to each call is a link to hear the recording of that call. Supervisors can select all calls, but agents only see their own call recordings.

Each Agent has a personal contact list with contacts that they have entered for their own use.  This augments the “quick connects” that they system administrator had created.  Here is the feature list:

  • Nothing to install! Instant Access via https://go.dextr.com which has video instructions for on-boarding;
  • Customizable Logo and YourCompany custom log-in URL;
  • Role based Login (supervisor, agent, administrator)
  • SAML support;
  • Agent Team Status Display;
  • Agent to Agent Chat
  • Agent Call Activity with (click to return call);
  • Directory System with Click to call;
  • Help Button – Alert Supervisor;
  • Queue Monitor – including calls in queue, max waiting time; optional red, yellow tags)
  • Personal Recording; (permission option);
  • Supervisor Permissions add: Login/Logout (change agent state) Monitor, coach and Barge in;
  • All Recording search and play (see note 1 below);
  • Real Time Metric review Report Generation
  • Ability to set Holiday Schedules and “ad hoc” closings with new close prompt (think team meeting).
  • Push Announcement String out to Agent Dashboard for alerts and other notices.
  • Omni-Channel SMS/MMS enables test and pics to the next available agent
  • Omni-Channel email routing to the next available agent
  • “no headset” audible alert options for softphone

We are also planning to integrate or Click2WebChat functionality as an advanced feature option.  This would bring website co-browsing, video chat, SMS and keyboard chat into the call center!  The Dextr screen shows the Agent interface including the Video and Chat links.

How do you set a Holiday Schedule in Amazon Connect?

Dextr enables a user with Admin privileges to open a window and create both HOLIDAYS AND AD HOC closings.   The instance is initially stocked with all US Federal holidays already listed.  The Admin can modify, add or delete these dates.  They can also specify, via the drop down window, which queues they are closing.  There is also a Text to Speech window in which the supervisor can enter the text of a prompt that will be played to a caller should they call during that time slot.

We named the dashboard Dextr!  There is nothing to install.  Follow the video instruction below and have your Amazon Connect Administrator add us as a trusted application, then head over to our portal, log in and put Dextr to work for your team!

If you have a requirement for the CCP we would also like to know more about your requirements, so let us know.   If  you do not have an AWS Connect instance, DrVoIP will build you a “proof of concept” portal for no charge!  Remember, the American Business Communications landscape will be littered with the bleaching bones of those companies that do not adopt Amazon Connect as the enterprise call center that manages customer engagements!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front End your Call Center with Twilio Appointment Reminder!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Send a Text or add more Telephone lines?

We have long been a proponent of using more text solutions in the call center.  From our perspective it makes more sense to let clients text you customer service team than it does to add more telephone lines, to hold more clients in queue waiting for the next available agent!   With the dramatic growth of smart phones, it makes sense to engage your clients with an understanding that they are (a) very mobile; and (b) very text savvy!   We are willing to bet, you text message more than you actually talk on your smart phone!

Call Trees

Anyone who has had to write routing scripts to figure out which group of agents to send an inbound caller to, will tell you that having a DNIS number per route is the best way to go.  Why prompt the user to press 1 for Spanish, if you could just market a number that expects Spanish callers!   A separate number for Customer Service and Tech support also saves having to have the caller self navigate through an elaborate call tree just to end up waiting in queue.   Generally, the call center will end up publishing a single inbound phone number and then prompt the caller with “Press 1 for Customer Service, Press 2 for Technical Support” as adding and managing DNIS numbers gets to be a costly head ache!

Estimated Wait Time

So we keep adding more inbound telephone lines, to the same number of Agents, causing more folks to remain in queue waiting for the “next available agent” and growing more frustrated with each passing minute!   Most call centers now attempt to reduce frustration by “Press 1 to receive a call back without losing your place in queue”.     This is a helpful option in reducing customer frustration, but does nothing to reducing costs.  Actually it increases costs as you are now calling folks back on your dime!

Reduce call center cost and improve customer satisfaction by letting callers contact by text message!

Enabling your clients to TEXT a “keyword” inbound could accomplish the same result as having them self navigate through a call tree.  In fact, you could get the call routed and also provide a call back based on the estimated wait time!   Inbound text messages also facilitate more accurate data dips as the caller ID can be used to index a database to bring back relevant  customer information.   For example, if the customer were to  text the keyword “appointment” you might be able to return the following text message”

” Mr. Merkin,  we see that you have an appointment scheduled with our hygienist for Tuesday at 10AM.  Are you calling to confirm or reschedule this appointment?  Please REPLY with CONFIRM, CHANGE or CALL ME”.

Logic can be applied to the inbound text and if the REPLY returns “Call me”  the following text might be sent back by the call center:

“Please standby and we will get you connected with a scheduling assistant”  or “We estimated that we can call you in 5 minutes”

The dialog can become very customized based on the call centers CRM integration, but simplification of the inbound request and customer  contact can be significantly enhanced using TEXT.  Appointment reminders are an excellent application for text based call center integrations.    You can create a Proactive or Reactive model to remind folks of a scheduled appointment.   A Proactive model would process a list of appointments, sending a reminder text to each client and asking them to REPLY with CONFIRM, or RESCHEDULE.   A reschedule would set up a call back from the call center.   The Reactive model would function similarly but would be triggered by an incoming text request from the client.

TWILIO to the rescue!

