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Cisco Finesse® helps businesses and organizations deliver a Connected Digital Experience, enabling you to deliver contextual, continuous, and capability-rich journeys for your customers, across time and channels.
Your customer service representatives need immediate access to a wealth of information. Help them quickly search for information using numerous applications. Enable them to respond to your customers promptly. With the Cisco Finesse desktop you can. This intuitive, easy-to-use desktop can help your representatives improve their performance and satisfaction, in turn enhancing their ability to provide quality customer service.
The Cisco Finesse desktop is the agent and supervisor desktop for Cisco® Customer Care solutions, providing easy access to the applications and information your customer service representatives need, through a customizable web-based interface. The Cisco Finesse desktop offers smooth integration with the Cisco Contact Center product portfolio. Standards-compliant, it offers low-cost customization of the agent and supervisor desktops.
Business value
The customer service group in your business or organization can handle thousands of inquiries from customers and prospects every day, and your customer service representatives need to respond quickly and efficiently with the information that customers request. When responding to customers, representatives constantly switch between applications to search for information. This process takes time—time that your customers spend waiting.
The Cisco Finesse solution meets this challenge by creating a personalized desktop work environment using a web-based interface. The Cisco Finesse desktop provides a single, customizable cockpit that enables your customer care representatives to take advantage of multiple assets and information sources to assist customers.
Fast, efficient, accurate service results in happy, satisfied, and loyal customers who will return to do business with you again. And it saves operational costs for your business.
The Cisco Finesse agent and supervisor desktop for Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise and Unified Contact Center Express integrates traditional contact center functions into a thin-client desktop. A critical characteristic is that every desktop is 100-percent browser-based and implemented through a Web 2.0 interface; no client-side installations are required, thus reducing your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The Cisco Finesse desktop also provides a Web 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) and gadgets to enable developers to get started quickly with implementing in your environment.
Table 1 lists the features and benefits of Cisco Finesse 12.0.
Table 1. Features and benefits of Cisco Finesse 12.0
| Feature |
Benefits |
| User experience refresh for agents and supervisors |
The enhanced user experience would assist in making agents more productive and empowers supervisors. |
| System-generated not-ready codes |
System-generated not-ready codes allow the most up-to-date agent state information to be tracked. |
| Outgoing call from ready state |
Agents can make an outgoing call from the ready state. |
| Agent call history and agent state history |
Desktop gadgets based on live data provide new reports on agent call history and agent state history. Agents can view their recent state and call history details in the Cisco Finesse gadgets. Agents can make an outgoing call to the listed phone numbers in the recent call history. Supervisors can view the recent state and call history of an agent in the team performance gadget. |
| Desktop chat |
Agents can chat with other agents and supervisors, as well as experts outside the contact center. It also enables supervisors to provide guidance or coach agents via a chat session. |
| Team message |
Supervisors can send broadcast messages to their teams. |
| Filtering logged-out agents |
Supervisors shall not see logged-out agents by default in the team performance gadget. |
| Context Service improvements |
Context Service serviceability improvements make it easier to track and ensure the flow of customer context information all the way to the agent desktop. |
| Direct transfer |
An agent can transfer the call to another agent without a consult call. |
| Silent monitor manual outbound call |
A supervisor can silent monitor an agent on his/her team while the agent makes a manual outbound call from an ACD line. |
| Finesse failover enhancements |
Finesse Desktop can fail over independent of the Unified CCX engine mastership status. This will also enable agents to log in to the Unified CCX server, irrespective of engine mastership status. |
| Queue details in call variable layout and workflow |
Administrators can configure queue details in call variable layout and workflow. Depending on the configuration, the agents can view queue details in call variable layout and browser pop. |
| Queue statistics for Finesse IP phone agent |
Finesse IP phone agents can view queue statistics pertaining to calls queued and longest queue time [Unified CCX only]. |
Tables 2 and 3 list continuing features and benefits of Cisco Finesse.
