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Updated:January 11, 2019
Document ID:1549301858142671
Bias-Free Language
The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.
Cisco® Unified Communications Solutions unify voice, video, data, and mobile applications on fixed and mobile networks, enabling easy collaboration every time from any workspace.
Product Overview
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express meets the needs of midmarket and enterprise branch-office or departmental 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 support for powerful, agent-based service as well as fully integrated self-service applications results in reduced business costs and improved customer response by providing sophisticated and distributed automatic call distributor (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), computer telephony integration (CTI), and agent and desktop services in a single-server, contact-center-in-a-box deployment while offering the flexibility to scale to larger, more demanding environments. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express helps ensure your business rules for inbound and outbound voice and email; and customer interaction management helps ensure that each contact is delivered to the right agent the first time.
To help companies provide efficient, effective, customer-focused service in the contact center, supervisors must have the tools they need to manage team performance. Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express helps supervisors and other managers align contact center performance with business objectives by integrating workforce optimization into the team's daily workflow. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is provided in three versions: Standard, Enhanced, and Premium, to better match product functions with your customer contact interaction management requirements. All Cisco Unified Contact Center Express products are tightly integrated with Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
This document applies only to Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 and later.
Features and Benefits
Routing Capabilities
Maximum return on investment (ROI) for contact centers is provided when your company's business rules can influence the behavior of the contact center. The routing capabilities of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express facilitate categorization and prioritization of customer contacts in a way that best meets your business requirements to 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. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express routing supports 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.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers 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. With Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium, product integration with your enterprise's customer database can help ensure that the optimal routing decisions are made. In addition, the application can give agents extensive information on a per-contact basis through a customer-relationship-management (CRM) or other application screen pop.
Email Management
Customers are turning to company websites to locate information about products and services, to seek support, and to conduct transactions. In addition, customers are seeking alternative ways, such as email, to contact customer support centers, and the volume of incoming email interactions to contact centers is growing. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers the Agent E-Mail feature for email management.
Agent E-Mail is a basic email queuing and response system, designed specifically for Cisco Agent Desktop for the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express platform. Agent E-Mail is a zero-footprint feature that is tightly integrated into the agent desktop embedded browser, with controls built into the toolbar and display. It enables contact centers to queue and route email messages to staff and skilled agents, helping balance email and call-handling activities. Additionally, you can configure the response process to include review and approval by experienced agents email replies from less experienced agents prior to delivering the response.
Workforce Management, Call Recording, and Quality Management
Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization integrated with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express helps supervisors and other managers align contact center performance with business objectives by integrating workforce optimization within the team's daily workflow - combining agent and supervisor desktop tools with workforce optimization software to unify the entire customer interaction process.
Directly integrated with Cisco Supervisor Desktop, Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization unifies the tactical tools that supervisors need to optimize team performance: Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization Workforce Management, Quality Management, and Call Recording software. The Workforce Management component allows contact center managers to develop schedules for multiple sites, manage critical performance indicators, and manage real-time adherence to schedules. The Quality Management software provides a recording and quality evaluation solution, with optional, advanced features such as screen recording for agent performance optimization. Call Recording enables simplified call recording based on business rules, 100-percent recording, or on-demand recording through an application programming interface (API). Agents and supervisors also can search for and replay recordings to verify compliance or resolve disputes.
The Cisco Outbound Option complements the powerful inbound call-handling capability of the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express platform by offering blended preview outbound dialing and outbound IVR capabilities. You can build campaigns to use preview dialing that is integrated with inbound calls to provide a blended inbound/outbound solution. These blended functions let agents 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.
In addition to blended preview outbound dialing, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express also includes outbound IVR capabilities designed to deliver automated, IVR-based outbound communications to customers. You can use outbound IVR for applications such as appointment reminders and emergency announcements. Outbound IVR also supports CPA (Call Progress Analysis) to automatically detect voice answer, answering machine, fax/modem, busy and reorder tones.
Please Note: There is a performance impact associated with an increase in the number of dialing list records in the system. The number of dialing list records that are supported depends on multiple factors:
• number of running campaigns
• system load
• database space availability
• data retention limit for historical reporting purposes
While there is no upper limit enforced by the software for the number of dialing list records, a dialing list size of 400,000 (including both active and inactive records) has been validated and this limit can be considered supported.
Computer Telephony Integration
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can integrate with any CRM or other application that can run on the agent's Microsoft Windows desktop. Integration is achieved by using a powerful real-time programmable CTI workflow engine that invokes keystroke-macro emulation to automate the transfer of caller-entered information, or performing an external application action. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express provides powerful integration tools through support for custom Java classes and methods that can be invoked under real-time workflow control. These features facilitate the integration of Cisco Agent Desktop with other Windows and web-based applications with minimal software development.
In addition, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium allows you to apply HTTP integration to provide integration and a screen pop with browser-based applications such as Salesforce.com running in the Cisco Agent Desktop embedded browser.
Finally, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express third-party CTI protocol provides for deep integration with ACD and IVR subsystems for traditional custom CTI integrations.
IVR and Self-Service Capabilities and Benefits
Unlike many competitive products, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express does not require purchase of additional IVR services, but rather provides an integrated, ready-to-use IVR solution. Every package provides 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.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium adds the ability to have true, sophisticated, and fully automated self-service applications integrated with your agent-assisted contact interaction management. This critical feature enables significant cost reduction on a per-contact basis and provides significant flexibility in handling customer contacts.
Two, full self-service IVR ports are packaged at no additional charge with each Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium seat subject to the maximum ports limit per server class. In addition, support is provided for adding advanced self-service technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text to Speech (TTS), and Voice XML (VoiceXML). The application also supports real-time notification services through email and third-party fax or paging solutions, as well as the ability to invoke custom workflow processing (for example, web-based callback) through HTTP requests.
Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Unified Presence Integration
Integration of Cisco Agent Desktop with Cisco Unified Presence extends real-time collaboration into the broader enterprise by integrating the contact center desktop applications with Cisco Unified Presence. Through this integration, agents and supervisors can collaborate with relevant colleagues and subject matter experts outside the contact center. For efficiency and convenience, the contact center defines the view to show only those colleagues who are appropriate for agents to access.
Both parties use familiar applications. Contact center personnel use the Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Supervisor Desktop, and subject matter experts outside of the contact center use the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator or Cisco IP Phone Messenger. This feature helps agents connect with experts on the first try by knowing beforehand whether they are available and how they prefer to be reached.
Social Media Customer Care
Cisco SocialMiner provides a social media customer care solution for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express that 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. By providing social media monitoring, queuing, and workflow to organize customer posts on social media networks and deliver them to your social media customer care team, your company can respond to customers in real time through the same social network they are using to communicate.
This innovative capability is enabled by Cisco SocialMiner, which searches multiple social networks to capture public customer postings - and then organizes, filters, and prioritizes these postings and presents them to your customer care team for response. Your customer service representatives could respond to a customer service problem or reach out to new customers looking for information about your products or services.
Cisco SocialMiner combined with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can help your company enhance customer service, improve customer loyalty, add new customers, and protect your brand.
Video and Cisco Unified Contact Center Express
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can connect callers and agents through video in a couple of ways: through integration with Cisco TelePresence
™ and Cisco Unified Video Advantage applications.
Using Cisco TelePresence conferencing in combination with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, virtual agents can be connected to callers through the skills-based routing and integrated queuing of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express. When connected, the agent and customer appear in life size on video displays for a highly effective, face-to-face customer service interaction. This feature is ideal for applications in finance, such as branch-office experts, retail for high-end electronics sales, healthcare for remote consultations, and interpretive services, as well as for administrative services such as lobby personnel. It creates the intimacy of a one-on-one meeting and at the same time allows the agent to be in multiple places quickly and easily.
Also, agents and customers can add a level of intimacy to calls by employing video through the Cisco Unified Video Advantage camera. Each of the video-enabled endpoints can take advantage of video among all parties on the call, adding a level of connectedness between the parties that can lead to a more complete and better overall interaction between agents and customers.
Agent Capabilities and Benefits
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 PC- 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 Agent Desktop or Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent, Cisco Supervisor Desktop, Cisco Desktop Administrator, and Cisco Historical Reporting Client; 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 PC failure occurs, an agent is fully licensed to continue working through the Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express keeps the agent in touch with every call through critical data and call-state information by providing the ability to present a screen pop to the agent for each call. Information presented to the agent includes customer-entered data as well as call-state information describing how long the call has been connected to the ACD, how long the call has been in queue, and how long the agent has been talking with the caller.
Cisco Agent Desktop gives agents tools to access information and respond rapidly to customer requests. Voice contact workflows, the enterprise data pane, and the integrated browser display (screen pop) show agents customer data as calls are presented, preventing redirection of calls and the necessity for customers to repeat information.
Task automation buttons and the personal phone directory allow agents to instantly activate frequently performed functions that shorten response time and automate after-call work to follow up on a customer inquiry. Collaboration tools such as chat and transfer of caller data help keep responses accurate.
Additionally, Cisco Agent Desktop offers the ability to provide workflows that process business rules based on critical call-state events, the ability to invoke any CRM or other application able to run on the agent's Microsoft Windows desktop, and the ability to display information in the form of a screen pop from the ACD or IVR subsystem to that application.
When the Premium Cisco Outbound Option with preview dialing is enabled, the Cisco Agent Desktop provides all the controls necessary for agents to participate in outbound campaigns. The Premium Outbound option enables either dedicated outbound or transparent blended inbound and outbound call handling for agents.
Note: For complete details regarding Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Supervisor Desktop for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5, including options available for Standard, Enhanced, and Premium versions, please refer to the Cisco Agent Desktop for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 data sheet: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps427/products_data_sheets_list.html.
Management Capabilities and Benefits
Supervisory Features
The ability of Cisco Supervisor Desktop to monitor critical performance metrics and actively chat, monitor, record, and send team messages allows managers to coach, train, and encourage agent behavior so that agents consistently perform their job function and process calls efficiently. The ability to send agents scrolling team messages and chat with individual members or the entire team allows supervisors to coach agents, resolve problems, and instantly communicate business changes. Supervisors can coach agents unobtrusively on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and help agents resolve customer situations.
Within the supervisor desktop, contact center managers can see team performance, agent statistics, and status at a glance by using easy-to-navigate tabbed pages and graphical reports. To coach agents, they can silently monitor calls and offer encouragement using chat. They can also initiate call recording for later review and training.
Supervisors can interrupt an agent's call to create a three-way conference, and then interact with both the caller and the agent to help resolve a concern. A supervisor can remove the agent from a call using the Intercept feature, allowing the supervisor and caller to complete the call on their own while the agent handles another customer request.
Supervisors can change an agent's state from their desktop. For example, agents may forget to make themselves available to take calls after a break or neglect to log out when they are away from their workstation for an extended period. With Cisco Supervisor Desktop, supervisors can easily log out missing agents or make unintentionally idle agents ready to take calls. This function is critical to highly distributed contact center deployments. Supervisors can also change an agent's skill profile in real time. This capability gives supervisors tactical tools to manage their agent teams and support contact center management objectives.
Note: For complete details regarding Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Supervisor Desktop for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5, including options available for Standard, Enhanced, and Premium versions, please refer to the Cisco Agent Desktop for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 data sheet: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/custcosw/ps427/products_data_sheets_list.html.
