Cisco® Unified Communications is a comprehensive IP communications system of voice, video, data, and mobility products and applications. It enables more effective, more secure, more personal communications that directly affect both sales and profitability. It brings people together by enabling a new way of communicating - where your business moves with you, security is everywhere, and information is always available...whenever and wherever it is needed. Cisco Unified Communications is part of an integrated solution that includes network infrastructure, security, mobility, network management products, lifecycle services, flexible deployment and outsourced management options, end-user and partner financing packages, and third-party communications applications.
Product Overview
The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console is an operator attendant console designed specially for the growing Cisco Unified Communications Manager customer with a maximum of 500 IP phones (Figure 1). Associated with a Cisco Unified IP Phone, this application allows an attendant console operator to quickly accept and effectively dispatch incoming calls to enterprise users.
The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console offers a rich set of features, including a call queuing engine, busy status, and directory search capabilities, which are integrated into the Cisco Unified Communications Manager directory. The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console is available for supporting up to six operator clients per Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster.
You can install the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console to a dedicated hardware server or load it on a desktop PC. A web-based installation utility guides you through configuring the application server with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. For each operator client, Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console client software is loaded on the operator's desktop PC.
Figure 1. Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console
Features and Benefits
The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console uses a powerful queuing engine to direct the calls to the operator and gives the operator several monitoring features to help ensure that incoming calls are handled efficiently. The application provides three call queues with prioritization. As an example, the queuing functions of the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console allow a Cisco Unified Communications Manager customer to have a Sales queue, a Service queue, and a General Business queue. Sales calls can be prioritized and answered first, before service or general business calls.
With Cisco Unified Presence integration, Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console offers operators an indication of not only who in their organization is available to be contacted but also how they prefer to be contacted. With an at-a-glance view of an individual's status and availability that updates dynamically, operators can make timely choices when connecting inbound calls with their intended recipients. For those individuals with a preference to not be disturbed, a feature that prevents interruptions has also been enabled.
The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console provides four directory search options that allow the operator to quickly find call destinations and quickly dispatch calls. These search options include last name, first name, department, and extension.
After the operator locates the target designation, both the user's Cisco Unified IP Phone and cell phone numbers can be listed within the application. Because the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console is integrated with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, the operator can see busy state of the Cisco Unified IP Phone, allowing the operator to transfer the call directly to the extension, to voicemail, or to another destination.
Table 1 gives features and benefits of the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console.
Table 1. Features and Benefits of Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console
Feature
Benefit
Queue Features
Support for three queues with prioritization
You can configure queue names per customer need, and you can prioritize calls from one queue and answer them before answering calls from other queues.
Queue operator views
Operators can view all calls within a queue or view all calls within all three queues. If they see that many calls are in queue, they know that they need to quickly process callers. If there are few calls in queue, they can spend more time with each caller to provide a higher level of customer service.
Overflow options
Both operator overflow and queue overflow features are supported to better process incoming calls.
Directory Features
Support for up to 500 IP phone users
The operator can answer calls and view busy status for up to 500 IP phone users. Both the user's Cisco Unified IP Phone and cell phone numbers can be listed.
Directory integration
The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console derives its directory from the Cisco Unified Communications Manager directory. The application includes a utility for staying synchronized with Cisco Unified Communications Manager directory.
Search options
Four directory search options are provided. They allow the operator to quickly find call destinations and then quickly dispatch calls.
Telephony Features
Transfer Reversion (Call Recall)
This feature allows a transferred call to revert back to the operator so that it can be answered and then transferred to a new destination.
Call Park
With Call Park, a caller can be placed on hold while the operator announces that there is a call holding for a particular person or group. The call can be answered by any phone by using an access code. Both Directed Call Park and Undirected Call Park are supported.
Call Park Recall
If a call is not answered, this feature allows a parked call to revert back to the operator so that it can be transferred to a new destination.
Call Toggle
This feature allows the operator to shift between callers.
Conference
This feature allows the operator to provide a three-party conference call.
Emergency Mode Switch
This feature provides a manual switch within the application that redirects all calls to an emergency destination. You can use it to alert callers of emergencies such as snow storms and let them know the business is closed until further notice.
Night Mode Service
You can use both a time/day and manual switch within the application to turn on Night Mode Service. You can use this feature to alert callers that it is after hours and that the business is closed.
Accessibility
For use by the visually impaired, both Zoom Text and JAWs (with a custom script) are supported.
Localization
English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Russian, and Arabic are supported.
Product Specifications
Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console is supported on Cisco Unified Communications Manager Versions 4.3, 5.1, 6.0,,6.1. and 7.0. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express is not supported.
Server hardware requirements of the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console follow:
• Pentium IV 1 GHz or better
• 1-GB RAM
• 80-GB hard disk drive
• 100/1000 network card
• SVGA (1024 x 768) display card with correct drivers
• Sound card
• Windows 2000 or 2003 Server plus SP2 running Windows English Regional settings
You can install the server software for the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console to a dedicated hardware server or load it on a desktop PC. For mission-critical installations, a dedicated hardware server is recommended because shutting off the PC server will cause the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console to lose Cisco Unified Communications Manager connectivity.
Client hardware requirements of the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console follow:
• Pentium II or III 700 MHz
• 512-MB RAM
• 3-GB available hard disk drive
• 100 network card
• SVGA (1024 x 768) display card with correct drivers
• Sound card
• Windows 2000 Professional or Vista plus SP2 or Windows XP with SP2
The operator client for the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console has the following PC limitations: Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console client software can be installed on many PCs, but only six can be active at one time with the server (requires purchase of six client licenses).
Ordering Information
The Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console is ordered on a per-operator client basis. A maximum of six operator clients are supported per Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster. When ordering, the first client includes the software license for the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console server. After ordering, Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console software and licensing keys will be provided through the following web site; http://www.cisco.com/web/go/ac/index.html.
Ordering the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Consoles requires the use of the Cisco Dynamic Configuration Tool. Input "CUB-ATT-CON=" on the Dynamic Configuration Tool to begin the configuration, and then select from 1 to 6 Cisco Unified Business Attendant Consoles (part number CUB-ATT-CON).
Table 2 gives ordering information for the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console.
Table 2. Ordering Information
Product Name
Part Number
Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console
CUB-ATT-CON
Cisco Unified Communications Services and Support
Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco and our partners offer a broad portfolio of end-to-end services to support the Cisco Unified Communications System. These services are based on proven methodologies for deploying, operating, and optimizing IP communications solutions. Initial planning and design services, for example, can help you meet aggressive deployment schedules and minimize network disruption during implementation. Operate services reduce the risk of communications downtime with expert technical support, and optimize services enhance solution performance for operational excellence. Cisco and our partners offer a system-level service and support approach that can help you create and maintain a resilient, converged network that meets your business needs.
For More Information
For more information about the Cisco Unified Business Attendant Console, contact your local Cisco account representative.