In the following video tutorial we build out a generic TEXT and voice  based “automated attendant” that can be used to front end you customer service organization, sales team or technical support group.   We use Twilio to create a cloud based front end with the ability to transfer the call to a specific number or agent group in a call center.    Normally we would write our text applications in Twilio using Nodejs and Twilio’s Twiml but Studio, as a graphical scripting tool,  is a very useful rapid deployment strategy.

In this tutorial, though we are focused on TEXT we will also setup a solution that can answer VOICE calls or TEXT messages.  We will use speech recognition in addition to the normal “Press” instructions to get calls routed to the proper recipient.   Once the call flow is designed, we will add a number and test out our solution!     Twilio is a powerful tool and we have been able to script out customized text, voice and video solutions in days or hours rather than weeks and months!   Generally we also make liberal use of AWS for API Gateway access to AWS MySQL or DynamboDB database information using AWS Lambda functions.

The DrVoIP demo Challange!

We can build out a prototype AWS Connect Call Center with a Twilio Text front end for your company in less than a day!  So just ask us by sending a message to our Text Based Auto Attendant at 929-292-8100 and we will get you setup in no time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Estimated Wait Time

 

Why your call center needs “TEXT” solutions!

Posted on by DrVoIP

21st Century Call Centers still operate with 1980 business models!

I have been working with inbound call center for some 40+ years and despite all the”omni” channel technology the inbound call center model has not changed very much.   Those of us who have call centers that support a for profit business are focused on improving the customer or patient experience.   We all want lower caller holding times, faster response times and lower costs.   I have never heard anyone say, lets add more agents!   The usual answer is lets add more telephone lines!   This strikes me as more than ridiculous!   Basically, increasing the size of the catchers mitt by adding more telephone lines,  enables the call center to increase the number of people on hold awaiting service by the same number of agents.  Now how can that make sense?   If you think about it, the only reason you have more inbound telephone lines than you have agents, is so folks do not get a busy signal.  Over the years call centers have learned that it is better to capture the call and then hold the caller than it is to generate a busy signal.

One of the major differences between a call center in the 21st century and earlier call centers, is the availability of “smart phones”!   As it relates to the American Business Landscape you are on safe ground if you just assume that every man, woman and child in America has a smart phone.   In fact, it is safe to assume that smart phones have long ago out paced wireline connections.   So why not use this resource to change the call center model?   Why have more incoming telephone lines than your call center has trained agents or customer service representatives?  Additionally, nobody is sitting at home or the office holding a phone handset while waiting for the “next available agent”.  They are driving the kids to school, or running around the market place in an ever increasingly more mobile environment.

“Now that cell phones are owned by 90% of American adults, many are ditching their landlines and going completely wireless in their households. The CDC recently reported that 39.4% of homes in the U.S. indicated having no landline phone and at least one wireless device. This trend is now being adopted by more and more households as many find it unnecessary to have both a landline and one or more mobile devices” – Green Mountain Communications 

Enable two way TEXT in your call center!

TEXT notifications are ubiquitous—from doctor appointment reminders to credit card fraud notifications, they are commonly used to send messages, alerts, and reminders. All too often, however, the message only goes one-way and the customer cannot reply with a question or text back anything other than a confirmation code or a request to stop receiving such messages. Or, the customer is provided a phone number to dial for further assistance.  Enabling two way TEXT applications in your Call Center could be a disruptive game changer!

Imagine a call center in which folks just send a ‘text’ to the call center.   The call center could respond with a useful message that estimates the wait time for a return call if an agent can not immediately call you back.  A very simple change in strategy, but the improvement in customer service and reduced operating expense should be obvious:

  • Customer Sends TEXT – “Please call me”
  • Call Center  returns either a voice call from an available agent or;
  • Call Center returns a TEXT message “We will return a call to you at this number in 5 minutes.   Is that a good time to speak with you”
  • No more IVR “call trees” or extended hold times.  The customer knows exactly what to expect and when to expect it!  Options to call another number of call at another time can be easily worked into the TEXT conversation.   NO need to have more than one telephone line per agent!

The Deep Data Integration options are enormous:

  • Customer Sends TEXT – “Please call me”
  • Call Center returns a TEXT message “Hi Peter, we see you have an appointment on the calendar for Monday, is this what you are calling about”?
  • Customer Sends TEXT – “I need to change my appointment”

The fact of the matter is it may not be necessary to speak with an Agent at all!    The application of Artificial Intelligence and “bot” technology to TEXT based information is significantly more achievable than that required of speech recognition.  It is also much less costly to implement!

No more Abandoned Calls!

A TEXT based Call Centers would drop the abandoned call statistics to zero!  Given that all calls are now scheduled and there is no caller waiting in queue on an incoming telephone line that your call center pays for, there are no abandoned calls!  This would decrease holding times and increase service levels across the board.   It is also self documenting, secure

4 Reasons Your Call Center Needs SMS

Many of the benefits SMS affords companies are specific, but there are also some big picture advantages worth exploring. Here are the top reasons why your call center needs SMS.

  1. Customers Want SMS

SMS is the new email. Customers are comfortable with texting and prefer SMS for the flexibility and convenience. While it was easy to ignore in the past (when only a small fraction of consumers used text messaging), you can no longer ignore SMS without some negative consequences.  According to industry research, call center wait times are one of the biggest turnoffs for customers. The vast majority of customers – 95 percent to be exact – feel like five minutes is the longest you should ever have to wait to speak with someone. Unfortunately, the majority of businesses force customers to wait much longer than this. Enabling SMS not only relieves call center congestion, but it also gives customers the option to ask for a callback, as opposed to waiting on the line.

  1. Self-Service Options

As you know, many of the calls your customer service department fields are simple. However, they still tie up your time, energy, and resources. What if you could automate these simple, yet time-consuming calls and free up your resources for the bigger picture issues? Well, you can.  Ultimately these self-service options benefit businesses in multiple ways. To quote our article, “consumers will often take the path of least resistance, so offering a text in service will save them having to call in, while avoiding having complaints aired in public on social media.” In the end, this leads to more satisfied customers, better brand image, and fewer wasted call center resources.

  1. Superior Service

The bottom line is that phone lines simply don’t cut it anymore. The modern consumer expects businesses to offer multiple channels of engagement and doesn’t want to be forced into placing a phone call. SMS is seen as much more convenient and service-oriented.  This is why text-enabled concierge services like GoButler have seen tremendous success. Customers feel like they’re getting more value from a company or service provider when the company is willing to communicate in comfortable and convenient ways.

Consider a cable and internet provider. Instead of needing to place a phone call and wait on hold for 10, 20, or 30 minutes, a customer could send a simple text message to the company that reads, “Hey, my internet is down. Can you help?” The provider can then respond with some simple questions about the situation and set up an appointment time without further disrupting the customer’s day.

  1. Customers Answer Texts

From the enterprise side of things, it’s sometimes necessary to contact customers. Well, the problem with contacting customers is that they’re often hard to get in touch with. Many users won’t answer numbers they don’t recognize and others rarely check their voicemails after missing a call.   SMS is an entirely different story. The Pew Research Center says 67 percent of cell phone users check their phone for messages even when they don’t notice it vibrating or ringing. Roughly 44 percent sleep with their phones next to their beds in case they receive a message or notification while sleeping.

Both of these statistics prove that customers are highly connected to mobile messaging. This rapid response makes SMS the quickest way to connect with customers, especially when the issue at hand is timely in nature.

Give TEXT a chance now!

The benefits of enabling TEXT in your call center will increase customer satisfaction, enhance the service experience and significantly increase productivity in your call center while reducing over all costs!   If you would like to experiment with TEXT in your call center, send the keyword DEMO to 424-348-4000 and we can get you setup in short order.   You might also check out www.Click2WebChat.com for some additional thinking on this subject.

The Achilles Heel of all Cloud Based Call Centers!

Posted on by DrVoIP

The Cloud Call Center Problem Statement!

A very common call center requirement is the ability to route a call based on the DNIS number dialed.  This is simple enough when you have only a few DNIS numbers to manage, but consider this application:   Consider a central call center that provides centralized appointment scheduling for some 600+ medical offices.    The call center agents are required to answer an inbound call with a custom answer greeting that is based on the medical office that cares for that patient.   The solution in place today requires the cloud platform to have a unique DNIS for each of 600 medical offices.  When a medical office wants to take advantage of services offered by the call center, they call forward their phone to the unique DNIS number on the call center platform assigned to their medical office.   On an incoming ring,  the call center grabs the DNIS and uses that number to index a connected database to retrieve the  name of the medical office and then display it to the agents on call presentation so they can provide the custom answer prompt.

As you might imagine, maintaining and updating both the relative campaign and a database of DNIS numbers is not only a nuisance with many opportunities for an error, it is also not very scalable.  The simplest solution is the ability to normalize or change SIP Headers or obtain the RDNIS in a PRI connection.   Neither of these is an option in any of the many cloud based solutions we have worked with.

The CPE solution!

In a CPE based solution we can touch the boarder controller of the incoming SIP trunk and see the various headers.   In a PRI trunk you could also see not only the CID/ANI  but the DNIS and the RDNIS.   RDNIS is commonly used in a voice mail system for example, to know the correct mailbox to open so the caller does not hear a main greeting but a custom greeting for the mailbox owner.   In either the SIP or PRI environment, we would NOT need 600 DNIS numbers to solve this application.   We could see the RDNIS or the FROM SIP header and use that field to look up the correct answer prompt or medical office name in the database.  We did a complete tutorial on this SIP header manipulation to achieve this same solution though the application was a bit different.

One for all and all for one?

Another major shortfall with cloud based call centers is that you will find it very hard to make modifications that are unique to your call center.  Keep in mind that all the cloud based call centers, with the possible exception of AWS Connect, are solutions that encompass many different clients.   The cloud provider can not make a modification for your call center unless it is applicable to all their other clients.  Likewise, when they upgrade or add a new feature, you are getting the new feature and the upgrade regardless of your desire to participate!

Summary

The Cloud is an amazing resource but it is not a one size fits all.  You will need to understand your requirements and how they match to what is generally available from your provider.  You should also understand that you will be increasing your WAN connectivity requirements to include advanced options like Software Defined Networks and MPLS, BGP along with bandwidth increases and new firewall challenges that you would not have on a CPE deployment.   You will still have phone and video end points, power over ethernet switches, network access credentials, intrusion protection and all of the IT resources you would still have with the Call Center located on site.  There are many advantages to the cloud, but make sure you know what you are hitching enterprise with!

 

 

 

 

DrVoIP CISCO CIPTV2 CCNP Collaboration 300-075 Study notes!

