What's new for administrators in Webex Contact Center

21 December 2022

Salesforce CRM Connector enhancements

Integration of Webex Contact Center with the Salesforce CRM connector introduces the following new features:

• Advanced screen-pop and auto-population of Customer Records: This feature allows dynamic matching of the customer records based on Caller Attributed Data (CAD) passed from the Flow Designer of the Webex Contact Center. With this enhancement, field mappings are introduced in the activity records and in creating a new case.

• Omnichannel state synchronization: The connector synchronizes the Salesforce omnichannel state with the Webex Contact Center agent desktop presence status. With the enhancement, the exclusive channel modes allow agents to handle one interaction type at a time – either Salesforce omnichannel or voice channel in the Webex Contact Center.

• Salesforce Actions widget: The connector supports a new Salesforce Actions widget for quick actions. This widget appears on the desktop when the agent is connected on voice interaction.

  The following actions are available:

  • View/Edit Activity Record

  • Associate to Activity Record

  • Create Case

  • Live case notes

• Dynamic status in the taskbar (Softphone widget): The widget taskbar in salesforce displays the dynamic status of the agent state and call transition states for Webex Contact Center – Available and Idle states including idle codes, and call state transitions, such as Incoming Call, Connected and Disconnected states. This enables the agents to view their live status on the taskbar without having to open the Webex Contact Center widget.

For more information, see Integrate Webex Contact Center with Salesforce.

20 December 2022

Changelog and subscription for Developer Portal changes

The Developer Portal for Webex Contact Center now has an API Changelog. You can subscribe to an RSS feed to get the latest information about API releases, updates and changes made to API contracts, downgrade of APIs and a lot more. This service delivers updates directly from Webex Contact Center Service Groups that are usually not included as a part of release notes.

20 December 2022

Agent Desktop APIs - Call Consult APIs

Webex Contact Center now offers an additional set of Agent Desktop APIs that allow partners and customers to set up their own Agent Desktop and create task activities. These Call Consult APIs are:

• Available Agents API for Blind Transfer/Consult/Conference: Fetches the available list of agents who can be reached for consult, conference, or transfer.

• Consult Transfer: An agent can initiate a consult task with another agent and transfer the call when required.

• Reject/End Consult Request: Allows an agent to reject a consulting call request.

• Accept Consult Request: Allows an agent to accept a consulting call request.

• Consult Conference: Allows an agent to add an already consulting agent/dial number to the call with the customer, so that all three participants can be in a conference.

For more information, see Webex Contact Center for Developers. Sign in to view the specific page content.

13 December 2022

Automate provisioning using Administrator Configuration APIs

Exciting things are available from the Webex Contact Center Developer Portal team with the Configuration APIs. As a business, you can now automate provisioning for users and use key contact center features.

The administrator related APIs that are available are:

• Users: Maintain user entities to store basic user-related information such as Name, Phone Number, Email ID, Location, etc.

• User Profile: User Profile is an extension of user data that stores information such as user subscriptions, orders, rewards, preferences etc.

• Desktop Layout: Create a Webex Contact Center Desktop layout to simplify and track the moving parts of a Contact Center administrator profile, and you get to customize it to fit your needs.

• Global Variables: These variables are configurable and accessible in every facet of the Contact Center ecosystem.

• Work Types: Set and track the work status of a call, such as, when a line is idle or if a call has been wrapped up. This helps you estimate when that line would be ready to accommodate the next call.

• Audio Files: You can upload pre-recorded audio/music messages to use as part of your flow. For more information, visit the Webex Contact Center for Developers portal.

13 December 2022

Agent Desktop Enhancement: Connecting popover for a contact request

A connecting popover is used to inform an agent that a new contact request is in the process of being assigned. The connecting popover is followed by the incoming contact request for the agent to take action before the state change. The agent can’t sign out when a connecting popover appears on the Agent Desktop.

For more information, see Popover and Answer a Call.

01 December 2022

Support JSON object as a variable type in flow control

Flow developers can create custom variables of type JSON and use these variables in various activities such as HTTP Request, Parse and Set Variable. For example, in HTTP Request and Parse activities, you can extract data using JSON path filter expression and store it in JSON variable.

For more information, see Create Custom Variables in Flow Designer.

24 November 2022

New output variables in QueueToAgent activity

The QueueToAgent activity routes the contacts to the preferred agent directly. The following output variables are added to the QueueToAgent activity:

• AgentState

• AgentIdleCode

By configuring this activity, flow designers can get information about the following statuses in the Agentstate and AgentIdleCode output variables respectively:

• AgentState: Idle and Available

• AgentIdleCode: Meeting, Lunch, Coffee, Break and so on.

This enables flow designers to queue the contact to the same agent based on the idle codes configured in the Management portal. For idle codes such as lunch or meeting, flow designers will be able to direct the call to a queue or another agent. For more information, see Queue To Agent.

22 November 2022

Consult to dial number mapped to entry point

This feature allows an agent to initiate a consult call with another agent in another department through an entry point. The agent can choose the entry point that is mapped to the dial number from the Dial Number drop-down list of the Consult Request dialog box. With this enhancement, the Queue option in the Transfer Request dialog box lists only queues; the Dial Number option in the Consult Request dialog box lists all the entry points and address book numbers.

When a consult call is made to an entry point, the flow control manages this consult call session like a new call. Further, the flow control can assign new skills, play IVR music, and check business hours to place the consult call in the right queue.

08 November 2022

Agent Desktop API offering

Webex Contact Center now offers a set of Agent Desktop APIs that enables partners and customers to set up their own Agent Desktop with our current portfolio.

Desktop APIs:

• Agent Login: Signs the agent into their Desktop and prevents duplicate sign-in if an active session already exists.

• Agent Log out: Signs the agent out of their Desktop and can only be called when the WebSocket Secure (WSS) session has been successfully established.

• Agent State Change: The agent can set a status to indicate their availability (Available, Idle, Busy etc.)

• Reload: Allows the agent to receive all the contacts assigned to a particular agent and state.

Task or Call Control APIs:

• Get Task: Retrieves open and closed call control tasks of an agent.

• Create Task: Creates a successful task.

• Accept Task: Enables the agent to accept either an inbound or an outbound request.

• End Task: Ends an ongoing inbound or outbound request.

• Hold Task: Places a task on hold when the agent is consulting.

• Reject Task: Rejects a task, thus changing the agent's status to Available.

• Transfer Task: Transfers a task or a chat to another agent.

• Resume Task: Resumes a task that has been placed on hold.

Call Recording:

• Pause Call Recording: Pauses call recording so that the agent does not record the user's Personal Identifiable Information (PII).

• Resume Call Recording: Resumes call recording once the agent is ready to record again.

For more information, visit the Webex Contact Center for Developers portal.

03 November 2022

Secure Variables in Flow Control

As a flow developer, you can mark custom flow variables as Secure to prevent logging of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). You can also configure these Secure variables as agent viewable or editable to control the presentation of these variables on the Agent Desktop. For more information, see Secure Variables.

03 November 2022

Regional Media support through Real Time Media Service (RTMS) voice platform

Webex Contact Center supports regional media availability via RTMS. This feature allows customer media (audio and SIP signaling) to remain local in a geographic region regardless of where the Webex Contact Center tenant or its home location resides. Keeping the media local to a region decreases latency, improves audio quality, and provides unique regionalized media configurations for multi-national deployments. For example, the Webex Contact Center tenant is defined as a home region in the United States. When an inbound call arrives in a non-home region such as Sydney, Australia, the media services remain local to the Sydney, Australia region with only application control signalling backhauled to the United States home region. This feature is available for supported RTMS regions such as USA and Sydney with additional regions coming online in late 2022.

For more information, see Map an Entry Point.

03 November 2022

Webex Contact Center launch in Japan data center

Webex Contact Center services are now available from a new Japan-based data center. During the onboarding process, customers can select the country of operation that maps to the Japan data center to provision the tenant in the Japan data center. This data center provides access to dedicated VPOPs based out of Japan and benefits customers in APJC who require voice media services in this region. For more information, see the Services Setup Wizard and Data Locality in Webex Contact Center articles.

31 October 2022

Onboarding Partner as a Customer

Partners can now onboard a Webex Contact Center tenant to their own organization by selecting the I am a Customer option in the Order Setup Wizard in Control Hub.

Partners must note the following restrictions when provisioning the tenant to their own organization using Control Hub:

• If the country of operation that is selected maps to the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, or Japan data centers, the partner must onboard the tenant to the Default Platform only. The partner must not select the Exception Platform. For more information on Webex Contact Center data centers, see the article Data Locality in Cisco Webex Contact Center.

• If the country of operation that is selected maps to the Canada data center, then the partner must not have any existing customer tenants provisioned in that data center. The partner must first provision the tenant for their own use, and later start onboarding customer tenants. Don’t use this feature if a partner already has customer tenants.

28 October 2022

New and reimagined illustrations in Agent Desktop

The Agent Desktop displays enhanced and contextual illustrations that are consistent with the Webex product suite. As part of this change, a new default illustration is displayed on the landing page.

27 October 2022

Threshold alert enhancement

With this enhancement, email alerts generated for threshold breaches now include the updated time stamp and the tenant time zone. For more information, see Threshold Alerts in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

12 October 2022

Variables support for the digital channels

Webex Contact Center supports use of global variables and custom flow variables (local variables) while building flows for the digital channels. Global variables are defined in the Management Portal. Flow developers can use these variables within flows to set and pass values in the context of interactions handled in the contact center. If these variables are marked as agent-viewable and agent-editable, this feature enables agents to view and update values for these variables in the Agent Desktop during customer interaction. Additionally, you can mark global variables as reportable, whereby values are available in the Analyzer for custom reporting. All variables set in the main flow, such as global and local flow variables are also available for access in the shared flows.

