Avaya Communication Manager Contact Center User Manual

™

Avaya

Communication Manager

Contact Center

Guide to ACD Contact Centers

Release 1.3

555-233-516

Issue 1.0

May 2003

Notice

While reasonable efforts were made to ensure that the information in this document was complete and accurate at the time of printing, Avaya Inc. can assume no liability for any errors. Changes and corrections to the information in this document may be incorporated in future releases.

Preventing toll fraud

“Toll fraud” is the unauthorized use of your telecommunications system by an unauthorized party (for example, anyone who is not a corporate employee, agent, subcontractor, or person working on your company's behalf). Be aware that there may be a risk of toll fraud associated with your system and that, if toll fraud occurs, it can result in substantial additional charges for your telecommunications services.

Avaya fraud intervention

If you suspect that you are being victimized by toll fraud and you need technical assistance or support, call Technical Service Center T oll Fraud Intervention Hotline at +1-800-643-2353 for the United States and Canada. For additional suppo rt tel ep ho ne num be rs, see the Avaya Web site:

http://www.avaya.com

Select Support, then select Escalation Lists. This Web site includes telephone numbers for escalation within the United States. For escalation telephone numbers outside the United States, select Global Escalation

List. Providing telecom mun ica tio ns secu rit y

Telecommunications security (of voice, data, and video communications) is the prevention of any type of intrusion to (that is, either unauthorized or malicious access to or use of) your company's telecommunications equipment by some party.

Your company's “telecommunications equipment” includes both this Avaya product and any other voice/data/video equipment that could be accesse d via this Avaya produc t (that is, “networked eq uipment”).

An “outside party” is anyone who is not a corporate employee, agent, subcontractor, or person working on your company's behalf. Whereas, a “malicious party” is anyone (including someone who may be otherwise authorized) who accesses your telecommunications equipment with either malicious or mischievous intent.

Such intrusions may be either to/through synchronous (time-multiplexed and/or circuit-based) or asynchronous (character-, message-, or packet-based) equ ipment or interfaces for reasons of:

• Use (of capabilities special to the accessed equi pm ent )

• Theft (such as, of intellectual property, financial assets, or toll-facility access)

• Eavesdropping (privacy invas ions to humans)

• Mischief (troubling, but apparently innocuous, tampering)

• Harm (such as harmful tampering, data loss or alteration, regardless of motive or intent)

Be aware that there may be a risk of unauthorized intrusions associated with your system and/or its networked equipment. Also realize that, if such an intrusion should occur, it could result in a variety of losses to your company (including, but not limited to, human and data privacy, intellectual property, material assets, financial resources, labor costs, and legal costs).

Your responsibility for your company’s telecommunications security

The final responsibility for securing both this system and its networked equipment rests with you – an Avaya customer's system administrator, your telecommunications peers, and your managers. Base the fulfillment of your responsibility on acquired knowledge and resources from a variety of sources, including, but not limited to:

• Installation documents

• System administration documents

• Security documents

• Hardware-/software-based security tools

• Shared information between you and your peers

• Telecommunications security experts

To prevent intrusions to your telecommunications equipment, you and your peers should carefully program and configure:

• Your Avaya-provided telecommunications systems and their interfaces

• Your Avaya-provided software applications, as well as their underlying hardware/software platforms and interfaces

• Any other equipment networked to your Avaya products .

Part 15: Class A Statement

For the MCC1, SCC1, G600, and CMC1 Media Gateways:

Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply wit h the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference, in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own expense.

Part 15: Class B Statement

For the G700 Media Gateway:

Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply wit h the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio-frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determ in ed by turning the equip men t off an d on , the us er is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient the receiving television or radio antenna where this may be done safely.

• To the extent possible, relocate the receiver with respect to the telephone equipment.

• Where the telephone equipment requires AC power, plug the telephone into a different AC outlet so that the telephone equipment and receiver are on different branch circuits.

• Consult the Dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

Canadian Department of Commu nications (DOC) Interference Inform ation

For MCC1, SCC1, G600, and CMC1 Media Gateways:

This Class A digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003. Cet appareil numérique de la classe A est conforme à la norme NMB-003

du Canada. For the G700 Media Gateway: This Class B digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES-003. Cet appareil numérique de la classe B est conforme à la norme

NMB-003 du Canada. This equipment meets the applicable Industry Canada Terminal

Equipment Technical Specifications. This is confirmed by the registration number. The abbreviation, IC, before the registration number signifies that registration was performed based on a Declaration of Conformity indicating that Industry Canada technical specifications were met. It does not imply that Industry Canada approved the equipment.

Japan For the MCC1, SCC1, G600, and CMC1 Media Gateways:

This is a Class A product based on the standard of the Voluntary Control Council for Interference by Information Technology Equipment (VCCI). If this equipment is used in a domestic environment, radio disturbance may occur, in which case, the user may be required to take corrective actions.

For the G700 Media Gateway:

This is a Class B product based on the standard of the Voluntary Control Council for Interference by Information Technology Equipment (VCCI). If this equipment is used in a domestic environment, radio disturbance may occur, in which case, the user may be required to take corrective actions.

Part 15: Personal Computer Statement

This equipment has been certified to comply with the limits for a Class B computing device, pursuant to Subpart J of Part 15 of FCC Rules. Only peripherals (computing input/output devices, terminals, printers, etc.) certified to comply with the Class B limits may be attached to this computer. Operation with noncertified peripherals is likely to result in interference to radio and television reception.

Part 68: Answer-Supervision Signaling

Allowing this equipment to be operated in a manner that does not provide proper answer-supervision signaling is in violation of Part 68 rules. This equipment returns answer-supervision signals to the public switched network when:

• answered by the called station,

• answered by the attendant, or

• routed to a recorded announcement that can be administered by the CPE user.