Posted on by DrVoIP

OverView of 300-075 Content

Like many other working VoIP Engineers, I have had to upgrade my CCNP yet again. The first time was when CISCO changed from CCVP to CCNP Voice. Now we have to convert from CCNP Voice to CCNP Collaboration. The good news is, if you have a CCNP voice you only need to pass this one test, the CISCO 300-075 CIPTV2! The test however, is remarkably difficult as the availability of study materials is limited. The available CISCO Press book “Implementing IP Telephony and Video Foundation Learning Guide” is just not going to get the job done! Certainly you should digest the book but do not expect to pass this exam with only the material contained in that book. The book is useful for at least highlighting the areas you need to study:

(a) Expressway Firewall Traversal Configuration;
(b) VCS Control;
(c) All things Mobility (Device Mobility, Extension Mobility and Mobile Voice Access);
(d) SRST;
(e) QOS for Video including RSVP options;
(f) SAF and CCD; ILS and GDPR
(g) LRG, AAR and TEHO;
(h) Translation Patterns and Voice Translation Rules;

All these areas were covered in the exam, so be prepared. The good news is I got an 820 when i took the test the first time. The bad news is that passing was 860! There was once question on Call Clearing codes that I had not idea how it got in this test, but none the less you might want to review  that material in the referenced URL

300-075 Practice Tests and Dumps

If you are just looking for a cheat sheet, I really cant help you as most of the stuff on the Internet is riddled with errors.  As near as I can figure it, all the practice tests and dumps on the net have the same source and are packed for marketing under different names.   I do find that they are useful for getting some focus on the exam content, but you need to look up every question and find a reference that supports the answer the dump indicates is correct.   I found many errors through study and research!  At the end of the day, you either know this stuff or your do not know this stuff.  Here is a list of sites that have practice materials available for no charge:

https://www.prepaway.com/cisco/test-king.300-075.25738.ete.file.html
http://vceguide.com/which-three-devices-support-the-saf-call-control-discovery-protocol/
https://www.briefmenow.org/cisco/which-three-devices-support-the-saf-call-control-discovery-protocol/
http://www.aoowe.com/practice-answer-300-075-9064.html
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p2scp2p/Which-Cisco-IOS-command-is-used-to-verify-that-a-SAF-Forwarder-that-is/
http://www.cisexams.com/300-075-which-three-devices-support-the-saf-call-control-discovery-protocol-choose-three
http://freecram.com/question/Cisco.300-075.v2018-02-08.q150/a-voicemail-product-that-supports-only-the-g.711-codec-is-installed-in-headquarters-which-action-allows
https://issuu.com/andr.eshackleford88/docs/actual_300-075_dumps_-_implementinghttps://www.gratisexam.com/cisco/300-075/Cisco.Testking.300-075.v2015-07-28.by.Larry.44q.pdf

Real VoIP Engineer Study Sites

I found a few sites that are written by other engineers who are sharing their study notes as I am doing here.  Both of these are excellent examples created by other Engineers who were also cramming for this test.

https://italchemy.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/cipt2-300-075-exam-helpful-information/

https://smbitsolutions.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/tail-end-hop-off-teho/

https://ccieme.wordpress.com. (really great content)!

DrVoIP Study Notes on 300-075

In going through all the study materials, I noted my references and I offer them up here for others who may be following this path to certification.  The questions represent practice tests from the above sources in which they all had different answers to the same question.  So in keeping with my commitment to actually learn and digest this material, I dug deep to find CISCO references to support the answers or to sort through the wrong answer and find the correct answer.   As with all CISCO tests you need to carefully read the question and put the answers within the context of the subject they are asking about.  Many times there will be two very good answers, but only one is the one CISCO wants you to select to get the points for a correct answer!

1 – The HQ Cisco Unified Communications Manager has been configured for end-to-end RSVP. The BR Cisco Unified Communications Manager has been configured for local RSVP.
RSVP between the locations assigned to the IP phones and SIP trunks at each site are configured with mandatory RSVP. When a call is placed from the IP phone at HQ to the BR phone at the BR site, which statement is true?https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/8_6_1/ccmsys/accm-861-cm/a02rsvp.pdf

End-to-End RSVP

End-to-end RSVP configuration is available if the clusters are connected by a SIP trunk. End-to-end RSVP uses RSVP on the entire connection between the end points, and uses only one RSVP agent per cluster.

Consider the following scenario:

endpoint A — agentA — ICT1 — ICT2 — agentB — endpoint B

where A specifies an endpoint in cluster 1, B specifies an endpoint in cluster 2, ICT1 and ICT2 specify the intercluster trunks within clusters 1 and 2, and the RSVP Agents associate with the respective end points.

In this scenario, Cisco Unified Communications Manager establishes an end-to-end RSVP connection between agentA and agentB.

Configuring End-to-End RSVP Over a SIP Trunk

RSVP configuration on a SIP trunk is determined by the SIP profile that is applied to the trunk. To enable end-to-end RSVP on a SIP trunk, configure the trunk’s SIP profile as follows:

  • From the RSVP Over SIP drop-down list, choose E2E.
  • Set the Fall back to local RSVP field to your preference.
  • From the SIP Rel1XX Options drop-down list, choose an option other than Disabled.

 

2 – Company X has deployed a VCS Control with a local zone and a traversal client zone. To facilitate external calls, VCS Expressway is deployed and traversal server zone is set up there. Video endpoints inside Company X have registered, but are unable to receive calls from outside endpoints. Which option could be the cause of this issue?

Which Three Devices Support the SAF Call Control Discover Protocol?

http://ciscoclub.ru/sites/default/files/seminar_attachments/service_advertisement_framework.pdf

https://probablycomputers.co.za/cucm-cisco-service-advertisement-framework-saf-and-call-control-discovery-ccd/

CUCM, CUBE, CME, IOS Gateway, CUCM CME are CCD SAF clients!