For mobile supervisors or supervisors who want to be more in tune with their team in the contact center, there is Cisco Mobile Supervisor, which allows supervisors to remain connected to real-time reporting information and monitor their teams from their mobile devices. Supervisors can view a subset of Cisco Supervisor Desktop reports, including a list of queues belonging to a selected team, the queue summary report for a selected queue, and agents belonging to a selected team or a queue, along with their current agent state. If a problem arises, the supervisor is connected, sees the problem, and can communicate with the team to adjust resources appropriately to meet or exceed customer satisfaction requirements.
Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition for Enhanced and Premium Versions
The Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition executes as a thin client from within a commercial web browser, making it easy to deploy and maintain. The Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition also includes an agent toolbar, contact data, enterprise data, and agent status information, making it an ideal solution in thin-client applications.
Administration
The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express web-based administration provides a run-anywhere, enterprisewide point of control for single- or multisite contact centers. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 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. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 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. In addition, supervisors can use administrative capabilities to dynamically re-skill agents.
Reporting
The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express solution provides the real-time and historical data necessary for mission critical contact center reporting. Real-time reports are provided at the supervisor level (integrated with the Cisco Supervisor Desktop) on a per-agent or per-team basis and also at the administration level, across the entire contact center.
The reporting function provides accurate and timely reports on contact center activity, helping managers make informed decisions regarding staffing levels, contact-handling procedures, and technology investments. Standard reporting templates provide automatically operational functions for common reporting needs. Custom reports can extend the standard reporting package to meet specific reporting needs. Furthermore, the open software architecture of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express allows for export of reporting data in a variety of formats.
Cluster Management
When Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is deployed with high availability, all servers are members of the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express cluster and can be viewed, monitored, and taken in and out of service. Using open Internet standards and the inherent capabilities of Cisco devices, Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite helps network managers oversee their converged networks while maintaining confidence that their IP telephony environments, including Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, are performing as expected.
Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite provides real-time, detailed fault analysis designed specifically for Cisco devices in the IP telephony environment. This focus on Cisco devices facilitates monitoring of Cisco Unified IP Telephony technology-based networks for a variety of fault conditions, analysis of these conditions, and notification of network managers through intelligent traps that detail the problem that has occurred. Functions supporting Cisco Unified Contact Center Express include server discovery, health statistics, subsystem process checks, application run-time status, and other critical network management capabilities.
System Capabilities and Benefits
Open Systems
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express software takes full advantage of industry-standard hardware platforms, giving you 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
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers high-availability redundancy for dual server cluster deployments, including support for automatic failover of inbound voice ACD, IVR, and desktop services, as well as database replication and failover and load-balanced redundancy for historical reporting and on-demand recording.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 supports high availability over the WAN (HAoWAN). It also supports switching between Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 HAoWAN and high availability over the LAN (HAoLAN).
Note: Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.0 and later releases no longer support cold standby.
Appliance Model
You can deploy Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 exclusively in an appliance model on Linux-based operating systems. The 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. For example, through a command-line interface (CLI) to the server, you can perform upgrades to the inactive partition at the customer's convenience and switch to active mode quickly and easily when the updates are complete. This process can reduce overall downtime for upgrades by 50 percent or more - lowering the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) for a Cisco Unified Contact Center Express solution.
Integrated Service-Creation Environments
The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Workflow Editor is the service-creation and scripting environment for mapping business rules to call-flow behavior and call treatments. It can operate from any location on the enterprise WAN, and workflows can be uploaded and run on the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express server. This environment is a visual editor that provides a simple, drag-and-drop, easy-to-understand interface for building powerful, custom, business-communication applications.
Scalability
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can provide a contact-center-in-a-box for inbound and outbound voice on a single server for 1 to 400 agents. Dual server clusters provide a redundant, high-availability option across a virtual contact center. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express supports a Cisco Customer Interaction Network based on the Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management and Cisco IP Contact Center (IPCC) Peripheral Gateway, enabling prerouting, postrouting, and centralized reporting for multiple Cisco Unified Contact Center Express systems across a Cisco Unified Communications WAN.
Security
To help maintain network security in the contact center and throughout the enterprise, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express supports Cisco Security Agent, as well as virus-detection software from the major antivirus software vendors. Cisco Security Agent is a host-based intrusion detection system that provides security to mission-critical enterprise servers and hosts. It provides benefits beyond conventional endpoint security solutions, such as virusscanning software and firewalls, by identifying and preventing malicious behavior before it can occur. This process helps remove potential known and unknown security risks that threaten enterprise networks and applications. By analyzing behavior rather than relying on signature matching, Cisco Security Agent complements the capabilities of the antivirus software; together, they provide a robust solution to protect your network and reduce operational costs.
Virtualization
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can be deployed as an application on a virtual machine on the VMWare platform running on the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) hardware. This allows Cisco Unified Contact Center Express to be part of a virtualized deployment where multiple Cisco Unified Communications applications can be deployed on the same server. By consolidating servers, virtualization results in significant cost saving and reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO).
For more details on the hardware requirements, VMWare requirements, supported VMWare features, virtual machine sizing and best practices for this deployment, please refer to the following link:
http://www.cisco.com/go/ucvirtualized.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Features and Specifications
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 is available for Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.0(2) and 8.5 as well as for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.0 and 8.5 on integrated services routers and Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business platforms.
Note: Cisco Unified Contact Center Express does not support Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express in Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) mode.
Note: All capacities stated in this document are system maximums. Actual maximums are a function of the hardware server(s) and mix of features deployed on those servers.
Note: This document applies only to Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 and later versions.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express supports all critical functional areas of today's contact centers, including:
• Inbound voice features
• Blended Preview Outbound Dialer
• Outbound IVR
• Blended Agent E-Mail
• Integration with Cisco Unified Presence Server to enable agents and supervisors to determine availability of and to interact with subject matter experts
• Third-party integration (for example, with CRM applications)
• Customer database integration with Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) or Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Read-only access to Cisco Unified Contact Center Express database (Informix) with JDBC, ODBC, or SQL
• IVR for both Automated-Attendant and self-service applications
• Real-time and historical reporting
• Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Supervisor Desktop
Tables 1 through 8 provide further information about Cisco Unified Contact Center Express. Following is a summary of what each of these tables describes:
• Table 1 describes Cisco Unified Communications Manager products supported by the Premium, Enhanced, and Standard versions of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 and later.
