Category: Voip Service & Solutions

An IP Blue soft-phone tool kit for serious CISCO voice engineers!

Posted on by DrVoIP

The trials of a Call Center Engineer!

As a consulting engineers, we spend a lot of time working remotely over a VPN connection!  Testing configurations, features and CSS access requires end points!  Typically more than one end point device!   Scripting for the call center applications is even more demanding as you need to be able to test call flows.  Now a VPN over CISCO Anyconnect that allows you to work long hours remote is always nice, is not the same as a point to point VPN.  You might get one IP Communicator up on your local machine, but it is often not practical to register multiple devices.  When testing a UCCX scripts you need multiple Agent and Supervisor Phones to really ring out (pun intended) your call flow.  How best to do this?

Enter IP Blue!

I was taking a CISCO certification class and noticed that the instructor somehow managed to get multiple IP communicators up on his desktop.  I immediately realized the value this would have for UCCX scripting in particular and CISCO CUCM work in general.  I did a bit of research and found a company named IP BLUE Software Solutions, the industry’s best kept secret!  They make some really innovative products, but the one that I now can not live without is the “VTGO-PC Multilab Softphone” a product without equal and one that is a must have for every serious CISCO VoIP Engineer.   With this product I can open some 5-8 7960 type CISCO phones on my desktop, all registered to call manager with individual extension numbers and separate sound interfaces (i.e. speakerphones).   I used to have one IP Communicator and one X-lite SIP phone open on my desk and that was the best I was able to do remotely.  Now I can open an entire call center on my desk!  Astonishing!

 

Softphone Feature Set

These softphones are fully featured CISCO 79XX models ranging from the 7960 through the 7975 and are completely configurable.   When working with multiple clients I can setup a phone for each system I remote into!  I can even right client on the Instance name and change it to a client name for future reference and quick setup when working on multiple simultaneous deployments! When working on a Call Center I can bring up a few agents, a supervisor and exercise the script for all the possible scenarios.  All on a single desktop!

The feature set includes some really nice, not CISCO features, like an answering machine function!  Very Powerful! Multiple softphone instances can run on a single PC, connecting to the same or different Call Managers.  Each softphone instance is independent from another, and can call any phone including other softphone instances.  This setup allows to easily simulate various call scenarios, verify Call Manager settings, troubleshoot VoIP issues and configure Call Center Scripts results!   If you are running a  lab while preparing for some certification exam, this tool is going to not only save space and electricity, but lower the overall air conditioning requirements!  Here are some of the other features:

  • Emulates Cisco 79xx line of IP phones with dual 14 button expansion modules
  • Tested and certified with CallManagers 3.2-4.1, CallManager Express
  • Supports Cisco Survival Remote Site Telephony, redundant CallManagers, DHCP option 150
  • High quality-low latency using multiple codecs (G.711, GSM 6.10, G.729), QoS support
  • Accessibility features for visually impaired users include text to speech and keyboard shortcuts
  • Supports Extension Mobility
  • XML telephony services
  • Configuration Wizard with user-definable profiles
  • Supports a wide range of external USB audio devices
  • STUN/UPnP NAT traversal, SKINNY fix-up protocol friendly
  • Call log with Callback
  • Call recording, storage and playback with email attachment
  • Integration with LDAP directories, MS Outlook, Windows Address Book, Instant Messengers (Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL)
  • Language Localization (English, Dutch, Danish)
  • Dialing from MS Outlook, Web pages and much more

This is the best kept secret in the industry and if you are a serious student or working engineer doing anything with the CISCO Collaboration suite, you need to own this software.  If you boss will not spend less than hourly rate he bills you out at, get it yourself!  The time you implementation and troubleshooting time you will save, will more than pay for itself in increase leisure and family time!    We rarely pitch products on this site, but this product was just so astonishing we had to share it with our readers!

 

 

CUBE SIP Header Matching – Extracting DNIS from a Toll Free Number!

Posted on by DrVoIP

The Problem – Call Forwarding DNIS to Toll Free Numbers

Recently we were presented with a new challenge while deploying a Call Center based on the CISCO UCCX Version 11.5 feature set. Generally, we employ DNIS as a strategy for defining the CSQ  service parameters.   The more specific you can make the inbound number, the less you will need to “prompt and collect” digits from your caller.   A call to a specific DNIS number can separate the English callers from the other language options, or route “customer service” differently than routing “technical support”.   DNIS is always a preferred routing strategy.    Using DNIS we can design a single call routing script that can  pull in the CSQ name; offer up the proper audio menu’s; provide unique queue handling options and customize the caller experience all based on the dialed number.