For more information, see Variable support for digital channels.

4 October 2022

Agent Desktop enhancement—Set any navigation bar page as the landing page

A new property isDefaultLandingPage is added to the Desktop Layout JSON file. This property allows the administrator to set any navigation bar page as the landing page when the agent signs in. The administrator can configure the landing page at the global level or team level via the Desktop Layout.

For more information, see Navigation (Custom Pages).

29 September 2022

Delete entities permanently in Webex Contact Center

Webex Contact Center administrative configurations can now be deleted permanently. This helps customers remove unwanted configurations, keep a lightweight configuration footprint, and improve application performance. Before deleting a configuration object permanently, you will need to mark it inactive. You can also periodically delete inactive objects using an automatic purge which is at a tenant level setting.

For more information, see Delete inactive objects permanently.

28 September 2022

Surge Protection: Maximum concurrent digital contacts for a tenant

This feature defines the maximum number of digital contacts that can be active on the customer tenant. The Maximum Concurrent Digital Contact Threshold indicates this value. When the tenant reaches the threshold, it rejects any new digital contacts until existing digital contacts disconnect to bring down the number of concurrent digital contacts below the threshold. The concurrent digital contacts in the contact center include Chat, Email, SMS, and Social Channels.

The value of Maximum Concurrent Digital Contact Threshold is set to 30% higher than the concurrent digital contact entitlements:

Maximum Concurrent Digital Contact Threshold = Concurrent Digital Contact Entitlements * 1.3

The value of concurrent digital contact entitlements is based on the following formula:

Concurrent Digital Contact Entitlements = (Number of committed Standard Agent licenses + Number of committed Premium Agent licenses) x 2 x 15

100 x 15

Customers can raise a support request to adjust the Maximum Concurrent Digital Contact Threshold for your tenant. The maximum concurrent digital contact threshold cannot exceed 160,000.

For more information, see Concurrent Digital Contact Settings in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

The Surge Protection Statistics report is available in the Analyzer. For more information, see Surge Protection Statistics in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

28 September 2022

Configure Variables displayed on popover and Interaction Control pane

Flow Designer allows flow developers to select the system, global, and local variables that need to be displayed on the voice call request popover and Interaction Control pane.

When the variables are marked as viewable on the Agent Desktop, the flow designer can:

• Select the variables to be displayed on the popover and Interaction Control pane.

• Arrange the selected variables in the order they should be displayed.

• Customize the label that is associated with the variable when it appears on the Agent Desktop.

The popover variables provide brief information on an incoming call, and the information helps agents to learn more about customers before interacting with them. When a voice call is accepted, the configured variables appear in the Interaction Control pane. For more information, see the following sections:

• Desktop Viewable Variables in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• Popover in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide

• Interaction Control in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide

28 September 2022

Advanced queue information and escalate call distribution group

Webex Contact Center now supports these new Flow Control activities:

• Advanced Queue Information: This activity displays the real-time count of agents in the Available state and the count of logged in agents for a specific set of skill requirements. Based on the number of agents available to handle contacts, flow developers can use this activity to decide and manage the flow sequence.

• Escalate Call Distribution Group: This activity allows flow developers to escalate a queued contact to the next or last call distribution group. This provides better control and flexibility to the flow developer to manage contacts that are parked in a queue and helps reduce wait time for contacts.

For more information, see Advanced Queue Information.

14 September 2022

Agent Desktop enhancement – Sign in with country code

Agents can sign in to Agent Desktop based on their geographic location. They can do the following:

• Choose the country code from a drop-down list and enter the dial number in the Station Credentials dialog box.

• Save the station credential preferences for future sign-ins.

For more information, see the Sign In to the Agent Desktop section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

9 September 2022

Real Time Media Service (RTMS) voice platform

Webex Contact Center introduces an enhanced media processing platform Real Time Media Service (RTMS) as the primary media services engine for Webex Contact Center. Phase one of the global RTMS rollout includes support for Voice POP-based PSTN connectivity options. This enables customers to use either partner-provided PSTN (service providers) or extend PSTN services such as Bring your Own PSTN (ByoPSTN) from their Private Branch Exchange (PBX) deployment for the contact center.

Support for additional connectivity such as Webex Calling Subscription-based (CCP or LGW) PSTN and Cisco Bundled PSTN will be added at a later date. Customer eligibility is evaluated during onboarding and partners will choose RTMS within Partner Control Hub during onboarding.

For more information, see the Set Up Voice Channel for Webex Contact Center article and Services Setup wizard section in the Get Started with Webex Contact Center article.

10 August 2022

Change the site of an agent

With this enhancement, you can change the site that is assigned to an agent. The teams and multimedia profile values must be changed accordingly. Cisco recommends updating agent sites within a planned maintenance window and agents to create a new session on the Agent Desktop. For more information, see Edit a User section in the Provisioning chapter of the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

5 August 2022

Flow Designer Enhancements

• Autosave Toggle for Flows: Flow developers can enable or disable autosave of a flow using the Autosave toggle button.When you enable this feature, Flow Designer automatically saves the changes made to the flow every three seconds. For more information, see Enable or Disable the Autosave Option.

• Revert a Flow to its previous version: Flow Designer allows flow developers to revert a flow to its previously published version. It opens the flow in edit mode where you can make the necessary changes and publish the flow again with a new version. For more information, see Revert a Flow.

• Export and Import of Flows: Flow Designer allows flow developers to export or import flow control scripts across the same or different tenants. This feature enables flow developers to replicate flow scripts with greater ease than having to recreate flows. You can navigate to Routing Strategy > Flows tab in the Management Portal to access the Export and Import flows feature. For more information, see Export and Import flows.

• Copy and Paste Activities in Flows: Flow Designer allows flow developers to copy and paste an existing activity in multiple places in a flow, without having to choose a new activity from the Activity panel each time. This helps to save the time and effort to choose and configure the same activity multiple times. For more information, see Copy and Paste Activities.

28 July 2022

Desktop inactivity timeout

This feature allows administrators to specify an Idle inactivity timeout for the Desktop application. This helps to prevent agents and supervisors from using licenses indefinitely and blocking contact center resources. A tenant level timeout can be defined in Management Portal > Organization > Settings and additionally administrators can also set Agent Profile level timeouts that override the tenant level settings. For more information, see Settings in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

If an agent is inactive on the Agent Desktop for a specified duration, the agent is notified with the Prolonged Inactivity dialog box. The dialog box with a countdown timer appears one minute before the configured timeout occurs. If you don't click the Stay Signed In button before the timer runs out, the Agent Desktop signs you out. For more information, see Inactivity Timeout in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

26 July 2022

Configurable RONA timeout for each channel

Administrators can now configure tenant level Redirection on No Answer (RONA) timeout for each channel. The values can be configured on the Control Hub > Contact Center > Settings > Desktop page.

The supported channel types are:

• Telephony

• Chat

• Email

• Social

For information about configuring RONA timeout values, see the article Desktop Settings for Webex Contact Center.

25 July 2022

Customize Webex Contact Center tenant time zone

This feature allows a user to select the contact center tenant time zone when provisioning a subscription or trial using the First Time Setup Wizard. For more information, see the article Get Started with Webex Contact Center.

25 July 2022

Desktop Layout enhancement

With this enhancement, new features that are released for the desktop layout are automatically available to users who use an unmodified desktop layout. No administrator action is required to apply new features to teams that use unmodified layouts. The new layout-based features are available when a user refreshes their Desktop session or signs in to the Desktop.

For more information, see Desktop Layout in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

21 July 2022

Agent Desktop enhancement—Add illustration to the task page

A new property taskPageIllustration is provided in the desktop layout JSON file. The new property allows the administrator to customize the blank task page illustration based on organization preferences and brand alignment. When an agent signs in, the task page displays the configured illustration as a background. For more information, see taskPageIllustration.

18 July 2022

WhatsApp for inbound customer care:

Webex Contact Center integrates WhatsApp as a channel for improved customer interaction. The WhatsApp channel allows end consumers to reach out to businesses as an additional channel of choice. For more information, see Set up WhatsApp Channel in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

With WhatsApp integration, agents can respond to WhatsApp contacts using the Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop. For more information, see Manage WhatsApp Conversations in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop Guide.

15 July 2022

Agent Desktop enhancements

• User experience enhancement—Engaged label: When an agent is in the Available state and accepts an active request, the Agent Availability state displays an intuitive label called Engaged. The Engaged label appears on the Agent Desktop when the agent has accepted the task and connected with the customer. When the Engaged label is displayed, the agent can continue to receive active requests on other channels, depending on the channel capacity. For more information, see Agent Availability States.

• Ability for agents to provide feedback on their desktop experience: We continue to rapidly evolve the Agent Desktop based on user feedback. To make it easier for agents to provide inputs that help us to improve their desktop experience, we are providing a feedback option within the Agent Desktop. For more information, see Navigation Bar.

13 July 2022

Agent-based routing

Agent-based routing allows you to assign a dedicated agent or a relationship executive to your contacts. Use agent-based routing to route, queue, or park your contacts directly to preferred agents.

Do you have contacts that call the contact center frequently? You can assign the last agent who interacted with the contact as the preferred agent whenever that contact calls.

