Contents

• Using the Outbound Feature
• About the Outbound Feature
• Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables
• Outbound Call Events
• The BAResponse ECC Variable

Using the Outbound Feature

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This chapter includes the following topics.

• About the Outbound Feature
• Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables
• Outbound Call Events
• The BAResponse ECC Variable

About the Outbound Feature

CRS 5.0(1) includes an outbound feature. The outbound feature allows agents in a CSQ to handle outbound campaigns. When an agent handles an outbound call, the agent is presented with contact information about a customer. The agent has several options regarding this customer contact information. If the agent decides to call the customer, a call is made from the agent phone to the customer. For details about the outbound feature please see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Solutions Administration Guide.

Unified CCX CTI server supports this feature using the CTI protocol messages. Agents with outbound capability should specify this capability in the AgentCapacity field of the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message. When an agent with the outbound capability is logged in and the agent is part of an outbound campaign, the agent receives a special sequence of messages to handle an outbound call.

Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables

Unified CCX uses pre-defined ECC variables to exchange data with CTI clients for the outbound feature. See the following table for a complete list of the pre-defined ECC variables that are used for the outbound feature.

Note	These ECC variables should not be used by the CTI client for other purposes. They are reserved for the outbound feature.

Table 1 Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables

ECC variable	Description
BACampaign	Indicates the name of the Outbound Dialer campaign to which the call belongs.
BAAccountNumber	Identifies a customer account number and can be used by CTI clients to perform a database lookup to obtain additional customer data. This ECC variable displays only if the data was available in the customer import file. Note    The maximum character length of this ECC variable is 30 characters.
BAResponse	Multi-purpose placeholder that sends data from CTI client to the Outbound Dialer. This variable is used when the CTI client responds to the server’s agent reservation request (for example: Accept, Reject, Skip, and so on). It is also used to schedule and cancel callbacks and make changes to the callback number.
BAStatus	Contains two characters indicating the mode and direction of the Outbound Dialer initiated call: The first character identifies the call mode ( "D" = Direct Preview reservation for Unified CCX, "C" = Connected to Customer, "Z" = Transferred/Conferenced) The second character identifies the direction (always "O" = Outbound for Unified CCX). So a BAStatus of DO would indicate a Direct Preview Reservation call and a BAStatus of CO would indicate that this is an Outbound call that is connected to a customer. If an outbound call is transferred or conferenced, the BAStatus is set to ZO.
BADialedListID	A unique key identifying a specific customer record.
BATimeZone	Indicates the GMT offset, in minutes, for the customer’s time zone and obtains the customer’s local time.
BABuddyName	Contains the customer’s first and last name separated by a comma, if provided in the contacts list imported for the campaign.
BACustomerNumber	Contains dialed customer phone number

Outbound Call Events

When Unified CCX needs to request an agent to make an outbound call, Unified CCX initiates a sequence of call events that is similar to those for making a call.

1. Before an outbound call is placed, an available agent is reserved.

2. Unified CCX sends two call events to the agent: BEGIN_CALL_EVENT and CALL_DELIVERED_EVENT.

   • Although the call IDs used in these events are real, these call events are created by Unified CCX artificially. There is no actual phone call being made by any device. The call represented by these artificial call events is called a reservation call.

   • The BAStatus ECC variable is set to "DO" for these events. This indicates that the call is an outbound call.

3. When a CTI client receives these events, it should inform the agent about the customer contact information in the outbound ECC variables. It does this through the BAResponse ECC variable.

   At this point, the CTI client should send a SET_CALL_DATA_REQ message to Unified CCX with the BAResponse ECC variable set to one of the values in Table 1.

   If the BAResponse value is Accept, Reject, Reject-Close, or Cancel Reservation, Unified CCX sends a CALL_CONNECTION_CLEARED_EVENT message to the CTI client with the reservation call ID.

4. If the customer contact is accepted by the agent, Unified CCX makes a call from the agent device to the customer phone. This call is termed the preview call. For preview calls, the BAStatus is set to CO.

Call Classification

For preview calls, a connected customer call is classified as Voice in Unified CCX by default. The agent has the option to change the call classification after accepting and while connected to the customer or when in the Work state.

The CTI client may change the call classification by sending the SET_CALL_DATA_REQ message to Unified CCX with the BAResponse ECC variable set to one of values in Table 1. In addition to reclassifying the call, the CTI client may also set the BAResponse ECC variable to schedule a customer callback, terminate the current call, and call the next available customer phone.