• Table 2 describes the feature availability for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 in the Premium, Enhanced, and Standard versions when it is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.0(2) and 8.5. It also describes the features for Cisco Unified Communications Express 8.0 and 8.5 when it is deployed with Cisco integrated services routers or with the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business.
• Table 3 describes licensing for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5.
• Table 4 describes the inbound voice features available for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 in the Premium, Enhanced, and Standard versions.
• Table 5 describes the outbound preview voice features available for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5. Outbound preview voice features are available in the Premium version only.
• Table 6 describes the outbound IVR voice features available for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5. Outbound IVR is an optional component available in the Premium version only.
• Table 7 describes the maximum system capacities for inbound and blended inbound and outbound systems with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5.
• Table 8 shows the different server classes and the servers supported in each class.
Platform Support and Compatibility
Tables 1 and 2 list information about Cisco Unified Contact Center Express platform support and compatibility.
Table 1. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Products Supported by Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 and Later
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Product
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express
Product
Platform
Release
Platform
Premium
Enhanced
Standard
Release
Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Cisco Media Convergence Servers
Cisco Unified Computing System™ (UCS) Server B- and C Series
8.5, 8.0(2) and 8.0(3)
Cisco Media Convergence Servers
Cisco UCS B- and C-Series
Yes
Yes
Yes
8.5.1 and later versions
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express
Cisco Integrated Services Routers
8.5 and 8.0
Cisco Media Convergence Servers
Cisco UCS B- and C-Series
Yes
Yes
Yes
8.5.1 and later versions
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express
Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business
8.5 and 8.0
Cisco Media Convergence Servers
Cisco UCS B- and C-Series
No
No
Yes
8.5.1 and later versions
Table 2. Feature Availability for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5, 8.0(3), 8.0(2).
Feature
Premium
Enhanced
Standard
Optional
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Feature Availability with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5, 8.0(3), 8.0(2)
Inbound voice
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Integration with Cisco Unified Presence Server
Yes Included
Yes Included
Yes Included
Yes
Blended Preview Outbound Dialer
Yes Included
No
No
Yes
Outbound IVR
Yes
No
No
Yes
Agent E-Mail
Yes Included
No
No
Yes
Inbound Voice High-Availability Option
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Call Recording
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Quality Management Option
Yes
No
No
Yes
Advanced Quality Management Option
Yes
No
No
Yes
Workforce Management Option
Yes
No
No
Yes
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Feature Availability with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.5 and 8.0 for Integrated Services Routers
Inbound Voice Non-High Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Integration with Cisco Unified Presence Server
No
No
No
-
Blended Outbound Preview Dialer
No
No
No
-
Agent E-Mail
Yes
No
No
Yes
Inbound Voice High Availability
No
No
No
-
Outbound IVR Dialer
No
No
No
-
Remote Monitoring
No
No
No
-
Call Recording
No
No
No
-
Quality Management
No
No
No
-
Advanced Quality Management
No
No
No
-
Workforce Management
No
No
No
-
Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Feature Availability with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.5 and 8.0 for Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business
Inbound Voice Non-High Availability
No
No
Yes
No
Integration with Cisco Unified Presence Server
No
No
No
-
Blended Outbound Preview Dialer
No
No
No
-
Basic Agent E-Mail
No
No
No
-
Inbound Voice High Availability
No
No
No
-
Outbound IVR Dialer
No
No
No
-
Remote Monitoring
No
No
No
-
Call Recording
No
No
No
-
Quality Management
No
No
No
-
Advanced Quality Management
No
No
No
-
Workforce Management
No
No
No
-
Note: The following features are not available with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express when deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express for Integrated Services Routers or Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business:
• Call control on Cisco Agent Desktop
• Barge-In and Intercept on Cisco Agent Desktop
• Consult Transfer Step in scripts Using PlaceCall step to make a call to a route point registered with the same Cisco Unified Contact Center Express
Additionally, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express does not support Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express in SRST mode.
Licensing
Licensing for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 varies by feature, as indicated by Table 3. Licenses are either concurrent or named user licenses. All packaging is per user with the exception of the Inbound Voice High Availability server software option.
Concurrent licensing example: Customer has three shifts each of 100 users for a total of 300 unique users. Customer needs to purchase 100 licenses.
Named user licensing example: Customer has three shifts of 100 users for a total of 300 unique users. Customer needs to purchase 300 licenses.
Table 3. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Licensing and Packaging
Feature
Licensing and Packaging
Inbound Voice Non-High Availability
Concurrent license
Inbound Voice High Availability
Server software option
Outbound IVR
Concurrent License
Call Recording
Named user license
Quality Management
Named user license
Advanced Quality Management
Named user license
Workforce Management
Named user license
Inbound Voice Features
Table 4 lists inbound voice features available in the different versions of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 when it is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Please note that not all these features are available when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.
Table 4. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Inbound Voice Features
Feature
Premium
Enhanced
Standard
General System Features with Server Software
Hardware configuration
Cisco Media Convergence Servers and Cisco approved partner servers
Cisco UCS B- and C-Series
Cisco Media Convergence Server Appliance
Cisco Media Convergence Servers and Cisco approved partner servers
Cisco UCS B- and C-Series
Cisco Media Convergence Server Appliance
Cisco Media Convergence Servers and Cisco approved partner servers
Cisco UCS B- and C-Series
Cisco Media Convergence Server Appliance
System software configuration
Cisco Media Convergence Appliance software
Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 desktop client software
Browser-based client software (Cisco Agent Desktop and Workforce Management)
Web 2.0-based client software (Quality Management and Advanced Quality Management)
Cisco Media Convergence Appliance software
Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 desktop client software
Cisco Media Convergence Appliance software
Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 desktop client software
Cisco Unified Communications Managers supported
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5 and 8.0(3), 8.0(2)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.5 and 8.0
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5 and 8.0(3), 8.0(2)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.5 and 8.0
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5 and 8.0(3), 8.0(2)
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 8.5 and 8.0
Operating system(s) supported
Cisco Voice Operating System
Cisco Voice Operating System
Cisco Voice Operating System
Inbound voice redundancy support
High-availability cluster over the WAN with automatic failover
Note: Not available for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express
High-availability cluster over the WAN with automatic failover
Note: Not available for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express
Not available
Maximum number of analog trunks supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Maximum number of digital trunks supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Maximum number of IP trunks supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Note: For Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunk calls are supported only from other Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments.
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Note: For Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments, SIP trunk calls are supported only from other Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments.
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Note: For Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments, SIP trunk calls are supported only from other Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments.
Maximum number of SIP trunks supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Note: For Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments, SIP trunk calls are supported only from other Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments.
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Note: For Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments, SIP trunk calls are supported only from other Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments.
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Note: For Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments, SIP trunk calls are supported only from other Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express deployments.
Maximum number of trunk groups supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Maximum number of ACD lines
1
1
1
Maximum number of secondary lines (with support for historical reporting)
3
3
3
Call conferencing
Included
Included
Included
Agent interdialing support
Included
Included
Included
Direct-outward-dialing (DOD) support
Included
Included
Included
Inbound Voice Seats
Maximum number of configurable inbound agents supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Maximum number of active inbound agents supported
400
400
400
Maximum number of inbound supervisor positions supported
42
42
42
Inbound seat license type
Concurrent user
Concurrent user
Concurrent user
Integrated ACD Features with Server Software
Custom scripting with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Drag and Drop Editor
Included
Included
Included
Maximum number of agent groups supported
150
150
150
Maximum number of agents per group
400
400
400
Automatic Number Identification (ANI) support
Included
Included
Included
Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) support
Included
Included
Included
Route on Skill
Included
Included
Included
Route on Skill competency
Included
Included
Included
Conditional routing (time of day, day of week, custom variables, etc.)
Included
Included
Included
Overflow, interflow, and intraflow routing
Included
Included
Included
Custom routing based on data from database access (for example, data-directed priority routing)
Included
Not available
Not available
Dynamic priority queuing
Included
Included
Not available
Maximum number of definable skills groups
150
150
150
Maximum number of skills per agent
50
50
50
Maximum number of routing programs
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Integrated IVR Features with Server Software
Play messages to callers: Music
Included through Cisco Unified Communications Manager Music on Hold server or .wav file
Included through Cisco Unified Communications Manager Music on Hold server or .wav file
Included through Cisco Unified Communications Manager Music on Hold server or .wav file
Play messages to callers: Prompts
Included through .wav file
Included through .wav file
Included through .wav file
Play messages to callers: Combine prompts, music, and messages
Included and fully customizable
Included and fully customizable
Included and fully customizable
Capture and process caller DTMF input
Included
Included
Included
Automated-Attendant support
Included and fully customizable
Included and fully customizable
Included and fully customizable
Database integration
Included
Not available
Not available
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
Optional through Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP): Order from Nuance or IBM
Not available
Not available
Text to Speech (TTS)
Optional through MRCP: Order from Nuance or IBM
Not available
Not available
Real-time notification services (email; support for paging and fax)
Included (paging and fax require integration with third-party services)
Not available
Not available
VoiceXML for ASR, TTS, and DTMF
Included
Not available
Not available
Read data from HTTP and XML pages
Included
Included
Included
Run workflows through HTTP request
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated self-service application support
Included
Not available
Not available
Integration with Cisco Unified Presence Server with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Support for Cisco Unified Presence Server Releases 8.5 and 8.0
Included
Included
Included
Support for Cisco Unified Presence Server fault tolerance
Included
Included
Included
Support for intercluster and foreign domains as supported by Cisco Unified Presence Server
Included
Included
Included
Contact ("buddy") lists under administrator control; contact lists assigned to workflow groups; agents have visibility to appropriate contacts only
Included
Included
Included
Persistent, independent presence popup window continuously updated with agent state and subject-matter-expert presence state
Included
Included
Not available with Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent
(Agent may use nonintegrated Cisco IP Phone Messenger only.)
Integrated CTI and Screen Pop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Populate ANI or DNIS and customer-defined workflow data
Included
Included
Included
Automatically start any Microsoft Windows-compatible application: Pass initialization parameters
Included
Included
Not available
Populate data to any Microsoft Windows-compatible application
Included
Included
Not available
Populate data to any browser-based application
Included
Not available
Not available
Customer database integration (JDBC)
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated PC-Based Agent Desktop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Workflow Automation and Task buttons
Included
Included
Not available
Note: As of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 5.0.2, Cisco Agent Desktop is no longer included in the Standard version.
