Product Overview
Cisco® Unified Contact Center Express (Unified CCX) meets the needs of midmarket and enterprise branch offices or companies that need easy-to-deploy, easy-to-use, secure, virtual, highly available, and sophisticated customer interaction management for up to 400 agents.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express supports powerful, agent-based service as well as fully integrated self-service applications resulting in reduced business costs and improved customer response. The solution provides a sophisticated automatic call distributor (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), computer telephony integration (CTI), and agent and desktop services as well as offering the flexibility to scale to larger, more demanding environments. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express ensures your business rules for inbound and outbound voice, email, web chat, and customer interaction management help deliver each contact to the right agent the first time.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is available in three packages: Standard, Enhanced, and Premium, to better match product functions with your customer contact interaction management requirements. The Cisco Unified CCX solution is tightly integrated with Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Business Edition 6000 (BE 6000).
Table 1 lists the features and benefits of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 10.0
Table 1. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Features and Benefits
Feature |
Benefits |
Agent Capabilities and Benefits |
|
Cisco Finesse Desktop |
● This desktop is a next-generation agent and supervisor desktop for Cisco Customer Collaboration solutions.
● It provides easy access to the applications and information required by your customer service organization through a customizable web-based interface.
● The solution offers an intuitive, easy-to-use desktop design to help improve customer care representative performance and satisfaction, enabling quality customer service.
● The embedded Cisco Finesse desktop supports inbound contact center functions. Core features include:
◦ Customizable agent and supervisor desktops
◦ Call control
◦ Agent state
◦ Silent monitoring
◦ HTTP and representational-state-transfer (REST) application-programming-interface (API) workflows
◦ Phonebook
◦ Recording and playback using Cisco MediaSense and Workforce Optimization recording solutions
◦ Live Data reporting gadgets
◦ E164 support
● Web 2.0 SDK allows customers to create next-generation applications or integrations to Unified Contact Center Express.
● The Web 2.0 SDK 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.
|
Home agents |
● This feature provides flexibility for agents to use their public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) phone devices to accept, transfer, conference, and disconnect calls, while Cisco Unified CCX manages the agent interactions.
● Home agents use the Cisco Unified Communications Manager infrastructure with extend and connect functions along with a Jabber® client.
|
Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition |
● These solutions offer agents and supervisors the tools to access information they need to do their jobs.
● Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition executes as a thin client from within a web browser, making it easy to deploy and maintain.
● For complete details regarding Cisco Agent Desktop for Cisco Unified CCX, please refer to the data sheet at:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps427/products_data_sheets_list.html.
|
Computer telephony integration (CTI) |
Cisco Finesse Desktop
● The ready-to-use Cisco Finesse Desktop Call Control gadget provides screen pop information with complete customer information.
● Access to customer-relationship-management (CRM) information is achieved by:
◦ Creating gadgets in house or through a third-party developer, to “pop” information from CRM databases
◦ Using HTTP workflows to “pop” any web-based CRM solution such as Salesforce.com into a gadget on the agent desktop.
Cisco Agent Desktop
● Cisco Agent Desktop integrates with any CRM or other application that can run on the agent's Microsoft Windows desktop.
● Integration is achieved by using a real-time programmable CTI workflow engine invoking keystroke-macro emulation to automate the transfer of caller-entered information, or by performing an external application action.
|
Interactive voice response (IVR) and self-service |
● This feature provides an integrated, ready-to-use IVR solution including an IVR queue point, custom call treatment, arbitrarily deep voice menus, custom voice prompts, and the ability to process customer phone-keypad presses through dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) processing to make routing decisions or to present a screen pop to the agent.
● Adding advanced self-service technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text to Speech (TTS), and VoiceXML is supported.
● For complete details regarding Cisco IP Interactive Voice Response (IP IVR), please refer to the data sheet at:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps3651/products_data_sheets_list.html.
|
Cisco Unified CCX Instant Messaging |
● Integration of the Jabber platform into the Cisco Finesse desktop is supported for instant messaging between agents, agents and supervisors, and agents and subject-matter experts outside the contact center.
|
Management Capabilities and Benefits |
|
Supervisor features |
● The ability to monitor critical performance metrics, record calls, and send team messages allows managers to coach, train, and encourage agent behavior so that agents consistently perform their job functions and process calls efficiently.
● The ability to chat with individual members or the entire team allows supervisors to coach agents, resolve problems, and instantly communicate business changes.
● Supervisors can silently monitor calls to listen for coaching opportunities.
● Supervisors can initiate call recording for later review and training.
● They can interrupt an agent's call using Barge In to interact with both the caller and the agent to help resolve a concern.
● Supervisors can remove an agent from a call using the Intercept feature, so the supervisor and caller can complete the call on their own while the agent handles another customer request.
● Supervisors can change an agent's state from their desktops in a situation where agents may forget to make themselves available to take calls after a break or neglect to log out when they are away from their workstations for an extended period.
● Supervisors can log out missing agents or make unintentionally idle agents ready to take calls. They can change an agent's skill profile in real time, so they can manage their agent teams and support contact center management objectives.
● Supervisors can remotely monitor agents and administer skills from Android or Apple mobile devices.
|
Administration |
● Web-based administration provides a run-anywhere, enterprisewide point of control for single- or multisite contact centers.
● Cisco Unified CCX transparently integrates information from Cisco Unified Communications Manager and integrates with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager web-based administration to provide cross access and a common interface.
● Administration for the Cisco Finesse desktop is also integrated into the Cisco Unified CCX administration.
● Administration allows a wide range of real-time reporting statistics across all activity within the contact center, regardless of agent or supervisor location and for all calls in process.
● Cisco Unified CCX allows supervisors to use administrative capabilities to dynamically re-skill agents.
|
Integrated service-creation environments |
● Cisco Unified CCX offers a service-creation and scripting environment for mapping business rules to call-flow behavior and call treatments.
● A visual editor environment provides a simple, drag-and-drop, easy-to-understand interface for building powerful, custom, business-communication applications.
|
Workflows |
● The Cisco Finesse desktop web administration allows easy configuration of complex screen pop actions using the Cisco Finesse HTTP and REST APIs.
● Workflows allow agents to provide improved service and reduce call times.
● Supervisors can quickly and easily set up workflows in Cisco Finesse software using the logic-based, intuitive administration interface to change the information presented to an agent based on the flow of the call.
● Cisco Finesse workflows can trigger two actions, REST API calls and browser-based screen pops.
● Any system that supports REST APIs or has applications that work in a standard web browser will work with the Cisco Finesse desktop.
|
Workforce optimization and quality management |
● Manage personnel efficiently to deliver consistent customer service that matches your business goals with workforce management.
● Align with compliance and quality goals with call recording and quality management.
● Available with Unified CCX Enhanced and Premium versions.
● For complete details regarding Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization, please refer to the data sheet at:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps8293/products_data_sheets_list.html.
|
Multichannel Options |
|
Agent E-Mail |
● Enable basic email queuing and response with Agent E-Mail, a zero-footprint feature that is tightly integrated into the Cisco Agent Desktop embedded browser.
● Agent E-Mail enables contact centers to queue and route email messages to staff and skilled agents, helping balance email and call-handling activities.
|
Web chat |
● Web chat provides entry-level features for managing customer interaction through the company website.
● Integrated into the agent desktop, web chat requires integration with a Cisco SocialMiner® server deployed in a demilitarized zone (DMZ).
● Blend voice and chat operations with the ability to allocate or not allocate chat contacts while an agent is on a voice call for improved resource usage.
|
Outbound dialing capabilities |
● This feature offers blended preview outbound dialing and outbound IVR capabilities.
● Build campaigns to use preview dialing that is integrated with inbound calls to provide a blended inbound/outbound solution.
● Enable agents to serve both inbound calls and outbound campaign tasks when the inbound queue is empty, allowing for the most efficient use of agent resources for both inbound calls and outbound campaigns.
● Available with Cisco Agent Desktop only
|
Social media customer care |
● This feature enables your company to proactively respond to customers and prospects communicating through public social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook or other public forum or blogging sites.
● Cisco SocialMiner software is available as a standalone option with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express.
● For complete details regarding Cisco SocialMiner software, please refer to the data sheet at:http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11349/products_data_sheets_list.html.
|
Video customer care |
● This type of care enables virtual experts to be connected to callers with telepresence technology using the Cisco Remote Expert solution.
● Experts and customers appear on video displays for a highly effective, face-to-face customer service interaction.
● This type of care is ideal for applications in finance, such as branch-office experts, retail for high-end sales, healthcare for remote consultations, and interpretive services, as well as for administrative services such as lobby personnel.
● Cisco Remote Expert creates the intimacy of a one-on-one meeting and at the same time allows the agent to be in multiple places for efficient use of resources.
