Dialogue Cloud

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Using 'Skills'

Anywhere365 uses Skills to find the right Agent in real time for each call.

Anywhere365 allows you to define Skills for each individual UCC A Unified Contact Center, or UCC, is a queue of interactions (voice, email, IM, etc.) that are handled by Agents. Each UCC has its own settings, IVR menus and Agents. Agents can belong to one or several UCCs and can have multiple skills (competencies). A UCC can be visualized as a contact center “micro service”. Customers can utilize one UCC (e.g. a global helpdesk), a few UCC’s (e.g. for each department or regional office) or hundreds of UCC’s (e.g. for each bed at a hospital). They are interconnected and can all be managed from one central location. and assign them to Agents. Anywhere365 uses these Skills to match incoming calls/dialogues with the best available Agent for that specific dialogue.

To use Skills for a UCC, you need to do the following:

  1. Define the Skills you need for your application.

  2. Assign appropriate skills to your Agents.

  3. Assign skills to IVR Interactive Voice Response, or IVR, is a telephone application to take orders via telephone keypad or voice through a computer. By choosing menu options the caller receives information, without the intervention of a human operator, or will be forwarded to the appropriate Agent. Questions (at a bare minimum to basic questions).

When a customer contacts the UCC and makes a menu choice, Anywhere365 checks which Skills (if any) are configured, and uses this information to find the most appropriate agent. Agents are prioritized according to their skill scores. Agents with a 100% score on a particular Skill will be hunted, then Agents with lower scores will be hunted (depending on the HuntingMethod). If there are no competent Agents available, the caller will enter the queue until an Agent becomes available or an escape is configured.

Hunting methods

The UCC uses different methods to select the best available agent. By default the UCC uses the following logic:

  1. Get all Agents who have the chosen Skill

  2. Presence Based Routing

    1. Only select the Agents who are available. (can be overruled)

  3. Device Based Routing

    1. Only select the Agents who are capable for the selected dialogue.

    2. Example: Agents on a Skype DeskPhone can receive Audio, but no Chat.

    3. Example: Agents on a client without an audio device can receive Chat, but no Audio.

  4. Skill Based Routing Agents are hunted based on their Skill scores. The Agent with the highest score on the required Skill will be selected first.

    1. Agents are hunt based on its Skill score. The Agent with the highest score on the required Skill will be selected first.

  5. Automatic Call Distributor Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), also known as Automated Call Distribution System, is a component that redirects incoming calls to Agents. (ACD Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), also known as Automated Call Distribution System, is a component that redirects incoming calls to Agents.) Method

    1. If multiple Agents score equal, then an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) strategy will be used to select an Agent. There are seven methods (Longest idle, Round Robin, Serial, Parallel) available.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents (with the highest score) are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Longest Idle” Anywhere365 selects the Agent that is idle for the longest time. Afterwards the ‘idle time’ will be set to zero.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents (with the highest score) are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Longest Available” Anywhere365 selects the Agent that is Available for the longest time.

Note: When using Round Robin, Skill Scores will be ignored.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Round Robin” Anywhere365 selects the Agents that is positioned at the top of the list. Afterwards the UCC starts at the next position.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents (with the highest score) are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Serial” Anywhere365 selects the Agents that is positioned at the top of the list. Afterwards the UCC starts at the first position.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents (with the highest score) are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Least Calls” Anywhere365 selects the Agents that has handled the least calls today.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents (with the highest score) are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Least Occupied” Anywhere365 selects the Agents that has the least total handle time (Talk Time + Discharge Time) today.

Note: Only for audio-calls directly to Skype for Business client. So not available for use in combination with WebAgent and Attendant Console for Dialogue Cloud.

A note on Parallel hunting:

Besides the fact that parallel hunting is technically hard to achieve in a softphone based VoIP world (where call delivery and setup times to different endpoints can vary by several seconds), Anywhere365 is developed as a Dialogue Management tool, meaning Anywhere365 should be the decision maker for routing a call to the best fit agent (or audio message) at that time. Parallel hunting should only be considered if no alternative exists.

Parallel hunting will interfere with Anywhere365's logic if the decision making of picking a call is left up to the agents themselves, effectively by-passing the strategy of Anywhere365.
The use of Parallel hunting should be considered only as an ultimate solution for very specific scenario's. It is considered a routing mechanism from the past, pre-dating the times of softphones and VoIP, with variables like agent-login/logout and Presence states (available, busy, away, offline) upon which Anywhere365 bases its routing strategies.

A customer calls the UCC and multiple Agents are available. If the strategy to select an Agent is “Parallel” Anywhere365 will call all Agents at the same time. (Up to 4 Agent at the same time)

Note: Make MaxReservation setting equals the number of Agents you want to hunt (max 4).

Additionally these methods can be expanded with Last Agent Routing and Prompt Based Routing.

 

Skill Types

The Skill types below, are all Skill that can be configured in the Skill list. They are only used for different purposes.

Description

With the standard Skill, Agent can be added with different Skill values. Based upon the presence and Skill value an Agent will be hunted.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

Description

An extension to the standard Skill is the Availability Skill. Here the Skill checks of Agents meet the set minimal Skype for Business or Teams presence. If the check comes back negative the Skill is changed to the selected escape skill. If the check comes back positive the conversations continues in the Skill queue. The UCC will keep checking while the Caller is in the Queue.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

Availability

Check on entering the queue, if there are Agent having the minimum selected presence.