Populate third-party applications on events
Included
Included
"Record" and archive calls
Included
Included
"Work" agent state for after-call wrap-up activity
Included
Included
Wrap-up codes
Included
Included
Chat with supervisor or agents using Instant Messaging
Included
Included
Call log tracks call activity of incoming and outgoing calls
Included
Included
Agent log tracks agent state changes and other information
Included
Included
Soft phone with phone directory
Included
Included
Support for Cisco IP Communicator: No Cisco IP Phone required for agent phone
Included
Included
Agent State buttons
Included
Included
Integrated browser: Integrated support for browser-based applications; browsing to administratively approved websites
Included
Not available
Integrated Agent E-Mail General System Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Cisco Agent Desktop
Microsoft Exchange 2003 or Microsoft Exchange 2007 or 2010
Not included; must be purchased from Microsoft vendor
Not available
Not available
Assign one or more email addresses to a single Contact Service Queue (CSQ)
Included
Not available
Not available
Blended voice and email agents
Included and configurable
Not available
Not available
Dedicated email agents
Included and configurable
Not available
Not available
Fully integrated with Cisco Agent Desktop, Cisco Supervisor Desktop, and Cisco Desktop Administrator
Included
Not available
Not available
Email contact detail records saved to Cisco Unified Contact Center Express historical database
Included
Not available
Not available
Shared global response templates
Included
Not available
Not available
Separate voice and email state model
Included
Not available
Not available
Automatic change of focus for desktop to voice call handling for agents also in voice CSQ
Included
Not available
Not available
Automatic resumption of e-mail processing on voice disconnect
Included
Not available
Not available
Spell checker (excluding double-byte languages)
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent can save email draft response and resume at a later time
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent can re-queue email
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent can forward, copy, and blind copy email to external addresses
Included
Not available
Not available
Agents can quality assure email content from less experienced agents prior to external delivery
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent E-Mail contacts included in agent CSQ, Agent ACD State, Agent E-Mail Log, and Agent E-Mail Detail real-time reports
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated IP Phone-Based Agent Desktop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Supervisor can use Silent Monitor, Barge In, and Intercept
Included
Included
Not available
Integrated PC-Based Supervisor Desktop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
View agent activity in real time
Included
Included
Included
View agent and skill group statistics in tabular and graphical views
Included
Included
Included
Chat: Send text messages to any or all agents
Included
Included
Not available
Marquee: Broadcast scrolling messages to agents
Included
Included
Not available
Support for Cisco IP Communicator: No Cisco IP Phone required for agent phone
Included
Included
Included
Log out agent
Included
Included
Included
Make agent ready
Included
Included
Included
Coaching: Provide agent guidance through chat
Included
Included
Not available
Silent Monitor: Listen in on an agent's call
Included
Included
Not available
Ability for supervisor to use Silent Monitor remotely from any phone through a dial-in IVR session
Included
Not available
Not available
Barge-In: Join in on an agent's conversation
Included
Included
Not available
Intercept: Take a call from an agent
Included
Included
Not available
Record: Capture and archive call audio
Included
Included
Not available
Integrated browser: Integrated support for browser-based applications; browsing to administratively approved websites
Included
Not available
Not available
Support for supervisors to take calls using included Cisco Agent Desktop
Included
Included
Not available (Cisco Agent Desktop not included)
Support for supervisors to take calls using included Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent
Included
Included
Included
Integrated Agent E-Mail for Supervisors with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Supervisor real-time reporting for Agent E-Mail mail volume by CSQ and for agent detail email volume by CSQ
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated ACD Historical Reporting with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Abandoned Call Detail Activity report
Included
Included
Included
Aborted and Rejected Call Detail report
Included
Included
Included
Agent Call Summary report
Included
Included
Included
Agent Detail report
Included
Included
Included
Agent Login Logout Activity report
Included
Included
Included
Agent Not Ready Reason Code Summary report
Included
Included
Included
Agent State Detail report
Included
Included
Included
Agent State Summary report (by agent)
Included
Included
Included
Agent State Summary report (by interval)
Included
Included
Included
Agent Wrap-up Data Summary report
Included
Included
Not available
Agent Wrap-up Data Summary Detail report
Included
Included
Not available
Application Summary report
Included
Included
Included
Call Custom Variables report
Included
Included
Included
Called Number Summary Activity report
Included
Included
Included
Common Skill Contact Service Queue Activity report
Included
Included
Included
Contact Service Queue Activity report (by CSQ)
Included
Included
Included
Contact Service Queue Activity report (by interval)
Included
Included
Included
Contact Service Queue Activity report
Included
Included
Included
Contact Service Queue Call Distribution Summary report
Included
Included
Included
Contact Service Queue Priority Summary report
Included
Included
Included
Contact Service Queue Service Level report
Included
Included
Included
CSQ Agent Summary report
Included
Included
Included
Detailed Call, CSQ, Agent report
Included
Included
Included
Priority Summary Activity report
Included
Included
Not available
Remote Monitoring Detail report
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated Self-Service Historical Reporting with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Application Performance Analysis report
Included
Included
Included
Call-by-Call Contact Call Detail Record (CCDR) report
Included
Included
Included
Traffic Analysis report
Included
Included
Included
Integrated Multichannel Historical Reporting with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Outbound Agent Detail Summary report
Included
Not available
Not available
Outbound Campaign Summary report
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent E-Mail Inbox Traffic Analysis report
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent E-Mail CSQ Activity Summary report
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent E-Mail Agent Summary Activity report
Included
Not available
Not available
Agent E-Mail CSQ Agent Summary Activity report
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated Recording with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
On-demand agent recording
Included
Included
Not available
On-demand supervisor recording
Included
Included
Not available
Integrated Administration
Browser-based: Administer from anywhere on Cisco Unified Communications WAN
Included
Included
Included
Web-enabled real-time reporting client
Included
Included
Included
Full integration with Cisco Unified Operations Manager, Cisco Unified Campus Manager, and Cisco Unified Resource Manager Essentials, including support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support and alarm service
Included
Included
Included
Support for third-party MIBs
Included
Included
Included
Tracing and local logging
Included
Included
Included
Voicemail Integration
Voice messaging interface
Optional (Cisco Unity® messaging or Cisco Unity Express)
Optional (Cisco Unity messaging or Cisco Unity Express)
Optional (Cisco Unity messaging or Cisco Unity Express)
Maximum number of voice mailboxes supported
Please consult product documentation
Please consult product documentation
Please consult product documentation
Maximum number of voice storage hours
Unlimited (storage limitation hard disk-dependent)
Unlimited (storage limitation hard disk-dependent)
Unlimited (storage limitation hard disk-dependent)
Support for other vendor voicemail
Yes (through call transfer to voicemail system)
Yes (through call transfer to voicemail system)
Yes (through call transfer to voicemail system)
Outbound Voice Features
As Table 5 shows, outbound preview dialer voice features are available only in the Premium version of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5. Note also that these features are available only when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. They are not available when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.
