Cisco 800 Series router can provide the remote agent with V3PN, Encryption, Network Address Translation (NAT), Firewall, Cisco IOS Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and QoS on the broadband network link to the Cisco Unified CCX campus. Remote agent V3PN aggregation on the campus is provided via LAN to LAN VPN routers.
Cisco recommends using the Cisco 800 Series router with the following features for remote agent over broadband:
• Quality of Service (QoS) with Low-Latency Queuing (LLQ) and Class-Based Weighted Fair Queuing (CBWFQ) support
• Managed Switch
• Power over Ethernet (optional)
The Cisco 830, 870, and 880 Series routers are examples of the recommended routers. Cisco does not recommend using the Cisco 850 and 860 Series routers for this application because they have limited QoS feature support.
Cisco TelePresence Virtual Agent Solution
The Cisco TelePresence Virtual Agent solution enables organizations to create a live, “face-to-face” interaction with their customers—over the network with Cisco TelePresence. The life-size,
high-definition video, CD-quality audio, and interactive elements of the TelePresence solution give customers the feeling of being “in person” with a specialist agent, while the agent maintains all of the contact center functions they would expect.
For example, a national bank has a limited number of property insurance specialists on staff, resulting in customers being unable to receive the guidance and service the bank wants to deliver. By providing insurance and mortgage experts at branch offices through Cisco TelePresence Virtual Agent, quality service is always available to customers. At the bank branch, a customer can enter an office designated for the virtual agent, make a selection on the Cisco Unified IP Phone, and have a in-person remote meeting with an expert.
This solution consists these hardware and software components:
• Cisco TelePresence System with single screen, for example, CTS-1000
• Cisco Unified CM
• Cisco Unified CCX Software
• Cisco Unified IP Phone 7970G (SIP), for caller and agent
• Cisco Agent Desktop Software
Cisco Unified IP Phone 7970G phone includes the Cisco IP Phone Service, the contents of which are pushed over from the primary codec in XML format over HTTP. The phone provides the user interface to interact with the primary codec for call control and other functions. The phone and primary codec are registered with Cisco Unified CM as SIP devices and they share the same line appearance. However, on the agent side, the phone is associated with the RmCm Provider user so that Unified CCX can monitor the phone for any state changes. Because call signaling and media stream traverse through the primary codec (but not the agent phone), the following guidelines apply:
• Agent must perform all call control actions from the phone but not from CAD.
• Supervisor cannot perform barge-in or intercept from CSD.
Chapter 2 Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Solution Architecture for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Cisco TelePresence Virtual Agent Solution
Cisco TelePresence supports both wideband/AAC and G.711 audio codec. However, the virtual agent solution only supports G.711, which is the common supported audio codec between Cisco Unified CCX and Cisco TelePresence. Cisco recommends using Wideband/AAC audio codec for inter- or intra-region setting when configuring Cisco TelePresence device, In this case, Cisco TelePresence will automatically negotiate down to G.711 when connecting to Unified CCX.
Figure 2-2 and the description that follows explain the virtual agent solution call flow:
Figure 2-2 Cisco TelePresence Virtual Agent Call Flow
1. Customer (caller usually calls inside the corporate network) dials a number to reach an application.
2. Unified CM finds the dialed number associated with a CTI route point that is associated with a CRS Unified CM Telephony user for Unified CCX. This event triggers a JTAPI route request to be sent to Unified CCX.
3. Based upon the DN, which is mapped to a Unified CM Telephony trigger, Unified CCX finds an available CTI port and redirects the call to the port. Unified CCX runs a script that finds an available agent and reserves the agent. The call is transferred to the primary codec on the agent side and the call is presented to the agent device.
4. The agent presses the answer button on the agent device to answer the call. This action causes Unified CCX to instruct Cisco Unified CM to complete the transfer and establishes audio and video between the Cisco TelePresence devices.
Note For more design details, refer the Cisco TelePresence Network System Design Guide available at
2-13 Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Solution Reference Network Design
Chapter 2 Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Solution Architecture for Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Cisco Unified CCX Outbound Preview Dialer
Cisco Unified CCX Outbound Preview Dialer
Cisco Unified CCX Outbound Preview Dailer (Outbound) allows Outbound agents to participate in outbound campaigns in addition to handling inbound calls. This feature selects those agents who are not busy with inbound calls to handle outbound calls, thereby maintaining a high level of agent productivity. The following sections explain the solution architecture for Outbound in the context of Unified CM: