Glossary

Admin Services

Admin Services retrieves security and profile information from Directory Services.  Directory Services and Admin Services work together to handle connectivity to the Exchange Server.  Directory Services handles user configuration and addressing issues, while Admin Services handles security and profiles.

Alert Services

This subsystem allows users and supervisors to define specific circumstances (e.g., average hold time > 10 minutes) under which they are to be alerted and the means by which the alert is to occur (e.g., e-mail, pager, phone call, etc.).

Authentication

Notifier uses challenge/response techniques to authenticate other components and applications to increase the security of products built around the Interaction Center Platform.

Client Services

Client Services is the subsystem of CIC that keeps track of logged-in users, their status, and their rights based on security configurations.  Without Client Services there would not be a client interface, such as the CIC clients.

Compression Services

This subsystem compresses audio recordings such as voice mail messages using the TrueSpeech compression algorithm.

Context Attributes

Context Attributes tag message entries to identify a data element of some sort, such as a CallId or a specific user name.  Subsystems add context attributes to individual log entries to associate a message with a specific item of information that can be used to group or filter data.

Customer Interaction Center (CIC)

Customer Interaction Center (CIC) is designed for sophisticated contact centers managing inbound, outbound, or blended interactions. CIC provides skills-based routing not only for telephone interactions, but faxes, Emails, text chats, Web call-back requests, and voice over IP calls. CIC can support up to several hundred agents per site, and offers optional pre and post-call routing across multiple locations. And it makes screen popping a breeze, with easy interfaces to products from leading CRM vendors such as Siebel, Pivotal, Onyx, Peoplesoft, and many more.

Data Services

Data Services integrates CIC with relational database management systems such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, IBM DB2, etc.

Directory Services

Directory Services manages a repository of CIC configuration information in the Windows NT Registry. When Microsoft Exchange or IBM Notes/Domino support is installed, CIC user information in Directory Services is synchronized with the corresponding entries in the mail server's address book.  Directory Services and Admin Services work together to handle connectivity to the Exchange Server.  Directory Services handles user configuration and addressing issues, while Admin Services handles security and profiles.

Email Services

Email services integrate CIC with popular e-mail systems such as Microsoft Exchange, IBM Notes, Novell Groupwise, Sun/iPlanet Messaging Server, and other SMTP/IMAP-based systems.

Fax Services

Fax Services is the CIC subsystem that sends and receives faxes.

Handlers

Interaction Processor executes small programs called handlers in response to unique events and to specify how the system will behave. When the Interaction Processor recognizes an event that it needs to act upon, it turns to the list of handlers to determine which one should respond to that event.  It then runs an instance of that handler and any subroutine handlers that are necessary.  Multiple instances of handlers can run at the same time, as those multiple events occur.  Once the handler has completed its routine, it deletes itself from the system.

Host Services

Host Services allow CIC to communicate with mainframes and IBM AS/400 systems using the 3270 and 5250 terminal emulation protocols.

IC Server

Customer  Interaction Center (CIC) is a client/server software product that transforms a Windows NT server into a comprehensive communications system. The IC server answers and processes calls. The profiles you create in Interaction Attendant are saved to the IC server where they are executed when a call is picked up.

Interaction Attendant

The graphical tool for configuring and maintaining CIC's auto attendant.

Interaction Designer

The CIC graphical application development tool for creating, debugging, editing, and managing handlers and subroutines.

Interaction Processor

Interaction Processor tells the CIC system how to behave based upon any events that occur.  An incoming call is just one example of an event that CIC recognizes.

LogSnipper

A command-line utility that saves portions of a log file to a separate disk file.  Trace Viewer reads log files and snippets.

Log Snippet

A portion of a subsystem log saved as a separate file.

Logs

Each CIC subsystem writes system messages in the form of logs.  A log is a binary file that stores information about an event of some sort, to record normal operation or an abnormal condition.  Log entries cannot be modified, but logs can be appended to.  Logs maintain a record of processing steps completed, and record the state a CIC subsystem at a specific point in time.  Logs entries can be snipped (extacted) using LogSnipper and read using the Trace Viewer utility.

Notifier

The Notifier is a Customer Interaction Center module that acts as a communication center for all other modules.  It listens for events generated by other modules and notifies other interested modules that the event has occurred.  Notifier makes use of the TCP/IP protocol to communicate with the rest of the Interaction Center Platform. It provides critical services such as Authentication, Request/Response Processing, and Publish/Subscribe Event Processing.  Connections between Notifier and other components can be encrypted for maximum security.  Notifier passes information between subsystems in real-time. For example, a supervisory application can display the real-time status of every agent in a call center. When an agent finishes a call and hangs up the phone, an icon on the supervisor's screen instantly changes. Similarly, if an administrator changes a user's security rights to disallow access to phone line information, a notebook tab instantly disappears from the user's screen.  Notifier's publish/subscribe capabilities reduce overall network traffic by sending event notifications only to components that actually care about them. This allows applications using the Interaction Center Platform to handle much larger numbers of users and interactions.