Please note that as of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0.1, the Blended Outbound Preview Dialer is no longer sold as a separate option but rather is included at no additional charge in the Premium version. Each Premium version agent may be either an inbound only, outbound only, or a blended inbound and outbound voice agent.
Note: The seat maximums shown in Table 5 for Blended Outbound Preview Dialer are inclusive of inbound voice seats also deployed.
Table 5. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Outbound Preview Voice Features
Feature
Premium
Enhanced
Standard
General System Features with Server Software
Note: These features are the same as for inbound voice with the exception of redundancy.
Hardware configuration
Deploys and executes co-resident on inbound voice server
Not available
Not available
Outbound Voice Seats
Maximum number of configurable outbound agents supported
Unlimited (no software limitations)
Not available
Not available
Maximum number of active outbound agents supported
100
Not available
Not available
Maximum number of outbound supervisor positions supported
42
Not available
Not available
Outbound license type
Concurrent user
Not available
Not available
Outbound Preview Dialer Features
Maximum number of active outbound campaigns
15
Not available
Not available
Maximum number of CSQs per outbound campaign
10
Not available
Not available
Maximum number of active contacts per outbound campaign
10,000
Not available
Not available
Integrated CTI and Screen Pop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Populates customer's name, account number, and phone number dialed
Included
Not available
Not available
Start any Microsoft Windows-compatible application
Using CAD task button
Not available
Not available
Send information to any Microsoft Windows-compatible application
Using CAD task button
Not available
Not available
Integrated PC-Based Agent Desktop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Ability for agent to initiate on-demand recording
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for supervisor to use Silent Monitor, Barge-In, and Intercept
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for agent to accept, reject, or skip outbound contact
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for agent to mark a contact as "Do not call" for a particular campaign
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated IP Phone-Based Agent Desktop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
VoiceXML for ASR, TTS, and DTMF
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated PC-Based Supervisor Desktop Features with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
View agent activity in real time
Included
Not available
Not available
Support for Cisco IP Communicator: No Cisco IP Phone required for agent phone
Included
Not available
Not available
Coaching: Provide agent guidance through chat
Included
Not available
Not available
Silent Monitor: Listen in on an agent's call
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for supervisor to use Silent Monitor remotely from any phone through a dial-in IVR session
Included
Not available
Not available
Barge-In: Join in on an agent's conversation
Included
Not available
Not available
Intercept: Take a call from an agent
Included
Not available
Not available
Record: Capture and archive call audio
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated Historical Reporting with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
Preview Outbound Campaign Summary report
Included
Not available
Not available
Preview Outbound Agent Detail Performance report
Included
Not available
Not available
Administration
Ability for administrator to create and configure campaigns
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for administrator to create non-North American area code to time-zone mappings
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for administrator to mark "Do not call" contacts as "Do not call" across all campaigns
Included
Not available
Not available
Table 6 shows the features available with the Outbound IVR feature, which is an optional component available only in the Premium version of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5. Note that these features are available only when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. They are not available when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.
Table 6. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5 Outbound IVR Features
Feature
Premium
Enhanced
Standard
General System Features with Server Software
Hardware configuration
IVR Outbound Dialer is deployed co-resident on inbound voice server. CPA is performed on the gateway.
Not available
Not available
Outbound IVR Ports
Maximum number of Outbound IVR ports supported
150
Not available
Not available
Outbound IVR Port license type
Concurrent
Not available
Not available
Outbound IVR Features
Maximum number of active outbound campaigns
15
Not available
Not available
Maximum number of active contacts per outbound campaign
10,000
Not available
Not available
Ability to automatically detect voice answer, answering machine, fax/modem, busy and invalid numbers
Included
Not available
Not available
Integrated Historical Reporting with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Seat License
IVR Outbound Campaign Summary report
Included
Not available
Not available
IVR Outbound CCDR report
Included
Not available
Not available
IVR Outbound Half Hourly report
Included
Not available
Not available
Administration
Ability for administrator to create and configure campaigns
Included
Not available
Not available
Ability for administrator to create non-North American area code to time-zone mappings
Included
Not available
Not available
The summary overview of system maximums for inbound and outbound voice shown in Table 7 is for reference only. All system configurations are required to use the Cisco Unified Communications Sizing Tool to pass required Cisco Assessment to Quality (A2Q) bid assurance.
Please note that all deployments containing preview outbound and outbound IVR are by definition blended inbound/outbound deployments. In addition, the media convergence servers (MCS) in Table 7 apply only to Cisco MCS 7816-H3 and MCS 7816-I3, MCS 7825-H3 and MCS 7825-I3, MCS 7835-H2 and MCS 7835-I2, and MCS 7845-H2 and 7845-I2 and later versions of these servers. Older versions of these servers have lower scalability limits, which you can determine by using the Cisco Unified Communications Sizing Tool.