In this centralized scheduling application for a large national medical practice, patients would call a local number in their community.   This number was then forwarded by the carrier to a toll free number that rang into the centralized CISCO cluster and UCCX call center.   The issue was setting up the dial peers to address the number the caller dialed, not the toll free number.   These numbers terminated on a SIP trunk that was serviced by a CISCO CUBE and the number presented was the 10 digits of the toll free number.   The DNIS number, or the number that the caller originally dialed may or may not be buried in the TO field of the incoming SIP headers.

Solution – Step 1 Debug Captures of inbound SIP messages

We need to setup “debug ccsip messages” and “debug voice ccapi inout” and make some test calls.   We need to understand how the carrier is handling the forwarded number.    In the log output below we can see the INVITE is the 877 toll free number.   The number that the caller dialed is the 9323646969 number and we can see that it is in the TO filed of the sip message headers.   We will need to write a dial-peer,voice class uri,  translation rule and profile that extracts the TO field and routes on that number rather than the original INVITE.   It is the “voice class uri” that is most magical in this solution.   (Note that we got luck here and the carrier was handling the call forwarded number in a manner that was appropriate to our goals.   This however is not always the case)!

 

Solution Step 2 “Voice Class URI”

In this example, the caller is dialing 93236453XX which is being call forwarded to the  toll free 877 number and shows up in the sip headers in the TO field.   The solution here is to create a “voice class uri”  rule.  In the snippet below we can see “voice class uri 102 sip” with a “user-id of 9323645323” as an example.   We are going to ultimately want to translate this to a four digit extension number 5323 and this is done with the traditional translation rules.  In this example “voice translation rule 102” does this conversion.  Note however that the translation rule refers to a match on the 877 toll free number, not the  9323645323 number.  This is where the magic of  “voice class uri”, the ability to do dial-peer matching based on the uri.

The Voice Class uri is structured such that it has a unique TAG and then a matching expression or host IP address.   The the snippet below we can see two attemtps to setup up a uri filter based on the last digits in the TO field of the SIP header.  Tag 102 looks to match 5323 and tag 103 looks to match 5324:

Solution Step 3 Dial Peer Matching

The call flow is dictated by dial-peer matching.   From the following snippet:

dial-peer voice 103 voip
translation-profile incoming 5324
session protocol sipv2
incoming uri to 103
voice-class codec 1
voice-class sip bind control source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0
voice-class sip bind media source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0
dtmf-relay rtp-nte
no vad

!

dial-peer voice 102 voip
description Incoming – FAX DID
translation-profile incoming 5323
session protocol sipv2
incoming uri to 102
voice-class codec 1
voice-class sip bind control source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0
voice-class sip bind media source-interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0
dtmf-relay rtp-nte
no vad

We can see that the voice class reference is applied to the dial-peer much the way a voice translation-profile is applied with the expression “incoming uri to 102” which sets up a filter to match for the number  9323645323.  Note that the dial peer matches the voice class but it is the translation-profile incoming 5223 that changes the ten digit number of the URI to the desired four digit extension.  In fact if you study the voice-translation rule 102 rule 1, references the toll free number!

These tools, the voice-translation rule and the voice-class uri work together to enable us to route and match dial-peers on information in the uri and not necessarily the original INVITE sip: number! Way powerful!

 

 

A Five9 Call Center “cloud” migration success story!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Time for a new Call Center?

Recently we had the opportunity to move a major enterprise call center from a premise based solution to a virtual call center.      Though the existing premise call center had performed faithfully for a number of years, we had lost faith in the manufacture and their reluctance to commit to a product road map that we could build on.   Call Center technology changes as often as the weather and the demand for new features that the current system did not provide caused us to search for alternatives.   Our client required advanced workforce and quality management including call recording, scoring and advanced reporting tools.   Website integrations for visual IVR and “click to call”,  Social Networking integration and SMS options were also high on our wish  list.   As the call center was expanding geographically we wanted a solution that did not require us to build a WAN to interconnect agents to a central server.   We also wanted a company with a demonstrable track record, a rich history of experience and a customer reference list of others in our industry with similar deployment challenges.

We worked with our client to do the usual due diligence and explored both premise and cloud vendor solutions.   The premise challenge was that the affordable architectures were basically centralized server applications.   So if you had Agents in California, New York and London, you would have to network  all your Agents back to wherever you put the contact center server.   We have done literally hundreds of deployments these types of  solutions,  but in each case Agents would need to come up on a quality WAN network to be under the control of the contact center servers.   CISCO has an excellent solution for geographically dispersed work groups with either the PCCE or UCCE.    These are excellent call center solutions for mixed vendor ACD or geographically dispersed workgroups, but it would be more costly than the purchase of a used Russian ICBM missile.    Additionally, the IT staff required to manage that caliber of deployment was more than our client was prepared to underwrite.   Add in the ongoing cost of ongoing server refresh,  system upgrades and other maintenance requirements we determined to focus on a “cloud”  solution.