The queue-to-agent activity within the flow enables agent-based routing. The agent's email address or ID in the queue-to-agent activity enables routing of contacts to preferred agents.

With this enhancement, you can reduce the time that you spend resolving calls, and improve the overall customer experience. For more information, see Agent-based Routing.

13 July 2022

Update agent skills in realtime

When you update the skill profile of agents or add skills to an agent profile, this is updated in realtime without the need for agents to sign out or sign back in to see the updates. For more information, see Teams.

7 July 2022

Windows 11 support in Webex Contact Center

Webex Contact Center supports the Microsoft Windows 11 operating system for Control Hub, Management Portal, Flow Designer, Desktop, and Analyzer.

For more information, see the following topics:

• The Control Hub tab in the article System requirements for Webex services.

• The Supported Browsers for Management Portal and Flow Designer Browser Requirements sections in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• The Browser Requirements section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

• The System Requirements section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

21 June 2022

Agent Desktop enhancement—Error messages when outdial calls fail

When an outdial call fails, the Agent Desktop displays new error messages for the following scenarios:

• An outdial number dialed by an agent doesn't connect to the customer. For example, call connectivity issues.

• An agent rejects an outdial call. For example, when the agent is busy in another interaction.

• A customer disconnects an incoming call. For example, the customer cancels an incoming call.

• A customer doesn't answer an incoming call. For example, the call rings but the customer fails to answer the call.

For more information, see Make an Outdial Call.

16 June 2022

Web callback enhancements

Do you want your callers to submit callback requests from any external source such as website, chat, or mobile app? We have a Web Callback API available now.

After a request is submitted, it is sent to the Webex Contact Center system. Webex Contact Center receives the callback request and initiates a call to the requestor on an outbound entry point that is used exclusively for callbacks.

Partners or customers should build and maintain the front end and user interface to submit the callback request. The ability to cancel callback requests, skill-based routing, scheduling, and the retry mechanism will not be available in this release.

The Callback report in Analyzer includes the web callback report with the following fields:

• Type of Callback: The type of callback can be Courtesy or Web.

• Source of Callback: The source of callback can be website, chat, or mobile app.

The Agent Desktop displays the new callback icon.

For more information, visit the Webex Contact Center for Developers portal.

26 May 2022

Dynamic prompt support for IVR

Flow Designer supports a single IVR flow to handle interactions in multiple languages based on the customer's choice of language. Flow developers can configure the audio prompt variable in various IVR activities such as Play Music, Play Message, Menu, and Collect Digits. This variable selects the audio prompts to be played dynamically in the language selected by the customer during the interaction.

For more information, see the Activities in Call Handling section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

18 May 2022

System limits in Webex Contact Center

Configuration limits for Webex Contact Center are now documented and published. For more information, see System Limits in Webex Contact Center in the Getting Started chapter of the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

9 May 2022

Administrator Licensing Changes

Assigning a premium agent license to an administrator is now optional. There is no license cost for administrators who do not access any agent or supervisory features. Such administrators do not have access to the following modules in the Management Portal:

• Agent Desktop

• Reporting and Analytics

• Call Monitoring

• Recording Management

• Agent State Data Realtime

For more information about administrator licensing changes, see Webex Contact Center Documentation.

21 April 2022

Agent Desktop Enhancements

• Removed the background illustrations on the landing page: The landing page so far displayed some default illustrations as a background when an agent signed in to the Agent Desktop. These default illustrations are removed, and agents now see a landing page without illustrations.

• Reorder tabs in the Auxiliary Information pane: Agents can drag and drop tabs in the Auxiliary Information pane to change the tab order. This feature is applicable for:

  • Tabs that are displayed in the Auxiliary Information pane.

  • Additional tabs in the Auxiliary Information pane. The agent can click the More Tabs drop-down list and then select the required tab.

  The order of the tabs is retained even after an agent navigates away from the Auxiliary Information pane, reloads the browser, clears the browser cache, or sign out and sign in again to the Agent Desktop.

  To reset tabs to the default order, agents can click the More Actions () icon and select the Reset Tab Order option.

  For more information, see Auxiliary Information Pane in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

  To enable this feature, the desktop layout JSON file must include the following new properties:

  • Drag and drop tabs: Administrators must set the draggable property value to true. In addition, set the comp-unique-id property to a unique value to identify the component.

  • Reset tab order: Administrators must specify the reset attributes for the agentx-wc-more-actions-widget component.

  For more information, see Auxiliary Information Pane in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

12 April 2022

Stock transition reports

Nine new voice-only stock transition reports are now available in Webex Contact Center. These reports have the same look and feel as that of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (CCX) reports.

For more information, see Transition Reports in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

11 April 2022

New digital channels released with full General Availability

The new digital channels are now released with full General Availability.

New digital channels—Chat, Email, Short Messaging Service (SMS), and Facebook Messenger—are now available in Webex Contact Center in the US, UK, ANZ, and EU regions. Customers can work with the partners and account managers to plan their organization onboarding and avail the new digital channels.

Customers, when using these channels, can use the following enhancements:

• Flow Builder: This enhancement empowers customers to create powerful self-help. Flow Builder is an editor that enables customers to create interactive communication flows with minimal programming or scripting efforts. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface called Flow Canvas, which helps to build communication flows using Nodes.

• Skills-based Routing: Administrators can assign skill requirements as well as skill relaxation criteria to contacts in the QueueTask node in the Flow Builder. Contacts are routed to agents based on skill requirements that are matched best at that point in time in the flow.

• Screen Pop: A screen pop is a window that autonomously appears in an agent's desktop when the agent performs certain actions such as accept a contact request or respond to a contact request from a customer. Screen pops help the agent to get more information about the customer to proceed further with the conversation.

• Automated interaction messages via Flow or Bot allow customers to create a QnA or Task bot, and integrate it via a Flow.

• The channel-specific capabilities allow hyperlinks and delivery receipts.

All digital channels are part of the Premium Seat License. Charges are extra for the following services: automated interaction messages, short code SMS, long code SMS, toll-free SMS, and bot usage.

For more information, see New Digital Channels in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

31 March 2022

Auto Answer enables a supported Webex Calling-based agent device (Webex Calling app or MPP phone) to automatically answer calls. The agent hears a tone when the call is automatically answered.

The feature requires a subscription to Webex Calling.

The auto answer behavior applies to calls received or initiated by an agent on the Agent Desktop. Calls that agents receive that aren't managed by the Webex Contact Center ring as usual; for example, from agent to agent.

Administrators use the Agent Profile tab in the Provisioning module of the Management Portal to set the Auto Answer field to Yes. For more information, see the Agent Profile section in the Provisioning chapter of the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

30 March 2022

Switch Telephony Option

On request, customers can access a wizard-driven workflow that automatically switches the telephony provider for the tenant. This allows customers to switch among the VPOP Bridge, Cisco Bundled PSTN, or Webex Calling (CCP/Local Gateway) options. Customers need a scheduled downtime to switch the telephony provider.

For more information, see the article Set Up Voice Channel for Webex Contact Center.

16 March 2022

User Experience Enhancement in Services Setup Wizard

The Services Setup wizard is now enhanced. The Contact Center service setup aligns with the new user experience. There are no changes to the configuration options and they remain the same as before.

For more information, see the article Get Started with Cisco Webex Contact Center.

03 March 2022

Seamless Customer Upgrade Path from Cisco Customer Journey Platform (R10) or CC-One (R9) to Webex Contact Center

This feature enables customers who use Cisco Customer Journey Platform (R10) or CC-One (R9) to upgrade to Webex Contact Center. Customers who enroll for this feature are provided access to a migration workspace. This workspace has the following key capabilities:

• Tenant Configurations: Customers can extract administrative configuration data from their legacy tenant and convert it to a format that can be used to quickly create the same configurations in Webex Contact Center.

• Historical Data: After customers have migrated completely to Webex Contact Center and their legacy tenants have been decommissioned, the customers can query analyzer data that was created on their legacy platform.

• Call Recordings: After customers have migrated completely to Webex Contact Center and their legacy tenants have been decommissioned, the customers can query and download call recordings that were created in their legacy platform.

For more information, see the article Migrate from Cisco Customer Journey Platform (R10) and Cisco CC-One (R9) Releases to Cisco Webex Contact Center.

Bulk Operations for Webex Contact Center

Bulk Operations allows partners and customers to use CSV files to create administrative configurations for Webex Contact Center in bulk. This feature helps to automate the onboarding of new customers and allows existing customers to easily make large scale configuration updates to their tenant.

For more information, see the article Bulk Operations in Webex Contact Center.

15 February 2022

Surge Protection: Maximum Concurrent Voice Calls for a Tenant

This feature defines the maximum number of calls that can be active on the customer tenant. The value is termed as Maximum Concurrent Voice Contact Threshold and can be accessed on the Settings tab of the Management Portal. After the threshold is reached, any new calls are rejected until existing calls disconnect, to retain the number of concurrent calls below the threshold. The concurrent calls in the contact center include inbound calls and outdial calls (outdial calls made by agents, outbound campaign calls, and callbacks).

