ACD Feature Requests (hot standby, acd groups)

[royce3]

I actually need 5 different but related features. I have at least two customers who are looking at buying either SnomOne Blue or SnomOne plus, and might be willing to pay extra to get these features implemented, so I'd like to get an idea if there's a certain amount that could get these features implemented sooner.

 

Feature #1)

 

hot standby mode:

 

A new star code would be created to support this feature. I originally thought of overloading *64, but I think a new star code would be better.

 

This mode of operation REQUIRES a cti controller, because you need a 3rd party source toggling the agent's state.

 

When dialing this new star code, instead of just hanging up the agent's call (like *64 does), the switch keeps the agent connected to a whitenoise source awaiting cti initialization. The agent is now in a state to be able to take logon to an acd device or group, but is not actually joined to any acd, yet.

 

The cti app now logs the agent into a specific acd, or a combination (acd group) as described in ecma-269 6.1.1.6

 

When the agent is ready to take a call, the cti controller sends csta SetAgentState with a requestedAgentState of requestedAgentStateReady.

 

When the switch assigns a call to an agent, the switch plays a courtesy tone ( or optional whisper ) and connects the call to the agent's already open talk path. If that agent/queue is configured to record the call, then recording begins at that moment.

 

Also a cti event is sent to indicate the agent is connected to a call.

 

It is up to the cti app to reset the agent state back to requestedAgentStateReady to receive each call.

 

When the agent wishes to terminate the call, a normal cti packet is sent that will terminate the call ( or transfer, park, etc ). The server will reconnect the agent to the white noise source. The switch now sends a csta AgentWorkingAfterCallEvent.

 

Feature #2)

 

This is already mentioned above, but I wanted to draw separate attention to it: agents should be able to log into multiple acds simultaneously. Preferrably the cti app should be able to notify the switch what priority each acd has for that agent. For example, the cti app may give acd 70 a high priority and acd 71 a low priority, meaning that if the agent comes available and there are calls in both queues, the high priority queue takes precedence over the low priority one. If priorities are equal, then the caller's waiting time is used to pick the next call.

 

Feature #3)

 

The ability to toggle recording status via cti. (being able to do it via a button on the phone would be nice, too). If the agent is taking credit card information, we don't want to record that.

 

Feature #4)

 

I need call-handling logic separated out of the acd queue. Here's a scenario why that would be important: in the simple example of an answering service, I may have 500 DIDs all ringing into the same queue. I may want to have a customized delay announcement on each DID that says the name of the company while apologizing for the delay. The way snomone is designed, once you hand the call to the queue, all DID-specific customization appears to be lost.

 

So, basically, what I'm asking for with this feature is to basically rename a "queue" to an "incoming route" and add a parameter that indicates which "queue" the call is being put into. That way I can have incoming routes "70" and "71" that both put the call into queue 1, but have different call-handling behavior until the agent picks up the call.

 

Feature #5)

 

This depends on Feature 4 above, the ability to specify an artificial initial "time in queue" to give that a bump in the order the call will be answered.

 

For example, say I answer for several doctor's offices and an emergency room. The emergency room calls should get answered with a higher priority, so I give them a 3 minute artificial initial in-queue time.

 

Say a call comes in to a doctors office and has already been in queue for 2 minutes.

Then a call comes into the emergency room. Since the first call is only 2 minutes ahead of the emergency room call, the emergency room call will be the first to be answered.

 

However, if the doctors office call was already in queue for more than 3 minutes, then it still gets answered first.

[gotvoip]

feature 1)

*64 should log the agent in and out all all the queues they are in. *64 plus the queue should log them in/out of that queue. Not sure why that wouldn't work. If you use a snom 320/360 or 370 you have 12 buttons that you could use to to assign the button to the particular queue. What phones are you planning on using?

feature 2)

Currently you can specify a queue priority so if you do have multiple agents in multiple queues you can make sure your agents are answering the emergency calls. *64 will log them in to all of them

feature 3)I don't think you want to give the agent's ability to turn off call recording. We support add hoc recording but then they would have to turn it on.

feature 4)We don't limit the queues so why not have 500 ACD's if you need to customize each one. It may not be the best solution but not sure how else we could do it easily. How about front ending the ACD with an Auto Attendant.

Feature 5) Currently we don't look at time in queue just who is in the queue. We could add time but then to compare that against queues would add some more complexity.

 

I would contact a snom sales person if you want to pursue this more. Most of the features in the ACD queue came from customer requests.