  • Available = Check on Available

  • Busy = Check on Available and Busy

  • Away = Check on Available, Busy and Away

  • Offline = Check if there are Agent signed in(Formal)

Note: It is important to pay attention to the UCC setting LowestHuntPresence. This setting determines which agent statuses will be considered as Available for the skill. For example, setting the LowestHuntPresence to Busy will result in agents with Available, Busy, or Away statuses being counted as Available for the skill.

EscapeSkill

When the results of the check come in negative, the conversation will be changed to this Skill

Description

An extension on the standard Skill is the Countdown Skill. Here Agents with the Skill value of 100 will be hunted, till the Countdown is started. After that the skill value of the agents being hunted will be lowered till reaching zero. The countdown time speed is set by the value (seconds)"EndCountdownSeconds". Furthermore it is possible to be forwarded to another Skill when reaching zero, this can also be another Countdown Skill.

 

Calculation example:
Start time is 10 end time is 20. So the first 10 seconds only Agents will be hunted with the score 100. Afterward the Skill Score will be lowered by 5% (100 (score) /20 (seconds)) per seconds.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

StartCountdownSeconds

Is the number of seconds to wait before the second countdown starts counting down. You can set this value to ‘0’ if you want the second countdown to start straight away.

EndCountdownSeconds

Is the number of seconds till the Countdown takes reach 0, counting from StartCountdownSeconds.

EscapeSkill

When the Countdown reaches 0, then the conversation will be changed to this Skill.

Note: The UCC will waits for the hunt to fail, before escaping.
Note: When empty, the conversation will remain in the current Skill.

Description

An combination on the Countdown Skill and the Availability is the Countdown Availability Skill. Here the Skill first checks the availability of the Agents (if false, then escape), then Agents with the Skill value of 100 will be hunted, till the Countdown is started. After that the skill value of the agents being hunted will be lowered till reaching zero. The countdown time speed is set by the value (seconds)"EndCountdownSeconds". Furthermore it is possible to be forwarded to another Skill when reaching zero, this can also be another Skill.

 

Calculation example:
Start time is 10 end time is 20. So the first 10 seconds only Agents will be hunted with the score 100. Afterward the Skill Score will be lowered by 5% (100 (score) /20 (seconds)) per seconds.

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

Availability

Check on entering the queue, if there are Agent having the minimum selected presence.

  • Available = Check on Available

  • Busy = Check on Available and Busy

  • Away = Check on Available, Busy and Away

  • Offline = Check if there are Agent signed in(Formal)

    Note: Offline hunting is only available when:

    • The UCC can register the agent.

    • Receive routing information about the Agent.

    • The Agent needs to have a Call Forwarding.

Note: It is important to pay attention to the UCC setting LowestHuntPresence. This setting determines which agent statuses will be considered as Available for the skill. For example, setting the LowestHuntPresence to Busy will result in agents with Available, Busy, or Away statuses being counted as Available for the skill.

StartCountdownSeconds

Is the number of seconds to wait before the second countdown starts counting down. You can set this value to ‘0’ if you want the second countdown to start straight away.

EndCountdownSeconds

Is the number of seconds till the Countdown takes reach 0, counting from StartCountdownSeconds.

EscapeSkill

When the availability is false or the Countdown reaches 0, then the conversation will be changed to this Skill.

Note: The UCC will waits for the hunt to fail, before escaping.

Description

When the maximum of the queue is reached at the time a new call session gets into the skill's queue the Ucc will transfer the call to the escape skill.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

Max Queue Count

Maximum queue count before escape

EscapeSkill

When the maximum queue count has been reached, then the new conversation will be changed to this Skill.

Description

A Forward Skill is a Skill without Agents, but will transfer a Caller directly to a number or SIP The Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, is a protocol for multimedia communication (audio, video and data communication). SIP is also used for Voice over IP (VoIP). SIP has interactions with other Internet protocols such as HTTP and SMTP. address.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

ForwardToSip

If the Skill needs to forward to another phone number ( or SIP address) it should be entered here.

  • Forward to Skype for Business / Microsoft Teams = sip:user@domain.com

  • Forward to Phone = tel:+3123456789

  • Forward to Exchange UM = sip:user@domain.com;opaque=app:voicemail

Note: Make sure there are no spaces behind the address and the address consists of small caps only

Description

A Chat Skill is the same as a standard Skill, only will Chat be used as dialogue channel.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

Description

A Chat Forward Skill is the same as a Forward Skill, only it will forward the Chat dialogue to that SIP address.

This can be used in combination with the IDR Interactive Dialogue Response (IDR) is an application to take orders via keypad or button through a computer. By choosing menu options the contact receives information, without the intervention of a human operator, or will be forwarded to the appropriate Agent. to create a multi-language IDR flow.

 

Explanation per field

Item

Description

Title

This field contains the name of the Skill.

ShowOnWallboard

When this box is ticked, the Skill will be shown on the Wallboard.

ForwardToSip

If the Skill needs to forward to another phone number ( or SIP address) it should be entered here.

  • Forward to Skype for Business / Microsoft Teams = sip:user@domain.com
Note: Make sure there are no spaces behind the SIP address and the SIP address consists of small caps only

 

Create/Edit/Remove item

Item can be created, edited or removed.

Warning: Updates to the system take place in real-time. Entering the incorrect information here may cause issues with your software. Proceed with caution.
  1. Open the list.
  2. Select the Add new item button.
  3. Enter the correct data in the window that appears.
  4. Select the Save button.
  1. Open the list.
  2. Tick the respective item.
  3. Select the “Edit Properties” button.
  4. Enter the correct data in the window that appears.
  5. Select the “Save” button.
  1. Open the list.
  2. Tick the respective item
  3. Select the “Delete Item” button.