The value of Maximum Concurrent Voice Contact Threshold is set to 30% higher than the Concurrent Voice Contact Entitlements:

Maximum Concurrent Voice Contact Threshold = Concurrent Voice Contact Entitlements * 1.3

The value of Concurrent Voice Contact Entitlements is based on the following formula:

Concurrent Voice Contact Entitlements = [((Number of committed Standard Agent licenses + Number of committed Premium Agent licenses) * 3) + Number of IVR Add on licenses purchased]

Concurrent Voice Contact Entitlements = [100 + Number of IVR Add on licenses purchased]

Customers can raise a support request to decrease or increase the Maximum Concurrent Voice Contact Threshold. The maximum value allowed for concurrent voice contact threshold is 13000. For more information, see Concurrent Voice Contact Settings in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

The Surge Protection Statistics report is introduced in the Analyzer. For more information, see Surge Protection Statistics in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

Skills-based Routing Enhancement

A new method of contact selection—Skills-based Contact Selection—is introduced in Skills-based Routing (SBR). Customers can opt for one of the following methods to select contacts—Skills-based Contact Selection or First In, First Out (FIFO) based selection. In Skills-based Contact Selection, SBR filters contacts in a queue periodically to match the agent skills in the sequence—(1) contact priority and (2) timestamp (oldest to newest).

Contacts that are sent to SBR queues are parked until a matching agent is available. When an agent is available, the matching contact among the parked contacts connects to the agent on priority, irrespective of the contact's position in the queue. The Skills-based Contact Selection method thus reduces the wait time of parked contacts and improves the productivity of agents.

By default, Skills-based Contact Selection is enabled for customers. To enable FIFO based contact selection, customers must contact Cisco Support. For more information, see Skills-based Contact Selection in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

11 February 2022

Agent Desktop Enhancement - Reorder Icons on the Horizontal Header

A new property headerActions is added to the desktop layout JSON file. This property allows the administrator to change the default order of the icons on the horizontal header of the Agent Desktop—the (1) (Webex), (2) (Outdial), and (3) (Notification Center) icons.

headerActions: ["webex", "outdial", "notification"],

The headerActions property value is case sensitive.

For more information, see headerActions in the Provisioning chapter of the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

Date Format Options for Interval Field in Analyzer Reports

The default date format for the Interval field in the Analyzer reports is mm/dd/yyyy. With the new enhancement, the Analyzer allows users to choose different date formats for the Interval field, similar to other fields in the reports.

Customization of date format was available for profile variables only, previously.

For more information, see Change Date Format of the Interval Field in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

10 February 2022

Handle Invalid DTMF Input in IVR Post-call Surveys

Webex Contact Center can handle scenarios where there is invalid or no DTMF (dual-tone multifrequency) input response from customers during IVR post-call surveys. Flow developers can configure the Timeout parameter in the Advanced Settings section of the Feedback activity in the Flow Designer to define the maximum duration (in seconds) for which the system waits for DTMF input from customers. Further, administrators can configure the following IVR settings for Webex Contact Center, in the Questionnaire Settings tab of the post-call survey questionnaire in Webex Experience Management:

• Maximum Invalid Inputs and Timeout Allowed: Administrators can select a value in the Maximum invalid inputs and timeout allowed drop-down list to set the maximum number of times for which the system allows invalid input or no-input responses from customers.

• Audio Files for Notification Messages: Administrators can upload audio files to play notification messages for invalid input, DTMF entry timeout, and maximum number of retries exceeded, respectively.

If a customer enters an invalid input or does not enter any input to a survey question within the specified timeout period, the contact center plays the audio message to notify the customer of the invalid entry or timeout, and then plays the same survey question to the customer. When the maximum number of attempts elapse, the contact center plays the corresponding audio notification to the customer, skips the remaining questions in the survey, and plays the Thank You message to end the survey.

For more information, see Validate DTMF Input Response in IVR Post-call Survey in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

07 February 2022

Global Variables in Webex Contact Center

Administrators can define global variables using the Provisioning module in the Management Portal. Administrators can set the global variables as agent-viewable and agent-editable in order to make them available to agents via the Agent Desktop. Additionally, administrators can set the variables as reportable to include them in Analyzer reports. Flow developers can use the global variables within flows to set and pass values in the context of interactions handled in the contact center. If an agent updates an agent-editable global variable value, the updated value will be available in the Analyzer for reporting. This feature enables administrators to define reportable global variables and persist them across Webex Contact Center components.

For more information, see Global Variables in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

28 January 2022

Webex Customer Experience for Developers Portal

The Webex Customer Experience for Developers Portal enables third-party developers to access Webex Contact Center, and areas such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the journey within the customer experience platform programmatically. The portal provides REST (Representational State Transfer), gRPC (gRPC Remote Procedure Call), GraphQL APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), notifications, and SDKs (software development kits) to help developers build and enhance customer experience. Developers can become familiar with the APIs by using the API reference documents, sample code, and the Try It Out functionality that are provided in the portal, to build customer experience apps.

The following features are available as part of the new release:

• Automated Integration Process: Through integrations, developers can request permission to invoke Customer Experience (CX) APIs. Developers can now register and manage integrations easily via my-apps in Webex Contact Center Developer portal.

• Task Webhooks: Developers can receive real-time notifications on task events via task webhooks.

• Multimedia Profiles API: A new CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) API endpoint for multimedia profiles is available now.

• Rate Limiting Guide: A new Rate Limiting Guide is available at Webex Contact Center for Developers portal documentation.

• Authentication Guide: To authenticate apps to access resources, see the Authentication Guide at Webex Contact Center for Developers portal documentation.

For more information, visit the Webex Contact Center for Developers portal.

22 January 2022

E.164 Format Support for International Calling in Webex Contact Center

Webex Contact Center supports the E.164 phone number format for international calling for agents and supervisors. This is in addition to the IDD (International Direct Dialing) format that was previously supported for all telephony options in Webex Contact Center.

With this enhancement, the E.164 format is supported for all PSTN options for Webex Contact Center—Cisco Provided Bundled PSTN, Service Provider PSTN, Bring Your Own PSTN (BYO PSTN), Bring Your Own PSTN with Local Gateway (Webex Calling), and Cloud Connected PSTN (Webex Calling).

Webex Contact Center supports the E.164 format in the following scenarios:

• Inbound Calls: Contact center customers can use dial numbers in the E.164 format to connect to the contact center.

• Agent Sign-In: Agents can sign in to the Agent Desktop by entering dial numbers in the E.164 format (in addition to the IDD format) in the Station Login dialog box. This functionality enables agents located in different geographical regions to stay connected to their Webex Contact Center tenant to handle voice calls. For more information, see Sign In to the Agent Desktop in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

  For more information about configuring the dial number of an agent, see Edit a User (Agent Settings) in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• Transfer, Consult, and Conference Calls: Agents can enter dial numbers in the E.164 format (in addition to the IDD format) in the Transfer Request and Consult Request dialog boxes to initiate transfer, consult, or conference calls with agents located in other geographical regions. For more information, see Transfer a Call and Initiate a Consult Call in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

  For more information about configuring phone numbers in the enterprise address book, see Address Books in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• Outdial Calls and Outbound Campaign Calls: Agents can make outdial calls to contacts in other geographical regions by using phone numbers in the E.164 format, in addition to the IDD format. This enhancement is applicable for outdial calls, courtesy callback, and outbound campaign calls. For more information, see Make an Outdial Call in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

• Supervisor Call Monitoring: Supervisors can now enter the callback number for call monitoring, barge-in, and whisper coaching in the E.164 format, in addition to the IDD format. For more information, see Monitor Calls and Create or Edit a Monitoring Schedule in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

Large organizations may have agents operating in many countries around the world. These agents are likely to experience longer latencies as the round trip of voice telephony can be a factor in the origination-to-termination matrix.

22 December 2021

Webex Contact Center stores the filters that are set in each tab of the Agent Performance Statistics (APS) in the Agent Desktop and the Management Portal, in the browser cache. Caching the filters in each tab saves the time taken by agents to set filters every time they change tabs, thereby providing them a better user experience.

The filter changes made by a user are stored in the browser cache of the user's computer for the specific user ID. The filters that the user sets remain the same even if the user refreshes the browser or logs back in to Webex Contact Center using the same browser. The user can reset the filters to the default values by clearing the browser cache.

For more information, see Summary Report, Agent Stats - Historic report, and Agent Stats By State - Historic report in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

Retain Column Width in Tabular Reports

Analyzer users can change the column width in tabular reports dynamically when running reports. However, the changed column width was not retained previously when the reports were refreshed, making it necessary for users to resize the columns again.

With the new enhancement, Webex Contact Center stores the changed column width in the browser cache of the user's computer, for the specific user ID. The changed column width remains the same even if the user refreshes the browser or logs out and logs back in to Webex Contact Center using the same browser. The user can reset the column width to the default size by clearing the browser cache, if required.

For more information, see Change Report Column Width in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

Whole Number Format for Contacts Handled

Tabular reports in the Analyzer are enhanced to display the number of contacts that are handled, in the whole number format. This is applicable to the following columns:

• Contacts Handled

• Inbound Contacts Handled

• Outdial Contacts Handled

The reports displayed the data in the decimal format previously.

15 December 2021

Agent Desktop Enhancements

• Retain Data for Current Agent Task: A new property stopNavigateOnAcceptTask is added to the desktop layout JSON file. This property determines whether to shift the focus to a newly accepted task or not, when an agent accepts the new task. Administrators can set the property to True or False.

  • True: Retains the focus on the current task that the agent is working on. This helps to retain unsaved data that is being entered for the current task.

  • False: Shifts the focus to the newly accepted task. This is the default value.

  For more information, see JSON Layout Top-Level Properties in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• Support Special Characters in Dial Number for Calls: Agent Desktop supports the special characters # (hash), * (asterisk), and : (colon) in addition to + (plus) in the dial number for outdial calls, transfer requests, and consult requests.