Clearing the Clouds!

When you focus on who has the experience, the references and the credibility to pull  off a cloud based call center, the competitive playing field narrows quickly.  Every vendor has learned to say “cloud” in the last couple of years, but who has really been executing customer focused call center solutions for more than 10 years?   If you like the Gartner Group “magic quadrant” analysis, you will find about three players in the upper right hand quadrant.   During our due diligence and RFQ process,  two of the tree vendors in that quadrant changed their corporate identities through either merger or acquisition.    This caused some concern  on our part that as these new entities struggled to redefine themselves and the product lines that might result from their new combinations,  we might be at the mercy of a company that was not yet fully formed!

In final analysis we chose to go forward with the Five9 solution and it has made all the difference!

Doing business the Five9 Way

They say “pre-sale” is about as good as it gets when it comes to vendor customer care.  The Five9 team has set a new standard for both “pre-sales”  and “post-sales” by which we will now measure every other vendor relationship going forward!   Admittedly the Five9 “Enterprise Sales Director”  we worked with was absolutely astonishing in meeting our requirements and exceeding our expectations.    Always ready, prepared and available he never failed to deliver on a promise.   We went through the normal “legal man and his bag full of deal killing goodies” back and forth between company attorneys,  hammering out a Master Service Agreement but in the end both sides had come to an agreement that was fair and reasonable.

Five9 Project Implementation

Five9 assigned a Project Manager,  Platform Architect and Connection Manager within hours of signing a contract.    We had network readiness test instructions and project workbooks almost immediately.   Just as quickly we had access to the Five9 platform portal including DID numbers to build and test with while waiting for carriers to do the vaudeville act known as “porting”!  We had a goal of having the Five9 solution replicate our existing call center as a project first phase and we set a goal of achieving “go live” within 90 days.    As  you would expect the Five9 team had a number of workbooks that needed to be completed.  The existing call flow had to be documented, numbers assigned, agents and supervisors listed, MPLS circuit connectivity options ordered and database access requirements considered.

Most of us that have had to deploy large telecommunications projects know the drill.   The bottleneck is always the client’s ability to get their homework assignments in on time!   One of the early on challenges for this project was to replicate the CRM SQL database lookup we used for call routing decisions and agent screen pops on call arrival.   When moving to a cloud solution the usual ODBC connector to the local server strategy was not going to work!   We had to build out a web service front end to our SQL farm and not knowing the Five9 IVR scripting tool set gave us some concern.   The fact of the matter was, that the Five9 scripting for IVR is as good or better than anything we have worked with historically and we think we have seen them all.   Having never seen the solution before,  it took about an 30 minutes for us to create an inbound campaign complete with audio prompts,  agents profiles, screen displays and basic call  flow.   We were impressed with the breadth of functionality that could be created with the Five9 IVR scripting tools.     Again, if you have deployed even a simple iPBX, you know that at “go live” you are still waiting for the client to record the auto attendant script!   Five9 has a text to speech option that enable you to create prompts on the fly and worry about the professional voice artist later!  The Platform engineer who actually implemented the solution, managed the webservice conversion from OBDC  with style and grace.   We had it operational and tested in no time!

The Five9 platform web portal has a rich library of training materials for administrators, supervisors and agents.   Our call center supervisors were able to create agent profiles and add agents with the appropriate skills to new campaigns in no time.  Actually, it was easier to log in to the portal and add the agents than it would be to list them in the workbook and dumping it on the implementation engineer!  Agents could log in to the portal and take video training sessions that increase comfort, knowledge and reduced the jitters that come with any type of workplace change.

 

One of our early on decisions was to use the Agent Softphone rather than an actual handset.    This meant that each Agent would have a workstation with a USB headset and no other  phone hardware.   While waiting out the usual 90 day carrier window for an MPLS link to both Five9 data centers in Santa Clara and Atlanta,  we built a VPN tunnel to enable our aggressive “go live” target.   In one location we had a VPN link, in the other we used a pure Internet connection.   Truth be told the quality of the connection was so astonishing that we are no second guessing the MPLS requirement!