Table 2. Features and benefits of Cisco Finesse
| Feature |
Benefits |
| Solution features |
|
| Single Sign-On (SSO) |
SSO simplifies login and password management for agents and supervisors by allowing just one login for the Finesse desktop and associated gadgets. |
| Toaster notifications |
These notifications appear when the Cisco Finesse web interface is not active or is in a minimized state:
● Agent receives a desktop call notification on an incoming call
● Agent receives a notification when a new email is received
● Agent receives a notification when a new chat is received
|
| Pop-over for voice and digital channel alerts |
This feature allows agents to view selective interaction-specific information prior to answering a call. This capability is also available for digital channels. |
| Browser support |
Finesse supports the Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers for customer care agents, supervisors, and administrators. Finesse aligns with the latest browsers, which provides flexibility to agents. |
| CORS support for Finesse REST API |
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is now supported when third-party web applications instantiated from a third-party web server need to make calls to the Finesse Desktop. Finesse REST APIs can be directly invoked with an additional HTTP request header "origin" that specifies the origin domain of the HTTP request. |
| Task routing API [Unified CCE only] |
This API enables new types of interactions, such as videos, texts, and events from the Internet of Things, to be routed to the contact center. |
| Adjustable height of team performance gadget |
The administrator can resize the team performance gadget height based on the number of agents. The administrator can specify the height of the team performance gadget in the desktop layout XML file. |
| Outbound campaign management API |
This API allows for more precise control over contact center outbound calling campaigns. |
Table 3. Features and benefits of Cisco Finesse
| Feature |
Benefits |
| Product features |
|
| Web 2.0 SDK |
● Allows customers to create next-generation applications or integrations to Cisco Unified Contact Centers
● Offers a powerful, broadly applicable Web 2.0-based Application Programming Interface (API) for use with gadget-based applications provided by Cisco with the SDK; custom-built gadget-based applications; third-party desktop applications; wallboard; and workforce management products
|
| Open Web 2.0 APIs |
● Simplify the development and integration of value-added applications by Cisco partners
● Open the traditionally closed or proprietary world of desktop applications
● Minimize the need for detailed desktop development expertise using APIs that hide the complexity of the underlying architecture and functions
● Enable Cisco partners to take advantage of pervasive web developer talent to create new, and modify existing, desktop gadget applications
|
| Enterprise mash-up architecture |
● Offers the ability to mash up contact center data and enterprise components using the Cisco Enterprise or Express Collaboration platform
● Offers the ability to combine Cisco Finesse agent and supervisor components with the transformational enterprise social software capabilities of the Cisco Collaboration platform to provide high-quality customer care
|
| Multiple call variable layouts per system |
● Enable administrators to define multiple call variable layouts and decide which layout to display to the agent
● Allow for easier migration from Cisco Agent Desktop to Cisco Finesse desktop because changes to routing scripts are not required
|
| Cisco Finesse IP phone agent support |
● Cisco Finesse IP phone agent functionality allows agents to access Cisco Finesse functions, including agent state, ready and not-ready codes, wrap-up codes, and caller data
● Allows agents to continue to take customer calls if they do not have access to the Cisco Finesse desktop in their browser
|
| Live data for Cisco Finesse agents (Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise [UCCE] only) |
● Gives agents integrated access to real-time team status information
● Allows supervisors to make real-time decisions such as transfer targets or team coverage for optimal agent coverage
|
| Desktop features |
|
| Call-control gadget |
● Allows both agents and supervisors complete call control, including answer, hold, retrieve, conference, transfer, and end call; in addition, the phonebook feature allows agents and supervisors to click to call from a directory
● Provides supervisors added control with barge and intercept
● Provides agents with screen pops containing customer information and provides wrap-up capabilities
|
| Optional wrap-up codes (Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise [Unified CCE]) |
● Allows agents to choose to go into wrap-up after a call
● Puts agents who select wrap-up into a pending wrap-up state until wrap-up is completed
|
| Real-time queue statistics for agents (Cisco Unified Contact Center Express [Unified CCX]) |
● Provides a gadget for agents to see real-time queue statistics for their team
|
| Multisession web chat support (Unified CCX) |
● Allows agents to work on multiple chat sessions at the same time for increased agent resource usage
|
| Multiline support |
● Allows agents to use multiple lines on their phone
● Provides for reporting on secondary lines
|
| Team performance gadget |
● Shows supervisors the agent state, time in state, and extension of all agents that are on the supervisor's team
● Includes controls for supervisors to silently monitor the agent or change the state of the agent
|
| Supervisor team performance gadget |
● Enables supervisors to view “not-ready” reason codes in the supervisor team performance gadget: break, at lunch, or wrap-up from another call
|
| Queue gadget |