  When an agent copies a number with special characters to the Dial Number field or dialpad, the Agent Desktop retains only those special characters that are supported (+, #, *, and :).

  For more information, see Manage Voice Calls in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• User Experience Enhancement - Incoming Call Popover Labels: New labels appear on incoming call popovers for easy identification of the call type. The labels also improve accessibility for vision-impaired users.

  Additionally, the Agent Desktop displays and as the Callback and Campaign Call icons respectively.

  The following table lists the call types, icons, and the corresponding labels:

  Call Type	Label	Icon
  Incoming Voice Call	Incoming Call
  Callback	Callback
  Outbound Preview Campaign Call	Campaign Call
  Outdial Call	Outdial Call

  For more information, see Task List in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

03 December 2021

Localization Support Additions in Analyzer

The Analyzer supports localization in two more languages—English (UK) and Portuguese (Portugal), in addition to the 27 languages that were previously supported.

30 November 2021

Support Multiple Languages for Post-call Surveys

Contact center customers can provide feedback via post-call surveys powered by Webex Experience Management in multiple languages. This feature is available for both Voice and Email/SMS survey channels.

To select a custom language for a post-call survey, the flow developer can use the Global_language variable or select the Override Language Settings toggle button in the Language Settings section of the Feedback activity in Flow Designer. If the selected language is not configured in the survey in Webex Experience Management or is not supported, the survey falls back to use the default language English (US).

For more information about the supported languages and how to configure a custom language, see Language Settings in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

Support Welcome and Thank You Messages in Post-call Surveys

Administrators can configure survey questionnaires to play Welcome and Thank You messages at the beginning and end of IVR post-call surveys. To enable these messages in a survey, the administrator must add corresponding audio files in the Welcome note and Thank You note when configuring the survey questionnaire in Webex Experience Management. These messages use the language setting that is configured in the Feedback activity in the Flow Designer.

Support Variables for Custom Prefills in Post-call Surveys

Webex Contact Center supports additional data (for example, Customer Name: John, Country: US) in the form of optional variables. The additional data can be passed to Webex Experience Management, to be stored as part of survey response data.

To enable Webex Contact Center to pass additional data to Webex Experience Management, the administrator must create custom prefill questions in the survey questionnaire in Webex Experience Management. Further, the flow developer must configure corresponding variables as Key-Value pairs in the Feedback activity in the Flow Designer. The flow developer must enter the Display Name of the question in the survey questionnaire in Webex Experience Management as the Key parameter of the corresponding variable in the Feedback activity in the Flow Designer.

Webex Contact Center then passes the additional data to Webex Experience Management, which will be stored as part of the survey response data along with the customer responses. This process makes survey responses more contextual and helps to gain deeper data insights using the Customer Experience Analytics widget.

For more information, see Variable Passing in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

22 November 2021

New Digital Channels in Webex Contact Center in APJC Region

New digital channels–Chat, Email, Short Messaging Service (SMS), and Facebook Messenger–are now available in Webex Contact Center in the APJC region via imimobile integration.

Customers, when using these channels, can use the following enhancements:

• Flow Builder: This enhancement empowers customers to create powerful self-help. Flow Builder is an editor that enables customers to create interactive communication flows with minimal programming or scripting efforts. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface called Flow Canvas, which helps to build communication flows using Nodes.

• Bot Builder: Using Bot Builder, customers can create a QnA or Task bot, and integrate it via a Flow.

• The following features are newly supported:

  • Skills-Based Routing: Administrators can assign skill requirements as well as skill relaxation criteria to contacts in the QueueTask node in the Flow Builder. Contacts are routed to agents based on skill requirements that are matched best at that point in time in the flow.

  • Screen Pop: A screen pop is a window that autonomously appears in an agent’s desktop upon certain actions such as accepting the contact, when the agent responds to a contact request from a customer. Screen pops help the agent to get more information about the customer to proceed further with the conversation.

  • The channel-specific capabilities allow hyperlinks and delivery receipts.

All digital channels are part of the Premium Seat License. Charges are extra for the following services–automated interaction messages, short code SMS, long code SMS, toll-free SMS, and bot usage.

For more information, see New Digital Channels in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

Note: The new digital channels are released in controlled GA (General Availability). Only those customers who have worked with the Cisco Solution Assurance team to plan their onboarding can avail the new digital channels. Migration from select older platforms is also supported. See the article Upgrade from Cisco Webex Contact Center 1.0 to Cisco Webex Contact Center for more information.

15 November 2021

Webex Contact Center Platform Launch in Frankfurt Data Center

The new Webex Contact Center Platform is now available for customers who have their Country of Operation mapped to the Frankfurt data center. Customers who have worked with the Cisco Solution Assurance team during the A2Q process to validate their requirements against the new platform features can continue with the onboarding process. For more details, see the article Get Started with Cisco Webex Contact Center.

11 November 2021

Enable Virtual Agent for Voice to Handle No User Input

Virtual Agents for Voice can handle scenarios where there is no input (voice and DTMF) from the user within a specified time period. Flow developers can set the no-input timeout duration and the number of retries to be made if there is no user input, by specifying the following parameter values in the Advanced Settings of the Virtual Agent activity:

• No-Input Timeout: The duration (in seconds) for which the Virtual Agent waits for user input.

• Max No-Input Attempts: The number of times the Virtual Agent attempts to wait for user input after the timeout period elapses.

The Virtual Agent activity provides a new output variable ErrorCode to indicate the timeout event or error status.

For more information, see Virtual Agent in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

26 October 2021

Agent Desktop Enhancements

• Initiate Outdial Call from Agent Interaction History: An agent can initiate an outdial call by clicking a phone number in the Agent Interaction History pane. The agent can also edit this number before initiating the outdial call.

  For more information, see Agent Interaction History in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

• Localization Support Additions: Agent Desktop supports localization in two more languages—English (UK) and Portuguese (Portugal), in addition to the 27 languages that were previously supported. For more information, see Localization in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

  The localization support additions are not currently applicable for Agent Performance Statistics (APS) reports, and will be available along with the localization support additions for Analyzer.

18 October 2021

Access Reports and Dashboards through Browser Links

Standard agents and premium agents who do not have access to the Analyzer to view and run dashboards and reports can access the dashboards and reports using browser links.

The Drill Down functionality is not available for reports that are accessed through browser links.

For more information, see Access Reports and Dashboards through Browser Links in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

27 September 2021

Regional VPOP Ingress in Remote Countries

Customers onboarding to the new Webex Contact Center in the Australia and United States data centers can configure the following additional remote countries to ingress into their local Virtual Point of Presence (VPOP). Typically, customers order the countries in the Approach to Quality (A2Q) deployment validation phase.

This new offer applies only to the Service Provider PSTN or Cisco Unified Communications Manager deployment architectures. The new offer does not apply to Cisco Webex Calling deployments.

Multiregion Support

Webex Contact Center with Cisco Webex Calling Telephony supports multiple regions (either countries or parts of countries) for the agents and callers. The following scenarios are supported:

• Callers are from one region and agents are in multiple regions

• Callers and agents are in multiple regions

In these scenarios, both inbound calls and outdial calls are supported. For inbound calls, the callers call into the Cloud Connected PSTN (CCP) or the Local Gateway (LGW) setup. These calls are routed to the agents. Agents can make outdial calls to any region.

The agents belong to different locations as configured in Control Hub. The agents are configured with the number and extension for their location.

Inbound numbers are associated with the regions in Control Hub. Calls route to the agents according to the routing strategy configured in Webex Contact Center.

For more information, see Multiregion Support in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Voice Onboarding Guide.

24 September 2021

Webex App (Webex) Integration in Agent Desktop

The Webex App (Webex), along with the messaging, calling, and meeting functionalities, is integrated with the Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop. The integration provides the capability for agents to collaborate with other agents, supervisors, and subject matter experts, without leaving the Agent Desktop. The Webex functionality can be configured by the administrator at the global level or team level via the Desktop Layout.

To enable the Webex feature using the webexConfigured property, see the JSON Layout Top-Level Properties section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

To access the Webex feature in the Agent Desktop, see the Webex App (Webex) section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

Agent Desktop Enhancements

• Default Dial Number (DN)/Extension for Agent

  If the default DN for the agent is configured by the administrator in the Management Portal (Provisioning > Users > Agent Settings > Default DN), the default DN will be prepopulated in the following fields of the Station Login dialog box when the agent signs in to the Agent Desktop:

  • Dial Number (US Format)

  • Extension

  If the administrator restricts the DN to the default DN for an agent (Provisioning > Agent Profile > Agent DN Validation > Provisioned Value), the agent cannot edit the prepopulated DN while signing in to the Agent Desktop. The DN will be read-only.

  For more information, see the Sign In to the Agent Desktop section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

• Configure Persistent Tabs in Custom Pages and Widgets

  An administrator can configure tabs in custom pages and custom widgets as persistent by using the Desktop Layout. To configure persistent tabs, an administrator must set the following attributes for md-tabs:

  • Set persist-selection to true.

  • Set a unique identifier for tabs-id.

  Example:

  {
   "comp": "md-tabs",
   "attributes": {
     "persist-selection": true,
     "tabs-id": "unique-id for all the tabs together in the container"
    },
  }

  When md-tabs is set to be persistent ("persist-selection": true), the tab selection is retained even if an agent switches between pages or widgets in the Agent Desktop.

  The Auxiliary Information pane and the Agent Performance Statistics reports page in the Agent Desktop already show persistent tab behavior.