Virtual Contact Center “Go Live”

Again the quality of folks we worked with at Five9 was astonishing!   This was most obvious at “go live”.    We noted that several of the Five9 team members were at one time Five9 customers.  These folks were so excited about the company, product and technology that they wanted to evangelize as employees!    Our Project Manager and Solutions Architect were both former customers who now worked on the implementation team at Five9.   We had multiple geographic locations for this deployment  and the Five9 team showed up at 0500 at each location ready to work!    Their knowledge and experience was a great part of the success of our launch as both Agents and Supervisors could benefit by the many operating hints this folks could provide.    This call center is no sleeper,  handling some 5K calls a day!   The move to Five9 was painless and event free. We never lost a single call or skipped a beat in our normal daily operations!

Post “Go Live”

The Five9 project team began to transition the project to the customer service group.   As part of this process a technical account representative was assigned to the project.    This individual would be available to us for some number of hours a month to work with us on new campaigns and smooth any transition issues.   So far, all has been better than expected and the experience and overall implementation has been excellent.   We are now moving into the second phase of the deployment, something we will tackle internally as the tools and resources to do so have all been provided by Five9 expertise.    We are looking forward to implementing a Salesforce connector; integrating the corporate website with a visual IVR component and getting the outbound campaign process cranked up.

Cloud Contact Center Advantages

Some of the advantages we have found moving the call center to the “cloud” are  benefits of virtual call centers in general:

  • Elastic scalability, pay as you go.
  • Geographic Independence – Agents can be located anywhere that they have access to the Internet.  Think Business Continuity and disaster recovery.
  • Cost Allocation – Most call center expense is embedded in the general budget, with a VCC your costs are easily identified including call costs in real time.
  • Media Traffice off the WAN – Calls to the VCC are over the PSTN and not over your internal VoIP network.
  • Browser based Call Control – It is no longer necessary to push configuration files to desktops.  This also enable desktop OS independence.  Mac, Windows, Citrix whatever.
  • Freedom from and endless cycle of software maintenance, upgrades, server and desktop refresh.

Cloud Transition Assitance

DrVoIP has been deploying VoIP solutions with a core competency in geographically dispersed Enterprise Contact Centers since 1998!  We have worked with most of the solutions in the market place and regularly implement custom contact center software and scripting services for ShoreTel, CISCO and Calabrio.   If you are considering a cloud based virtual call center,  give us an opportunity to assist you with RFQ, vendor selection, design, deployment management and custom software integration.    Our experience is global, our expertise is verifiable, our projects are on schedule and always exceed expectations! – DrVoIP

 

 

 

 

WANtelligence – Software Defined Networks!

Posted on by DrVoIP

WANtelligence?

Recently while working an RFQ project to re-mediate the WAN for a major health care practice management company,  we had the opportunity to listen to the major carriers describe their network solutions.   The client company was seeking a new partner to provide network connectivity options for their several major corporate locations, three data centers and over 600 remote office locations.   The company is growing expotentially and expected to double its WAN requirements and end points with in 12 months.  The network was to provide Internet, data, voice and video communications and as such,  the Service Level Agreements were to be consistent with those required to provide toll quality voice and full motion video.   Historically the company had used ipsec VPN tunnels over Direct Internet Access (DIA) facilities that ranged from bonded T1 to shared media broad band cable and occasionally free space transmission when terrestrial connections were impossible.  Each remote site also used Cradlepoint 4G for fail over and redundancy.

MPLS connectivity to rural America?

Not withstanding San Diego’s recent loss of the Chargers there are some 32 NFL cities in the United States.   Contracting for a high quality, high speed WAN solution in any of these cities is really not a challenge, most any carrier can help you.   The real challenge is getting the same connectivity  to Margaretville, New York or East College Station, Texas.   If you are searching for an MPLS connection to a branch office in a rural American area and you will find that it is rubric cube of challenges!  No one carrier has a foot print that will cover all your requirements and if you are looking for “one neck to choke” when things go black,  you may be giving up network visibility to  facilitate easy order entry and administration.   Work with an aggregator and you will most definitely lose your visibility to the underlying carriers who together knitted your WAN solution.

(Using our super secret online carrier database, www.buildinglit.com , we attempted to check out broadband connectivity to Margretville New York,  just for kicks to prove a point.  Click here for results.)

We listened attentively as Metel,  AT&T, L3, Century Link and Earthlink stepped up to the podium and delivered their very best solutions.   In all but one case, each carrier presented an MPLS solution.   All carriers mentioned SDN, but only one carrier led with that solution and recommended it as the solution for this client opportunity.   Most of the presentations began to sound the same, each carrier was the absolute  best in the marketplace,  each had the widest foot print, with outstanding customer service and the best proven technology!

