Desktops
Cisco Finesse
Introduction
Cisco Finesse is a next-generation agent and supervisor desktop designed to provide a collaborative experience for the various communities that interact with your customer service organization.
Cisco Finesse provides:
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A browser-based administration console and a browser-based desktop for agents and supervisors; no client-side installations are required.
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A single, customizable cockpit or interface, that gives customer care providers quick and easy access to multiple assets and information sources.
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REST APIs that simplify the development and integration of value-added applications and minimize the need for detailed desktop development expertise.
The following table lists the availability of the Cisco Finesse service in the Unified CCX packages.
Service |
Unified CCX Premium |
Unified CCX Enhanced |
Unified CCX Standard |
Unified IP IVR |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cisco Finesse |
Available |
Available |
Not available |
Not available |
Cisco Finesse functionalities
Cisco Finesse supports the following functionalities:
- Basic call control—Answer, hold, retrieve, end, and make calls.
- Advanced call control—Make a consultation call and transfer or conference the call after the consultation.
- Not Ready and Sign Out reason codes—Reasons that agents can select when they change their state to Not Ready.
- Wrap-up codes—Reasons that agents can apply to calls.
- Phone books—List of contacts from which agents can select one to call.
- Live Data gadgets—Display
current state of agents, teams and CSQs in the contact center.
Note
Unified CCX 10.6 does not support Email Live Data gadgets. Voice and Chat Live Data gadgets are only supported.
- Customizable third-party gadgets
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Cisco Communications Manager-based recording using MediaSense
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Scheduled call back—Request a callback at a specific callback phone number and also specify the time or date of the callback.
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Reclassify—Reclassify a direct preview outbound call as busy, answering machine, fax, invalid number, or voice.
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Outbound agent—Supports outbound dialing including progressive, predictive, and direct preview modes, allowing agents to handle both inbound and outbound dialing tasks.
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Multisession webchat—Allows agents to work on multiple chat sessions at the same time for increased agent resource usage.
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Multisession email—Allows agents to work on multiple email sessions at the same time for increased agent resource usage.
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Multiline—Provides multiple lines on agent phones.
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Extension mobility—Allows users to temporarily access their Cisco Unified IP Phone configuration such as line appearances, services, and speed dials from other Cisco Unified IP Phones.
![]() Note |
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You can configure the Cisco Finesse Agent and Supervisor Desktops to use Cisco gadgets and third-party gadgets through a layout management method. You can customize the Cisco Finesse Agent and Supervisor Desktops through the Cisco Finesse administration console. The administrators can define the tab names that appear on the desktops and configure which gadgets appear on each tab. Cisco Finesse is deactivated by default. To activate Finesse, see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Operations Guide, located at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/customer-collaboration/unified-contact-center-express/products-maintenance-guides-list.html.
For information about supported browsers and operating systems, see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Software and Hardware Compatibility Guide at http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Compatibility_Matrix_for_Unified_CCX.
- Call control
- Built-In Bridge (BIB) for silent monitoring
- IM and Presence
![]() Note |
Finesse does not support video on Jabber endpoints. |
Finesse Desktop latency
Finesse Agent and Supervisor Desktops can be located remotely from Unified CCX. The round-trip time between the Unified CCX server and the agent desktop must not exceed 200 ms.
Bandwidth requirement for Cisco Finesse client to server
The agent and supervisor login operation involves loading web pages, and includes the CTI login and the display of the initial agent state. After the desktop web page loads, the required bandwidth is significantly less.
Because Cisco Finesse is a web application, caching can significantly impact the required bandwidth. For example, the first time an agent logs in, the number of bytes transmitted is approximately 2 megabytes. If caching is enabled in the browser, during subsequent logins, the number of bytes transmitted is 0.134 megabytes.
Because of additional gadgets on the supervisor desktop, this number is higher for a supervisor login (approximately 2.5 megabytes without caching and 0.325 megabytes with caching). To minimize the amount of bandwidth required for login, make sure that caching is enabled in the browser.
To help you with the bandwidth calculation, Cisco Finesse provides a bandwidth calculator to estimate the bandwidth required to accommodate the client login time.
Note that during failover, agents are redirected to the alternate server and are logged in automatically. For example, if you configure your bandwidth so that login takes 5 minutes and a client failover event occurs, agents will take 5 minutes to successfully log in to the alternate server.
The Cisco Finesse bandwidth calculator does not include the bandwidth required for any third-party gadgets in the Cisco Finesse container or any other applications running on the agent desktop client.
The bandwidth listed in the bandwidth calculator must be available for Cisco Finesse after you account for the bandwidth used by other applications, including voice traffic that may share this bandwidth. The performance of the Cisco Finesse interface, and potentially the quality of voice sharing this bandwidth, may degrade if sufficient bandwidth is not continuously available.
Administration
The administrator can access the Cisco Finesse administration web user interface in read and write mode from the Unified CCX publisher node. From the Unified CCX subscriber node, access is read-only.
Finesse REST API
Cisco Finesse provides a REST API that allows client applications to access the supported features. The REST API uses secure HTTP (HTTPS) as the transport with XML payloads.
Cisco Finesse provides a JavaScript library and sample gadget code that can help expedite third-party integration. You can find developer documentation for the REST API, the JavaScript library, and sample gadgets at this location: http://developer.cisco.com/web/finesse/docs.
Silent monitoring
The supervisors can monitor agents calls using Unified Communications Manager-based silent monitoring with Cisco Finesse.
Cisco Finesse does not support SPAN port-based monitoring and desktop monitoring to silent monitor the agent.
Recording
Cisco Finesse workflows can be used to record agent calls using Cisco Unified Communications Manager with Cisco MediaSense or Cisco Workforce Optimization.
![]() Note |
The agent phone must have built-in-bridge (BIB) support enabled for Cisco Unified Communications Manager-based call recording and monitoring to work with Cisco Finesse. For information about the phones that have built-in-bridge support, see the Software and Hardware Compatibility Guide for Cisco Unified CCX and Cisco Unified IP IVR at this location: http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Compatibility_Matrix_for_Unified_CCX. |
For information about recording APIs, see the Cisco Finesse Web Service Developer Guide at http://developer.cisco.com/web/finesse/docs.
Cisco MediaSense Search and Play Gadget
The Search and Play gadget available on the Supervisor desktop allows you to access all recordings stored in MediaSense.
Recording Tag
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agent = <agent ID> of each logged-in Unified CCX agent who participated in the recording.
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team = <team name> of all those teams whose agents have participated in the recording.
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CSQ = <CSQ name> of that CSQ where the call being recorded was queued and processed.
For example, Tag: CCX:agent=abc,team=Deafult,CSQ=Auto_CSQ.
These tags enable supervisors and agents to filter and search recordings in Cisco MediaSense Search and Play Gadget based on one or a combination of the parameters.
Multiline support
Finesse supports the use of multiple lines on agent phones. You can configure one or more secondary lines on an agent phone. The agent's ACD line must be in button positions 1 - 4. Any calls on the observed lines are reported in the historical reports. However, Finesse blocks any events that are sent by the CTI server as a result of call activity on an agent’s non-primary/non-ACD line (lines other than the one the agent is logged into). These events are not published to Finesse clients. No information about calls that are handled on non-primary/non ACD line appears on the Finesse desktop.
For example, if Agent A uses his non-ACD line to call Agent B (on Agent B's primary/ACD extension), the call does not appear on Agent A's desktop. The call appears on Agent B's desktop because Agent B received the call on the primary/ACD extension.
Direct Transfer Across Line (DTAL) and Join Across Line (JAL) are not supported.
NAT support
Cisco Finesse does not support NAT.
IPv6 support
Cisco Finesse provides support for IPv6 with Unified CCX.
E.164 support
- Enterprise Data
- Phone Book Contacts
- Workflow Rules or Conditions
Cisco Agent Desktop
Cisco Agent Desktop Integration with Cisco IM and Presence
CAD agents and supervisors communicate with each other through the chat services built into the desktop applications. If you have deployed Cisco IM and Presence in their environments, agents and supervisors can use these same desktop applications to see the presence status of SMEs as well as other critical members of the enterprise, and to initiate chat sessions with them. The SMEs use the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator to initiate chat sessions with agents who are configured as Cisco IM and Presence users and respond to the chat requests from them. SMEs can also use Microsoft Office Communicator. The Cisco IM and Presence integration feature is available in the Standard, Enhanced, and Premium packages.
For example, a customer calls a Cisco Unified Contact Center that has integrated Cisco IM and Presence with CAD. The customer's call is routed to an available agent. If the agent requires assistance in addressing the caller's needs, the agent can launch the contact selection window from the Agent Desktop toolbar. The contact selection window will display the presence status of other agents, supervisors, and SMEs who are assigned to the agent's work flow group. The agent can then select a contact who is available and initiate a chat session with the contact. If appropriate, the agent can also use the contact selection window to conference a contact into the call, or even transfer the customer's call to the contact.
This figure and the description that follows describe how various components of Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco IM and Presence interface with each other.

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Cisco Desktop Administrator retrieves the LDAP configuration profile through the SOAP Interface.
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Cisco Desktop Administrator binds to the LDAP server for SME searches and information, such as name and telephone number.
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Administrator places SMEs in logical groups called contact lists and then assigns them to specific work flow groups. Administrators can segment contact lists and ensure that only those agents assigned to a specific work flow group have visibility to the appropriate contact list. This configuration is saved in CAD's LDAP so that each agent or supervisor does not have to access the Unified Presence's LDAP server which might have limitations on number of connections. Administrators can also control the supervisor's ability to see the agent's present state.
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CAD retrieves the contact list associated with the agent's workflow group.
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CAD retrieves various configuration profiles through the SOAP interface, for example, Unified Presence server information.
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CAD sends a SIP REGISTER to register with Cisco IM and Presence, followed by individual SIP SUBSCRIBE messages for each user in its contact list. CAD also sends a SIP SUBSCRIBE for "user-contacts" for contacts configured on Cisco IM and Presence. A SIP NOTIFY is received whenever a contact in the contact list changes state. CAD does not allow agents to change their presence states. It only sends a single SIP PUBLISH message to Cisco IM and Presence when an agent logs in.
Call Control is done through the existing CAD main window using CTI. All SIP traffic and presence information sent between CAD and Cisco IM and Presence is not encrypted and is done through TCP or UDP.
Cisco IM and Presence can assign the users registered with it across all nodes within the Cisco IM and Presence cluster. If the user attempts to connect to a node that is not assigned to him, CAD will connect to the SOAP and Presence servers specified in redirect messages from the publisher.
All communication between CAD agents and supervisor is through Cisco IM and Presence server and is not routed through any CAD server. Refer to the chapter on Cisco IM and Presence in the Cisco Unified Communications SRND for deployment guidelines.