3 – Which two steps must you take when implementing TEHO in your environment?

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=80iuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT151&lpg=PT151&dq=device+pool+used+to+globalize+dial+plan&source=bl&ots=uyI8e5Jt4L&sig=hZ-hEJ-XCgJT7pZHCrGR89Q5TR4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0n-33iqLNAhXFIqYKHWdaAVEQ6AEIQjAF#v=onepage&q=device%20pool%20used%20to%20globalize%20dial%20plan&f=false

4 – Which two commands verify Cisco IP Phone registration? (Choose two.) . https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/troubleshooting/guide/ts_phreg.html

For SCCP phones: Use the show ephone registered command to display the status of registered SCCP phones.

For SIP phones: Use the show voice register statistics command to display statistics associated with the registration event.  Use this command to display all the SIP endpoints currently registered with the contact address.
Router# show sip-ua status registrar

5 – A pre sales engineer is working on a quote for a major customer and must evaluate how
many Cisco VCS Expressway traversal call licenses for which to plan. Calls to and from
which three routes must the engineer include in the tally? (Choose three.)    or said another way

(When do calls on a VCS use a traversal call license?

  1. Any call where the VCS takes the media as well as the signaling is a traversal calland will use a traversal call license on that VCS. The following calls require the VCS to take the media, and are therefore traversal calls:
  • for a VCS Control, calls to or from a traversal server (i.e. firewall traversal calls)
  • for a VCS Expressway, calls to or from a traversal client (i.e. firewall traversal calls); traversal clients include other VCSs, gatekeepers, Border Controllers, or traversal-enabled endpoints
  • calls that are gatewayed (interworked) between H.323 and SIP on the local VCS
  • calls that are gatewayed (interworked) between IPv4 and IPv6 on the local VCS
  • for VCSs with Dual Network Interfaces enabled, calls that are inbound from one LAN port and outbound on the other
  • a SIP to SIP call when one of the participants is behind a NAT (unless both endpoints are using ICE for NAT traversal)

6 – What is the standard Layer 3 DSCP media packet value that should be set for Cisco
TelePresence endpoints?  (CS4/32) See Table 5-1  If the question is on Telepresense it is CS4/32 if it is a quation on Video then it is AF41/34

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/design/guides/videodg/vidguide/qos.html

7 – Which two actions ensure that the call load from Cisco TelePresence Video
Communication Server to a Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster is shared
across Unified CM nodes? (Choose two.)
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/config_guide/X8-1/Cisco-VCS-Basic-Configuration-Control-with-Expressway-Deployment-Guide-X8-1.pdf  and See Table 11

8 – An engineer must resolve a call failure issue. When using RTMT, the engineer notices that
the Location Bandwidth Manager-OutOfResources counter is showing a positive value.
Which option is the cause of the call failure?

9 – An engineer is configuring URI calling within the same cluster. Which four actions must be
taken to accomplish this configuration? (Choose four.)

10 – Which two options are functionalities of subzones in  cisco vcs deployment (choose two). https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/admin_guide/Cisco_VCS_Administrator_Guide_X7-2.pdf

 

Bandwidth management

The Local Zone’s subzones are used for bandwidth management. After you have set up your subzones you can apply bandwidth limits to:

n individual calls between two endpoints within the subzone
n individual calls between an endpoint within the subzone and another endpoint outside of the subzone n the total of calls to or from endpoints within the subzone

For full details of how to create and configure subzones, and apply bandwidth limitations to subzones including the Default Subzone and Traversal Subzone, see the Bandwidth control section.

Registration, authentication and media encryption policies

In addition to bandwidth management, subzones are also used to control the VCS’s registration, authentication and media encryption policies.

Apply registration, authentication, and media encryption policies
Manage bandwidth to restrict standard definition endpoints from using more than 2 Mb of bandwidth. “Subzones are used to control the bandwidth used by various parts of your network, and to control the VCS’s registration, authentication and media encryption policies”.

11 – A voice-mail product that supports only the G.711 codec is installed in headquarters.
Which action allows branch Cisco IP phones to function with voice mail while using only the G.729 codec over the WAN link to headquarters?

Much confusion as to correct answer as some report B and others report C. The trick is in the question. The all must traverse the WAN as G.729, therefore you can not transfer at the branch. You send media to the Voice Mail at HQ as G.729 and transcode remotely at HQ. this suggests that B is the correct answer. – DrVoIP.com

12 – Which two are gatekeeper-controlled trunk options that support gatekeeper call administration control? (Choose two.) https://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/4_0_1/ccmsys/a08trnk.html#wp1098346

13 – An engineer is configuring Global Dial Plan Replication and wants to prevent the local cluster from routing the Vice President number 5555555555 to the remote cluster. Which action accomplishes this task?   Create a Block Learned pattern as outlined in this reference

 https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/11_0_1/sysConfig/CUCM_BK_C733E983_00_cucm-system-configuration-guide/CUCM_BK_C733E983_00_cucm-system-configuration-guide-transformed_chapter_01100101.html

14 – A PSTN call arrived at the MGCP gateway. The calling number was received as
14087071222 with number set to type international. The HQ_clng__pty_CSS contains the HQ_clng_pty__Pt partition. Which caller ID is displayed on the IP phone?