This equipment returns answer-supervision signals on all direct inward dialed (DID) calls forwarded back to the public switched telephone network. Permissible exceptions are:

• A call is unanswered.

• A busy tone is received.

• A reorder tone is received.

DECLARATIONS OF CONFORMITY US FCC Part 68 Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC)

Avaya Inc. in the United States of America hereby certifies that the Avaya switch equipment described in this document and bearing a TIA TSB-168 label identification number complies with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rules and Regulations 47 CFR Part 68, and the Administrative Council on Terminal Attachments (ACTA) adopted technical criteria.

Avaya further asserts that Avaya handset equipped terminal equipment described in this document complies with Paragraph 68.316 of the FCC Rules and Regulations defining Hearing Aid Compatibility and is deemed compatible with hearing aids.

Copies of SDoCs signed by the Responsible Party in the US can be obtained by contacting your local sales representative and are available on the following Web site:

http://www.avaya.com/support

All Avaya switch products are compliant with Part 68 of the FCC rules, but many have been registered with the FCC before the SDoC process was available. A list of all Avaya registered products may be found at:

http://www.part68.org/

by conducting a search using “Avaya” as manufacturer.

European Union Declarations of Conformity

TCP/IP facilities

Customers may experience differences in product performance, reliability, and security, depending upon network configurations/design and topologies, even when the product performs as warranted.

Warranty

Avaya Inc. provides a limited warranty on this product. Refer to your sales agreement to establish the terms of the limited warranty. In addition, Avaya’s standard warranty language, as well as information regarding support for this product, while under warranty, is available through the following Web site:

http://www.avaya.com/support

Link disclaimer

Avaya Inc. is not responsible for the contents or reliability of any linked Web sites and does not necessarily endorse the products, services, or information described or offered within them. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

Trademarks

• Avaya, MultiVantage, and Callmaster are trademarks of Avaya, Inc.

• NICE Analyzer is a trademark of Centerpoint Solutions, Inc.

All trademarks identified by the

or ™ are registered trademarks or trademarks, respectively, of Avaya Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Ordering information: Avaya Publications Center Voice: +1-207-866-6701

1-800-457-1764 (Toll-free, U.S. and Canada only)

Fax: +1-207-626-7269

1-800-457-1764 (Toll-free, U.S. and Canada only)

Write: Globalware Solutions

200 Ward Hill Avenue Haverhill, MA 01835 USA Attention: Avaya Account Mana ge r

Web: http://www.avayadocs.com E-mail: totalware@gwsmail.com Order: Document No. 555-230-516, Issue 1.0

May 2003

Avaya support

Avaya provides a telephone number for you to use to report problems or to ask questions about your contact center. The support telephone number is 1-800-242-2121 in the United States. For additional support telephone numbers, see the Avaya Web site:

http://www.avaya.com

List. Comments

To comment on this document, send e-mail to crminfodev@avaya.com

Acknowledgment

This document was written by the CRM Information Development group.

Avaya Inc. declares that the equipment specified in this document bearing the “CE” (Conformité Europeé nn e ) mark conforms to the European Union Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive (1999/5/EC), including the Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (89/336/EEC) and Low Voltage Directive (73/23/EEC). This equipment has been certified to meet CTR3 Basic Rate Interface (BRI) and CTR4 Primary Rate Interface (PRI) and subsets thereof in CTR12 and CTR13, as applicable.

Copies of these Declarations of Conformity (DoCs) signed by the Vice President of R&D, Avaya Inc., can be obtained by contacting your local sales representative and are available on the following Web site:

http://www.avaya.com/support

Avaya™ Communication Manager

Contact Center

Guide to ACD Contact Centers

Contents

About this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Contents and organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Intended audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Related documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Administration documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

contact center documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

How to get help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 1: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Category A versus Category B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

ACD terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Communication server features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

What a communication server does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Trunks, trunk groups, and extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Automatic-in processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Communication server attendant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Direct inward dialing processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

DID processing example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

What the ACD does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Things to know before you start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Automatic-in processing of ACD calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

DID processing of ACD calls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Split queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Split queue call processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Things to know before you start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Priority and normal split queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Split queue size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Announcements for calls in a split queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Answer supervision and abandoned calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Abandoned calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Abandoned call search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Intraflow and interflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Things to know before you start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Setting up splits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Assigning queue status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Types of calls for a split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Setting up intraflow/interflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Issue 1.0 May 2003 5

Contents

Night Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Hunt Group Night Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Trunk Group Night Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

System Night Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Distributing and handling calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Call distribution methods without EAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Call distribution methods with EAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

How agents handle calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

ACD and call management systems — BCMS and Avaya CMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Basic Call Management System (BCMS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Avaya Call Management System (CMS)

(Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Chapter 2: ACD contact center features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

List of contact center features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Related feature or form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Abandoned call search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Administering abandoned call search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Add/Remove Skills (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Administering Add/Remove Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Agent Call Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Administering Agent Call Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Expanded technical information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Auto-Available Split/Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Administering AAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Automatic Call Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Administering ACD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Basic Call Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Administering BCMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Best Service Routing (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Benefits of BSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Before you start using BSR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Communication server requirements for BSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

6 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Contents

Network requirements for BSR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Administering BSR polling over IP without B-Channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Administration forms for BSR polling over IP without B-channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

BSR Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Call Management System (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Administering the communication server-to-CMS interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Enabling CMS measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Measured extensions and multiple splits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

When assignments exceed capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Assignments are not logins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Measured trunks versus unmeasured facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Determining allocation of measured trunks and unmeasured facilities . . . . . . . . . . 121

Considerations for administering the communication server-to-CMS interface. . . . . . . . 121

CMS measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

IP Trunk Groups and ATM Trunk Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

CMS representation of IP trunk member port-ids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Display of physical (non-IP) member port-IDs on Avaya CMS and CMS Supervisor . . . 122

Call Prompting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Administering call prompting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Call Vectoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Administering Call Vectoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Avaya Business Advocate (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Administering Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Call and agent selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Expert Agent Selection (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Administering EAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Administering Direct Agent Announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Detailed administration for EAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Call handling preference administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Inbound Call Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Administering ICM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Information Forwarding (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Administering User-to-User Information transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Issue 1.0 May 2003 7

Contents

Look-Ahead Interflow (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Multiple Call Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Network Call Redirection (NCR) (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Queue Status Indications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Reason Codes (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Redirection on No Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Remote Logout of Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Intraflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Interflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Administering Intraflow and Interflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Administering LAI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Administering MCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

MCH settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Administering NCR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Administration for support of AT&T In-band

Transfer and Connect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Network Call Transfer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Network Call Deflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Information Forwarding support for AT&T In-band Transfer and Connect . . . . . . . . 193

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Administering Queue Status Indications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Administering Reason Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Administering RONA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

RONA application examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Interactions with other ringing call timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Administering Remote Logout of Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Detailed description. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

8 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Contents

Service Observing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Administering Service Observing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224

Service Observing indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Universal Call ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

What is UCID’s purpose? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

What does UCID look like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

How are UCIDs tracked?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Before you start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Administering UCID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249

VDN in a Coverage Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251

Administering VICP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

VDN of Origin Announcement (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Administering VOA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .257

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Voice Response Integration (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Administering VRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

VuStats (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Administering VuStats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Detailed description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275

Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .278

Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Chapter 3: ACD contact center switch forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

List of contact center forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Agent LoginID (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Agent LoginID administration commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Agent LoginID form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Agent LoginID field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Example List Agent-LoginID form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Best Service Routing (BSR) Application Plan (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

BSR Administration commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

BSR Application field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

BCMS/VuStats Login ID (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Administration commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

BCMS/VuStats form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Issue 1.0 May 2003 9

Contents

Contact Center System Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Call Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Holiday Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Hunt Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Reason Code Names (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

SIT Treatment for Call Classification (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Vector Directory Number (VDN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Vector Routing Table (Category A only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

VuStats Display Format (Category A only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

BCMS/VuStats field Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Implementation notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Administration commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Field Descriptions for Feature-Related System Parameters (“EAS” page) . . . . . . . . . 294

Field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Field Descriptions - Feature-Related System Parameters

(AGENT AND CALL SELECTION page). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Field Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Call Vector administration commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Call Vector form instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Call Vector form field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Holiday table administration commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Holiday Table form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Holiday Table form field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Hunt Group administration commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Hunt Group form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Administration commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Reason Code Names (Category A only) form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Reason Code Names field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

SIT Treatment for Call Classification (Category A only) administration commands . . . . . 312

SIT Treatment for Call Classification form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

SIT Treatment for Call Classification field descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

VDN Administration commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

VDN form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

VDN field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Vector Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Attendant Vectoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Allow VDN Override . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

COR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

TN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Measured . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Implementation notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Vector Routing Table (Category A only) administration commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Vector Routing Table (Category A only) form instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Vector Routing Table field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

VuStats Display Format (Category A only) administration commands . . . . . . . . . . . 323

10 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Contents

VuStats Display Format (Category A only) form instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

VuStats Display Format field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

List VuStats Display Format Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

VuStats Display Formats field descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

VuStats required and allowed fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Chapter 4: Implementing the Time of Day Clock Synchronization feature . . . . . . 351

TOD synchronization methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Using NTP/SNTP to synchronize the switch to UTC time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Using Avaya Site Administration to set up a TOD synchronization schedule . . . . . . . . . 354

Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Things to know before you set up a synchronization schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Designing a TOD clock synchronization schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Creating dedicated switch connections on which to run TOD synchronization tasks . . . 363

Setting up a TOD synchronization task schedule in Avaya Site Administration . . . . . . 363

About NTP/SNTP and Internet Time Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

SNTP on switch platforms that support direct synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

SNTP on platforms that synchronize through an Avaya Site Administration client PC . . 366

Setting up ACD offset times for CMS reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Offset procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .367

Appendix A: Recorded announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Administering recorded announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Recorded announcement types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Analog line types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371

DS1 types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Auxiliary trunk types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .372

Integrated types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

When to use recorded announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

About barge-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Barge-in operational details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Non-barge-in operational details. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Integrated announcements and announcements recorded on external devices . . . . . . . . 376

Single integrated announcement boards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Multiple integrated announcement circuit packs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Compression rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Procedures for recorded announcements (TN2501AP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Procedures for recorded announcements

(TN750, TN750B, TN750C and TN2501AP circuit packs, and G700 VVAL) . . . . . . . . . 379

Recorded announcements, the ACD, and other contact center features . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Recorded announcements and automatic wakeup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Issue 1.0 May 2003 11

Contents

Appendix B: Administering VRUs/IVRs as stat ion ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

12 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

About this document

This document describes the Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) feature of Avaya communication servers.

Avaya communication ser vers are a family of c ost-effect ive digital communic ation systems. These systems:

● Route voice and data information between various endpoints (telephones, terminals,

computers)

● Provide highly robust networking capabilities

● Include an extensive set of standard features: attendant consoles, voice processing

interface, call coverage, DS1 (T1 and E1) connectivity, hospitality support, recorded announcement, and trunk-to-trunk transfer

● Provide flexibility and allow for the addition of opt ional features and/or upgrades to the

system as business needs change

This document explains the features that comprise the Communication Manager ACD. It provides an introduction to each cont act center feature and presents required forms for administration, detailed descriptions, considerations, and interactions between contact center features. This document provides an overall reference for planning, operating, and administering your ACD contact center.