What is SDN anyway?

Most folks can remember way back in 2007 when Steve Jobs introduced the device that would not only change Apple, but redefine mobile communications forever.  Jobs had given AT&T the exclusive right to provide network connectivity for the new device.  It was something of a “bet your company” play for both Apple and AT&T.   When the iPhone App Store came online, after Jobs opened the iPhone to developers,  the demand for bandwidth exploded and the AT&T network all but collapsed under the weight of all the new devices.  AT&T had to act quickly, faster than building new network capacity would allow.   The solution was to apply software in a way that network capacity would be effectively increased while physical plant was being deployed.   AT&T pioneered software-enabled networking!

For those not familiar with the concept of Software Defined Networks, or what we call WANtelligence, think of two roads connecting a location across a river to a main highway on the other side.   One road might be a more direct path, but not well paved.   The other road might be well paved but not very direct, with more of a circuitous route that added miles to the  distance of the direct path (i.e. Latency).   From time to time, the roads might be backed up with traffic, slowing or stopping your efforts to get to the main highway (i.e. Jitter).  A software defined solution works something like the popular mobile app Waze or Google Maps.   As  you are traveling, the map sends updates and suggest alternative routes.   An SDN solution would not only inform you of conditions, but automatically just take the action of routing you over the best route!

At the Branch Office end point, SDN components require multiple connections to the main broadband highway.  Generally, this might be a broadband connection like MPLS in addition to a DIA link.    The onsite device, under control of a cloud based optimizer, does a packet by packet analysis of the best path solution.   Again, much the way your traffic app knows your originating location and destination,  the SDN knows source and destination and the status of the entire network options between and through central control, optimizes path selection.

There are many vendors of the equipment that might be located at your Branch Office, but they might not provide the total solution.    A complete SDN requires that a centralized intelligence, typically a cloud based portal, be aware of the network and all other end points on that network.   Some devices can also include functions that might otherwise require separate devices.  For example, Firewall, Intrusion Detection, Network Optimization, Compression and Encryption in addition to the flow control and VRF functions that make up the elements of Software Defined Networks.   We found a Gartner Summary that is worth a review and includes a summary of many of the vendors in this exploding market segment.  We note that VeloCloud, a CISCO investment, seems to have it all and is establishing a defensible market share and leadership position.    VersaNetworks seems to be a component play and both companies have been included in proof of concept offerings by major carriers.   You can also download the white paper “Delivering Managed Services” from the DrVoIP site along with other free white papers on related subjects!

WANtelligence Summary

Software defined networks are in fact a reality and are rapidly becoming a cost effective solution that can assure high quality voice and video communications across the WAN.   We continue to work with this technology and have hands on experience with both products and services.   WANtelligence is our agnostic approach to developing Software Defined Networks!  Our Certified Network Architects add expertise and expereince to your enterprise when considering how to include SDN in your network plan!   Give us a call, or write DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com and we will share what we know!

Update note –

Cisco closes on $610M Viptela purchase

|About: Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)|

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) has wrapped its acquisition of privately held Viptela.

Cisco had come to a $610M (and assumed equity) deal to acquire the software-defined wide area networking company in May.

Viptela will join the Enterprise Routing team inside Cisco’s Networking and Security business under senior VP DAvid Goeckeler.

Shares are up 0.8% premarket.

 

ShoreTel Board takes company private?

Posted on by DrVoIP

“ShoreTel  (SHOR) is in final stages of rolling out ShoreTel Connect”. Who cares? Technology issues aside, ShoreTel remains dog meat in the financial markets. Since the company’s public offering in 2007, the stock has never sustained a price above the first day closing of $12.50, itself a modest premium over the offering price of $9.50 a share. Currently SHOR is trading below the rejected MItel acquisition price proposal. Market capitalization continues to hang around the $430M valuation.

Ring Central (RNG) with a market cap of $1.5B and 8X8 (EGHT) with a market cap of $1.3B are pacesetters and models for what ShoreTel should be! Why are these companies valued so highly yet ShoreTel remains the living dead? Maybe Considering divesting the customer premise business? One of the key difference between these three companies, is that only one company is dealing with the challenges of manufacturing hardware. The CPE product line has greater value to a company that wants to focus on that segment. Can you walk both sides of the street, CPE and Cloud? If ShoreTel management wants to keep its head in the cloud, go for it.

Clearly public shareholders are never going to see a return on investment, so why not put them out of their misery and take the company private? Hell the only folks that made any money on this deal are insiders anyway. So take the company private, remove the quarterly pressure and public disclosures, retrench and maybe get it right for a future offering. Divest the CPE product line to a company that wants to develop that segment and commit to making the product a real player in the enterprise market.

Clearly the parts are more valuable than the whole! Customers, employees and Shareholders would all benefit and the Board would finally look like they know what they are doing. IMHO – DrVoIP
From the desk of DrVoIP

Recording ShoreTel phone calls!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Call Center not Required!

Long the standard in boiler room call center applications, recording calls is often a requirement outside the call center.    There are any number of reasons to record calls for including compliance, clarity and certainty and just management of customer quality service.   There are a variety of recording solutions in the market and they all have very different feature sets.  Do you need the ability to annotate calls?   To search on more complex parameters that time and date?     If an employee is being recorded and transfers that call to the HR Director of the company, should that segment of the call be recorded?   Do we want to record inbound calls only?  Both inbound and outbound?  Do you have multiple locations in your deployment?   Do employees have the right to start and stop recordings?  Add notes?  You will also have to consider how recording are to be stored and for how long?  This can have a huge impact on hardware requirements.   Just some of the characteristics you might want to consider as you look for for a recording solution.  The list of features is long and there are many options to chose from.   It is best to get a solid requirements document together and to make sure that you fully understand that recording alone is not all there is!

Recording Server Applications

ShoreTel has an optional recording function that can be very effective!   It can be installed as a single server solution or as a multiple server, multiple site solution.   It can record all calls, or just in one direction only.   You can select who is recorded and you can also select the archive location and time frame.   The solution is deployed on a ShoreTel server, either HQ or DVS depending on the deployment model.    There are actually four modules that can be installed: the recording server; the client side, the web player and the administrative module.   The solution uses the integrated recording functionality of the ShoreTel phone system and most of the usual user group and class of service settings apply.

Generally you will create a route point with a call stack as deep as the number of calls you want to simultaneously record, and put it on the server that will host the recording application.   You will also need a route point for the player and you will need to create a user who will proxy the recording functionality.   The server install is very simple and conforms to the usual point and click install expectations of a Windows server application.  The configuration is very simple, just provide the route point extension number, note the port for recording and click install!

The Administration Application

The Administrative application enables you to configure the specifics of the recording server and  to create profiles.  This application can be installed on the server or on a PC that can reach the server.   The configuration options are very easy to understand and simple to enter.  Basically they deal with where files should be stored and for how long.  You also have the option of either saving the recordings to a file system, or saving them as a voice message.

recorderadmin

You then create profiles that are used to customize different groups of extensions.   For example, you might want persistent recording for some extensions and not others.   This means that the recording continues even if the call is transferred.  Do you want inbound and outbound recordings?   And exactly who should be recorded!  The profile also dictates if recordings are to be made all the time, or sampled as a percentage or by a defined schedule.

Client Side Options

The client side application is installed on a pc and is optional tray icon.   You would use this only if your profile enables users to start and stop recordings and to tag recordings.   If this is not a privileged that you want to extend to those be recorded there is no need to install this optional application at each desk.  The use of the client is profile dependent.

recorderclient

The Player Application

The last application defines the player and is very useful for visually managing recordings.  You can use a phone to play recordings , but most folks find this web application to be more useful.   The application must be installed on a server as it uses IIS, but the recordings are played locally on a windows machine that has a sound card!   Each extension is listed and there is a time and date stamp on the recording file.  You have the option of storing other file information, like ShoreTel call properties to enrich the identification of a recording.

ShoreTel Recording Player

 

All in all, the ShoreTel Recording Application is a sweet suite!  It gets the job done and at a price point that compares more than favorably with the third party Recording applications found in the market place.   We recommend it for both call center and general recording applications when you are on a ShoreTel iPBX!   Give us a call and we can help point you in the right direction or get this installed and configured for you!

 

 

 

 

TEXT-2-AGENT Sending text and pictures to your call center?

Posted on by DrVoIP

Can you send a picture to your ShoreTel or CISCO Call Center

We have been integrating SMS to CISCO UCCX and ShoreTel Call Center deployments for customer service scenarios for some time.  The interface is very simple:  Login, pick a number from anywhere on the planet; assign a “keyword” and match it to an email address or list!   When someone text your “keyword” to your number, the text is converted to email and sent on to that address.   The email recipient can then hit reply and we convert the email back to SMS and forward it back to the original Cell phone.  Optionally, you can build a membership list with and auto response and the ability to send a bulk text to the list!

smsportal

What is new in Version 3.1

We have released Version 3.1 and it now makes it possible to send not only text (SMS), but pictures (MMS)to the “next available agent” in your Call Center.    The application now supports:

