First Published: August 6, 2020

Last Updated: March 19, 2021

Contact Center Releases

This document covers Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.7 systems testing for Contact Center. Although a variety of Contact Center versions are supported with this systems release, the following Contact Center versions are recommended:

  • Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 12.5(1)SU1

  • Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise 12.6(1)

  • Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise 12.6(1)

For a detailed listing of Contact Center applications that are supported with this systems release, including Minimum and Recommended versions, see the Compatibility Matrix for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release.

Introduction to Cisco Collaboration Systems Release for Contact Center

As part of our standard methodology for each Cisco Collaboration Systems Release, we:

  • Perform system-wide testing of Cisco Collaboration products to supplement the product-level testing performed on each collaboration product.

  • Recommend compatible software releases that were verified by the testing teams. The recommendations are not exclusive and are in addition to interoperability recommendations for each of the individual applications or products.

    For software compatibility data, see the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release Compatibility Matrix.


    Note
    Not all Collaboration System product release versions may be available at the same time. For latest product version availability, see individual product support pages at, Support and Downloads.

This document focuses on the Contact Center components tested as part of the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release. For information focused on Collaboration components that were tested as part of Cisco Collaboration Systems Release, see: Release Notes for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/unified-communications/unified-communications-system/products-release-notes-list.html.

This document provides release notes details based on the system-wide testing which includes the following types of components:

  • Call control components, such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), and Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service.

  • Contact center components, such as Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (Unified CCE), Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise (Packaged CCE), Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (Unified CCX), Cisco Unified Intelligence Center (Unified Intelligence Center), Cisco Finesse, and Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal (Unified CVP).

  • Enterprise Edge components such as Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE), and Cisco Expressway Series.

  • Devices (Endpoints), such as Cisco DX Series (DX Series), Cisco IP Phone 7800 Series, Cisco IP Phone 8800 Series, and Cisco Jabber for Windows (Jabber for Windows).

  • Communications gateway components such as Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISR).

Tested Functionality

System-wide testing was done for features and upgrade paths.

Feature Testing

The following Contact Center features were tested:

Packaged Contact Center Enteprise

  • Customer Virtual Assistant (CVA) —This feature enables the IVR Platform to integrate with cloud-based speech services (currently validated with Google Dialog flow). The feature supports human-like interactions that let customers resolve issues quickly and more efficiently within the IVR, thereby reducing the number of calls that are directed towards actual agents. Solution validation included the intent fulfilment done at both the Cloud Provider (Google) and the On-prem side (CVVB).

  • Hybrid Features:

    • Hybrid Analyzer—Hybrid Analyzer lets On-Premise solutions (Enterprise and Express) leverage CJP Business Metrics reporting (Analyzer) capabilities to provide Business Insights to customers. These Insights provide the information to make better decisions. Today, we provide operational metrics only to our on-prem customers and we can use the barrage of data that customers have to provide Business Insights to our customers.

      Use Case Validated—Abandon contacts. For basic and supplementary call flows in Packaged CCE 2K deployments for voice-only call flows.

    • Voicea—Contact Center integration with Voicea reduces the agent workload and saves costs for the contact center. This feature enhances the agent experience by providing the agent with a live transcript of the call so that the agent can recap on what the customer said and so that the agent can capture notes in real time.This functionality helps the agent to improve the accuracy of the call "wrap-up" notes and reduces the time needed for call wrap-up.

      Use case validated:—Validated the transcript for a basic call between agent and customer using the transcript gadget in Finesse desktop.

    • Webex Experience Managment (WXM) aka CloudCherry—This feature lets Packaged CCE customers use WXM (CloudCherry) for presenting surveys to users. This feature also lets customers access analytics on the survey responses so that they can understand the customer experience trend.

      Use Case Validated—Basic call between agent and customer, post hanging up the call, the customer is transferred so that they can provide the survey inputs. Due to lab limitations, validation is done up when the refer transfer is made successfully to the WMX media server.

Unified Contact Center Express

  • Hybrid Analyzer—Hybrid Analyzer enables Premise solutions (Enterprise and Express) to leverage CJP Business Metrics reporting (Analyzer) capabilities to provide Business Insights to our customers. These Insights provide necessary wisdom to take to better decisions/course corrections. Today, we provide operational metrics only to our on-prem customers and we can use the barrage of data that customers have to provide Business Insights to our customers.

    Use Case Validated—Abandon contacts. For basic and supplementary call flows in Unified CCX deployment for voice and non-voice (chat) call flow:

    sRTP: Unified CCX supports End to End secure call flow.

Upgrade Paths

System-wide testing included verifying upgrade paths, including a single-stage upgrade to Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.7 from releases such as 12.0, 12.5 or 12.6.

For a list of versions that are compatible with this Cisco Collaboration Systems Release, see the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release Compatibility Matrix.

New and Changed Features

For details about what is new for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release 12.5, 12.6, and 12.7 see the Solution Overview.

For details about new and changed contact center product features, access individual product release notes from Product Documentation.

System Requirements

This section provides information about system requirements for this Cisco Collaboration Systems Release.

End-of-Sale Components

Product Components

As of March 31, 2021, the following product components are End-of-Sale (EOS), but are still supported. Refer to the corresponding link for up to date information.

The EOS date is the last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale. Another process, the end-of-life (EOL) cycle, guides the final business operations associated with the product.

The EOL process consists of a series of technical and business milestones and activities that, when completed, make a product obsolete. After a product becomes obsolete, it is not sold, manufactured, improved, repaired, maintained, or supported.

For information about recommended replacements and a comprehensive list of announcements, see Products & Services End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Products.

Go to End-of-Life Policy for more information about the EOL policy.

Software Versions

For support information for specific product components, and which software versions are End of Sale for those components, refer to the below links:

Deployment Considerations

This section lists deployment considerations for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release. Cisco Collaboration Systems validation does not test every rebuild. Therefore, more regression testing in a customer or Cisco-specific certification lab is recommended before deployment.


Note

For your reference, see the Cisco Collaboration Systems Release Design Guides.

When deploying Cisco Collaboration Systems, consider the following.

Component Versions

For current Cisco Collaboration Systems Release compatible component versions, refer to the Cisco Collaboration Systems Compatibility Matrix.


Note

Product-specific compatibility documents provide complete compatibility information between components.


Note
Not all Collaboration System product release versions may be available at the same time. For latest product version availability, see individual product support pages at, Support and Downloads.

Note

You can set up a virtualized environment by running collaboration applications on a virtual machine on a Unified Computing System (UCS). For more details, including UCS hardware information and third-party requirements, see:

https://www.cisco.com/go/virtualized-collaboration


Note
Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (Cisco HCS) is a hosted solution that includes various Cisco Collaboration Systems release components. For more information about Cisco HCS, see: Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution and Cisco HCS Product Support.

Related Documentation

Product Documentation

For documentation that covers the product components that make up the Contact Center portion of a Cisco Collaboration Systems Release, refer to the below table. For each product component, the table provides links to:

  • Product Overview pages, from which you can access general product information such as product data sheets and additional marketing material.

  • Documentation pages, from which you can access technical documentation such as release notes, design, installation, configuration, and troubleshooting guides.


Note

For details about which product versions are recommended for this Collaboration Systems Release, see Cisco Collaboration Systems Release Compatibility Matrix at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/unified/communications/system/Compatibility/CSR-Compatibility-Matrix.html.

Table 1. Product Documentation Links

Component

Links

Call Control

Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM & Presence Service

Contact Center

Cisco Packaged Contact Center Enterprise

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express

Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise

Cisco Finesse

Cisco Unified Intelligence Center

Cisco Virtualized Voice Browser

Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise

Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal

Enterprise Edge

Cisco Expressway Series

Cisco Unified Border Element

Endpoints

Cisco Headset 500 Series

Cisco Headset 700 Series

Cisco Webex Board

Cisco Webex Desk Series

Cisco Webex Room Phone

Cisco Webex Room Series

Cisco Webex Share

Cisco TelePresence System EX Series (EOS)

Cisco TelePresence System 500-32 (EOS)

Cisco TelePresence System 500-37 (EOS)

Cisco TelePresence IX5000

Cisco TelePresence MX Series

Cisco TelePresence SX Series

Cisco TelePresence System 1100 (EOS)

Cisco TelePresence Integrator C Series (EOS)

Cisco TelePresence Precision 60 Camera

Cisco IP Phone 7800 Series

Cisco IP Phone 8800 Series

Cisco Jabber for Android

Cisco Jabber iPhone and iPad

Cisco Jabber for Mac

Cisco Jabber for Windows

Communication Gateways

Cisco IOS 15 M&T

Cisco IOS XE 16

Cisco VG Series Gateways

Cisco ASR 1000 Routers

Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers (EOS)

Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers

Limitations and Restrictions

If you are a Cisco partner or a registered Cisco.com user with a Cisco service contract, you can use the Bug Search tool to find caveats of any severity for any release. Access Bug Search at: https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/.

We offer a Cisco Notification Service that allows you to set up one or more profiles. These profiles enable you to receive email notification of new Field Notices, Product Alerts, or End of Sale information for the products that you have selected. The Product Alert Tool is available at: https://www.cisco.com/cisco/support/notifications.html.

Important Notes

This section includes important notes related to the testing of this Cisco Collaboration Systems Release.

Push Notifications Calls Fail During Unified Communications Manager Failover

Incoming Push Notifications calls to Cisco Jabber on iPhone or iPad will fail if Cisco Unified Communications Manager is in failover state and the Jabber client has been in standby mode for more than 3 minutes, or if Jabber is in a killed or swiped-away state. In this case, to receive incoming Push Notifications calls, the mobile device, or the Jabber client, must be relauched.

For details, see CSCvj93746.

Open Caveats

Open Caveats for Cisco Collaboration Systems Release for Contact Center 12.7

The following table contains severity level 1-3 open caveats for Cisco Collaboration Systems for Contact Center, Release 12.7.

Caveat

Headline

CSCvs94916

Kernel Panic seen on UCCX Box after graceful reboot

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting information, tips, and recommendations related to Cisco Collaboration Systems Releases, see individual product Troubleshooting Guides located in Component Documentation.