  For more information, see the Navigation (Custom Pages) section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

• Persistent Tabs in Agent Performance Statistics (APS) Reports

  The APS reports page persists the previously selected tab even if the agent switches to any other page and then returns to the APS reports page.

  For more information, see the Agent Performance Statistics Reports section in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop User Guide.

20 September 2021

Contacts in Queue and Agents Available Reports

Two new real-time stock reports are introduced in the Analyzer–Contacts in Queue and Agents Available. These reports are displayed as cards in the Contact Center Overview - Real-time Dashboard in the Analyzer, and also in the Summary tab of the Agent Performance Statistics page in the Agent Desktop.

The new reports enable users to gain information about contacts that are waiting in queue, and the availability of agents in specific teams, without the overhead of having to look for the information in tabular reports.

For more information about the reports, see Contact Center Overview - Real-Time Dashboard in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

Define Column Summary for Top-level Row Segment Group in Analyzer Reports

The Analyzer UI now enables users to define column summary for the top-level row segment group in a report. A user can add formulas–Average, Count, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, and Custom for each column. This feature provides an enhanced data viewing experience for tabular reports.

For more information, see Customize Report Summary in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Analyzer User Guide.

07 September 2021

Dynamic Variables for Queue, Skills, and Call Priority

This feature enhances the current Queue Contact activity in Flow Designer by enabling dynamic selection of the queue, skills, and call priority, rather than setting these parameter values statically. The flow developer can now select flow variables in the Queue Contact activity to configure the queue, skills, contact priority, and agent availability checks dynamically.

For more information, see Queue Contact activity in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

17 August 2021

Seamless Customer Upgrade Path from Webex Contact Center 1.0 to Webex Contact Center

This feature allows customers who use the Webex Contact Center 1.0 platform to upgrade to the latest Webex Contact Center platform. After this feature is enabled, customers can access the new contact center capabilities without impacting the existing Webex Contact Center 1.0-specific contact flows. Customers can incrementally move Telephony, Chat, and Email workloads to the new platform and transition agents using a phased approach that best suits their business requirements.

For more information, see the article Upgrade from Legacy Platform to Cisco Webex Contact Center.

09 August 2021

Tenant Self-service Settings for Contact Center Administrators

Tenant settings such as Enable Force Default DN (Dial Number), Enable End Call, Enable End Consult, Auto Wrapup Interval, Lost Connection Recovery Timeout, and Privacy Shield that were previously configured using the Customer Journey Platform Service Provider Portal are now moved to Control Hub. These tenant settings can be configured by contact center administrators and need not be managed by the Cisco Operations team. Going forward, all contact center administrator roles can manage these settings.

In accordance with this enhancement, the Settings tab in Control Hub is reorganized, and is divided into the following subtabs:

• General: Enables administrators to synchronize users between Control Hub and the Management Portal, provides information about the service details of your organization, and provides access to the Management Portal for advanced configurations. For more information, see the article Ways to Add Users for Cisco Webex Contact Center.

• Security: Enables administrators to configure all security-related settings. This includes Privacy Shield, security settings for chat and email attachments, and content security policy. For more information, see the article Security Settings for Cisco Webex Contact Center.

• Voice: Enables administrators to add inbound dial numbers that are used to receive customer calls. For more information, see the article Setting Up Voice Channel for Cisco Webex Contact Center.

• Desktop: Enables administrators to manage and configure voice channel features for the Agent Desktop, and the Auto Wrapup Interval and Lost Connection Recovery Timeout. The voice channel features include Enable Force Default DN, Enable End Call, and Enable End Consult. For more information, see the article Desktop Settings for Cisco Webex Contact Center.

03 August 2021

Webex Contact Center Platform Launch in UK Data Center

The new Webex Contact Center Platform is now available in the UK data center. Customers who select a Country of Operation that maps to the UK data center have the option to onboard to the new Webex Contact Center Platform. For more details on the available options for these customers, see the article Get Started with Cisco Webex Contact Center.

27 July 2021

New Digital Channels in Webex Contact Center

New digital channels–WebChat, Email, Short Messaging Service (SMS), and Facebook Messenger–are now available in the new Webex Contact Center in both US and UK regions via imimobile integration.

Customers, when using these channels, can use the following enhancements that are powered by imimobile:

• Flow Builder: Flow Builder is an editor that enables customers to create interactive communication flows with minimal programming or scripting efforts. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface called Flow Canvas, which helps to build communication flows using Nodes.

• Bot Builder: With Bot Builder, customers can create a QnA or Task bot and integrate it via a Flow.

• The following new features are supported:

  • Skills-Based Routing: Administrators can assign skill requirements as well as skill relaxation criteria to contacts in the QueueTask node in the Flow Builder. Contacts are routed to agents based on skill requirements to meet the best match at that point in time in the flow.

  • Screen Pop: A screen pop is a window or dialog box that autonomously appears in an agent’s Desktop when the agent answers a customer conversation. Screen pops help the agent to get more information about the caller to proceed further with the conversation.

• The channel-specific capabilities allow hyperlinks and delivery receipts.

• All digital channels are part of the Premium Seat License. Charges are extra for SMS (Short Message Service) - short code, long code, and toll-free, and bot usage.

For more information, see New Digital Channels in the Cisco Webex Contact Center Setup and Administration Guide.

26 July 2021

Import and Export Reports

The Analyzer UI now provides administrators the option to import and export reports as individual files or as multiple files in a folder. This functionality enables administrators and partner administrators to export custom reports on a tenant and import them in other tenants.

Improved View for Grouped Reports

The Analyzer UI is improved to remove blank rows in grouped reports. This reduces the blank area in the reports and provides a better viewing experience.

19 July 2021

Hide Inactive Users

The Users page in the Provisioning module in the Management Portal provides a Hide Inactive Users check box to filter out inactive users. If the administrator checks the Hide Inactive Users check box, inactive users in the tenant are not displayed.

Agent Desktop - Screen Pop Enhancement

The Screen Pop tab in the Auxiliary Information pane of the Agent Desktop displays screen pops that are relevant to the currently selected interaction. For example, when an agent accepts an interaction from the customer Jane Doe, the Screen Pop tab of the Auxiliary Information pane displays the screen pop associated with the interaction with Jane Doe.

17 July 2021

Ordering and Provisioning - IVR Port Add-on Offer

By default, a customer is entitled to two IVR port licenses for every Standard or Premium agent license that the customer purchased. This feature introduces an IVR Port Add-on that allows the customer to purchase additional IVR port licenses, so that a higher number of sessions can be hosted on IVR.

Multi-language Support for Virtual Agent

Webex Contact Center integrates with Google Dialogflow to provide conversational IVR experience to customers. Previously, the Virtual Agent defaulted to the language en-US. The Virtual Agent functionality is now enhanced to support additional Google Dialogflow languages and voices. Customers can configure the input language and voice name for the Virtual Agent via the Virtual Agent activity in the Flow Designer.

Virtual Agent Parameters

Flow developers can now configure optional input parameters in the Virtual Agent activity. The input parameters pass extra custom information from the Webex Contact Center flow to the Google Dialogflow bot to implement advanced conversational experiences.

Google Dialogflow Regionalization Support

Webex Contact Center customers can configure their voice and chat Virtual Agents by specifying the Google Dialogflow region. Google Dialogflow provides multiple regions to support regional deployments in order to reduce latency and meet data residency requirements. Customers can specify the Region ID when they configure the Virtual Agents via Control Hub, so that the data originating from Webex Contact Center is directed to the Google Dialogflow data center specified in the Region field.

Agent Availability in Queue for Voice Calls

A flow developer can now determine how many agents are currently available to service a queue. The Get Queue Info activity in the Flow Designer provides extra output variables, so that the flow developer can observe the status of the queue and take remedial action (for example, redirect to self-service or provide skill relaxation criteria) before routing the call to an under-serviced queue. This feature helps to avoid a potential overflow condition.

06 July 2021

New Webex Contact Center Platform Launch in Australia Data Center

The new Webex Contact Center Platform is now available for customers who have their Country of Operation mapped to the Australia data center. Customers who have worked with the Cisco Solution Assurance team during the A2Q process to validate their requirements against the new platform features can continue with the onboarding process. For more details on the steps required for onboarding, see the article Get Started with Cisco Webex Contact Center.

Google CCAI for OEM Customers

Webex Contact Center customers can now use voice and chat virtual agents along with the Cisco-provided Google Cloud Platform project. Customers can now specify the Project ID and Region ID when they create Dialogflow virtual agents on Control Hub. With this feature, customers who purchase the Google CCAI (Contact Center Artificial Intelligence) OEM subscription from Cisco can associate multiple virtual agents with the same Google Cloud Platform project, and be presented with a consolidated Webex Contact Center bill that includes CCAI usage.

Cisco Webex Experience Management-based IVR Post-call Surveys and Post-call Survey Reports

Webex Contact Center integrates with Webex Experience Management to conduct post-call surveys and collect feedback from customers. Post-call surveys can be conducted via SMS or email channels, or IVR.

The following enhancements are available for post-call surveys:

• Administrators can configure IVR post-call surveys when an inline survey has to be played to the customer at the end of a voice call.

• Post-call surveys can be conducted via the voice channel, in addition to email and SMS.

• Details of post-call surveys, such as opt-in statistics, survey response rate, and survey completion rate, can be captured in the Post Call Survey report in the Analyzer.

The global variable Global_FeedbackSurveyOptin must be used in the flow and set to true to trigger the post-call survey. Existing flows must be updated to set this variable for conducting post-call surveys successfully.

