Peter S. Buswell (aka DrVoIP) is a rare blend of C-level executive leadership and deep technical expertise in telecommunications and cloud infrastructure. With a career that began at AT&T in 1970, he has founded and led multiple industry-defining companies, including Dextr.Cloud—acquired by AWS Global Partner CloudHesive. Peter has held senior roles at firms like Exxon Enterprises, Intervoice/Brite, and Franklin Telecommunications, and has consistently driven innovation from traditional PBX to Amazon Connect cloud deployments. A hands-on architect with certifications from Cisco (CCNP/CCDP, UCCX/UCCE) and AWS (Solutions Architect, Developer, SysOps), he combines strategic vision with engineering precision. Known as DrVoIP, he continues to bridge the gap between enterprise goals and technical execution in today’s evolving cloud communications landscape.
“ShoreTel (SHOR) is in final stages of rolling out ShoreTel Connect”. Who cares? Technology issues aside, ShoreTel remains dog meat in the financial markets. Since the company’s public offering in 2007, the stock has never sustained a price above the first day closing of $12.50, itself a modest premium over the offering price of $9.50 a share. Currently SHOR is trading below the rejected MItel acquisition price proposal. Market capitalization continues to hang around the $430M valuation.
Ring Central (RNG) with a market cap of $1.5B and 8X8 (EGHT) with a market cap of $1.3B are pacesetters and models for what ShoreTel should be! Why are these companies valued so highly yet ShoreTel remains the living dead? Maybe Considering divesting the customer premise business? One of the key difference between these three companies, is that only one company is dealing with the challenges of manufacturing hardware. The CPE product line has greater value to a company that wants to focus on that segment. Can you walk both sides of the street, CPE and Cloud? If ShoreTel management wants to keep its head in the cloud, go for it.
Clearly public shareholders are never going to see a return on investment, so why not put them out of their misery and take the company private? Hell the only folks that made any money on this deal are insiders anyway. So take the company private, remove the quarterly pressure and public disclosures, retrench and maybe get it right for a future offering. Divest the CPE product line to a company that wants to develop that segment and commit to making the product a real player in the enterprise market.
Clearly the parts are more valuable than the whole! Customers, employees and Shareholders would all benefit and the Board would finally look like they know what they are doing. IMHO – DrVoIP
From the desk of DrVoIP
Long the standard in boiler room call center applications, recording calls is often a requirement outside the call center. There are any number of reasons to record calls for including compliance, clarity and certainty and just management of customer quality service. There are a variety of recording solutions in the market and they all have very different feature sets. Do you need the ability to annotate calls? To search on more complex parameters that time and date? If an employee is being recorded and transfers that call to the HR Director of the company, should that segment of the call be recorded? Do we want to record inbound calls only? Both inbound and outbound? Do you have multiple locations in your deployment? Do employees have the right to start and stop recordings? Add notes? You will also have to consider how recording are to be stored and for how long? This can have a huge impact on hardware requirements. Just some of the characteristics you might want to consider as you look for for a recording solution. The list of features is long and there are many options to chose from. It is best to get a solid requirements document together and to make sure that you fully understand that recording alone is not all there is!
Recording Server Applications
ShoreTel has an optional recording function that can be very effective! It can be installed as a single server solution or as a multiple server, multiple site solution. It can record all calls, or just in one direction only. You can select who is recorded and you can also select the archive location and time frame. The solution is deployed on a ShoreTel server, either HQ or DVS depending on the deployment model. There are actually four modules that can be installed: the recording server; the client side, the web player and the administrative module. The solution uses the integrated recording functionality of the ShoreTel phone system and most of the usual user group and class of service settings apply.
Generally you will create a route point with a call stack as deep as the number of calls you want to simultaneously record, and put it on the server that will host the recording application. You will also need a route point for the player and you will need to create a user who will proxy the recording functionality. The server install is very simple and conforms to the usual point and click install expectations of a Windows server application. The configuration is very simple, just provide the route point extension number, note the port for recording and click install!
The Administration Application
The Administrative application enables you to configure the specifics of the recording server and to create profiles. This application can be installed on the server or on a PC that can reach the server. The configuration options are very easy to understand and simple to enter. Basically they deal with where files should be stored and for how long. You also have the option of either saving the recordings to a file system, or saving them as a voice message.
You then create profiles that are used to customize different groups of extensions. For example, you might want persistent recording for some extensions and not others. This means that the recording continues even if the call is transferred. Do you want inbound and outbound recordings? And exactly who should be recorded! The profile also dictates if recordings are to be made all the time, or sampled as a percentage or by a defined schedule.
Client Side Options
The client side application is installed on a pc and is optional tray icon. You would use this only if your profile enables users to start and stop recordings and to tag recordings. If this is not a privileged that you want to extend to those be recorded there is no need to install this optional application at each desk. The use of the client is profile dependent.
The Player Application
The last application defines the player and is very useful for visually managing recordings. You can use a phone to play recordings , but most folks find this web application to be more useful. The application must be installed on a server as it uses IIS, but the recordings are played locally on a windows machine that has a sound card! Each extension is listed and there is a time and date stamp on the recording file. You have the option of storing other file information, like ShoreTel call properties to enrich the identification of a recording.
All in all, the ShoreTel Recording Application is a sweet suite! It gets the job done and at a price point that compares more than favorably with the third party Recording applications found in the market place. We recommend it for both call center and general recording applications when you are on a ShoreTel iPBX! Give us a call and we can help point you in the right direction or get this installed and configured for you!
Can you send a picture to your ShoreTel or CISCO Call Center
We have been integrating SMS to CISCO UCCX and ShoreTel Call Center deployments for customer service scenarios for some time. The interface is very simple: Login, pick a number from anywhere on the planet; assign a “keyword” and match it to an email address or list! When someone text your “keyword” to your number, the text is converted to email and sent on to that address. The email recipient can then hit reply and we convert the email back to SMS and forward it back to the original Cell phone. Optionally, you can build a membership list with and auto response and the ability to send a bulk text to the list!
What is new in Version 3.1
We have released Version 3.1 and it now makes it possible to send not only text (SMS), but pictures (MMS)to the “next available agent” in your Call Center. The application now supports:
Inbound SMS to email Address based on “keyword” match with REPLY ability; – this enables you to use one number and many different keywords that point to different email addresses. The recipient can hit reply like any other email and send a response back to the sender of the SMS, usually a client who has a cell phone!
Inbound MMS to default email address – enables a cell phone to send a photo or picture into the customer service organization which will route to the default email address.
Inbound SMS to outbound SMS; – Stealth mode, you can forward an incoming SMS to another SMS.
SMS to List based on “keyword” match – This enables you to build an SMS marketing list. Each list is built by “keyword” match and you are able to send auto responds and “bulk” SMS
Outbound email to SMS;
Email to SMS – enables a customer service representative to send a text from an email client. The address can be a keyword group list or an individual cell phone number.
Each transaction has a unique “ticket” number, all transactions are searchable, logged and archived for HIPPA and PIC compliance.
We are finding that Insurance, medical, auto and tech support applications in particular are receptive to the concept of enabling clients to send a picture by text to a customer service representative.
Want A demo?
We can easily set you up with a demo account. A basic single number solution with 500 SMS credits is about $25 a month! Send the word “DEMO” (all ONE word, watch that auto correct) to 424-348-4000 and include your email address for an example of how this could work on a ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX; or just create an account!
Note – Your do NOT need a formal call center to implement this technology. An email distribution list to customerservice@yourcompany.com works just as well!
We subscribe to the business adage that what is measured gets done! For this reason key performance indexes are absolutely essential to the success of any customer service environment. How many contacts did we manage today? How long did a contact have to wait on hold before we were able to engage them? How much time does an average customer engagement actually take? What is the rate of abandonment and how long did a caller tolerate waiting before they gave up and hung up the phone? Sometimes we have to refer back in time and search “historical” records to locate a specific caller and verify the fact that they actually called! Other times, we have to be aware of “real time” data and be alert to what is happening right now! How many callers are waiting to engage us? So where do you obtain this type of information no how easy is it to obtain?
