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Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE)
The complete guide to managing UCCE environments: tips, tricks, best practices, and lessons learned
Gary Ford
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) integrates multiple components and can serve a wide spectrum of business requirements. In this book, Gary Ford, an experienced Cisco UCCE consultant brings together all the guidance you need to optimally configure and manage UCCE in any environment.
The author shares in-depth insights covering both the enterprise and hosted versions of UCCE. He presents an administrator’s view of how to perform key UCCE tasks and why they work as they do. He thoroughly addresses application configuration, agents, scripting, IVR, dial plans, UCM, error handling, reporting, metrics, and many other key topics.
You’ll find proven, standardized configuration examples that help eliminate errors and reduce downtime, step-by-step walkthroughs of several actual configurations, and thorough coverage of monitoring and troubleshooting UCCE systems.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) is an indispensable resource to help you deploy and operate UCCE systems reliably and efficiently.
Gary Ford has spent more than 13 years designing, deploying, and maintaining Cisco telephony and contact center solutions together with several of the world’s largest systems integration companies, Cisco ATPs, and customers. He was first introduced to contact centers in 1997 while working for British Telecom (BT) as a test engineer tasked with integrating the GeoTel ICR platform into BT’s core telephony network. After Cisco acquired GeoTel, Ford’s role evolved to include broader Cisco contact center and unified communications consulting. He holds a bachelor’s of engineering degree in computer systems engineering, the status of Chartered Engineer, and several Cisco, Microsoft, and business-related professional qualifications.
· Understand the Cisco Unified Contact Center product portfolio and platform architecture
· Choose the right single-site, multi-site, or clustered deployment model for your environment
· Take a lifecycle services approach to UCCE deployment and application configuration-—including preparation, planning, design, and implementation
· Implement traditional, current-generation, and next-generation call routing
· Master the latest best practices for call flow scripting
· Understand UCCE’s nodes and distributed processes and build a clean system startup sequence
· Design, implement, and deliver unified CM/IP IVR solutions
· Set up and efficiently manage UCCE databases
· Make the most of UCCE’s reporting tools
· Create advanced applications with Data-Driven Routing
· Effectively maintain any UCCE deployment, including older versions
· Use a best-practice methodology for troubleshooting, and master valuable, little-known Cisco diagnostic tools
This IP communications book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. IP communications titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals understand voice and IP telephony technologies, plan and design converged networks, and implement network
solutions for increased productivity.
Introduction xi
Chapter 1 Contact Center Overview 1
Contact Center Characteristics 3
Contact Channels 4
Cisco Contact Center Features 5
Virtual Contact Center 5
Cisco Agent Desktop with Presence 5
CTI and CRM Integration 6
Agent Desktop Options 6
Cisco Unified Expert Advisor 7
Support for Remote and Mobile Agents 7
Self-Service and Call-Treatment Capabilities 8
Reporting 8
Management Portal 9
Cisco Contact Center Portfolio 9
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 11
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise 11
Cisco Unified Contact Center Hosted 12
Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Manager Enterprise 13
Cisco Unified IP IVR 13
Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal 14
Other Voice Components 15
Summary 16
Chapter 2 Platform Architecture 17
General Cisco Unified Contact Center Architecture 17
Router 18
Logger 18
Administrative Workstation/Real-Time Distributor and Client AW 18
Historical Data Server 19
Peripheral Gateway 20
CTI Server (Including CTI Object Server) 21
Reporting (WebView and CUIC) 21
Network Interface Controller 22
Cisco UCCE 23
Cisco UICM 23
Cisco UCCH 24
Platform Redundancy 25
Summary 27
Chapter 3 Deployment Models 29
Single-Site 30
Multisite with Centralized Call Processing 31
Multisite with Distributed Call Processing 32
Clustering over the WAN 33
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Deployment Model 35
Deployment Options 35
Enterprise/System UCCE 35
Parent/Child Deployment 36
Real-World Deployments 37
Summary 38
Chapter 4 UC Operating Systems 39
Operating Systems in Use 40
MS Windows for Cisco Unified CM 40
Cisco Voice Operating System (VOS) 40
MS Windows for UICM/UCCE 41
Bill of Materials (BOM) 41
Third-Party Software 41
Learning About Updates 42
Summary 42
Chapter 5 UCCE Road Map 43
Cisco Software Product Lifecycle 43
Software Phases 43
Software Support Road Map 44
Platform Upgrades 45
The Evolution of UCCE 46
GeoTel ICR 2.5 46
GeoTel ICR 3.0/4.0/4.1 48
ICM 4.5 48
Cisco ICM 4.6 48
Cisco ICM 5.0 49
Cisco IPCC 7.0 50
Cisco UCCE 7.5 50
Cisco UCCE 8.0 51
Cisco UCCE 8.5 51
Summary 52
Chapter 6 UCCE Platform Deployment 53
Lifecycle Services Approach 54
Prepare and Plan 57
Design 57
Software Versions 57
Platform Sizing 59
Platform Redundancy 60
Server Naming Conventions 60
Deployment Spreadsheet 61
Network Services 63
Databases 68
Cisco A2Q Process 69
Implementation 71
Server Builds 71
Software Installation 72
Installation Order 74
Implementation Testing 79
Summary 82
Chapter 7 UCCE Application Configuration 83
Prepare 83
Requirements Capture 83
Capture Spreadsheets 84
Implementation 84
Configuration Manager 85
Summary 96
Chapter 8 Call Routing 97
Call Routing Concepts 98
Carrier-Based Routing 98
Private Network Routing 101
Traditional Call Routing 104
Current-Generation Call Routing 105
Prerouting 105
Postrouting 107
Next-Generation Call Routing 108
SIP Trunks 108
Summary 111
Chapter 9 Call Flow Scripting 113
Contact Center Call Flow 114
Contact Center Challenges 114
Call Script Development Lifecycle 115
Call Scripting Best Practices 117
Total Cost of Ownership 117
Expect the Unexpected 118
Change Is Good 118
Tracking Change 119
Script Layout 121
Avoid Overoptimization 124
Meaningful Names 126
Comment Node 127
Use a Development Workstation 128
Custom Functions 129
Error Handling 130
Summary 131
Chapter 10 Reporting 133
Reporting Packages 134
Cisco WebView 136
Cisco Unified Intelligence Center 138
VIM Performance 140
Feature Comparison 142
Wallboards 142
UCCE Reporting 145
Reporting Notes 146
Reporting Terminology 146
General Reporting with Call Types 147
Call Queuing 149
Hiding Objects 149
Don’t Mix and Match Reporting Entities 150
Wrap-Up Codes 150
Legacy Reports 151
Summary 153
Chapter 11 Nodes and Processes 155
UCCE Nodes 157
Logger 157
Router 158
Peripheral Gateway 160
Administrative Workstation 162
Common Processes 163
Support Tools Node Agent 164
UCCE Nodes Startup Sequence 164
UCCE Detailed Startup 166
Logger A 166
Router A 170
Peripheral Gateway A 172
Logger B 179
Peripheral Gateway B 181
Administrative Workstation 182
Summary 183
Chapter 12 Unified CM and IVR 185
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 185
Cisco Unified IP Interactive Voice Response 186
Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal 186
Integration with UCCE 187
Unified Communications Manager 187
UCCE with IP IVR 188
UCCE with CVP 189
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 189
Cisco JTAPI 189
CTI Route Points 190
Agent Phone Settings 191
Partitions and Calling Search Spaces 192
Queuing and Self-Service 192
CVP Versus IP IVR 196
Cisco Unified IP IVR 197
IP IVR Call Flow 197
Cisco Unified CCX Editor 200
IP IVR Configuration 201
Cisco Unified CVP 203
Summary 206
Chapter 13 Data-Driven Routing 207
What Can Be Achieved with Data-Driven Routing 208
Data Lookup Options 210
Static Lookup 211
DB Lookup Node 211
Application Gateway 212
Within an IVR Application 212
Agent Desktop/CRM Integration 213
Configuring UCCE Database Lookup 213
Step 1: Database Creation 213
Step 2: Enable the DB Worker Process 214
Step 3: Configuration Manager: Database Lookup Explorer 215
Step 4: Simple Call Script and Testing 216
Summary 217
Chapter 14 UCCE Databases 219
Relational Databases 219
UCCE Databases 221
Database Purge 222
Database Schema Overview 224
SQL Queries 227
Finding a Call with a Specific ANI 228
Finding Unassigned Call Types 229
Listing the Most Popular Callers by ANI 229
Locating the Last Script Node 230
Locating Agents Against Agent Desk Settings 230
Finding DNs Associated with a Call Type 230
Agent State Trace 232
Summary 233
Chapter 15 Management and Administration 235
Platform Management 236
Potential Failures 236
Backups 238
Platform Monitoring 239
Application Administration 245
Summary 246
Chapter 16 Troubleshooting 247
Fault Logging and Handling 248
Fault Logging 248
Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) 250
Troubleshooting Methodology 251
UCCE Process Tracing 254
Setting Trace Levels 257
Analysis Manager 258
Support Tools 258
Router Trace 260
UCCE Command-Line Tools 262
dumplog Utility 263
opctest Utility 265
rttest Utility 269
procmon Utility 272
UCCE Script Editor 273
Monitoring 273
Call Tracer 274
Summary 275
Index 277