● For complete details regarding Cisco Remote Expert, please refer to the information here::http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/financial/remote_expert.html#~one.
|
Product Functions and System Capabilities |
|
Routing capabilities |
● These capabilities offer call-routing behaviors based on conditional events, such as time of day, day of week, or holiday routing, as well as the ability to specify service levels, move contacts between agent groups, and reprioritize contacts in the queue based on your business rules.
● Facilitate categorization and prioritization of customer contacts in a way that best meets your business requirements.
● A wide range of routing logic that can accurately target and selectively route different classes of contacts, or even single out individual contacts for customized, prioritized routing treatment, is supported.
● These capabilities help ensure that each contact is routed to the right agent at the right location the first time to maximize resolution on the first call.
|
Next-generation reporting |
● Next-generation reporting provides historical and real-time reports and dashboards with flexible presentation options using Cisco Unified Intelligence Center.
● Use existing out-of-the-box reports to view historical and Live Data reports, or create custom reports based on the information you want to track.
|
Open systems |
● Take full advantage of industry-standard hardware platforms to enable the benefits of many software functions at a modest hardware cost.
● The open architecture of the system, which includes an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)-compliant database as well as Java interfaces for CTI applications, can integrate with existing contact center solutions, preserving investments in traditional systems and providing a platform for future applications.
|
Redundant high availability |
● High-availability redundancy is supported for dual server cluster deployments, including support for automatic failover of inbound voice ACD, IVR, and desktop services.
● Database replication and failover are supported, as well as load-balanced redundancy for historical reporting and on-demand recording.
● High availability over the WAN (HAoWAN) is supported.
|
Appliance model |
● Appliance model supports deployment only in a virtualized system.
● Appliance model is a secure, resilient, and robust model that is less complex and provides for faster installs, easier upgrades, and less-frequent patching.
● Remote deployment, operation, and support reduce the need for onsite support, potentially shortening maintenance cycles and reducing overall downtime.
|
Scalability |
● Provides a multichannel contact-center-in-a-box for 1 to 400 agents.
● Dual server clusters provide redundant high availability.
|
Security |
● Cisco Unified CCX supports Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), an integrated Linux OS feature that provides access-control policies for a secure system.
|
Virtualization |
● Virtualization requires deployment as an application on a virtual machine on the VMware platform running on the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®) or spec-based hardware.
● It allows Cisco Unified CCX to be part of a virtualized deployment where multiple Cisco Unified Communications applications can be deployed on the same server.
● Consolidating servers through virtualization results in significant cost saving and reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO).
● For more details about the hardware requirements, VMware requirements, supported VMware features, virtual-machine sizing, and best practices for this deployment, please visit:http://www.cisco.com/go/uc-virtualized.
|
Licensing
Each Cisco Unified Contact Center Express seat provides optimal flexibility in your contact center by providing full licensing to use the seat as either an agent or a supervisor seat. Enhanced and Premium agent seats can be either workstation or Cisco Unified IP Phone-based agent stations. Standard seats provide a Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent IP Phone-based agent station. Each seat provides full licensing for Cisco Finesse, Cisco Agent Desktop or Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent, Cisco Supervisor Desktop, and Cisco Desktop Administrator; for the Enhanced and Premium versions, Cisco Supervisor and Agent Desktop include on-demand recording in addition to full licensing. With the Enhanced and Premium versions, even if a workstation failure occurs, an agent is fully licensed to continue working through the Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent.
Ordering Information
To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page and refer to Table 2.
Table 2. Ordering Information
Product Name |
Part Number |
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express |
CCX-10-SYS-K9 |
Cisco Unified IP IVR |
IVR-10-SYS-K9 |
Upgrades
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 10.0 is a major release. Upgrades from prior releases can be accomplished with a valid Cisco Unified Communications Software Subscription (UCSS) contract or with a-la-carte Upgrade SKUs.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 10.0 Features and Specifications
For complete details about the feature packaging and system capacities, please refer to the Design Guide available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1846/products_implementation_design_guides_list.html.
For details regarding Release 10.0, please refer to the release notes at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps1846/prod_release_notes_list.html.
Summary
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers an integrated, full-featured solution for managing customer voice contacts while retaining all the benefits of fully converged Cisco Unified Communications deployment. It delivers sophisticated call routing, management, and administration features for departmental, enterprise branch office, or small to medium-sized enterprise customer care needs.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers ease of installation, configuration, and application hosting, as well as reduced business application integration complexity, ease of agent administration, increased agent flexibility, and network hosting efficiencies. With all these features, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express continues the evolution toward a true Customer Interaction Network.
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, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/uccservices.
For More Information
For more information about the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/uccx or contact your local Cisco account representative.