21 June 2021

Default Outdial ANI

Administrators can set a Default Outdial ANI (Automatic Number Identification) for the contact center organization. The Default Outdial ANI drop-down list in the organization’s Settings tab in the Provisioning module of the Management Portal displays all of the existing dial numbers that are mapped to entry points. The drop-down list enables the administrator to choose a dial number as the Default Outdial ANI for outdial calls from the organization.

When making an outdial call to a customer, if an agent does not select an outdial ANI from the Select Outdial ANI drop-down list, the Default Outdial ANI is used. The Default Outdial ANI will be displayed in the customer’s caller ID.

The Default Outdial ANI is applicable at the tenant level.

16 June 2021

The screen pop notification in the Notification Center is displayed as a screen pop hyperlink. The text provided in the new Screen Pop Desktop Label field in Flow Designer is the display text for the hyperlink on the Agent Desktop.

08 June 2021

• RONA Enhancement: Incoming call requests are not delivered to agents in case of phone, device, or network failure. Incoming call requests are returned to the queue, and the agent state is changed to RONA. New requests are not delivered to an agent who is in the RONA state.

• Identify Agents for Consult or Transfer Call: In the Transfer Request and Consult Request dialog boxes, the Dial Number drop-down list displays the enterprise address book. Names are available in address book entries, in addition to the Phone Number field that was already available. This helps agents to identify the correct Address Book entry to choose when they perform a consult or transfer during a voice call.

• Profile Picture: Agents can configure their profile picture when they activate the user account or later, using the Cisco Webex profile page. If an agent does not configure a profile picture, the User Profile displays the agent's initials.

• Accessibility Compliance: The Agent Desktop provides screen reader support for read-only User Profile elements. This is in compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

• User Experience Enhancement:

  • The media channel badge in the Channel Capacity section of the User Profile dialog box highlights only the relevant media channels for which the agent has capacity allocated.

02 June 2021

Allow Customers to Configure a Mix of Toll and Toll-free Numbers for Cisco PSTN for Contact Center

Prior to this enhancement, if a customer purchased the Bundle 2: Inbound toll-free number access option with the Cisco PSTN for Contact Center add-on, the customer had to configure all inbound numbers as toll-free. For billing, Webex Contact Center considered all dialed numbers as toll-free.

With this enhancement, Webex Contact Center can classify each number added to the tenant as toll or toll-free. Webex Contact Center billing is calculated based on call volumes on all toll-free numbers.

The following license usage reports are enhanced to help classify toll and toll-free numbers:

• License Usage Report: This report is enhanced to provide customers a metrics of the daily observed Max Concurrent Toll-Free Calls. This is indicative of the usage of Bundle 2: Inbound toll-free number access. A breakup of the Max Concurrent Toll-Free Calls shows the composition of the calls connected to the Agent, IVR system, and Queue when the maximum value was observed. Additionally, the report provides the concurrent call volumes observed on tolled numbers at the time when Max Concurrent Toll-Free Calls was observed. A breakup of Concurrent Tolled Calls shows the composition of the calls connected to the Agent, IVR system, and Queue.

• Historical License Usage Report: This report shows the Max Concurrent Toll-Free Calls for the previous months. This report can access data from the past thirty-six months and can display data for a consecutive twelve-month period.

01 June 2021

• Default Title: The new default title of the Agent Desktop is Webex Contact Center. The administrator can customize the default title at the global level or team level via the Desktop Layout.

• User Experience Enhancements:

  • The Station Login dialog supports the browser Autocomplete feature. Autocomplete saves the agent's time by automatically filling in the previously entered dial number(s) and extension number(s). The number of entries saved in the standard browsing mode is specific to the browser. To remove the saved entries, the agent must clear the browser cache. The Autocomplete feature is not supported in private browsing mode.

  • The Keyboard Shortcuts dialog now has a minimum height and width (in pixels), beyond which you cannot resize the dialog. This ensures that the content within the dialog remains readable.

  • The Auxiliary Information pane retains the agent's tab selection for a specific interaction even when the agent switches between interactions. For example, consider that the agent is on a voice interaction and has accessed the Screen Pop tab in the Auxiliary Information pane. The agent then switches to a chat interaction and accesses the Contact History tab. When the agent returns to the voice interaction, the Screen Pop tab selection is retained.

24 May 2021

Filters in the Run Mode

The Analyzer UI offers filtering capabilities when users execute reports in the run mode. This feature provides an enhanced report generation experience. Users can choose the filters to be displayed when they create or edit a visualization, or when they create a copy of the visualization. When the users run the visualization, the selected filters appear at the top-right corner of the visualization page. Users can filter the visualization using the appropriate filters, without having to edit the report.

28 April 2021

Service Details in Control Hub

A new Service Details section is introduced in the Contact Center Settings tab in Control Hub. This section enables administrators and support engineers to quickly identify the platform-level configurations that are applicable to the customer organization. The Service Details section provides the following information:

• Webex Contact Center Country of Operation: This field displays the country of operation that was selected in the Setup Wizard when the contact center tenant was provisioned. The field provides an indication of the geolocation of the tenant.

• Webex Contact Center Platform Details: The value New Platform displayed in this field confirms that the tenant is hosted on the latest Webex Contact Center platform.

• Digital Channel: The value Native Digital displayed in this field confirms that the tenant is using the current Digital Channel offering from Cisco. Additional values will be introduced for this field, as more contact center digital channel offerings are introduced in the future. This will help differentiate customers who use the Native Digital channel from those customers who will be using the upcoming digital channel offerings.

• Voice Channel: The value Webex Calling Integrated displayed in this field confirms that the tenant is using Webex Calling integration for telephony. Future enhancements to the contact center voice platform will introduce additional values for this field. This will help differentiate customers who use the Webex Calling Integrated platform from those customers who will be using the upcoming voice platform enhancements.

• Webex Contact Center Telephony: This field displays Webex Contact Center PSTN, Webex Calling (CCP and Local gateway), or Voice POP Bridge to indicate the PSTN option that is applicable to the customer.

08 April 2021

Agent Desktop Enhancements

• Availability State Search: An agent can use the search field to search for the availability state to be displayed on the horizontal header of the Agent Desktop. The availability states are Available, and the idle states configured by the administrator.

• Task List Pane Options: The Task List pane in the Agent Desktop provides the following options:

  • Accept All Tasks: The agent can click the Accept All Tasks button to accept multiple digital channel requests (chat, email, and social messaging conversations) at the same time.

  • New Replies: The agent can click the New Replies button to scroll to view unread digital channel messages (chat or social messaging conversations).

• Special Character Supported for Dial Number and Extension: If an agent copies a Dial Number or Extension that contains special characters (!, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, ), (, =, ., <, >, {, }, [, ], :, ;, ', ", |, ~, `, _, and -) to the Dial Number or the Extension text box, the special characters are removed when submitting the details. This is relevant for the following dialog boxes:

  • Station Login (Dial Number and Extension)

  • Transfer Request (Dial Number)

  • Consult Request (Dial Number)

  The only supported special character is +.

• Desktop Layout JSON File Properties:

  • responsive: A new property named responsive is added to the JSON file. This property determines whether a web component or an iFrame-based widget added in the custom layout at the page level or the comp level is responsive or not. This property can be configured with one of the following values:

    • True: Enables responsiveness of the widget. By default, all widgets are expected to be responsive based on the progressive screen sizes, orientation, and viewing areas of the device being used.

    • False: Disables responsiveness of the widget. If the widgets do not support viewing on different devices, mark them as non-responsive.

  • visibility: The visibility property value NOT_RESPONSIVE is deprecated, and you can continue to use it only for backward compatibility. Any value set as NOT_RESPONSIVE previously does not require modification, because the functionality remains the same. To set a newly created widget as responsive or not responsive, use the responsive property.

30 March 2021

Flow Chaining

The GoTo activity is introduced in Flow Control to terminate a current flow and hand off the voice call to an entry point or to another flow. Flow to entry point, and flow to flow are voice call handoff mechanisms to redirect calls based on business hours and during emergency conditions.

25 March 2021

Call Prioritization enables flow designers to assign priority to inbound calls in a queue. Flow designers can use the Queue Contact activity to assign a priority to a call. When an agent services multiple queues, the call with the highest priority across all queues is assigned to the agent. If two or more calls across multiple queues have the same (highest) priority, the call waiting for the longest duration is assigned first to the agent.

09 March 2021

• Logo and Title Enhancements: The Agent Desktop now supports larger logos. The administrator can configure a logo comprising a larger image of up to 96 x 32 pixels (width x height). The Agent Desktop title can be an image or text. The logo and title together on the horizontal header of the Agent Desktop cannot exceed the maximum width of 304 pixels.

• Refresh Data in Transfer Request and Consult Request Dialogs: The Refresh icon in the Transfer Request and Consult Request dialogs in the Agent Desktop enables agents to retrieve the most recent list of agents, queues, or dial numbers.

• Sub-layout Feature: The Sub-layout feature enables an administrator to define nested desktop layouts using the Agent Desktop JSON layout file. The Sub-layout feature provides finer control over the widget placement and resize behavior.

• Agent Transfer to an Entry Point: Prior to this enhancement, if an agent was on a call with a customer on a workflow, the agent could transfer the call to another agent in the same workflow. But it was not possible for the agent to transfer the call to a different entry point associated with another workflow.

  With this enhancement, the agent can transfer the call to a different entry point associated with another workflow. All Call Associated Data (CAD) variables related to the first flow are carried forward to the new workflow.