Object

Everything in CIC is an object, and objects must be stored in lists, or queues. CIC handles several different types of queues, including users, stations, lines, and so on, so we need some way to manage the activity on these queues. For example, you can have call objects, user queue objects, station queue objects, and so on.

OCR Services

Optical Character Recognition services convert faxes to textual documents in specific formats such as Microsoft Word.

Paging Services

CIC uses the Paging Services subsystem to issue digital pages to paging services supporting the TAP protocol.

Process

A process is the execution of a program. It is a collection of virtual memory space, code, data, and system resources. Each process is a distinct entity, able to execute and terminate independently of all other processes. A 32-bit application has at least one process and one thread. A processor executes threads, not processes. Prior to the introduction of multiple threads of execution, applications were all designed to run on a single thread of execution.

Publish/Subscribe Event Processing

The Customer Interaction Center Platform is largely event-driven. Using Notifier, different components can register or "subscribe" for specific events.  For example, the Fax Services component might register for all events regarding an outbound call. If that call were suddenly disconnected, Notifier would receive a notification from Telephony Services and then forward the event notification to Fax Services, allowing it to terminate the outgoing fax operation.

Queue

Queues are containers for calls and other types of interactions that can be processed.  Each CIC client user has a user queue. Each workgroup, such as marketing or support, has a workgroup queue. Stand-alone phones not connected to PCs and fax machines have station queues.

Queue Manager

Queue Manager is the CIC subsystem that handles queue representations as a logical map of what is occurring within the system at any given time. 

Request/Response Processing

Customer Interaction Center Platform components don't communicate directly with each other. Instead, they make requests for services of Notifier and Notifier then forwards the requests to the appropriate components. When Notifier receives a response, it then sends this response to the originating component. For example, the Fax Services component may need to make an outbound call to send a fax. It issues a request for an outbound call to Notifier, which forwards the request to the Telephony Services component. When the outbound call is made, Telephony Services sends a response to Notifier, which then forwards the response to Fax Services. In this way, Fax Services doesn't need to know where (i.e., on which machine) Telephony Services resides.

Speech Recognition Services

Speech Recognition services recognize spoken commands and phrases for applications such as speech-enabled IVR (interactive voice response).

Station Groups

Station groups are groups of phones in break rooms, conference rooms, and other public areas.

Station Queue

A queue where interactions are placed when they are to be processed by a station.

Statistical Services

This subsystem tracks important statistical information for real-time views and historical reporting.

Telephony Services

Telephony Services is the only CIC subsystem that interfaces directly with telephony hardware.  This software layer provides a line of demarcation between the rest of Customer Interaction Center and telephony hardware.  All voice traffic coming from the Public Switched Network goes to the telephony hardware and it stays below that line. The Telephony Services software processes call data and then communicates to the telephony hardware the information necessary to direct the call to the correct party.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) Services

Convert text such as e-mail messages to audio that can be played over a telephone.

Threads

Threads are the basic unit to which an operating system allocates processor time. A thread is code that is to be serially executed within a process and more than one thread can be executing code inside a process. Each thread maintains exception handlers, a scheduling priority, and a set of structures the system uses to save the thread context until it is scheduled. The thread context includes all of the information the thread needs to seamlessly resume execution, including the thread's set of CPU registers and stack, in the address space of the thread's host process.

Time Slicing

A program can allocate processor time to units in its body. Each unit is then given a portion of the processor time. Even if your computer has only one processor, it can have multiple units that work at the same time. The trick is to slice processor time and give each slice to each processing unit. The smallest unit that can take processor time is called a thread. A program that has multiple threads is referred to as a multithreaded application.

Trace Viewer

A CIC utility program that reads log files and snippets.

Trunk

A trunk is a communications line that connects two switching systems, such as the equipment in a telephone company's central office, and the PBX in a company.

User Queue

A queue where interactions (such as calls and chat sessions) intended for an individual user are routed.

Web Services

Web Services integrate CIC with popular Web servers from vendors including Microsoft, Sun/iPlanet, IBM, Apache, and others to provide services such as text chat, and Web call-back request processing.

Wireless Services

The CIC subsystem that communicates with wireless PDAs such as Blackberry, Palm, and Pocket PC devices.