ShoreTel Call Accounting
In a ShoreTel solution there are at least three separate databases that keep this kind of information. The ShoreTel iPBX can generate historical reports out of the internal Call Detail Records log using the integrated report generator that you access through the ShorewareDirector administrative interface. A great solution if you want to generate total trunk activity reports showing the aggregate number of inbound and outbound calls. It has detail reports that can even list every phone call made by every extension user in the system. Ask it a simple question like how many phone calls did we receive this month from 202-555-1234 and you will quickly learn the limitations of this system solution.
The ShoreTel ECC has an internal historical data repository and a primitive report generator that has mystical templates that you can modify to create performance reports. You can not however, directly access the data in that database! The internal historical report generator has some serious limitations however. For example, do you want to generate a Group Activity report, showing all the desired metrics for all Groups in your deployment? You would have do to this one Group at a time using the ShoreTel provide tools.
The ShoreTel C2G is a veritable cesspool of disjointed data elements or “events” like, extension 123 went off hook; IRN 155 received an incoming request for service and Agent 789 logged in. Not very useful unless you are an accomplished SQL programming genius and want to spend your career figuring out the ShoreTel data dictionary while writing custom reports that assemble all of these events into meaningful record.
Though ShoreTel has some “standard reports” the fact is, you will want to generate custom reports unique to your environment. No matter how many templates are provided, we have yet to encounter a call center that did not have unique one off requirement when it came to reporting performance metrics. Where is the data? Is it in the PBX? or the call center? How do you track a call that came into the PBX, connected with the call center and transferred to an offsite backup answering service? Do I have to retain a SQL programmer to figure this all out? (Fortunately brightmetrics has already done that for you).
BrightMetric Illumination!
brightmetrics has created a powerful, yet very simple to navigate report generator available as a hosted solution. Connecting with the various databases internal to your ShoreTel deployment, brightmetrics can sort and integrate data from the PBX side, the Contact Center side and that cesspool of events that contain information from both sides of the data equation. Are you running ShoreTel Workgroups? BrightMetric puts wheels on the information that would otherwise require professional application software add-ons from ShoreTel.
The brightmetrics user interface is easy to understand and navigate. The portal has video based help files and report templates for almost every type of data assembly. You can generate reports on demand. Save reports and schedule reports for future delivery. The administrator can setup user accounts that provide access to specific report profiles and easy to understand “dashboards”.
Call Flow Diagrams can save an Admin’s life!
One of the most useful none numerical feature of brightmetrics is the ability to diagram your call flow. Have you every wondered about your automated attendant options, Hunt Groups, Route Points and IRN’s? Where do all the options lead? If you press 1 for customer service, where does the caller go and what are the possible outcomes for that caller? Do you have a complex SQL data dip over an OBDC connector from you ShoreTel ECC? Want to see where all the routing options might point to? This feature will map and diagram call flow from an Automated Attendant, IRN, Workgroup, ECC service and even an ECC Script!
How about Real-time Reports?
Historical reporting is extraordinarily important to both customer service and employee productivity. Real-time information is also very necessary and important. brightmetrics has introduce a new element to the product mix and now offers Real-time displays suitable for framing! If you have ever tried to make a Wall Board out of ShoreTel supervisor desktop, you now how frustrating getting status information in front of the Call Center team can be! Using a real-time event feed, brightmetrics can display comprehensive status information formatted for legibility and clarity!
The brightmetrics team!
brightmetrics has been making incremental improvements in the product from day one and post all of there progress, both features and bugs! Today the are generally recognized as the only viable solution for ShoreTel call accounitng accuracy and flexibility. More importantly, the company behind the brightmetrics product family is an astonishing group of people. Usually, pre-sale is about as good as it gets in American business! Not the case with brightmetrics! The real story begins after you sign on with them. The folks in this company from Jim Lewis the founder and CEO through each and every person you meet on the team, will treat you with a level of commitment and customer focus, that in this day of “Internet shopping carts” is very rare. Ask a question, open a support ticket, make a suggestion even offer a criticism and these folks will overwhelm you with not only time but focused attention. We have worked with many clients who use the brightmetrics solution and we have always had the most positive and productive experience. Technology is great but its people who make the difference!
Want a Free 21 day trial? Just text the word STATS to 630-GANDALF or 630-426-3253
Mobile devices are the most ubiquitous devices on the planet! Text messages are read almost instantly, never miss their target and are high impact, high content messages. Why continue to increase the number of incoming telephone lines to your call center? All you will do is cause more people to wait on hold, lowering your customer satisfaction scores while increasing your operating costs. The call center market is moving toward “purpose built” communication solutions through smartphone aps that pinpoint customer solutions and map directly to customer satisfaction solutions. Why not allow your clients to send a TEXT message to your call center? Chances are the Caller ID will have a higher match rate to client records in your CRM system then that of a land line! You can automated the reply, or route the text to the next available agent! Your client either gets an immediate call back, or is offered a scheduled call.
Why call an 800 number, self-navigate through a maze of Automated Attendant menus only to hear the ever present “please hold for the next available agent and your call will be answered in the order it is received”. A simple text message or smart phone ap, could automated that entire process! Your client never has to wait on hold! You agent has all the contact information and can instantly reply with a return text confirming wait time or suggest a scheduled call back time. After all it is a mobile phone, we don’t have to worry about where they might be when we do call back!
Call, Click or Text! A truly unified contact center needs to offer customers a text option. If your contact center is already routing email to the next available agent, we can bring up a TEXT solution in hours, not days. Compare the cost of a text message to the cost of a phone call! Compare customer satisfaction scores with immediate text feedback when compared to and increased wait time. The benefits are astonishing!
Text the keyword DEMO to 424-348-4000 include your email and we will send you a demo account for an automated demo. SMS numbers can be provided Internationally. Optionally open an account at PriorityMemberServices.com and we can get your ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX setup for SMS and MMS!
Most call centers have “on hours” and “off hours” that route callers to different options based on time of day and day of week. ShoreTel ECC has a concept entitled SHIFTS. Shifts have day types: Weekday, Weekend and Holiday. You go to System Parameters in the Contact Center Director, then Schedules and the create a Shift. Name the Shift something useful, specific the day type and the time the shift action should occur. You then apply it to the IRN you want to alter, open or close based on your shift schedule. If you do not understand shifts, however and how they are utilized by the ECC you are at risk of shutting down your call center unintentionally.
Let’s take a closer look at how Shifts work!
Each IRN in the ECC that uses Shifts, has a default setting that specifies where the call should route, if there is no corresponding shift instruction. The Shift might specify a Script, Service or Device. For example you might have Shift named “M-F” defined for day type Weekdays that is active at 8:00AM and specifies that the call should be routed to a script for handling calls during “on hours”. You might then also add another Shift named “Lunch” for a day type Weekdays and set if to activate at 11:59 AM and point it to script that plays an announcement alerting callers that the call center is closed for lunch and invites them to call back at 1PM (never happen but it makes for a good lesson example). Now we create another Shift also named “M-F” for day type Weekday and set it to activate at 1PM. This action points the calls back to the script for “on hours”. Clearly, you also created a Shift for “M-F” for day types Weekday and set the action time at 5PM. The action is to send the call to the script for After hours. Make sense? Seem easy?
Danger – The trouble Spot with Shifts!
Let’s assume you have an IRN for Sales and an IRN for Technical Support and you apply the shifts we defined above, to both IRN’s, but on the sales IRN they do not close for lunch! For this reason, you do not apply the Shift entitled “Lunch” to the Sales IRN. Let’s assume the default route for the Sales IRN is the Closes script, so that after hours calls defaul if not specified in the Shift list to the after hours call handling. So what do you think will happen to the Sales IRN at 11:59?