● Shows supervisors the number of calls in queue, time of longest call in queue, and a list of the number of agents in each state across all queues; the queue gadget also supports Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise 9.0 precision queues
|
| HTTP and Representational State Transfer (REST) API workflows |
● Allows easy configuration of complex screen-pop actions based on the attributes of a call, allowing agents to provide improved service and reduce call times
|
| Mobile agent support [Unified CCE] |
● Allows agents to log into their Cisco Finesse desktops remotely and receive calls, regardless of the type of phone they are using
|
| Outbound dialing support and scheduled call back |
● Supports outbound dialing, including progressive, predictive, and direct preview modes, allowing agents to handle both inbound and outbound dialing tasks
● Provides a gadget to allow agents to take part in outbound calling campaigns when real-time contact queues (inbound calls and web chats) are low
● Allows agents to schedule callbacks during outbound calling campaigns when the customer is reached at an inconvenient time
● Allows agents to schedule callbacks for the same agent or go to any available agent
|
| Username login |
● Allows agents and supervisors to log in with their usernames instead of agent IDs, enabling them to log in quickly and accurately
|
| E.164 support |
● Supports E.164 published by the ITU-T for international dialing
|
| Agent active call details |
● Enables supervisors to access the Team Performance gadget to view active call details of the call that the agent is currently engaged in
|
| Search and set wrap-up reason |
● Allows agents to search and set a wrap-up reason for a call
|
| Multi-select wrap-up reasons |
● Allows agents to select up to 5 wrap-up reasons for a voice call [Unified CCX only]
|
| Wrap-up state timer |
● Allows agents to view the time available in the wrap-up state
|
| Force wrap-up reason |
● Forces agents to specify a wrap-up reason during an active call, before moving to the next call
|
| Customizable logo and title in the header |
● Allows administrators to configure the logo and title of the Finesse desktop
|
| Digital channel state control |
● Provides the ability for agents to easily change states for digital channels
● There is also a provision to register and add any digital channel to the digital channel state control [Unified CCE only]
|
| Workflow for digital channels |
● Allows administrators to configure workflow for digital channels [only email and chat channels for Unified CCX]
|
| UI refresh for Finesse administration |
● Provides an enhanced UI for administrators. There is also a provision to search for reason codes from the UI.
|
| Drag and Drop/Resize Gadgets |
● Ability for agents and supervisors to re-arrange their desktop views by draging and dropping/resizing gadgets
|
| Allow Agents to update call variable during active call |
● Agents can update call variables inline for an active call thereby aligning the call context directly at source
|
| Shortcut keys for Agent and Supervisor |
● Agents and supervisors can quickly get to their tasks by using shortcut keys
|
| Agent search in Team Performance Gadget |
● Supervisors can quickly search and retrieve an agent in the Team Performance gadget
|
| Improved layout configuration UX for Finesse Administrator |
● Improved Finesse layout configuration UX makes layout management by administrators easier and less error prone
|
| Contacts for phonebook increased to 6000 contacts |
● Contact limit for Phonebook has been increased to 6000 Contacts
|
| Agent Statistics Live Data Report |
● Agents can view statistics to assess their performance during the course of the day
|
Platform Support, Compatibility, and Specifications
Consult the Cisco Finesse release notes for hardware and operating system requirements, for compatibility with other Cisco and third-party products, and for additional product specifications: https://developer.cisco.com/site/finesse/.
The Cisco Finesse solution is licensed by seat. For more information regarding licensing, contact your Cisco representative or Cisco authorized partner.
Find warranty information about the Cisco Finesse desktop on Cisco.com at the Product Warranties page.
To place an order for the Cisco Finesse desktop, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page. To download software, visit the Cisco Software Center.
Cisco Services adapt to market changes while increasing productivity, improving competitive advantage, and delivering a rich-media experience across any workspace.
The combined strengths of Cisco and our partners provide a portfolio of services that can help you prepare your infrastructure for future changes aligning to long-term business goals. Together we create innovative, network-centric architecture solutions resulting in a scalable and responsive foundation that can help you realize the full value of your IT and communication investment.
For more information about Cisco Unified Contact Center Services, visit: https://www.cisco.com/go/ucservices.
Cisco Authorized Partners
Cisco Advanced Technology Partners and Cisco Unified Communications Advanced Partners are authorized to sell and install the Cisco Finesse desktop. To find an authorized reseller, contact your local Cisco representative or visit the Cisco Partner Locator at: https://tools.cisco.com/WWChannels/LOCATR/openBasicSearch.do.
Cisco Developer Network
The Cisco Developer Network program offers a formalized means for developers to develop value-added applications, solutions, and gadgets for use with the Cisco Finesse desktop. Information about Cisco Developer Network partners is available at: https://developer.cisco.com/site/finesse/.
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For more information about the Cisco Finesse desktop, visit: https://www.cisco.com/go/finesse.