Contents and organization

This document is organized into chapters by subj ect. Features are in alphabetical order within each chapter. Pertinent forms follow the features. Major topics include:

● Chapter 1: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics on page 17 – Gives an overview of the

ACD feature.

● Chapter 2: ACD contact center features on page 53 – Contains information about the

contact center featur es available on the Avaya communication server.

● Chapter 3: ACD contact center switch forms on page 281 – Contains all of the forms

required to administer basic contact center features on the communication ser ver, descriptions of the fields on each form, and special notes about usage.

Issue 1.0 May 2003 13

About this document

● Chapter 4: Implementing the Time of Day Clock Synchronization feature on page 351 –

Describes requirement s, setup procedures, and operations associated with the Time of Day Clock synchronization feature.

● Appendix A: Recorded announcements on page 369 – Describes the use and requirements

around using recorded announcements in a contact center environment.

● Appendix B: Administering VRUs/IVRs as station por ts on page 383 – Provides information

on how to administer VRUs and IVRs as station ports on the communication server.

Intended audience

This document is intended fo r communication server system admi nistrators and man agers, end-users interested in inf ormation about specific features, and A vaya support personnel responsible for planning, designing, configuring, selling, and supporting the system.

Related documents

These documents are issued for A vaya contact cen ter applications. The intended audi ence is contact center administrators.

● Avaya Communication Manager Contact Center – Call Vectoring and EAS Guide,

555-233-517 – Provides information on how to write, use, and troubl eshoot vectors, which are command sequences that process telephone calls in an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) environment.

● Avaya Communication Manager Contact Center – Guide to ACD Contac t Center,

555-233-516 – Provides feature description s and some implementation guidance for contact center featur es.

● Avaya CMS Switch Connections, Administration and Troubleshooting, 585-215-876 –

Contains communication server-to-CMS hardware connection diagrams and procedures to administer the communicati on server-to-CMS link on the communication server. It does not contain the administration of the CMS,

Avaya MultiVantage Call Center Software Basic Call Management System (BCMS) Operations, 555-230-706 – Provides information on the use of the BCMS feature for ACD

reporting. Avaya MultiVantage Call Center – Call Vectoring Guide for BCS and Guestworks,

555-233-518 – Provides information on how to write, use, and troubleshoot vectors on the BCS and Guestworks systems.

Issue 1.0 May 2003 15

About this document

How to get help

For those times when you need additional help, the following help services are available. You may need to purchase an extended servic e agreement to use some of these help services. See your Avaya repr esentative for more information.

● Avaya Centers of Excellence

— Asia/Pacific

65-872-8686

— Western Europe/Middle East/South Africa

441-252-391-889

— Central/Eastern Europe

361-270-5160

— Central/Latin America/Caribbean

1-303-538-4666

— North America

1-800-248-1111

● Communication Manager Helpline

1-800-225-7585

● Avaya Toll Fraud Intervention

1-800-643-2353

● Avaya National Customer Care Center Support Line

1-800-242-2121

● Avaya Corporate Security

1-800-822-9009

16 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Chapter 1: Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

basics

This chapter gives an overview of the Automatic Call Dis tribution (ACD) feature, and addresses ACD terminology, communicati on server features, how the ACD processes calls, split queues, distributing and handling calls, and the ACD and call management systems.

● ACD terminology defines common terms that are used throughout this book.

● The Communication server features section defines ACDs and explai ns h ow the

following features work: trunks, trunk groups, and extensions; automatic-in processing; communication server attendant; and Direct Inward Dialing (DID) processing.

● The What the ACD does section discusses how the ACD uses Automatic-in and Direct

Inward Dialing (DID) to process calls.

● Split Queues defines a spl it queue and explains how to set up call processing to a split,

including announcements for cal ls in a split queue; answer supervision and abandoned calls, intraflow and interflow, and ni ght service for the ECS and Generic 3.

● Distributing and Handling Calls describes how calls are distri buted to agents and how

agents handle the calls. It also defines the split supervisor telephone buttons.

● ACD and call management systems — CMS and BCMS describes how CMS collects

measured data on splits/skills, extensions, trunks, trunk groups, VDNs, and vectors. This section also includes communica tion server f eatures that af fect CMS data, such as Hold, Conference, T ransfer , Multiple Call Handling, and so forth.

Category A versus Category B

The ACD feature is available with communicatio n se rvers that are sized differently and allow for different features to be implemented. These differences fal l i nto two categories:

● Category A — allows for all ACD-related feat ures to be impl emented, ac cording to what

the customer purchases. Category A supports the CMS and CAS adjunct s.

● Category B — includes Avaya BCS and GuestWorks. Category B allows for all basic

ACD-related features to be implemented, excludi ng EAS, Avaya Business Advocate, and Avaya CMS Supervisor. Category B does not support the CMS and CAS adjuncts.

Issue 1.0 May 2003 17

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

ACD terminology

The following terms provide general familiarity with the ACD environment.

Agent

Agent In Multiple Splits/Skills

Agent State

Announcements

CAS

An agent is a person assigned to one or more splits/skills and handles calls to/from an extension in those splits/skills.

Depending on the ACD software, an agent can be a member of multiple splits/skills.

Agent state is a term or code that represents the current availability status of an agent. The term agent state also represents a user ability to change an agent’s availability within the sys tem.

An announcement is a pre-recorded message delivered to a caller in queue requesting the caller to remain on-line, prompting the caller for information or directing the caller to anoth er destination. When a call is in queue, dependi ng on the length of time in queue, an automatic recording can encourage the caller to hang on, call back later, call another number, leave a message or can be used with call prompting to direct the caller to specific destinations. These announcements can be scheduled to occur periodically.

Centralized Attendant Service. CAS is a system feature used when more than one communication server is

employed. CAS is an attendant or group of attendants that handles the calls for all servers in that particular network.

Available only with Category A.