The BAResponse ECC Variable

Table 1 lists the values you can use with the BAResponse ECC variable.

Table 2  The BAResponse ECC Variable Values

Variable	Description
Values used to respond to the reservation call
Accept	To accept the current customer contact. This will initiate the outbound call to the customer from the agent’s phone. Once the agent responds with Accept, the call becomes a preview call.
Reject	To reject the current customer contact. This will cancel the agent reservation and change her state to Ready. She can now handle either inbound or outbound calls.
Reject-Close	To reject the current customer contact and close the record so it will not be called again for this particular campaign. This will cancel the agent reservation and change her state to Ready. She can now handle either inbound or outbound calls.
Skip	To skip the current customer contact. The agent remains reserved to handle another outbound contact.
Skip-Close	To skip the current preview call and close the record so it will not be called again for this particular campaign. The agent remains reserved to handle another outbound contact.
Cancel Reservation	To cancel the agent reservation and to set the agent to Not Ready state. The record remains open in the database. Clicking Cancel Reservation has a similar effect to clicking Reject except that the agent goes to Not Ready instead of Ready.
Values used during a preview call
Reclassify	Indicates the preview call is reclassified.
REX_VOICE	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as VOICE.
REX_ANS_MACHINE	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as ANSWERING MACHINE.
REX_FAX	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as FAX.
REX_INVALID	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as INVALID PHONE NUMBER.
DO_NOT_CALL	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as a phone number to be added on the DO NOT CALL list.
BUSY	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as BUSY.
Callback mmddyyyy hh:mm	Indicates the customer wants a call back at the specified time
P#<phone number> For example:P#5551212	Indicates the phone number that the customer wants to be called back with. This value may be sent to Unified CCX after the Callback is sent.
Callback Cancel	Indicates the customer wants to cancel a previous callback request.
SkipNext	Indicates an agent request to call the next available customer phone number.
SKIP WRONG_NUMBER	Informs the agent that the number called is a wrong number. After the call terminates, the system calls the next phone number for this customer.
SKIP NOT_HOME	Informs the agent that the customer is not at home. After the call terminates, the system calls the next phone number for this customer.

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Contents

• Using the Outbound Feature
• About the Outbound Feature
• Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables
• Outbound Call Events
• The BAResponse ECC Variable

Using the Outbound Feature

---

This chapter includes the following topics.

• About the Outbound Feature
• Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables
• Outbound Call Events
• The BAResponse ECC Variable

About the Outbound Feature

CRS 5.0(1) includes an outbound feature. The outbound feature allows agents in a CSQ to handle outbound campaigns. When an agent handles an outbound call, the agent is presented with contact information about a customer. The agent has several options regarding this customer contact information. If the agent decides to call the customer, a call is made from the agent phone to the customer. For details about the outbound feature please see the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Solutions Administration Guide.

Unified CCX CTI server supports this feature using the CTI protocol messages. Agents with outbound capability should specify this capability in the AgentCapacity field of the SET_AGENT_STATE_REQ message. When an agent with the outbound capability is logged in and the agent is part of an outbound campaign, the agent receives a special sequence of messages to handle an outbound call.

Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables

Unified CCX uses pre-defined ECC variables to exchange data with CTI clients for the outbound feature. See the following table for a complete list of the pre-defined ECC variables that are used for the outbound feature.

Note	These ECC variables should not be used by the CTI client for other purposes. They are reserved for the outbound feature.

Table 1 Outbound Expanded Call Context (ECC) Variables

ECC variable	Description
BACampaign	Indicates the name of the Outbound Dialer campaign to which the call belongs.
BAAccountNumber	Identifies a customer account number and can be used by CTI clients to perform a database lookup to obtain additional customer data. This ECC variable displays only if the data was available in the customer import file. Note    The maximum character length of this ECC variable is 30 characters.
BAResponse	Multi-purpose placeholder that sends data from CTI client to the Outbound Dialer. This variable is used when the CTI client responds to the server’s agent reservation request (for example: Accept, Reject, Skip, and so on). It is also used to schedule and cancel callbacks and make changes to the callback number.
BAStatus	Contains two characters indicating the mode and direction of the Outbound Dialer initiated call: The first character identifies the call mode ( "D" = Direct Preview reservation for Unified CCX, "C" = Connected to Customer, "Z" = Transferred/Conferenced) The second character identifies the direction (always "O" = Outbound for Unified CCX). So a BAStatus of DO would indicate a Direct Preview Reservation call and a BAStatus of CO would indicate that this is an Outbound call that is connected to a customer. If an outbound call is transferred or conferenced, the BAStatus is set to ZO.
BADialedListID	A unique key identifying a specific customer record.
BATimeZone	Indicates the GMT offset, in minutes, for the customer’s time zone and obtains the customer’s local time.
BABuddyName	Contains the customer’s first and last name separated by a comma, if provided in the contacts list imported for the campaign.
BACustomerNumber	Contains dialed customer phone number

Outbound Call Events

When Unified CCX needs to request an agent to make an outbound call, Unified CCX initiates a sequence of call events that is similar to those for making a call.

1. Before an outbound call is placed, an available agent is reserved.

2. Unified CCX sends two call events to the agent: BEGIN_CALL_EVENT and CALL_DELIVERED_EVENT.

   • Although the call IDs used in these events are real, these call events are created by Unified CCX artificially. There is no actual phone call being made by any device. The call represented by these artificial call events is called a reservation call.

   • The BAStatus ECC variable is set to "DO" for these events. This indicates that the call is an outbound call.

3. When a CTI client receives these events, it should inform the agent about the customer contact information in the outbound ECC variables. It does this through the BAResponse ECC variable.

   At this point, the CTI client should send a SET_CALL_DATA_REQ message to Unified CCX with the BAResponse ECC variable set to one of the values in Table 1.

   If the BAResponse value is Accept, Reject, Reject-Close, or Cancel Reservation, Unified CCX sends a CALL_CONNECTION_CLEARED_EVENT message to the CTI client with the reservation call ID.

4. If the customer contact is accepted by the agent, Unified CCX makes a call from the agent device to the customer phone. This call is termed the preview call. For preview calls, the BAStatus is set to CO.

Call Classification

For preview calls, a connected customer call is classified as Voice in Unified CCX by default. The agent has the option to change the call classification after accepting and while connected to the customer or when in the Work state.

The CTI client may change the call classification by sending the SET_CALL_DATA_REQ message to Unified CCX with the BAResponse ECC variable set to one of values in Table 1. In addition to reclassifying the call, the CTI client may also set the BAResponse ECC variable to schedule a customer callback, terminate the current call, and call the next available customer phone.

The BAResponse ECC Variable

Table 1 lists the values you can use with the BAResponse ECC variable.

Table 2  The BAResponse ECC Variable Values

Variable	Description
Values used to respond to the reservation call
Accept	To accept the current customer contact. This will initiate the outbound call to the customer from the agent’s phone. Once the agent responds with Accept, the call becomes a preview call.
Reject	To reject the current customer contact. This will cancel the agent reservation and change her state to Ready. She can now handle either inbound or outbound calls.
Reject-Close	To reject the current customer contact and close the record so it will not be called again for this particular campaign. This will cancel the agent reservation and change her state to Ready. She can now handle either inbound or outbound calls.
Skip	To skip the current customer contact. The agent remains reserved to handle another outbound contact.
Skip-Close	To skip the current preview call and close the record so it will not be called again for this particular campaign. The agent remains reserved to handle another outbound contact.
Cancel Reservation	To cancel the agent reservation and to set the agent to Not Ready state. The record remains open in the database. Clicking Cancel Reservation has a similar effect to clicking Reject except that the agent goes to Not Ready instead of Ready.
Values used during a preview call
Reclassify	Indicates the preview call is reclassified.
REX_VOICE	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as VOICE.
REX_ANS_MACHINE	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as ANSWERING MACHINE.
REX_FAX	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as FAX.
REX_INVALID	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as INVALID PHONE NUMBER.
DO_NOT_CALL	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as a phone number to be added on the DO NOT CALL list.
BUSY	Indicates the preview call is reclassified as BUSY.
Callback mmddyyyy hh:mm	Indicates the customer wants a call back at the specified time
P#<phone number> For example:P#5551212	Indicates the phone number that the customer wants to be called back with. This value may be sent to Unified CCX after the Callback is sent.
Callback Cancel	Indicates the customer wants to cancel a previous callback request.
SkipNext	Indicates an agent request to call the next available customer phone number.
SKIP WRONG_NUMBER	Informs the agent that the number called is a wrong number. After the call terminates, the system calls the next phone number for this customer.
SKIP NOT_HOME	Informs the agent that the customer is not at home. After the call terminates, the system calls the next phone number for this customer.

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