The fact that you created a Shift and one now exists for “Lunch” during the week is the important take away. Once you apply Shifts to an IRN, ALL shifts apply even if you did not apply that shift to your IRN. In this simple example, the Sales IRN will follow the Default route because you did not specific an alternative destination in you shift list on the Sales IRN for Lunch time. The fact that the Shift exists in the ECC database, requires that you specify an action for that Shift! This is where most folks get into trouble!
What Version of ECC is your Shift definition?
In versions before Connect and ECC 8, Shifts required you to open and close a shift. After version 8, you are not required to close a shift but it would be a good practice to do so! You must account for all shifts, even if they are to relevant to your IRN. The only way around this is to NOT apply any Shifts to an IRN. If the IRN does not use Shifts at all, it will ignore all Shifts! A bit confusing but once you “get it” it is easy.
When in Doubt press Explain Shifts!
In the IRN definition press “Explain Shift” and then select the day you want to explore. The list will populate with all the Shifts that impact that IRN. Remember it does not matter if it is on your list! What matters is that the Shift exists for the ECC and you must specify an action, or in the absence of a direction, the default destination for that IRN will be followed!
So you are upgrading to ShoreTel Connect! Watch out for these blistering hot spots:
Assume you have a call center that works three shifts, with 15 Agents per shift. In the Pre-Connect world, you would define 45 agents but you would only need licenses for 15. The Pre-Connect ECC license strategy was “concurrent users”. The new license strategy requires you to license 45 Agents. Additionally, all agents have to be named in the iPBX, costing you an additional “per seat” license for the newly named agents. Before, 45 agents could log into extensions Agent1 through Agent15 using their AgentID to differentiate them for reporting purposes. Wow! I hope you don’t find this out the hard way.
Here are some of our favorite ShoreTel Gotcha’s:
1 – Ever have to move route points from one server to another? You CAN NOT use the batch utility to do this and must remove and then reinstall each route point. So much fun on a large contact center deployment ( If you know SQL you can actually modify the configuration database to do this).
2 – Want to change IP address of your HQ? If you are using the new family of 400 phones, you will have to touch each phone individually and manually CLEAR the Configuration for the new Option 156 and DHCP values to take hold. How would you like to upgrade 3K phones across five times zones to learn that gem!
3 – Gee, would it not be nice to use DNS Name resolution in the Phone Setup? You could just change the IP address in DNS and update your entire deployment!
4 – Is it no time to get rid of the DB9 Serial IO cable for switch configuration? It is the 21st century and we sill do not have USB on ShoreTel switches? When was the last time you had a serial printer cable with an DB9 connector hanging around your tool bag?
5 – Setting up OBDC connectors still use 32-bit connector and do NOT support AD login. If you are connecting to Microsoft SQL, for example, if you use an AD credential your ECC Script will fail.
6 – Active Directory integration is a one way sync out of the box. Even adding the ShoreTel professional Service add on for AD will not solve all your issues!
7 – ECC Shifts will destroy you if you do not fully understand their use and impact. Create a Shift to close on of your Customer Service Queues at 1PM and end up closing your entire call center! (See this Blog entry).
8- You can not enter anything in the External number field for transfer a call but 9+1+NPA- NXX-XXXX. No 9+011-44-204-668-5000 for example. It will not work! Not for a call handling mode, CTI route point, External Assignment. Nada. no bueno, NFG!
Useful and Helpful Event Log error entries! Our Personal favorite:
Send us your favorite Installation and Maintenance Gotcha’s and we will update the list and credit you for the contribution!
There are a range of products and services that can be used to “record” phone calls on a CISCO CUCM, UCCX and UCCE. These products range in sophistication from services that simply save a wav file of a recording which you can search for by time and date, to very sophisticated recorders with advanced index and search capabilities. Some products even include speech recognition functions that can be used to search files for a particular call or even handle a recording base on the audio content. CISCO Workforce Optimization and Advanced Quality Management adds desktop screen recording and metrics that can also be used for evaluations and service observing.