CMS

contact center

Call Distribution Methods

Call Management System. CMS is an adjunct (basic software pack age or optional enhanced software

package) that collects call data from a communication server resident ACD. CMS provides call management performance recording and reporti ng. It can also be used to perform some ACD administration. CMS allows users to determine how well their customers are being serv ed an d how efficient their call management operation is.

Available only with Category A. A contact center provides a centralized location where a group of agents or

company representat ives communicat e with customer s via incomi ng or outgoing calls.

The ACD can distribute calls to agents in a split /skill in the following ways: — Direct (linear) Hunting — EAD-LOA (Expert Agent Distribution-Least Occupied Agent) — EAD-MIA (Expert Agent Distribution-Most Idle Agent) — UCD-LOA (Uniform Call Distribution-Least Occupied Agent) — UCD-MIA (Uniform Call Distribution-Most Idle Agent)

18 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Call Prompting

Call Prompting is a call management method that uses special ized call vector commands to provide flexible handling of incoming calls based on information collected from the caller. One example would be where the caller receives an announcement and is then prompted to select (via dialed number selection) a department or an option that was listed in the announcement.

Call Vectoring

Avaya Business Advocate

DID

DNIS

EAS

Call Vectoring is an optional software package that allows processing of incoming calls according to a programmed set of commands. Call Vectoring provides a flexible service allowing direct calls to specific and/or unique call treatments.

Avaya Business Advocate is a collecti on of ECS features that provide new flexibility in the way a call is selected for an agent in a call surplus situation and in the way that an agent is selected for a call in an agent surplus situation. Advocate also includes methods for automating staffing adjustments.

Available only with Category A. Direct Inwa rd D ia li n g .

DID is a process involving calls coming into the communication server from the CO. The communication server than routes the calls directly to the appropriate extension (as identified by the last four digits).

Dialed Number Identification Servi ce. DNIS is a feature of the 800 number service that sends the dialed digi ts to the

called destination. This can be used with a di splay teleph one to indic ate the type of call to an agent. For example, the call by its destinat ion can be classified as a certain type of call or caller (e.g., a Gold Card caller) depending on a product or service the destination number is associated with.

Expert Agent Selection. An optional feature available with G2.2 and newer servers that uses Call

V ectoring and ACD in the communication server to route incoming calls to the correct agent on the first try based on skills.

Available only with Category A.

Extensions

Telephones connected to a PBX/communication server via telephone lines are referred as extensions. Extensions is also the term used to define the numbers used to identify the telephone to the PBX/communicat ion server sof tware for call routing purposes.

Hunt Groups

A group of trunks/agents selected to wor k together to provide specific routing of special purpose calls.

Interflow

Interflow is used when a split’s/skill’s queue is heavily loaded or when a call arrives after normal work hours.

Interflow redirects a call to a destination outside the local communication server network (a different communication server system).

Intraflow

Intraflow is used when a split’s/skill’s queue is heavily loaded or when a call arrives after normal work hours. Intraflow involves redirecting a call to a destination within the local communic ation server network (the same communication server system).

Issue 1.0 May 2003 19

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

LAI

Leave Word Calling

MCT

Night Service

Priority Queue

Look Ahead Interflow. LAI allows users to balance the call work load between multiple contact centers

on separate communication servers. LAI uses ISDN to allow multiple servers to communicate and interflow when appropriate.

Available only with Category A. Leave Word Calling is a system featur e that allows messages to be stored for

any ACD split/skill and allows for retrieval by a cover ing user of that s plit/skill or a system wide message retriever.

Malicious Call Trace. MCT allows an agent to notify a predef ined par ty a malici ous caller i s on the li ne.

It also involves enabling a recording device to record the call. Night Service is used when a call arrives after normal work hours. The call can

be redirected to another destination such as another split /sk ill , an extension, the attendant, an announcement wit h forc ed discon nect , or a messag e cen ter. Night Service can take one of three forms:

— Hunt Group (Split/Skill) Night Service — Trunk Group Night Service — System Night Service

The priority queue is a segment of a split's/ski ll's queue from which calls are taken first.

QDN

Queues (split/skill and/or attendant)

Service Observing

Skill

Split

Split/Skill Administration

Queue Directory Number. QDN is an associated extension number of a split. It is not normally dialed to

reach a split. The split can be accessed by dialing the QDN. The QDN is also referred to as a split group extension.

If calls cannot be answered immediat ely, they ar e routed to a cal l collec tion point (split/skill queue or attendant queue) where calls are held until a split/skill agent or attendant can answer them. Calls are ordered as they arrive and they are served in that order. Depending on the time delay in answering the call, announcements, music, o r prepa red messages may be employed until the ca ll is answered.

Service observing is a fe ature used t o t rain new agen ts and obser ve in- progress calls. The observer (split /s kill super visor ) can toggl e between a li st en-only mode or a listen/talk mode during calls i n progress.

An ability given to an agent to meet a speci fic customer requireme nt or a cont act center business requirement.

Available only with Category A and EAS active. A group of extensions/agents that can receive standard calls and/or special

purpose calls from one or more trunk groups. Split/Skill administration is the abi lity to assign, monitor, or move agents to

specific splits/skills. It also involves changing reporting parameters within the system.

20 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Split/Skill Supervisor

A split/skill supervisor is assigned to monitor/manage each split/skill and split/skill queue to accompli sh specific split/skill objecti ves. A supervisor can assist agents on ACD calls, be involved in agent training, and control call intra/interflow.

Threshold

Trunk/Trunk Group

Trunk state

A threshold is a point in time or criteria that deter mines a certain action by the system. For example, the number of calls in queue or the time calls spend in queue determines specific call treatments, or you can set the number of rings prior to announcements or call answers.

Trunks are communication channels between two communication server or offices. Trunks grouped together to provide identical communications characteristics are called trunk groups. Trunks within trunk groups can be used interchangeably between two communi cations systems or centra l offices in order to provide multi-access capability.