 

15 – Analog Voice Gateway support (See Table 1)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/10_0_1/ccmsys/CUCM_BK_SE5FCFB6_00_cucm-system-guide-100/CUCM_BK_SE5FCFB6_00_cucm-system-guide-100_chapter_0100110.html#CUCM_RF_V83D221A_00

16 – An engineer must enable video desktop sharing between a Cisco Unified Communications Manager registered video endpoint and a Cisco VCS registered video endpoint. Which protocol must be enabled in SIP profile for VCS SIP trunk on Cisco Unified Communications Manager?

https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/collaboration-voice-and-video/understanding-binary-floor-control-protocol-bfcp-with-wireshark/ta-p/3158882

At any rate, using Dumps is a high risk.  At $300 US to take this exam, getting a “money back guarantee” on a $59 practice test is not very helpful.   I passed the on the second attempt with an 860!   I can assure you that more than 50% of the questions were NOT on any dump.  Again the only real value in these dumps is to point you in a study area.  Take every question and open a text book, or CISCO reference and make sure you really understand the subject matter.   This is NOT an easy test, but if you study, you will pass it.   Good Luck!

 

 

 

 

 

Building an AWS Call Center is the definition of a “Disruptive” technology”!

Posted on by DrVoIP

AWS Connect – A Game Changer!

It has been almost a year since we first took a look at the AWS Connect Call Center service and what a year it has been.   Since it’s pubic release, AWS is most likely the fastest growing Call Center solution in the global market.   The reasons for this are clear and unmistakeable.   We think AWS Connect is a game changer!   Our first experience with AWS Connect was the result of a contract to move a ShoreTel ECC to AWS.    ShoreTel had basically abandoned the ECC product with no new feature develops in several years and the product was stuck at Version 9.  Given the great unknown regarding the future of ShoreTel CPE solutions, this client made the decision to move to the cloud and we were choosen to make that move painless.

Why Move to AWS Connect?

AWS Connect is a cloud based solution that follows the AWS mantra of elastic, scalable, reliable and highly available!  There is nothing to install and nothing to license!  You pay only for ‘usage’ at a couple of pennies per minute!   One client was paying some $250K a year in cloud call center licenses before they even processed their first phone call!  On AWS Connect this same spend would yield over 900,000 7 minute phone calls!  Take that to your CFO and note the reaction!  At the AWS reInvent 2017 conference, Capital One the tenth largest American Bank announced that it had moved to AWS Connect and the list of companies grows by the hour!

The DrVoIP Challenge

AWS makes it easy to spin up a call center! In less than one hour, you can have a fully functional call center handling inbound phone calls to an agent population that can be geographically distributed anywhere on the planet that supports a quality internet connection.   More than likely, it will take you more time to upload or enter the names of your agents into the Connect dashboard then it will take to create the Connect instance and obtain a telephone number! In fact DrVoIP will build out a ten agent 3 queue inbound call center for you company to pilot in under one hour!   Just give us a shout and try us!

Customization and Functionality is limited only by imagination!

One of the challenges that the current crop of cloud based call center providers face is the need. to standardize their service offering.   If you are anyone on the Gartner Magic Quadrant, you are serving thousands of users.   You can NOT make a change to the platform as it impact every customer in that providers installed base!   If you want to add a new feature, you will have to follow that vendors “product road map”.

AWS Connect has full access to the complete range of AWS Services including Lambda functions, Speech Recognition, Text to Speech, Kinesis, Mobility,  Cloudwatch, DynamoDB and the full range of AWS Storage solutions including S3 and Glacia. (recording storage and historical reports)!   Though the base instance is easy to configure and comes fully functional with a “default” call flow, the range of potential application solutions is limited only by the talent of your implementation team and your companies vision of the perfect “customer experience”.

Artificial Intelligence?

Most of the population now carries around a personal communicator that has Siri or Alex or Google and folks have not only grown accustomed to these features, they now expect them!   Do you really expect to front end your call flow with a “touch tone” based “call tree” or IVR that expects them Press 1 for English?  Come on people!   It is the 21st century!   AWS makes Alexa like features available through a natural language chat bot named LEX.   Is it not about time your call center had a natural language interface to your customer service group?    Try asking your current provider to add that functionality and when you look at the licensing fee, if the feature is available at all, pick yourself off the floor and give us a call!

Text to Speech?

Historically, as call center scripting professionals,  we resist starting a project until all of the prompts required in the call flow have been scripted, recorded, converted to the proper wav format and made available to the implementation team.   We can’t tell you how many project hours have been burned because clients did not think out the IVR messages or record the automated attendant announcements!   AWS has a wonderful feature named Polly that can enable us to script, fill the prompts with “text” and not only have our choice of voice artist and accent, but our choice of spoken language immediately available.   We can prototype call flow announcements and make changes  on the fly without waiting for a recording to be scheduled!

Data Dips with Lambda and DynamoDB

We first got involved with AWS because as consultants, we get paid on project completion.   If we have a call flow that requires a database dip to pull back  a”custom answer prompt” and were told that we had to wait for IT to spin up a Windows Server, blah, blah, blah….we would just log into AWS and spin out our favorite LAMP server and finish the project while IT was still filling out purchase requisitions!   Now we don’t even spin up a sever!  AWS is at the forefront of “server less” technology and Lambda and DynamoDB make it possible for us to write the database functions and completely ignore what the server technology is, let alone what OS it is running on!  AWS even bundles about 1 million Lambda function calls as part of its free tier.

Limitations, ah “No”!