  • Inbound SMS to email Address based on “keyword” match with REPLY ability; – this enables you to use one number and many different keywords that point to different email addresses.  The recipient can hit reply like any other email and send a response back to the sender of the SMS, usually a client who has a cell phone!
  • Inbound MMS to default email address – enables a cell phone to send a photo or picture into the customer service organization which will route to the default email address.
  • Inbound SMS to outbound SMS; – Stealth mode, you can forward an incoming SMS to another SMS.
  • SMS to List based on “keyword” match – This enables you to build an SMS marketing list.   Each list is built by “keyword” match and you are able to send auto responds and “bulk” SMS
  • Outbound email to SMS;
  • Email to SMS – enables a customer service representative to send a text from an email client.   The address can be a keyword group list or an individual cell phone number.

Each transaction has a unique “ticket” number, all transactions are searchable, logged and archived for HIPPA and PIC compliance.

We are finding that Insurance, medical, auto and tech support applications in particular are receptive to the concept of enabling clients to send a picture by text to a customer service representative.

sms1

Want A demo?

We can easily set you up with a demo account. A basic single number solution with 500 SMS credits is about $25 a month!  Send the word “DEMO”   (all ONE word, watch that auto correct) to 424-348-4000 and include your email address for an example of how this could work on a ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX; or just create an account!

Note – Your do NOT need a formal call center to implement this technology.   An email distribution list to customerservice@yourcompany.com works just as well!

TOP ShoreTel Connect Installation Gotcha’s !

Posted on by DrVoIP

So you are upgrading to ShoreTel Connect!  Watch out for these blistering hot spots:

Assume you have a call center that works three shifts, with 15 Agents per shift.  In the Pre-Connect world, you would define 45 agents but you would only need licenses for 15.  The Pre-Connect ECC license strategy was “concurrent users”.  The new license strategy requires you to license 45 Agents.  Additionally, all agents have to be named in the iPBX, costing you an additional “per seat” license for the newly named agents.  Before, 45 agents could log into extensions Agent1 through Agent15 using their AgentID to differentiate them for reporting purposes.   Wow!  I hope you don’t find this out the hard way.

Here are some of our favorite ShoreTel Gotcha’s:

1 – Ever have to move route points from one server to another?   You CAN NOT use the batch utility to do this and must remove and then reinstall each route point.   So much fun on a large contact center deployment ( If you know SQL you can actually modify the configuration database to do this).

2 – Want to change IP address of your HQ?   If you are using the new family of 400 phones, you will have to touch each phone individually and manually CLEAR the Configuration for the new Option 156 and DHCP values to take hold.  How would you like to upgrade 3K phones across five times zones to learn that gem!

3 – Gee, would it not be nice to use DNS Name resolution in the Phone Setup?  You could just change the IP address in DNS and update your entire deployment!

4 – Is it no time to get rid of the DB9 Serial IO cable for switch configuration?  It is the 21st century and we sill do not have USB on ShoreTel switches?  When was the last time you had a serial printer cable with an DB9 connector hanging around your tool bag?

5 – Setting up OBDC connectors still use 32-bit connector and do NOT support AD login.   If you are connecting to Microsoft SQL, for example, if you use an AD credential your ECC Script will fail.

6 – Active Directory  integration is a one way sync out of the box.   Even adding the ShoreTel professional Service add on for AD will not solve all your issues!

7 – ECC Shifts will destroy you if you do not fully understand their use and impact.   Create a Shift to close on of your Customer Service Queues at 1PM and end up closing your entire call center!  (See this Blog entry).

8- You can not enter anything in the External number field for transfer a call but  9+1+NPA- NXX-XXXX.  No 9+011-44-204-668-5000 for example.  It will not work! Not for a call handling mode, CTI route point, External Assignment.  Nada. no bueno, NFG!

Useful and Helpful Event Log error entries!  Our Personal favorite:

ShoreTelError

Send us your favorite Installation and Maintenance Gotcha’s and we will update the list and credit you for the contribution!

DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com

 

 

Configuring Compliance Recording with CISCO Workforce Optimzaiton

Posted on by DrVoIP

For compliance will you Record Audio or Screen?

There are a range of products and services that can be used to “record” phone calls on a CISCO CUCM, UCCX and UCCE. These products range in sophistication from services that simply save a wav file of a recording which you can search for by time and date, to very sophisticated recorders with advanced index and search capabilities. Some products even include speech recognition functions that can be used to search files for a particular call or even handle a recording base on the audio content.  CISCO Workforce Optimization and Advanced Quality Management adds desktop screen recording and metrics that can also be used for evaluations and service observing.