A term or code that represents the curr ent status of a particular tr unk.

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Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

Communication server features

This section defines ACDs and explai ns how they work. The section cont ai ns the f oll owing topics:

● Trunks, trunk group s, and extensions

● Automatic-in processing definition

● The attendant

● communication server with attendant and extensions

● Direct Inward Dialing processing with an example

● Automatic-in processing of ACD calls

● DID processing of ACD calls

● Call processing on an ACD communication server .

What a communication server does

A communication server is an electronic device that processes incoming, outgoing, and internal calls and connects them to the prop er destinations. The telephone company communication server in your local area is called a Central Office (CO). A communication server owned by a company or organization processes incoming, outgoing, and internal calls. Throughout this chapter, the term communication server is used to refer to a company or organizati on’s communication server.

Trunks, trunk groups, and extensions

Incoming calls to a company first p a ss through the CO. The CO sends calls to the company communication server over trunks (telephone lines that carry calls between two servers, between a CO and a server, or between a CO and a phone).

The CO receives dialed digits from the caller, processes the digits, and seizes a trunk that is assigned those digits. After the CO seizes a trunk, it sends a continuing transmission to the destination phone or communication server, and no other calls can be sent over that trunk until the current call disconnects.

Since a trunk can carry only one call at a time, trunk groups are usually created. A trunk group is a group of trunks that are assigned to t he same digit s. With a trunk gr oup, the CO receives the digits of a dialed phone number and checks the trunk group assigned to that number to see if any of the trunks are available . The CO then seizes an available tru nk. As many simultaneous calls can be made over a trunk group as ther e are trunks in that trunk group. A trunk group, theref ore, can car ry mult iple call s for the same phone number. When

22 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

a trunk group carries incoming calls (that is, calls made outside the company’s communication server location) to the communication server, the communication server then connects the calls to th eir proper destinations within the company.

The communication servers previously listed, in addition to connecting incoming calls to the proper destinations, are also like private COs for company employees. Employee phones are connected to a communication server by telephone lines called extensions. Extensions are then assigned numbers, and these numbers become the employee phone numbers for internal (intra- company) calls.

Automatic-in processing

Automatic-in processing is one type of call pr ocessing. With automatic-in processing, the CO processes all of the digits of an incoming call. The CO then seizes a trunk from the trunk group, but since processing is complete, the call connects directly to a destination identified in the communi cation s erve r sof t ware . That des tinat ion can be a phone, a qu eue (in which callers wait to be answered in the order in whic h thei r call was received), or special treatment like an announcement.

Communication server features

Communication server attendant

Incoming calls can also go to a communication server attendant. A communication server attendant is a person who manually routes calls to their proper destinations using an attendant console. Normally an att endant serves as an internal operator who transfers calls to the proper extensions. Often, a communication server will have more than one attendant, and all of the communication ser ver’s attendants will answer calls directed to the attendant queue, which holds calls until an att endant is avail able. The attend ant queue receives internal calls made from employee extensions, and also receives incoming call s through DID processing and automatic-in processing. Attendant call handling varies, depending on the company’ s needs. However, if the attendant has an automatic-in number, it will normally be the number published in the phone book, and the DID number will most likely be used by off-site employees who know only the attendant’ s extension number.

Centralized Attendant Service (CAS) is a communication server feature that enables attendants to be consolidated at one private-network location. The attended location is called the CAS main and each unattended location is called a CAS branch. At branch locations, calls requiring attendant services route by way of Release Link Trunks to the main location.

Issue 1.0 May 2003 23

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

Direct inward dialing processing

With Direct Inward Dialing (DID) proc essing, incoming trunks do not connect the CO directly to an employee’s phone; instead, the incoming trunks are pooled by the communication server, and this pool of trunks is then shar ed by employee phones. Extension numbers may serve as the f in al digi t s of empl oyee pho ne numbers fo r i ncoming calls. That is the CO may assign a 2- 3- or 4- digit prefix to a trunk group. Then, when a 7digit employee phone number is dialed, the ca ll is processed as follows:

1. The CO processes the prefix of the dialed number, and then seizes a t runk i n the t runk group that is assigned that prefix.

2. The CO passes the remaining digits of the dialed number t o the communicati on server.

3. The communication server recognizes the remaining digits as an employee extension number and sends the call to that extension.

DID processing example

As an example of DID processing, say that Employee A has the external phone number 538-1000 and the extension number 1000. Employee B has the phone number 538-9999 and the extension number 9999.

The steps in completing calls to Emp loyees A and B might be as follows:

1. Employee A’s client dials 538-1000.

2. The CO serving Employee A’ s company i dentifies the digit s 538 (the common prefi x for all phone numbers to that company) and seizes Trunk 1 in the trunk group assigned the digits 538.

3. The CO passes the digits 1000 to the communication se rver at Employee A’ s compan y.

4. The communication server identifies the digits 1000 as Employee A’s extensi on number and sends the call to Employee A’s extension.

5. Employee A’s phone ri ngs and Employee A answers.

6. Meanwhile, Employee B’s client dials 538-9999.

7. The CO identifies the digits 538 and sei zes Trunk 2 in the trunk group assigned the digits 538.

8. The CO passes the digits 9999 to the communic ation server.

9. The communication server identifies the digits 9999 as Employee B’s extension number and sends the call to Employee B’s extension.

10. Employee B’s phone rings and Employee B answers.

While Employees A and B continue to talk, Trunks 1 and 2 in the 538 trunk group will not accept any more calls, so another call beginning wit h the digits 538 will seize yet another trunk in the trunk group.

24 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

What the ACD does

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is a commu nication server software feature that processes high-volume incoming, outgoing, and internal calls and distributes them to groups of extensions call ed hunt groups or splits. The communicati on server also sends information about the operation of the ACD to the CMS which stores and formats the data and produces real-time and historical reports on ACD activity. For more detailed information about ACD, read the feature description in the product documentation that came with your communication server.

ACD is used by a contact center t o route incomi ng calls to sp ecifically assigned spli ts/s kills and agents. ACD allows a system administrator to create an efficient call management environment. This administrator can add or remove splits/skills from the system, add or remove announcements, add or remove agents, add trunk groups and route calls to the appropriate split s/s ki lls. The admini strato r can als o specif y ACD measureme nt cri teria and use an optional CMS package to provid e repor ts on ACD efficiency.

What the ACD does

Things to know bef ore yo u start

A voice response port or a person who answers ACD calls is called an agent. Companies that operate high-volume call-answering centers, for example, a catalogue sales center, a reservations center, or a customer service center, use the ACD feature t o process incoming calls and distribute them to agents. In addition to agents, each ACD split can be assigned a split supervisor. The split supervisor uses various communication server and CMS features to monitor split and agent performance and to provide assistance if necessary. Maintaining trunks from the CO to the communication server and hiring agents to answer calls costs money. However, if customers who call to purchase goods or services have difficulty reaching an agent and, therefore, stop tryi ng to get through, the contact center loses revenue. Contact center management needs, therefore, to determine how many trunks and agents are necessary to minimize costs and maximize the ability of customers to purchase goods or services. Management can then set up and maintain the ACD accordingly.

Automatic-in processing of ACD calls

Through communication server administration, each automatic-in trunk group is assigned to an ACD split. All calls that come in on an automatic-in trunk group are di rected to the assigned split. Then the ACD software distributes the calls to the agent extensions assigned to the split according to the assi gned call distribution method (described lat e r).

Issue 1.0 May 2003 25

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

DID processing of ACD calls

The communication server enables you to dial directly to various extensions such as a VDN, a hunt group, an agent, or a login ID. Each extension can be assigned to a split as a DID extension.

For DID processing, trunk group s are not assigned to the split. The creation of associated extensions is suf fi cient to send call s arriv ing over DID trunk gr oup s to the appr opriat e spli t. Each split can receive incoming calls t hrough DID processi ng, automatic- in processing, or both. Automatic-in trunk group s carry calls only to the split, whereas DID trunk groups carry calls to any ex tension iden tifi ed in the communi cation server s oftware, not just a spli t .

Split queues

This section defines a split queue and explains how to up call processing to a split. The section contains the fo llowing topics:

● Split queue call processing on page 26

● Announcements for calls in a split queue o n pag e 27

● Answer supervision and abandoned calls on page 29

● Intraflow and interflow on page 30

● Night Service on page 32

Split queue cal l processing

A split queue is a holding area for calls waiting to be answered, usually in the order in which they were received. When a call is put into queue, the caller may hear one or more delay announcements, music, and/ or silence, dependi ng on the treat ment assigned for the split. (Treatment of calls in queue is assigned through communication server administration.)

Things to know before you start

Calls enter the queue at the bottom and move towar d the top o r head o f the queue. Af ter a call reaches the head of the queue, it connects to the next available agent.

For communication servers with the Call Vectoring feature, all call treatment including routing, queuing, announcements, and music is specified by call vectors. When a call arrives at a split, the ACD softwar e checks to see if an agent i s available to handl e the call. If an agent is not available (that is, all agents are busy), the call enters the split’s queue.

26 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Calls queue only if no agents are availab le, a queue is assigne d to the split, and the queue is not full. If the queue is full, the cal ler hears a busy tone or the call goes to coverage. If the split is vector controlled, then this step will fail. Furthermore, if no agents are logged into the split or if all agents are in AUX work mode (described later), calls do not queue.

Priority and normal split queues

Each split can have two queues: a normal queue and a pri ority queue. A spli t always has a normal queue and can also be assigned a priority queue. The ACD distributes al l calls in the priority queue befor e it di st ribut es any cal ls in the n ormal queue. Ther efore, the priori ty queue, if one exists, must be emp ty before the ACD distributes calls in the normal queue.

Priority queuing may be assigned in the Class of Restriction (COR) associated with the split extension number. A split may also be assigned Priorit y Queuing on Intraflow, which means that calls to that split, if rerouted to another local split, will enter the destination split’s priority queue.

Split queue size

Split queues

Queue size is established through communi cation server administration. Calls arriving after the admi nistered queue limit is reached receive a busy signal or go to the split’s busy coverage if administered. (If the split is vector controlled, then this step will fail.) Or, calls can be redirected to a local or remote des tination. See the Intrafl ow and Interflow for more information.

Announcements for calls in a split queue

When a call enters a split queue, the caller hears ringing until the call is connected to an agent or an announcement. Depending on the tr eatment assigne d to a split, the cal ler may hear one or two announcements, music, or silence. An announcement is a recorded message that provides information such as the destination the call has reached or a company’s business hours, or it tries to persuade the caller to stay on the line.

Things to know before you start

Announcements and delay time are assigned to splits through communication server administration. Delay ti me is the amount of time a call wi ll wait in queue before receivi ng an announcement. If a call conne ct s to an agent before the de lay ti me expires, the calle r does not hear the announcement. If a call connects to an agent while an announcement is playing, the announcement stops. After the first announcement plays, the caller hears music or silence until the second announcement plays or the call connects to an agent. The type of caller feedback (music or silenc e) is also assigned to a split through communication server administration.

Issue 1.0 May 2003 27

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

For communication servers with the Call Vectoring feature, announcement capabilities are more flexible than those described in thi s section. See Call Vectoring

Related features

The communication server supports both internal and external announcement devices. The announcement delay time can be from 0 to 99 seconds. A 0-seco nd delay time cause s

a forced announcement, which means callers always hear the entire first announcement, whether an agent is available or not. A second announcement can be administered to recur each time the announcement delay time expires.

