UCCX just for menu application?

[billmatthews]

We're running UCCX 8.5 and CUCM 8.6.  Our UCCX server that has two purposes.  It has some traditional applications that route calls to csq's and agents. 

Then we have about 400 stores that have front end menus (press 1 for sales, press 2 for human resources, etc).  Obviously I'm simplifying that menu example, there are lots and lots of departments, and we use UCCX as the front end because it's all controlled by time a database back-end, which determines which stores have which departments, what the hours each option should be presented, etc.  So for this category of application there are no csqs/agents.

My question is -- is UCCX really the best way to do this?  The reason is that we're getting to be so high volume that we're hitting our IVR port limit.  We want to avoid the complexity of UCCE.  So we could add another UCCX cluster.  But I'm wondering what options CUCM 9 or Unity might give us.  I know Unity auto attendants can do the menu structure.  But right now I like the UCCX flexibility of defining a single application, and using variables to determine various options being presented.  I wouldn't want to build/maintain 400+ different versions of the same menu structure. 

Thanks

[Anthony Holloway · Accepted solution]

UCCX is the best option for IVR, even though it can also do ACD.

The problem isn't with the way you're using it, it's the volume of calls you need to handle.  You may need to install a second instance of UCCX, effectively doubling your IVR ports.  Once you do that, you would more than likely need to rerun the erlang calculator against your business requirements (think percent blocking), so that you can decide if a single instance of UCCX with 400 IVR ports can handle all of your dept store traffic exclusively, freeing up your other UCCX to handle all of your inbound ACD calls.

I would not use Unity AA for anything like this.  It's a basic AA, not meant for this kind of work.  Save Unity Call Handlers for mom and pop branch offices who need 3 menu options tops.  Besides, you said there was some backend database dips going on.  Unity Call Handlers cannot do that.  And then what if you want to grow into ASR or TTS?

For a cookie cutter store type menu (I'm thinking Apple retail store IVR's), I would create a template IVR script, and use per store configurations to conditionally change the IVR.

controlled by time a database back-end

This had me laughing.  It's like Wheel of Fortune's Before and After category.  Kind of.  "Time of Day-Tabase Backend"

EDIT: Just in case anyone is wondering this, I have aske several Cisco people if you could just purchase IP-IVR instead of UCCX, if you only need IVR features, and no ACD features.  However, the answer was always a "no."

Anthony Holloway

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[Tanner Ezell]

Bill,

UCCX is definitely a good option, and it is a lot more manageble than trying to deploy PCCE for the purpose. The biggest downside for your particular needs is the cost.

Internally, we have been developing an IVR platform with a similar flow and feature set as UCCX. It's not quite ready for prime time just yet, but if you had some time to chat I'd love to get a better understanding of your needs as your use case is exactly what we're targeting with this solution.

Tanner Ezell
www.ctilogic.com