While provisioning a new Webex Contact Center, you can select either of the media platforms:

• Classic: Provides all existing media functions such as termination of inbound calls from the PSTN, play prompts, collect inputs from a caller, add agents or supervisors to a call, and virtual agent capabilities. It is available for customers where the Next Generation platform doesn't currently provide certain services or integrations in a specific region.

• Next Generation: Extends the capabilities of the Classic platform and provides these enhanced features:

  • Regional Media for global contact centers: Global contact centers with agents distributed worldwide can optimize the media processing to a geographical region for their customer calls. Contact centers that offer global service with PSTN entry points can select a geographic region for processing media for an entry point. For more details, see Regional media with Webex Calling.

  • Virtual Agent capabilities with Google Dialogflow CX: A conversational self-service virtual agent experience that understands the nuances of human language. You can design and build virtual agent bots using a state machine approach for a better end-user and developer experience.

  • Background Noise Removal for Premium agents (upcoming feature): Eliminates the background noise originating from customers calling from PSTN-based devices. It creates an uninterrupted conversation channel between the agents and the customers calling from a diverse set of environments.

  • WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) support for Agent Desktop: Agents can use the browser-based Agent Desktop with a headset, instead of an external phone or an extension number. WebRTC-enabled Agent Desktop offers all voice features such as hold, retrieve, transfer, conference, mute, auto-answer, and dial pad. Through the status indicator, agents signing in through the browser can view the status of the voice channel.

  • Experience Manager: Contact centers can understand the voice of customers with digital surveys and Interactive Voice Response Post Call surveys (IVR PCS). You can survey your callers on their experience at the end of a call or chat. The Survey Builder stores the results of the survey in Control Hub, along with the Webex Contact Center metrics available for download.

Cisco will retire the Classic platform in the future, and the Next Generation platform will be the default option for new customers. For a new deployment, your Webex A2Q contact center recommends the platform to select for your organization. If you are an existing customer, you will receive a notification for upgrade from the Webex customer support team.

Regional availability of Next Generation platform

The calling integration types available in the Next Generation platform are:

• Voice POP: This option doesn't provide a calling service for your deployment. A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) connection is established to the Webex data center. The connection is either by a service provider or directly from the location through a session border controller (SBC) such as Cisco Cube. With this option, agents answer calls using PSTN-connected endpoints or through on-premises Private Branch Exchange (PBX) integration through a SIP connection to an SBC.

• Webex Calling: This option provides a calling service for your organization. Calls are delivered to the Webex Contact Center through one of the supported Webex Calling PSTN options, and agents can use Webex Calling endpoints or applications.

Next Generation media is available in the following regions:

Cisco will perform a platform update for all existing customers who are deployed using the Classic media platform to the Next Generation platform. Cisco will contact you before the update with information on the maintenance windows and expected impact to calls during the update.

After Cisco applies the platform update to your Webex Contact Center, new configuration views display in Control Hub. You will see updated configuration options when configuring Entry Point (EP) mappings. The configuration options are based on your contact center's PSTN integration (VPOP or Webex Calling).

VPOP customers

Configure these fields to map EP to DN for Webex Contact Center provisioned with VPOP integration:

• DN: Enter the DN in E.164 format. You don't need to prepopulate VPOP numbers in Control Hub to select them on the entry point-mapping view.

• Entry Point: Select the name of the entry point to associate with the DN.

• PSTN Region: Select the region for the Webex Contact Center to process the media. When configuring a VPOP entry point, ensure that the media region matches the VPOP region for the entry point. For example, for a call to a VPOP location in Germany (Europe), set the PSTN Region to Germany. The Default region is always the region of the Webex Contact Center hosting. If your Webex Contact Center is hosted in the United States then this is your default media region.

Webex Calling customers

Webex Calling requires the creation of DN in a location. Before configuring a Webex Contact Center EP mapping, you must provision numbers within a Webex Calling location. The provisioning of numbers can be Cloud Connected PSTN numbers from a service provider or 'Bring your own PSTN' numbers through a local gateway. Integration of a Webex Calling DN to your Webex Contact Center requires the provisioning of DN.

Configure these fields to map EP to DN for Webex Contact Center provisioned with Webex Calling integration:

• Location: Select the Webex Calling location to view its associated numbers.

• Available Numbers: Populates with the unallocated numbers that are based in the selected location.

• Entry Point: Select the entry point to associate with the DN.

• PSTN Region: Select the region for Webex Contact Center to process the media for the call. When configuring a Webex Calling entry point, the administrator can choose the region for processing the media. Align the media region to the call delivery region or the region in which the agents are based.

  Select Default if your Webex Contact Center only operates in a single region. The Default region is always the region that hosts your Webex Contact Center. If your Webex Contact Center is hosted in the United States then this is your default media region. If your Webex Contact Center operates in the United States but the calls and agents are in Europe, then set the PSTN Region to Germany or UK. This enables media processing for European calls to take place in Europe.

For more information on configuration, see the Webex Contact Center Documentation.