All of these products have one characteristic in common; they require you to configure a recording capability in your CUCM to copy the media stream from the target source to the recording server. There are a number of options for doing this including SPAN recording and other options that require you to configure your Ethernet switches to accommodate the recording function. The simplest method to copy media streams is to use the Built in Bridge or BiB of a CISCO phone. Clearly this can only work for a specific set of CISCO phones, but most phones support this function.
General Recipe!
The following is a basic general recipe for setting up your CISCO CUCM for recording and identifies some of the decisions you have to make along the way.
Gateway or Phone;
Notification or not; Notify the caller, or the Agent or both?
Route Pattern for Recorder along with a Partition and Calling Search Space.
Create a Recording Profile;
SIP Trunk Setup between CUCM and Recording server; and options CUCM and Gateway;
Identify Users and add them to the proper CTI Recording and Monitoring Group;
Enable BiB on the phone;
Enable Recording on the DN; Auto always or Selective and reference Recording Profile;
Basically you are creating a conference call between the “source media”, the CUCM and the Recording server. The actual configuration has a lot of details and you will need to carefully consider each element, but the actual setup is routine for your average deployment engineer. We summarized them below in video format.
You can also use CISCO XML services to enable SELECTIVE recording in which a phone is recorded only on the demand of the user. This uses the Calabrio XML api and Phone Service option in CISCO. This will enable the user to push RECORD, PAUSE, RESUME and STOP. The second video walks you through the configuration options for that service. This can also be deployed in Finesse as a desktop button!
Moving the ShoreTel HQ server to a data center to increase system resiliency, reduce or eliminate down time and increasing overall recovery times has always been high on the check list for business continuity and disaster preparedness. Our preferred “data center” however is Amazon Web Services, or AWS for short! We have been deploying ShoreTel in AWS as a “private” cloud solution for some time and have several blogs on the subject.
Do you already have an Amazon Account?
If you have a regular old Amazon book buying account, you already have all you need to log into AWS and get started building out your own virtual private cloud! Though there is a lot to learn, in less than 15 minutes you can spin up a Windows 2012 Server in a virtual private network and then link it back to your onsite location with an AWS provided VPN Gateway!
The simplest ShoreTel/AWS deployment model
The simplest of VoIP deployment models is the placement of the ShoreTel Connect Server in an AWS Region and availability zone of your choice. Typically, we defined a private subnet in three different AWS availability zones and then launched a ShoreTel Connect server. The availability zones provide additional resiliency options. It is even possible to setup an Elastic load balancer than can move from one ShoreTel HQ server to a standby duplicate in another availability zone in the very unlikely situation of a AWS availability zone going off line!
You can interconnect your ShoreTel Connect VPC with your remote sites over a VPN, ultimately moving to a “direct connect” circuit and only using the VPN for backup. The remote sites will have ShoreGear resources to support localized carrier access and onsite user phone services. The distributed nature of the ShoreTel architecture makes this a natural deployment model. This is by far the simplest of the deployment options and one that everyone who is considering moving a ShoreTel HQ server to a data center should consider.
Even Ingate in the Cloud?
With ShoreTel Version 14, virtual switch resources make it possible to create the entire deployment in your VPC. You can even deploy your Ingate as a virtual Session Border Controller, in the AWS cloud and centralize your SIP carrier access. This is a bit more demanding then spinning up a Windows server but now that AWS enables you to import vmware machines, it is an exciting option.
Importing vmware based ShoreTel machines
The secret to deploying ShoreTel vSwitches in the AWS cloud is to first build the machines as vmware machines in your local environment with an IP that can be duplicated in your private virtual network. Once your machines are created, you can then import them into AWS.