Rules for announcements

The announcement is played from beginning to end unless an agent becomes available. In such a case, the announcement is interrupted and (if manual answering operation is assigned to the agent, or if calls are delivered to the agent on a manual answering basis) ringback is provided. If the call is queued, the cal l remains as such while the announcement is played. Any feedback that is provided before an announcement (for example, a wait with music or ringback) continues unt il the announcement is played.

on page 128.

Without vectoring — If an announcement queue is full, the system continues to try to connect the call to the proper announcement until the call connects to an agent, connects to an announcement, or enters the announcement queue. The fol lowi ng rules apply to announcements without vectoring implemented:

● Calls directly entering a split queue always receive a forced first announcement if

assigned. The caller also hears first and second delay announcements if administer ed and delay intervals are met.

● Calls that reach a split by way of Call Cover age from another s plit (I ntraflow) or a st ation

do not receive a forced or delay first announcement at the destination split. The caller hears a second delay announcement if administered and the delay interval is met.

● Calls that reach a split by way of Call Forwardi ng from anot her spli t (I nterfl ow) or station

do receive delay first and second announcement s if administered and the delay intervals are met.

With vectoring — If the announcement’s queue is full, the call retries the announcement step for an indefinite period of time before any new vector steps are processed. If an announcement command follows a failed adjunct routing command, the announcement is interrupted. If the adjunct routing command succeeds (that is, the communication server receives a destination from the ASAI adjunct), the announcement terminates immediately. The announcement command step is skipped, and vector processing continues at the next vector st ep, whenever any of the following conditions exist:

● Requested announcement is busied out, not available, or not administered.

● Integrated board is not installed.

● External aux trunk or analog equipment is not attached .

28 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

Announcement queuing

External and internal announcement units are available. The number of calls that can be queued to an announcement depends on the size of the communication server you have. The capacity tabl es in the Syst em Descript ion have det ai ls for each communic ation ser ver model. Queuing for internal announc ement s is quite di f fer ent. I nternal announce ments are delivered by a 16-channel announcement board, and a call receives an announcement only when it connects to one of the 16 announcement chan nels . Therefor e, all call s wait in a single queue to access a channel on the announcement board regardless of the split announcement they are waiting to receive. The same announcement can be delivered over multiple channels. Announcements are delivered on demand, so a call that connects to a channel receives an announcement immediately and does not have to wait for the announcement to finish and start again.

Answer supervision and abandoned calls

Split queues

Answer supervision is a signal sent by the communication server to the serving Central Office (CO). This sig nal t ells the CO that an inc oming call has been ans wered and that the CO should begin tracking toll charges for the call (i f they apply). Answer supervision is sen t immediately before a call connects to an agent’s telephone, to music, or to an announcement.

Abandoned calls

An abandoned call is a call that r eaches a cont act cent er, but does not connect to a n agent because the caller hangs up. A call can abandon while in queue or while ringing at an agent position. Abandoned calls represent lost sales or lost good will. Adequate split staffi ng and effective use of announcements can reduce the number of abandoned cal ls. S plits should be staff ed so that calls do not have to wait in queue for an unreasonable amount of time, and announcements can be used to persuade the call er to wait until someone answers the call.

Abandoned call search

If answer supervision is sent before a caller abandons, ghost calls can occur. A ghost call is a call that is sent to an agent after the caller hangs up. Ghost calls occur because, after a caller hangs up, some COs wait 2 to 25 seconds before sending a disconnect sig nal to the communication server. Ghost calls are a problem because they waste agents’ time, and they can delay or prevent other calls from connecting to an agent. To minimize this problem, Abandoned Call Search can be assigned to specific trunk groups for the communication server.

With Abandoned Call Search, the communicati on s erver che cks the i ncoming tr unk before delivering an ACD call to an agent. If the trunk is on-hook at the CO (the call has been abandoned), the communication server releas es the trunk and does not deliver the call . If a call is still in progress on the trunk, the communication server delivers the call to an a gent.

Issue 1.0 May 2003 29

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) basics

Intraflow and interflow

Intraflow and interflow allo ws you to redirect ACD calls to another split or other local or remote destinations. Redirecting calls to a local destination is called intraflow. Redirecting calls to a destination outside the communication server is called interflow.

Things to know before you start

Intraflow and interflow are set up differently on the Generic 3 and newer communication servers. If Call Vectoring is active on the communication server, redirection of calls differs significantly from the following intraflow/interflow descrip tions.

Description

As many as three intraflow destinations OR one interflow destination can be established for a split through communication server administration. Intraflow uses the Call Coverage feature to redirect ACD calls to a coverage path that contains one, two, or three of the following internal destinations:

● An extension

● An ACD split (including AUDIX

“Hunt Group” refers to groups of extensions that receive distributed calls. The term “split” refers to a hunt group that i s measured by CMS.

● An attendant group

● An announcement followed by a forced disconnect.

Call Forwarding and ACD splits can be set up to intraflow calls unconditionally. Interflow destinations are t he same as those listed above for intraflow (plus the CAS

attendant), except interflow sends calls to destinations outside the communication server.

Setting up splits

If a split is assigned more than one intraflow destination, the communication server tries each destination in the or der in wh ich it was a ssigned. If no desti nation can ac cept the call, the communication server leaves the call in the original split’s queue. If an interfl ow destination is specified and ac tivated, t he communication s erver tri es only that de stination . If the interflow destinati on cannot accept t he call, the cal ler hears a busy signal. ACD spli ts can be set up to intraflow calls unconditionally. Unconditional intraflow redirects all calls to the specified destination. Unconditional intraflow is normally used to redirect calls when a split is not staffed.

and Message Center splits) or Hunt Group. The term

30 Communication Manager Guide to ACD Call Centers

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