Enriched Reporting & Real Time Management

The following section of the document outlines features in the new Reporting and Real-Time Management module in CIC 4.0.

Interaction Supervisor

In CIC 3.0 and earlier versions, Interaction Supervisor ran independently on the desktop. As of CIC 3.0, we introduced Interaction Center Business Manager (ICBM) as a framework/unified interface for certain add-on modules like Interaction Feedback, Interaction Optimizer, Interaction Recorder, and Interaction Process Automation. In CIC 4.0, Interaction Supervisor is also a module in ICBM. Therefore, in CIC 4.0, there is not a separate Interaction Supervisor application anymore; all functionality is offered through the ICBM interface.

The rewritten Interaction Supervisor uses the latest technology to improve the look and feel of the user interface. A lot of attention was put into usability of the application when designing the new ICBM module.

Interaction Supervisor includes new features such as drill-down statistics, easier alert management and real-time concurrent license usage. The introduction of distribution and service-level target settings by workgroup and by media type is a major new feature and is described later in this document.

Interaction Center Business Manager (ICBM)

ICBM provides several advantages, especially around usability and scalability. ICBM is a framework application for several CIC add-on modules. It allows the user to create their own custom views based on the modules that are available to them. Instead of having to jump between different applications to use all the different add-on modules of CIC, users can access these modules from a single interface. A user can drag and drop the modules they need onto a view called a workspace. A user can create multiple workspaces, each containing different modules. Switching between workspaces is as simple as clicking on another workspace or using an assigned hot key.

Interaction Center Business Manager displaying some Supervisor modules

For example, supervisors or Contact Center managers can easily select a real-time view from the Interaction Supervisor module, combine it with data from the Interaction Feedback module, and show this all on a single screen. ICBM allows docking of the views just like the feature in the Interaction Client .NET Edition, giving the user the opportunity to create their own views and decide which information is important for them.

In CIC 4.0, the following modules are available through the ICBM interface:

•  Interaction Feedback

•  Interaction Optimizer

•  Interaction Process Automation

•  Interaction Recorder

•  Interaction Reporter

•  Interaction Supervisor

•  Interaction Tracker

Adding new views in ICBM

In addition to usability advantages, CIC 4.0 includes significant scalability improvements. The majority of these improvements result from ICBM and all of its modules using IceLib and Session Manager for the connection back to the IC server. This also supports the advantages previously mentioned regarding regionalization of Session Managers to ICBM and its modules.

IceLib API

As mentioned before, the connection between ICBM and the IC Server is handled through IceLib and Session Manager, which greatly increases scalability. In order for the Interaction Supervisor module to retrieve and display real time statistics through IceLib and Session Manager, IceLib now exposes all statistical information. As a result, IceLib 4.0 now offers the ability to access all statistical information, allowing customers and partners to build their own applications using real-time information.

Statistics  and Graphs

Both the Statistical and Graphical modules have been rewritten with several new usability features. Users can now select which elements they want to display and collapse groups of data they don’t need to see, and still see when statistical alerts are active. Several new display layouts allow users to design the layout of the screen.

Interaction Supervisor with collapsed groups of statistics

The Graphs module allows a user to specify the color for a particular statistic. This allows users in a contact center to configure their colors consistently throughout their organization. A new feature allows the X and Y axes to display a fixed range instead of having them dynamically update based on the data shown, as in previous releases.

Alert Management

Alert Server in IC 4.0 has been changed to improve scalability. The user interface and usability of settings and configuration have been significantly changed to present a visual overview of the configured alerts. The ranges configured, including display colors and icons, are displayed to make configuration easier (Figure ).

Displaying configured Alerts in ICBM

 Assistance Request

The assistance request functionality has been improved to allow a chat conversation between the agent and supervisor. As soon as the chat request is accepted by the supervisor, both parties can enter text and have a real chat conversation. The supervisor also has immediate access to some key call control functions like Listen, Coach, Join and Record while typing with the agent who requested assistance.

Supervisor Dialog for Assistance Request

Figure  shows the new dialog that the supervisor sees when working with an agent on the supervisor assistance request.

Interaction Reporter

Interaction Reporter leverages .NET technology to provide a tighter integration to CIC 4.0, increased security and access controls, and more robust usability features, which include:

•  Relative Date Range Selection - Interaction Reporter provides relative date range selections to run data for ranges like “This Year,” “Last Year,” “Yesterday,” “Today,” and so on, to reduce the need for static data ranges.

•  OR parameters - By default, each parameter added is an AND filter where all data must match all filters/criteria selected. CIC 4.0 introduces the ability to also add OR filters.

•  Type-Ahead “Smart” Selection - The filters automatically identify workgroups or users that match the user’s typing. This feature helps to eliminate user errors that occur from mistyping.
  
  

Type-Ahead "Smart" Selection

•  Filter Import / Export and Save- Allows for filters to be saved and shared with other users.

•  Informational Parameters - Informational input to the report that may allow additional data elements to be displayed or change the requirements for calculations.

•  Threshold Parameters - Defines the criteria to highlight records within a report to allow the supervisor to easily identify the record that is hitting or missing a defined constraint (such as excessive hold times).

•  Group Order - Gives the user control over how the report is grouped and summarized. The user, for example, can choose to group data by Date, and then by Queue, or by Queue, and then by Skill, and then by Date.
  
  

Group Order

•  Show Count - Show count allows the user to see if there are any records in the database that match the current filter criteria on the screen.  This option allows the user to identify whether the filter needs to be minimized to reduce heavy processing of the data and provides a quick way to identify if there will be any results.
  
  

Show Count

•  Multiple Page View - Like other document readers, Interaction Reporter allows reports to be viewed one page at a time, with multiple pages side-by-side on the screen, in a grid, and so on.

•  Copy Button - Allows the screen to be copied and pasted into another application.

•  Annotation Tool - Allows users to make notes and annotate the report from within the application.

Service Level by Workgroup/Media Type

With the new data structure and logging changes, CIC supports greater service-level reporting by enabling separate distribution and service levels per media type, per queue. Each media type within each queue can be configured with up to 12 distribution levels and have its own service-level target.

As an example, emails coming in to the Support queue can have different distribution settings compared to phone calls coming into that same queue. It is up to the system administrator to configure each of the intervals by workgroup and media type.

The new Service Level Target configuration option allows a user to specify the required time in which the interaction needs to be answered. The service-level target, just like the distribution settings, is configured by workgroup and media type. If a workgroup service-level target for calls is set to 20 seconds, the system tracks the percentage of calls that are answered within this service-level target. Contact center managers and supervisors can immediately see how they perform, based on these values, relative to service-level agreements.

Interaction Detail Viewer

Interaction Detail Viewer provides call center supervisors the ability to search for and audit a particular interaction directly in their ICBM workspace. Interaction Detail Viewer provides data on each segment or state of the call, each participant, each wrap-up code that was selected, after-call work time, and various other statistics in both a text and graphical view. Visual cues allow the user to easily identify how many times a call was transferred, placed on hold, if it was recorded, and so on.

Interaction Detail Viewer