Every system has constraints.   We have only one constraint that we have found to date on AWS but it is the same Constraint we find in Cloud solutions like Five9 and even cloud solution provider Twilio.   We can not access the telephony side of the platform to manipulate SIP message headers of other Call Control signals.  Currently this is hidden from the AWS Connect instance.  We have however, never had this be a show stopper and have always found a way to implement a work around.    At the rate AWS cranks out new feature and services however, we fully expect to see a SIP interface that we as developers can access on the shortest product road map implementation schedule in the global market place!

We Build AWS Connect Call Centers!

DrVoIP can design, deploy, maintain and manage your call center at a cost that is arguably redefines “total cost of ownership.”   Give us a call or let us know what you are thinking and you will find us to be the most experienced group of “full stack” developers available to those seeking an AWS Connect deployment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click2WebChat.com Browser Based Call Center featuring Video Chat & Screen Share!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Do you Text or Call?

Most call centers have learned that folks are not sitting at home on a wired land line phones calling for tech support,  or to make an appointment or to check on the status of an outstanding order!   These folks are rushing between jobs, kids and other responsibilities and nobody has a land line let alone time to sit at the kitchen table and with for the “next available agent”.    Everyone seems to have a portable, hand held computer doubling as a SmartPhone and as a result more folks are texting then making phone calls.

Can clients text your call center?

Over the last couple of years of working with ShoreTel and CISCO Call Center solutions, we have been repeatedly asked to enable text solutions.   We had been doing this as “one off” scripts for whatever vendor solution we were working with but we soon determined to apply the DRY (don’t repeat yourself) principle and began to productize the solution.  Initially we were focused almost entirely on text applications.   Then  a client who manufactured medical devices asked, can folks send us a picture?    So we enabled clients to text a picture to the technical support team at this company.  Apparently, attaching a photo to an email was to hard but texting a picture was a no brainer!

We then added SMS2List functionality to enable companies to create an “opt in” bulk text notification solution.    Creating a text  based list of customers that you can send a “special sale coupon” to or alert a “first responder” list of employees about an impending service outage or other emergency rapidly became typical use cases.     Additionally, a single incoming text number could support multiple applications as we enabled “keyword” message routing.    Preface your text message with a “keyword” and you could route it to a completely different group within your company.  Our “SMS2Email” quickly enabled text applications for call centers that already supported “email to the next available agent”.

Click to Call Back?

Adding a “click to call” link to a company website was next on the feature development list.    The application now supports the ability to generate a link or embed  code in your website or email signature that, when clicked on, prompts for a return number, calls your call center and when an agent gets online, completes a call to the person who clicked the link!   We even offer the option of recording the call.

Click to Video Chat?

Today, we have introduced “video chat” functionality to our quiver of customer service solutions.   You can now create a link or embed code in your company website that enables you to setup a real time voice or video chat with the next available agent!  Agents require nothing more than a Chrome or Firefox browser and a computer with microphone and camera.  In fact no formal call center is required at all.  This functionality can be established for any work group, anywhere on the globe that supports a quality internet connection.  Just log in and go!

AWS Cloud Infrastructure and subscription based!

The entire solution is built out using Twilio and AWS.   There is nothing to download or install.   The administrator or “campaign manager” creates a new campaign which generates the web hook and link or code to embed in your website and then defines the agents.   Agents log in using Chrome or Firefox (both browsers support WebRTC while Apple Safari and Microsoft IE figure out their own protocol route) on a computer that supports a camera and USB headset.   All interactions are logged with a unique ticket number that is archived and searchable by the campaign owner.

Presentation and Demo

Product development is a process not an event and this is where we are in the process. This is an exciting solution and we will continue to make it available as we enhance functionality and explore new use cases.   If you want to “give it a go” let us know by texting the work “DEMO” to 424-348-4000 and we will get you setup with a trial account.   We are always open to new use cases and application ideas so let us know what you are thinking.

 

 

 

 

Why Arlo by Netgear Sucks so bad!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Arlo on the down low!

If you are considering Arlo for real time security and door answering, you will be very, very  disappointed.   The response time is just to long!   If you just want to have a record of what happen and can live with recorded playback, then this is the way to go.  The cameras are excellent,  but the system as a security solution is full of short falls.     Here are just a few of our pet peeves!

Painfully Slow camera Access!

Having had the Ring doorbell with built in Camera. Microphone and Speaker for a base cost of under $200,   our expectations  were set.   Hear the door bell?  Hit your iPhone app and then very quickly see and speak with the visitor.   With Arlo,  If someone knocks at the door, by the time you log in and access the door camera they are gone.   Additionally you then discover that for a four camera solution with a price of about $600, you can not talk or hear the visitor even if they are still standing their by the time your App connects!    You will need to purchase PRO if you want to Hear and Talk through the camera.    We add one Camera for about $200!

Other “Pro” features.

Arlo marketing literature is so confusing, one can only conclude that the purposely set out to confuse the buyer!  We have Arlo, Arlo Pro and Now Arlo Pro 2!  Can we make it more confusing for the helpless shopper!    Let’s  talk about “motion detection”.    You can set “motion detection” on and off but only for the entire system.   Lets say your want motion detection alerts for the front door camera, but do not want it on for the lobby camera or living room.   You want to know if someone is at the front door, not if the dog is walking across the living room!   If you want to activate “Zone” based motion detection, you need the Pro Camera.

 Pro Base Station?

