Contents

Dialer integration

A key advantage of Interaction Dialer is its interoperability with CIC services, applications, and add-on products. Interaction Dialer is completely assimilated with CIC. This eliminates the compatibility problems that plague other CTI systems.

For outbound, inbound or blended interactions, CIC supplies the PBX, IVR, ACD, web gateway and more.

Interaction Dialer, on the CIC server, provides outbound and inbound/outbound contact centers and teleservices providers with a fully integrated solution to create outbound campaigns of every kind without having to add expensive predictive dialer hardware.

Dialer campaigns are managed using a "single-point" administration utility: Interaction Dialer Manager. This makes outbound efforts more manageable.

Integration with services

Interaction Dialer takes full advantage of CIC features, including but not limited to:

ACD

IVR

Database integration

Skills-based routing

Call blending

Screen pop

Multimedia interactions

Reporting

Supervisory control

Call Analysis

For example, outbound dialing for Dialer is performed by CIC subsystems. When a live person is detected by call analysis, that call is routed to the most appropriate agent using the same ACD routing that CIC uses for inbound calls. If call analysis detects an answering or fax machine, Dialer receives this information and uses it to play messages or send faxes appropriately.

Integration with applications

Interaction Dialer adds plug-in application modules to familiar application frameworks. Installation of Interaction Dialer adds campaign management features to CIC. For example, call center supervisors can define any number of campaigns, and control their execution manually or run campaigns in accordance with schedules. Campaigns can be automated, using Rules that run in response to changing campaign conditions, or Policies that provide low-level control over the processing of individual contact records.

Dialer also adds contact list management features, such as the ability to scrub contact numbers against Do-Not-Call data sources. Administrators can import or export contact records, add contact records on the fly, and manage other contact list settings, such as record selection filters, sorts, outbound caller ID, and much more.

The user interface used to configure Interaction Dialer is called Interaction Dialer Manager (IDM). IDM is an application module that plugs into Interaction Administrator. IDM manages campaigns, contact lists, and scripts. It also configures the optional building blocks of campaigns, which are zones, stages, skills, policies, schedules, and rules.

Subject to access rights and license restrictions, IDM's administration functionality is identical in all application contexts, except that top-level commands conform to the visual metaphor of the framework hosting the IDM plug-in. IDM configuration settings are stored centrally on the Central Campaign Server (CCS). The administrator of each Outbound Dialer Server can update configuration settings used by all participating servers in the network.

Dialer adds Interaction Supervisor views to IC Business Manager, for the purpose of monitoring campaign and agent statistics in real-time. Users can set alerts that notify when conditions exceed user-defined thresholds such as a campaign goal met, queue backing up, and so forth. IC Business Manager users can run Dialer reports in the Interaction Reporter module.

Integration with add-on products

The table below lists add-on products that work with Interaction Dialer:

Interaction Dialer interoperability with PureConnect platform

Requirement

Product

Usage

Agent Scripting

Ensure that agents receive exactly the information and options they need to process each call.

Base Scripts

Interaction Scripter API

IceLib.Dialer API

CallScripter™

Interaction Dialer supports scripting options that make it easy for developers and non-developers to create scripts that guide agents through the stages of a campaign call. Every campaign has a script that pops on the agent desktop when a call is sent to an agent. Scripts ensure that Agents receive exactly the information and options they need to process each call.

Non-programmers can create base scripts by setting options in Interaction Dialer Manager.

To create custom scripts, web developers can use HTML and JavaScript with the Interaction Scripter API. Non technical users can use CallScripter™, a drag-and-drop script development environment.

If you do not want to run Interaction Scripter Client on Agent desktops, you can develop your own custom client application using the IceLib.Dialer API.

Screen Pop

When a call is delivered to an agent, "pop" the appropriate script containing information about the customer and step by step call processing instructions.

Interaction Scripter .NET Client

Custom IceLib.Dialer client applications

Interaction Connect

Interaction Scripter .NET Client and Interaction Connect run base scripts configured in Interaction Dialer Manager.

Interaction Scripter .NET Client runs custom scripts developed using Interaction Scripter API.

Interaction Scripter .NET Client and Interaction Connect populate the agent's display with information pertaining to the call, the customer, and the campaign, based on behavior defined in a script. Information collected or modified by agents is routed back to campaign database tables.

Outbound IVR Creation

Route connected contacts to IVR interactions.

Interaction Attendant

Using the agentless dialing mode, Interaction Dialer allows campaigns to play dynamic messages to answering machines or people, and send faxes to fax machines.

These messages can be notifications; for example appointment reminders, service updates, product ready, and so on. It can provide the option for the live party to interact with Interactive Voice Response (IVR). This process is often called Outbound IVR.

Outbound IVR campaigns can combine automated, dynamic messaging with text-to-speech to read contact-specific information back and speech recognition. The live contact on the other end can choose to speak to an agent or do anything else enabled in the IVR menu.

The call can then be transferred to an appropriate inbound queue based on information about the called party, the time of day, and so on for handling by an agent.

Outbound IVR and messaging, ranging from simple messages to complex interactions, is configured using Interaction Attendant, the powerful, yet easy-to-use tool employed by CIC customers for inbound IVR and auto-attendant configuration.

Real-time Supervisory Control

Monitor campaigns and agents, manage workforce resources, and control the execution of campaigns, based on real-time statistics and alerts.

Interaction Dialer views in IC Business Manager

Call center supervisors can view real-time statistics about agents and campaigns in Interaction Supervisor, an application module of IC Business Manager.

Agents can be monitored and coached while the supervisor keeps watch over campaign goals, and workforce resources. Supervisor allows alerts to be set on any statistic, so that when user-defined thresholds are reached, special processing or notification actions can occur.

Based on real-time information, call center supervisors can start, stop, pause, recycle, and reset campaigns in Supervisor and Interaction Dialer Manager.

Call and Screen Recording

Meet compliance requirements and monitor agent effectiveness.

Interaction Recorder

Dialer calls and agent's on-screen interactions can be recorded using Interaction Recorder.

Customization

Modify CIC processing behaviors to meet any need.

Interaction Designer

Handlers are visually designed programs that allow customers to customize and control internal CIC operations. Predefined entry points in handlers make it possible to insert custom logic into the flow of control, should special needs exist. Handlers are managed using Interaction Designer, the visual development tool included with CIC.

By the way, no handler development is required to implement Interaction Dialer.

Reporting

View, annotate, print, or export performance information about campaigns and agents.

Interaction Reporter

CIC provides standard reports that summarize queue and blended call activity. Interaction Dialer builds upon the open reporting architecture of the CIC by adding predictive reports to Interaction Reporter. Predictive reports describe the performance of campaigns and agents.

Interaction Reporter is an IC Business Manager application that makes it easy to run pre-defined reports by using filters to configure report parameters. Report Filters can be saved to run reports again. You can view Interaction Reports on-screen, annotate, print, and export each report.