cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
1493
Views
15
Helpful
12
Replies

Configure 2 lines for agents

Nancy Thompson
Level 1
Level 1

Well, this issue is a real one in our setup.

Each agent profile has a 2 lines configuration.

1 line on both CCM 4.2 and IPCC 7.5 for ACD calls only (CCM latest release is coming soon)

1 DID on CCM only for inbound and outbound calls

Obviously, IPCC can't guess if DID is busy and a 2nd call can be route on the ACD line.

Who knows best practices? Need something to read about this setup.

How to configure both lines?

How to monitor both lines in real time?

12 Replies 12

Best practice is to have a single line. I think the SRND addresses this.

david

Thank you David.

I didn't know SRND documentation. That may be very helpful.

But first, I have to persuade the telephony folks to reconfigure more than 500 agents this way for all benefits.

Before making any changes ensure you know exactly what the requirements are. Also, with TAPS changing 500 phones should be a breeze.

david

I am not sure if I missed someting here, but the best practice is always to have seperate dedicated ACD line with busy trigger set to 1. This should line should only be used for calls from UCCX/UCCE and a seperate personal line should be used for DID/internal calls. The order of the lines is important for reporting reasons as when you simply pickup a handset it will seize out line 1, you may or may not want to report on these calls and/or have ACD line available/unavailable.

HTH,

Chris

David writes:

>Best practice is to have a single line. I think the SRND addresses this.

Not so. The SRND defines the two-line paradigm. I'm with Chris.

Two lines is fine. I like to have the first line the CC line. I like auto-answer on headset from CUCM and no call waiting, no voice mail on that line.

The second line (the DID) should have the normal settings - call waiting, not auto answer, Unity voice mail.

If the agents are in the ready state, they need to be reminded to not answer (or initiate) a call on their private line without going not ready. If they forget, it's not a big deal as auto-answer will not be activated - they will have to manually answer. They normally drop off the private line quickly and take the call. Some agents break this "rule" in order to be more productive - depends on how busy the CC is.

While on a customer call, a call to their private line will ring a couple of times and go to voice mail. They are asked to just let it go.

Aside: In the past I wrote a little Java app called Agent Toggle that connected to JTAPI and to the CTI server. When a call arrived on (or was made from) their private line, it made the agent not ready; when the call terminated, it made them ready again. A little science project that seemed to work fine.

Some customers like to invert the lines because they want the red light to come on when voice mail is waiting. If it's the second line, the standard behaviour is to show the little envelope next to the line.

Although Cisco recommend that the top line be the CC line, I can understand the inversion.

You adjust the calling search spaces so that private lines cannot call contact center lines; but not the other way around. Non-agents just have the one "private" line.

I believe this works correctly and efficiently, albeit with some agent discipline. Once the operating parameters are understood, the agent with two lines can be more productive.

Regards,

Geoff

sorry for the confusion, I misread the question to read about to agent lines on the same phone.

thank you for the correction.

david

One point to add to this: If the MWI light is desired and the personal DN is set to the second line button, there is a UCM Service Parameter to control the behavior:

Message Waiting Lamp Policy: This parameter determines whether a text prompt and/or light indicates new voice messages. Valid values follow:

Primary Line - Light and Prompt: Turn on the message waiting lamp and display the prompt if a message is waiting on primary line.

Primary Line - Prompt Only: Display the prompt if a message is waiting on primary line.

Primary Line - Light Only: Turn on the message waiting lamp if a message is waiting on primary line.

Light and Prompt: Turn on the message waiting lamp and display the prompt if a message is waiting on any line.

Prompt only: Display the prompt if a message is waiting on any line.

Light only: Turn on the message waiting lamp if a message is waiting on any line.

None: Do not turn on the message waiting lamp or display the prompt.

This is a required field.

Default: Primary Line - Light and Prompt

The default value is " Primary Line - Light and Prompt" but you could change this to "Light and Prompt" and it will light for any line which has a message waiting.

Thank you. That's most useful information.

Regards,

Geoff

Thank you Geoff.

Your approach is very interesting and fits more with our business rule.

Is your Java app available somewhere?

In fact, that shows this setting has been requested often in the past.

However, our telephony analyst suggests routing DID calls to the ACD line instead of handling 2 inbound lines. Let me explain his setup which needs to be tested:

Each call placed on a specific DID would be routed through a blind IVR script. Then this call would be associated with the right label corresponding to agent ACD line. Then agents could answer all incoming calls always on the ACD line. DID would be used to place calls only (and for voice mail probably)

My opinion is that we try to patch a problem when there is no real problem actually. I guess you share the same opinion.

Regarding my little java "Agent Toggle" programn - I don't know if this would still work. It used the CCM JTAPI (that's no problem but you need the user and password) AND the Geotel.jar file from ICM 6.x - I'm not sure if the Geotel.jar is still distributed.

On to your other point.

When a call is about to be sent to an agent, ICM sends a pre-call message, and the desktop must reply. If so, the call is sent.

If the agent has started an inbound call, this will be detected and the pre-call will not be replied to; and ICM will deal with the customer in another way (I am not exactly sure - I assume the person keeps their place in queue).

So ICM can avoid one type of call collision through this method.

What you need to be wary of is two delivery systems sending the call to a single line at the same time.

I don't think any method (except ICM "queue to agent") can guarantee there would be no call collisions. I don't think the one your telephony analyst proposed would.

"Queue to agent" has the drawback that the agent doesn't know there is a call - a pretty serious drawback, I would say. ;-)

You need to talk to your telephony analyst again.

I really like the two lines.

Regards,

Geoff

Uh, care to share Agent Toggle?

Wow - that post was from 2 years ago!!

I would have no problem (assuming I could find the code) but the absence of the Geotel.jar from current distributions means that I can't change the state from Java. Maybe I should look into this and see what my alternatives are - I know there is a Java CIL.

It's all a bit moot now - Cisco have "multi-line support" so you can set it an agent up with two lines and when a call arrives on their "private" line it will make the CC line "not ready".

Regards,

Geoff

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: