Suggested Implementation Plan

The following high-level procedure provides a suggested plan to use when setting up the multichannel software.

1. Install the following product software, and note that upgrading and licensing information is typically included in the installation guides for the respective products.

- Cisco ICM Software. If using Blended Agent for outbound calls and when you are installing the ICM Admin Workstation, be sure to enable the Blended Agent Support option in the Admin Workstation Client Properties dialog box. Note that the Cisco CTI Object Server (CTI OS) software must be installed separately.
- Cisco WebView. Install on the ICM Admin Workstation.
- Cisco Collaboration Server
- Cisco Media Blender
- Cisco Dynamic Content Adapter.
- Cisco E-Mail Manager. Note that some configuration happens during the E-Mail Manager installation process. See step 7.

> After installing the products, be sure to update the system hosts files for all the machines on the platform.

> Note: If you are using IPCC, configure CallManager and install and configure IP-IVR before installing the ICM software. CallManager is pre-installed on the Cisco Media Convergence Server (MCS) so you do not need that installation guide. See the Getting Started with Cisco Customer Response Applications for information on installing IP-IVR. During the installation of ICM, be sure to add a CallManager peripheral gateway (PG) that has two PIMs—one for CallManager and the other for IP-IVR.

2. Determine the firewall considerations. See the Cisco Media Blender Installation Guide for details.
3. Configure ICM software. Using the ICM Configuration Manager, complete the following:

- Create application instances for Collaboration Server and E-Mail Manager.
- Create media routing domains (MRDs) for each Collaboration Server-related media class. For Collaboration Server these should be non-interruptible.
- Create a media routing domain for E-Mail Manager. ICM treats E-Mail Manager as an interruptible medium, but E-Mail Manager ignores the interrupts.
- Create peripheral IDs and records for any Cisco CallManager and ACD used.
- Configure ICM for IPCC. See Note above.
- Configure the Cisco CTI OS software.
- Configure the media routing peripheral gateway (MR-PG). Set up a media routing peripheral interface manager (MR-PIM) for each application instance. Note that you can have up to 32 PIMs on one MR-PG.
- Configure the ConAPI connections from the ICM Admin Workstation to Collaboration Server and E-Mail Manager using the CMS Control tool's CONAPI tab.
- Be sure the user.cisco.cmb expanded call context (ECC) variable is configured in the ICM Expanded Call Variable database table and enabled using the System Information tool in ICM Configuration Manager. This variable is the default value for the Media Blender peripheral.namedvars property in the ACD.ciscocti.properties file and is required for the handling of Web callbacks.
- Configure any legacy ACDs and phantom lines. For example, if you are using the Definity G3 ACD, ICM must monitor the vector directory numbers (VDNs) used for phantom calls. See the ACD supplements on the ICM documentation CD.

> See the Cisco ICM Software Configuration Guide and the Cisco ICM Software IPCC Installation and Configuration Guide for more details about configuring ICM and IPCC. See the Cisco ICM Software CTI OS System Manager's Guide for details about configuring CTI OS.

4. Configure the Cisco Collaboration Server software. Using the Collaboration Server Administration desktop, complete the following:

- Define theCollaboration Server application instance.
- Enable the MRDs that were created using ICM software.
- Set up the two-way RMI connections to the Media Blenders. Each connection must be set up on Collaboration Server and Media Blender, preferably in that order. Collaboration Server auto-generates two configured property files for setting up the connection on Media Blender—collaboration.properties and <ConnectionName>.properties, which must be copied to Media Blender.
- Establish a connection to the ICM Admin Workstation.
- Enable the peripherals that were created using ICM software. Peripherals must be enabled on Collaboration Server before agents and skill groups can be created. An agent can be assigned to more than one peripheral, but a skill group can be assigned to only one peripheral.
- Set up the ICM queue and ACD queues. Note that both these queues require a connection to a Media Blender. You can have only one ICM queue per Collaboration Server and only one ACD queue per Media Blender. However, there can be multiple ACD queues on one Collaboration Server.
- Create Skill Groups and Agents. Enable the agents. An agent can work on more than one Collaboration Server. Note that voice skill groups cannot be created on Collaboration Server.
- Assign Agents to Skill Groups. If the agent is on an IPCC peripheral, assign the Blended Collaboration skill group to the agent. If the agent is on an ACD peripheral, do not assign a skill group because this is done on the ACD.
- Create callform HTML pages that capture information necessary to accomplish the ICM script(s). You will need a callform page for each of the Collaboration Server media classes.
- Configure the ConAPI connection to the ICM Admin Workstation.

> See the Cisco Collaboration Server Administration Guide for more details about configuring Collaboration Server.

5. Configure the Cisco Media Blender software. Using the Media Blender Administration user interface and some property files, complete the following:

- Configure the firewall gateway service for the Media Routing (MR) and Agent Reporting and Management (ARM) stubs. You will need the connection name from the <ConnectionName>.properties file in step 4.

- Identify participating media using the medium1 and medium2 properties in the blender.properties file. Note that Media Blender property files are in the \CiscoMB\servlet\Properties\Blender directory.
- If you are using an ACD, define a pool of phantom lines and set up a phantom pool file. Identify the phantom pool file to your ACD and activate the CTI strategy in the ACD.ciscocti.properties file. Note that IPCC and SoftACD do not use phantom lines. For IPCC or SoftACD, uncomment the ctistrategy=AgentReserved line in the ACD.ciscocti.properties file. Also in that property file, add the ICM peripheral ID and the CTI Server host name and host port.
- If you installed the Standalone Distributed Diagnostics Services Network (SDDSN) system after installing Media Blender, enable Phone Home services to send alerts to the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

> See the Cisco Media Blender Administration Guide for more details about configuring Media Blender.

6. Configure the Dynamic Content Adapter software. After installing Collaboration Server and then installing DCA, you must integrate DCA with Collaboration Server. In most cases, you can use DCA as-is immediately after installing and integrating it with Collaboration Server. Post-installation configuration is usually not necessary. However, you might want to do the following:

- Configure DCA for SSL to share secure content.
- Change the Admin Tool password (recommended).
- Test your site with DCA.

> See the Cisco Dynamic Content Adapter Administration and Configuration Guide for more details about configuring DCA.

1. Configure the E-Mail Manager software. Using the E-Mail Manager Administration user interface, complete the following:

- Use the E-Mail Manager's Configuration utility to create an application instance and enable the MRD that was created using ICM software. The Configuration utility opens during the installation of E-Mail Manager and guides you through creating the first application instance. When you create the instance, you enter the MRD address. You will need the application instance name and key used by ICM.
- After the new instance is up and running, log in to the Administration Desktop and enable one or more peripherals for the E-Mail Manager instance.
- Create skill groups and select a peripheral for each skill group. A skill group can be associated with only one peripheral.
- Create agents using E-Mail Manager or enable agents created on ICM or Collaboration Server to work with e-mail messages.
- Determine whether E-Mail Manager directly routes messages to the skill group (E-Mail Manager Routing), or if routing to the skill group is deferred to ICM software (ICM Routing).
- Define rules to route certain messages through ICM software.
- Configure the ConAPI connection to the ICM Admin Workstation.

> See the Cisco E-Mail Manager Installation and Configuration Guide and the Cisco E-Mail Manager Administration Guide for more details about configuring E-Mail Manager.

2. Define your business needs by answering the following questions:
   - What do you want to accomplish with intelligent routing?
   - What information is available and necessary to make routing decisions?
   - Does any type of call take priority over another?
   - What are the needs in the events of error or unavailable agents?
   - Will ICM pass any new value back to session details?
   - What decisions will you make about routing parameters and labels?
   - What MRDs and applications will you be using?
   - What kinds of reports do you need for your business?

3. Write ICM scripts for Collaboration Server and E-Mail Manager media routing domains to accomplish your business needs. An ICM script is scheduled based on the routing domain, script selector, dialed number, and call type. Each routing domain requires an ICM script, but it is possible to route requests from different MRDs using one script. Scripts can be checked and verified using Call Tracer. Note that labels are different in Version 5.0. See the Cisco ICM Software Scripting and Media Routing Guide and the Cisco Collaboration Server Administration Guide for more details on creating scripts.
4. Test all of the request flows you plan to use.

Back to Ma p