The options for deploying VOIP in your own “private cloud” have never been more flexible. Your CFO is going to be impressed when comparing AWS to the cost of building out your own data center or renting space in a collocation facility. You have all of the benefits and none of the cost associated with a typical infrastructure build out. Connection options are unlimited and you can access AWS facilities on a global bases!
The Video clip demonstrates a ShoreTel HQ and ECC Server in an AWS VPC, with a VPN back to the main office site. The office site contains ShoreGear switches for SIP trunk access and 400 series phone support. There is a synergy when integrating AWS and ShoreTel that every CIO should be seriously considering. Give us a call and we can help make this happen for your company!
Routing by the number the caller dialed, or DNIS is the preferred routing strategy for any Call Center call flow. Clearly you can assign a DID phone number to a specific call flow and anyone who knocks on that door is answered by the same group of agents. It is much more efficient to grab the DNIS information, however, and use it to index a database to retrieve the call routing information. In this way, we only need one door to the call center! The DNIS might be used to route a call to the proper product or service group and it may also be used to retrieve client information that the call center Agent needs to see displayed in order to provide a custom care answer prompt.
Consider the requirements of a Hospital that is providing “centralized scheduling services” for 1000’s of primary care physicians. When the inbound call is presented to the Agent, the requirement is that the caller be greeted with a customized answer prompt. For Example: “Doctor Leary’s office, are you calling to make an appointment?” or “Thank you for calling Doctor Williams”. This type of dynamic call handling can best be managed by using DNIS information to retrieve the Doctor’s name from a database We do this regularly in CISCO UCCX and ShoreTel ECC Call Center solutions and the process is essentially the same for both solutions.
ShoreTel ECC Route by DNIS example
First, we need to create a DNIS Map in the ShoreTel PBX; a ‘route point/IRN ‘ combination to pass the call to the ECC; and an ODBC connector from the ECC server to your favorite SQL database server. The SQL server would host the database your scripting application needs to access in order to obtain the correct answer prompt. Lets assume that the database contains a very simple table structure:
You would then write a simple script to take the incoming DNIS information and use it to index the database and get the OfficeName and maybe the Customer Service Queue that handles that office (City or State or what have you). There is no limit to the information you could retrieve and present to the Agent, For example: Name, Service Class (Platnium, Gold or Silver), Renewal date, last order, shipment date, the list goes on. In this simple example the script would take the DNIS and use a SQL expression to retrieve the answer prompt data:
Select * from DNISlistof DoctosOffices where DNIS = %DNIS_NAME%
Creating a DNIS MAP in ShoreTel iPBX
In the ShoreTel iPBX Trunk Group it is necessary to create a DNIS map for two reasons: First, the ShoreTel ECC can not read the DNIS directly, it requires the administrator to fill in the “dialed number” column in the DNIS map. The ECC has a mandatory call profile filed named DNIS-NAME which will be auto filled with the information you provide in the DNIS map “dialed number” column. Secondly, unlike a DID number that might be directly mapped to an extension, we need a way to get the incoming call connected to the IRN on the ECC that is running the DNIS SQL lookup Script. In this example, the Destination field of the DNIS Digit Map in the ShoreTel iPBX Truk Group points to the Route Point/IRN in the ECC that supports the script.
POPing the Agent Display with useful Data
The ShoreTel ECC has two variables data types: Mandatory or System Variables; and User create Variables. The Mandatory variables are system call parameters like ANI or DNIS and a long list of other system based data. ANI contains the digits that make up the caller identification and that is also often used to retrieve database information. If you are using ANI you will need to do some string manipulation to strip off the +1 from the 10 digit number, or format to match your database. User created variables are the name you create for the fields you will get from your database. Useful examples would be CustomerName, DateOfService, AccountBalance and RenewalDate. Any Variable, User created or System, can be pushed out to the Agent Display within the ShoreTel Communicator.
What is your Call Center Application Requirement
We have seen it all, so we are always interested in your requirements for custom CRM integration and Call Flow management. Give us call or drop us an email and play “stump the vendor”. We would love the challenge of finding yet another new ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX Contact Center application requirement!