All of these products have one characteristic in common; they require you to configure a recording capability in your CUCM to copy the media stream from the target source to the recording server. There are a number of options for doing this including SPAN recording and other options that require you to configure your Ethernet switches to accommodate the recording function.  The simplest method to copy media streams is to use the Built in Bridge or BiB of a CISCO phone.  Clearly this can only work for a specific set of CISCO phones, but most phones support this function.

General Recipe!

The following is a basic general recipe for setting up your CISCO CUCM for recording and identifies some of the decisions you have to make along the way.

  • Gateway or Phone;
  • Notification or not; Notify the caller, or the Agent or both?
  • Route Pattern for Recorder along with a Partition and Calling Search Space.
  • Create a Recording Profile;
  • SIP Trunk Setup between CUCM and Recording server; and options CUCM and Gateway;
  • Identify Users and add them to the proper CTI Recording and Monitoring Group;
    CTIPemissions
  • Enable BiB on the phone;
    BiB
  • Enable Recording on the DN;  Auto always or Selective and reference Recording Profile;

Basically you are creating a conference call between the “source media”, the CUCM and the Recording server.    The actual configuration has a lot of details and you will need to carefully consider each element, but the actual setup is routine for your average deployment engineer.   We summarized them below in video format.

You can also use CISCO XML services to enable SELECTIVE recording in which a phone is recorded only on the demand of the user.  This uses the Calabrio XML api and Phone Service option in CISCO.  This will enable the user to push RECORD, PAUSE, RESUME and STOP.  The second video walks you through the configuration options for that service.  This can also be deployed in Finesse as a desktop button!

Build ShoreTel Connect inside your own private Cloud using AWS!

Posted on by DrVoIP

Placing your ShoreTel HQ in the “cloud”?

Moving the ShoreTel HQ server to a data center to increase system resiliency, reduce or eliminate down time and increasing overall recovery times has always been high on the check list for business continuity and disaster preparedness.    Our preferred “data center” however is Amazon Web Services, or AWS for short!   We have been deploying ShoreTel in AWS as a “private” cloud solution for some time and have several blogs on the subject.

Do you already have an Amazon Account?

If  you have a regular old Amazon book buying account, you already have all you need to log into AWS and get started building out your own virtual private cloud!    Though there is a lot to learn,  in less than 15 minutes you can spin up a Windows 2012 Server in a virtual private network and then link it back to your onsite location with an AWS provided VPN Gateway!

The simplest ShoreTel/AWS deployment model

The simplest of VoIP deployment models is the placement of the ShoreTel Connect Server in an AWS Region and availability zone of your choice.    Typically, we defined a private subnet in three different AWS availability zones and then launched a ShoreTel Connect server.    The availability zones provide additional resiliency  options.  It is even possible to setup an Elastic load balancer than can move from one ShoreTel HQ server to a standby duplicate in another availability zone in the very unlikely situation of a AWS availability zone going off line!

You can interconnect your ShoreTel Connect VPC  with your remote sites over a VPN, ultimately moving to a “direct connect” circuit and only using the VPN for backup.   The remote sites will have ShoreGear resources to support localized carrier access and onsite user phone services.   The distributed nature of the ShoreTel architecture makes this a natural deployment model.   This is  by far the simplest of the deployment options and one that everyone who is considering moving a ShoreTel HQ server to a data center should consider.

Even Ingate in the Cloud?

With ShoreTel Version 14, virtual switch resources make it possible to create the entire deployment in your VPC.  You can even deploy your Ingate as a virtual Session Border Controller, in the AWS cloud and centralize your SIP carrier access.    This is a bit more demanding then spinning up a Windows server but now that AWS enables you to import vmware machines, it is an exciting option.

Importing vmware based ShoreTel machines

The secret to deploying ShoreTel vSwitches in the AWS cloud is to first build the machines as vmware machines in your local environment with an IP that can be duplicated in your private virtual network.   Once your machines are created, you can then import them into AWS.

The options for deploying VOIP in your own “private cloud” have never been more flexible.   Your CFO is going to be impressed when comparing AWS to the cost of building out your own data center or renting space in a collocation facility.   You have all of the benefits and none of the cost associated with a typical infrastructure build out.    Connection options are unlimited and you can access AWS facilities on a global bases!

The Video clip demonstrates a ShoreTel HQ and ECC Server in an AWS VPC, with a VPN back to the main office site.   The office site contains ShoreGear switches for SIP trunk access and 400 series phone support.  There is a synergy when integrating AWS and ShoreTel that every CIO should be seriously considering.    Give us a call and we can help make this happen for your company!