Table 7. Reference Capacities for Inbound and Blended Inbound and Outbound Systems
Critical Inbound-Only Voice System Maximum Capacities when Deployed with Cisco Unified Communications
Standalone Server
Two-Server Cluster
Server class
5
4
3
2
1
5
4
3
2
1
Agents
400
300
150
100
75
400
300
150
100
75
Supervisors
42
32
15
10
8
42
32
15
10
8
Agent E-Mail
120
120
120
30
30
120
120
120
30
30
Monitoring*
42
32
15
10
8
42
32
15
10
8
Recording and Playback**
84**
64**
32
24
16
84**
64**
32
24
16
Customer service queues
150
150
100
25
25
150
150
100
25
25
Historical reporting sessions
5
5
5
3
3
16
16
10
10
10
Skills
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
IVR ports****
400
300
150
100
75
400
300
150
100
75
ASR ports
100
100
50
50
50
100
100
50
50
50
TTS ports
160
160
40
40
40
160
160
40
40
40
VoiceXML ports
80
80
40
40
40
80
80
40
40
40
Remote monitoring
32
32
15
10
8
32
32
15
10
8
Busy Hour Call Completions (BHCC)
6000
5000
2600
2000
1800
6000
5000
2600
2000
1800
Number of skills with which an agent can associate
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
Number of CSQs with which an agent can associate (Includes total combined email CSQs and voice CSQs)
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
Number of skills with which a CSQ can associate
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
Number of CSQs for which a call can queue
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
Critical Blended Inbound and Outbound Voice System Maximum Capacities when Deployed with Cisco Unified Communications
Standalone Server
Two-Server Cluster
Agents
400
300
75
75
50
400
300
75
75
50
Supervisors
42
32
10
10
5
42
32
10
10
5
Monitoring*
42
32
10
10
5
42
32
10
10
5
Recording and Playback*
42
32
10
10
8
42
32
10
10
8
Historical Reporting sessions
2
2
2
2
2
8
8
4
4
4
CSQs
150
150
100
25
25
150
150
100
25
25
Skills
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
150
IVR ports****
400
300
150
100
75
400
300
150
100
75
ASR ports
100
100
50
50
50
100
100
50
50
50
TTS ports
160
160
40
40
40
160
160
40
40
40
VoiceXML ports
80
80
40
40
40
80
80
40
40
40
Agent E-Mail
120
120
120
30
30
120
120
120
30
30
Remote monitoring
32
32
10
10
5
32
32
10
10
5
Blended or Preview Agents
100
100
75
75
50
100
100
75
75
50
Preview Outbound BHCC***
6000
5000
2600
2000
1800
6000
5000
2600
2000
1800
Outbound IVR BHCC***
6000
5000
2600
2000
0
6000
5000
2600
2000
0
Total BHCC***
6000
5000
2600
2000
1800
6000
5000
2600
2000
1800
Number of skills with which an agent can associate
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
Number of CSQs with which an agent can associate
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
Number of skills with which a CSQ can associate
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
Number of CSQs for which a call can queue
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
25
Outbound IVR ports
150
150
75
75
0
150
150
75
75
0
Critical Inbound Voice System Maximum Capacities when Deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express on Integrated Services Router
Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express on Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business
Server
All
All
Agents
50
48
Supervisors
10
5
Monitoring
10
-
Recording and Playback
10
-
Historical Reporting sessions
2
2
CSQs
50
50
Skills
150
150
IVR ports
50
48
ASR ports
25
-
TTS ports
25
-
VoiceXML ports
25
-
Agent E-Mail
-
-
BHCC
1000
1000
Number of skills with which an agent can associate
50
50
Number of CSQs with which an agent can associate
25
25
Number of skills with which a CSQ can associate
50
50
Number of CSQs for which a call can queue
25
25
* Refer to Solution Reference Network Design (SRND) for additional limitations for Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)-based recording and monitoring.
** 84 for Premium; 32 for Enhanced.
*** For high-availability deployments, the BHCC listed in the table is for LAN deployments. For WAN deployments, BHCC is 5000, 3250, 2250, 750, and 750 for server classes 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, respectively. In addition, the BHCC contributed by the preview outbound dialer should not exceed 1000, 1000, 750, 750 and 750 for server class 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. The BHCC contributed by Outbound IVR should not exceed 1000, 1000, 750, and 750 for server class 5, 4, 3 and 2 respectively. These reduced BHCC apply only to HA over WAN deployments.
**** The number of IVR ports is also limited by the maximum number supported for a given server platform. In case of virtualized deployment, the maximum number of IVR ports is limited by the maximum number supported for a given virtual machine template.
Table 8 lists the server classes and the different servers in each class.
Table 8. Server Classes and Servers Supported by Cisco Unified Contact Center Express
Server Class
1
2
3
4
5
Servers
Cisco MCS 7816
Cisco MCS 7825, C200M2
Cisco MCS 7835
Cisco MCS 7845,
B200M1, C210M1
B200M2, C210M2
Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization
Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization suite assists contact centers in efficiently managing their personnel to deliver consistent customer service that matches their business goals. The suite consists of the following components:
• Call Recording: This user license bundle enables either audio telephony recording by preconfigured workflows with up to 100-percent recording, or on-demand recording through the recording API. In addition, the Call Recording license provides the browser-based user interface to search for and replay recorded contacts within the scope of the user's defined role.
• Quality Management: This user licensing bundle includes all of the functions listed within the Call Recording bundle plus customized contact quality evaluation and reporting on aggregate quality scores for agents, teams, or groups.
• Advanced Quality Management: This user license bundle includes all of the functions listed within the Quality Management bundle plus synchronized agent screen recording.
• Workforce Management: This system efficiently manages contact center staff and resources to meet customer service-level objectives. The Workforce Management process includes forecasting contact volume based upon historical trends, and scheduling personnel based upon their work rules to help ensure that target service-level goals are achieved. Agent and supervisor dashboards are available for tracking schedules and managing service levels on an intra-day basis.
Note that Quality Management, Advanced Quality Management, and Workforce Management are available only with the Premium version of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 8.5.
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. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 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.
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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, etworkcentric 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 the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, visit
http://www.cisco.com/go/uccx or contact your local Cisco account representative.