If you want to use the Zone based motion detection I added a Pro camera to my four camera System and I still did not get this feature you have to purchase the Pro base.   Both the Pro and whatever you call the “Not Pro” base controller appear to be the same hardware, but the software is different.    You can spend the money to add a Pro Camera to your mix, but you still do not get the Pro base features.  They don’t mention this when you buy a Pro Camera.  This is really BS in my humble opinion.  The base units should have the same software and know which Camera they are linking to!

Geo Location Short Fall?

Also you can share notification with another member but no observations.    For example assume you have a home setup and you want motion alerts sent to both yourself and your wife.   She can share your account notifications but she can not share you “geo settings”.       I only want motion alerts when I am away from the house.   “Geo Alerts” use the Smartphone GPS app to switch this feature on and off.      Well if you share the App with your wife, would it no make sense to turn it on only when both of your iPhones are out of the house, but not when just your iPhone is out of the house?  Unfortunately when I leave the house the system is not smart enough to know my wife is still home.   Really Netgear?

Cloud storage?

Your Arlo will connect to the cloud and store your video regardless of you desire to do so or not!   In fact we think this is what slows down the response rates.    If you do not want your network connected to the cloud and subject to folks that you have no control over, you might want to think this entire Arlo cloud strategy through!    Regardless of your security setup, Arlo is going to take your pictures and send them to the cloud for storage!   For the Smartphone app to work,  you must be linking with a cloud based camera controller that has access to your cameras!  Aside from taking forever to connect, the fact that you can not control access to your cameras is perhaps the biggest concern about Arlo as a security tool!   Not only can you not control it, or reach the cameras from your internal network but you have not assurance that someone outside your network can’t connect.

Summary

Arlo customer services seems limited to “community” support.   Admittedly, the Arlo cameras are excellent and weather proof!   They have some Zoom capability and some night vision.     Netgear should consider making the base software such that you can mix cameras and get the full feature set!  They also need to make the cloud storage optional and provide network connectivity options that enable you to select your own IP and port access!

In general this is a great camera system if you only want a historical recording for later playback.  As a solution for real time security it does not match Ring and cost much more.   A single camera solution from Wansview sells for $89 and provides full tilt and swivel, bi-direcitonal sound and network connectivity options.   Not making Pro software available with Pro camera additions is a real corporate miscommunication.

Netgear should stay with their core competency as the low cost provider of switches and routers for the Home Office, Small Office market.

NOTE New Defect 12/7/2017 – Due to the fact that I was out of town the night my neighborhood was evacuated because of the  San Diego Fires, I though I would log into Arlo and check my house by camera.   My house was offline with power failure.  It was at this time that I discovered you can not access your smart phone ap, if Arlo can not make contact with the camera or router.   This means you can even check what was stored in the cloud from the Ap!  (The product development team clearly never heard of Agile, or Scrum).

WTF is Ngrok?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Ngrok better than sliced bread!

As a software engineer developing telecom based web applications, testing and validating software can be a major time sync.  How do you get your lab system on the Internet, accessible with a public IP, so you can test a Webhook or REST API for example?   What if you are working behind a router that has a dynamic IP address?   Reconfiguring your firewall for each test of the new code is a pain!  There has to be an easy way to enable testing without going through 20 acts of vaudeville to test your application code!
We recently discovered two tools that are now essential elements of our software engineering toolkit!   Ngrok is very creative service that solves many problems for testing network-based applications during the pre-deployment, development process.  Ngrok is a software service developed by Alan Shreve, clearly a genius,  who often goes by the name “Inconshreveable”!  In its simplest form, Ngrok is a solution that enables you to expose your lab web server which is normally installed behind a NAT or firewall, and connect with it over the Internet.   Ngrok makes it easy to set up a secure outbound SSL tunnel that can be reached by a hyperlink to a public IP.

Secure tunnels on Demand!

Ngrok is a powerful tool and Alan Shreve is an extraordinary personality!   He makes this available for free use!  No credit card required!   Just open an account here and give this a try!   Then download Ngrok to your local Windows, MAC O/S or Linux development platform, unzip it and run it with a very simple configuration command.   You might enter  “Ngrok http 80” into your terminal window to indicate that you have a web server listening on port 80 on your local machine.

Ngrok then displays a DNS link that you can point at to access and test your application.   Now you can demo without deploying, simplify mobile device testing, build webhook integrations or run personal cloud services from your own private network!   For a modest monthly fee, you can change the random number Ngrok generates for your unique link to a reserved domain name.  So https://92832de0.ngrok.io can become https://yourcompanyname.ngrok.io which will not change and is easy for you to deal with!  The free account generates a random number that will change each time you run Ngrok.   Using a reserved domain also makes webhooks a lot easier.  For example, when developing Twilio applications you would have to change your webhook every time you ran Ngrok.  The paid version enables a reserved domain name that you can now use to stabilize your Twilio webhook!

You can also build secure tunnels that are password protected and able to support multiple simultaneous connections.  Open http://localhost:404o on the platform running your Ngrok client and you can inspect and replay traffic:

We now regularly use Ngrok not only for development testing but also for remote support applications so we don’t have to worry about VPN credentials!    You can create TCP tunnels as easy as you set up HTTP tunnels!  This resource will save you more than enough time to pay the annual fee of $60 for a basic account (1 online process, 3 reserved domain names and eight tunnels per process).     Alan is online from time to time and otherwise provides a link to ask questions!   (Learn about Alan’s other projects here)!  No serious developer, network engineer or remote support technician can afford to be without this power utility! – DrVoIP
(As a product of the 60’s you might note that Grok was first used in “stranger in a strange land”, a SiFi novel.  Profound effect on most of the 60’s generation).