  For example, if a customer is waiting in a queue that is related to debit card transactions, but intends to transact on credit cards, the agent servicing the customer can now transfer the call to the credit card workflow.

08 March 2021

Download Call Recordings

Administrators and Supervisors can download recordings of calls that were handled by Agents. A new API will be available to enable downloading of the recordings.

February 2021

A new Cloud Data Platform is available for Webex Contact Center. The Cloud Data Platform is a big data stream processing platform, which offers increased throughput. The platform provides high data availability, processing real-time call and agent data in 3 to 5 seconds, and historical data within 30 minutes from the time of occurrence of an event. The Cloud Data Platform offers a secure data platform across all channels supported by Webex Contact Center. The platform provides reliable data across real-time and historical reports, ensuring data integrity.

Analyzer connects to the Cloud Data Platform to provide historical and real-time reports.

Global Routing Overrides

A Global Routing Override is a routing strategy that can be applied to one or more entry points. When a contact arrives, the routing engine checks whether a Global Routing Override exists for that entry point. If a Global Routing Override exists, it is then used as the current routing strategy for the entry point, overriding any standard routing strategy associated with that entry point.

Enhancements to Chat and Virtual Agent Template Creation

The user experience on Control Hub for creating and editing Chat and Virtual Agent templates is enhanced to support certain platform upgrades. There is no change to the features provided by the templates.

January 2021

Skills Based Routing

Skills Based Routing is a feature that matches the needs of callers with agents who have the skills to best meet those needs. When voice calls arrive, they are classified into subsets that can be routed only to agents who possess a required set of skills, such as language fluency or product expertise.

Webex Contact Center administrators can now assign skill requirements as well as skill relaxation criteria to calls in the flow. Calls are routed to agents based on skill requirements that are matched best at that point in time in the flow.

The Flow Control user experience is enhanced to support the following:

• The Flow Control now ensures that the users always enter a unique flow name.

• The Flow Control publishing experience is enhanced. The following functionality is available in the Flow Control UI after the user validates a flow and clicks the Publish Flow button:

  • If publishing fails, a Toaster Notification is displayed with the Tracking ID and Flow ID. The Tracking ID information can be sent to Cisco support for further assistance. The user can click the Retry Publish button to try again.

  • If publishing succeeds, the user is redirected to a confirmation screen, and will no longer be in the Flow Control UI.

• The Global Properties button is included in the zoom toolbar to enable users to quickly open the Global Properties pane. The Global Properties pane appears by default on the Flow Control canvas when a new flow is created or an existing flow is opened.

December 2020

Blended Multimedia Profiles

Blended Multimedia Profiles offer administrators the ability to configure the media channel types (voice, chat, email, and social) and the number of contacts of each media channel that an agent can handle simultaneously. This feature enables the contact center to balance the load efficiently across media channels, and also provide dedicated attention to customers, improving the customer experience.

Administrators can configure multimedia profiles of the following types:

• Blended: The administrator can select the media channels and the number of contacts per media channel that the agent can handle simultaneously. The administrator can set up to a maximum of one voice, five chat, five email, and five social contacts for an agent to handle simultaneously.

• Blended Real-time: Contacts of only one real-time media channel (either voice or chat) can be assigned to the agent at a point in time, along with contacts of other media channel types (email and social). The maximum number of contacts that an agent can handle simultaneously is one voice (default value), five chat, five email, and five social, with either voice or chat assigned to the agent at a point in time.

• Exclusive: Only one contact can be assigned to the agent across all media channels, at a point in time.

The administrator can then associate the multimedia profile to agents at the site, team, or agent level. The multimedia profile set for a team (via Provisioning in the Management Portal) takes precedence over the multimedia profile set for the site; the multimedia profile set for an agent takes precedence over the multimedia profile set for the team.

Supervisory Capability to Sign Out Agents

Supervisors can view the list of agents who are currently signed in to the Agent Desktop, using a new dashboard Agent State Data – Realtime in the Management Portal. The dashboard provides supervisors the ability to sign out agents who are not handling any active contacts; that is, agents who are in the Available or Idle state across all media channels. This feature helps enterprises manage concurrent licensing costs.

Flow Designer

An all new visual scripting tool is introduced in Webex Contact Center, which allows partners and customers to create customized flows that automate contact center processes. The first release supports flows that handle voice contacts. These flows control how calls flow through the business. This powerful new application has all the functionality of Control Scripts and more, including an updated user interface and Activity nodes with new functionality.

Conversational IVR - Self-service

Self-service is enhanced with new features. The following IVR (Interactive Voice Response) functionalities and activities are available in Flow Designer:

• Text-to-Speech: This functionality converts arbitrary strings, words, sentences, and variables into natural-sounding, synthetic human speech that can be played dynamically to a caller.

• Virtual Agent: This activity provides the capability to handle conversations with end users. The virtual agent, powered by Google’s Dialogflow capabilities, provides the speech based Self-service functionality to understand the intent of a conversation and assists the customer as part of the IVR experience.

• Blind Transfer: This activity provides the capability to transfer a voice contact to an external Dial Number through the IVR without agent intervention.

• Disconnect Contact: This activity provides the capability to disconnect a contact in the IVR.

The following functionalities are available in the Agent Desktop:

• IVR Transcript: An agent can view the conversational IVR transcript in the IVR transcript widget.

• CAD (Call Associated Data) Variables: An agent can view or edit CAD variables based on the configurations that are set in the call flow by the administrator.

The following report is available in the Analyzer:

• IVR and CVA Dialog Flow Report: This report provides the self-service operational metrics, which includes the number of abandoned calls in self-service and the number of abandoned calls in a queue. Multi-level drill-down on the row segments in the report provides detailed information related to the corresponding entity.

Virtual Agent - Voice

Customers can now offer a Conversational IVR experience to callers by using the virtual agent created in Google Dialogflow. The customers no longer need to navigate through the unwieldy DTMF-based IVR menus; instead, they can speak for self-service.

Customers can configure the Dialogflow service account details in the Control Hub. After the account details are configured, the routing strategy provides an option to connect a Dialogflow virtual agent to drive the IVR. Customers can also configure how the escalated calls need to be handled by creating a mapping between escalation intents and agent queues.

This feature enables options to be presented to the customer using the IVR, while the customer waits in queue to be connected to an agent in the contact center. The customer can be informed of the estimated wait time (EWT) and Position in Queue (PiQ) using the Text-to-Speech functionality. Options can be provided to the customer such as to opt out of the queue and receive a callback, leave a voice message, or continue to wait in the queue.

Courtesy Callback

A customer, when waiting in queue for an agent to become available, can be offered the option to receive a callback rather than having to wait in queue to connect to the agent. The customer can retain the position in queue and receive a callback to the customer’s dialed number, or a number of the customer’s choice. This feature enables the contact center to enhance the customer experience, especially during peak hours when the wait time is more.

Outdial Transfer to Queue

An agent can make an outdial call from the Agent Desktop and can then transfer the call to another queue in the contact center if required, based on the conversation with the customer.

Outdial ANI

An agent can select a phone number from the outdial ANI list while making an outdial call. Outdial ANI enables an agent to select a phone number that is displayed as the caller ID to the recipient of the outdial call. The outdial ANI list must be added to an agent profile by the administrator.

Pause and Resume

An agent can invoke the Pause and Resume recording events from the Agent Desktop during a call. The events are stored in the customer activity record (CAR). The CAR is made available to WFO/WFM providers through an API. If there is a delay in resuming the recording beyond the allowed time lapse, the Privacy Shield feature auto-resumes the recording.

Change Team without Signing Out of the Agent Desktop

An agent signed in to the Desktop can change to a different team without signing out of the Desktop. The agent can change team only when there are no active contact requests or conversations. When an agent changes team successfully, the desktop layout and the routing strategy (voice or digital channel) of the new team are applied.

Agent Desktop Features

A new extensible Agent Desktop is available in this release. The following new features are introduced:

• User Experience Enhancements: The Agent Desktop has undergone a user experience refresh. The desktop has a comprehensive new look with the functionalities configured by the administrator in the Desktop Layout.

• Agent State Timer and Connected Timer: The agent state timer displays the time that has elapsed since the agent was in the current state. If an agent is in an Idle state and switches between any other Idle states, the timer displays the time spent in the current state, and the total time spent in all the Idle states together. After the agent accepts a request, the connected timer displays the time that has elapsed since the request was accepted.

• Pause and Resume Recording: Agents can pause and resume the recording of a call.

• Channel Capacity: Agents can view the number of contacts that can be handled on each media channel at a given point in time.

• Notification Settings: Agents can enable or disable desktop notifications, silent notifications, and sound notifications.

• Toaster Notifications: The Agent Desktop supports browser toaster notifications.

• Screen Pop: The browser pops up on the Agent Desktop when an agent accepts an incoming call. The agent can view screen pop details either in a new browser tab, existing browser tab, or the Screen Pop tab of the Auxiliary Information pane, based on the screen pop display and the desktop layout settings.

• Reset the entire desktop layout: Agents can reset a customized layout to the default desktop layout.

• Keyboard Shortcuts: Agents can use keyboard shortcuts for specific desktop functionalities.

• Switch to Dark Mode: Agents can enable or disable the dark background theme of the Agent Desktop.

• Download Error Report: If an agent experiences problems with the Agent Desktop, the agent can download error logs and send the error logs to the administrator to investigate the issue.

• Campaign Call: Agents can preview the customer's contact information before making an outbound preview campaign call.

• Agent Sign Out: Agents are notified when the supervisor signs out an agent from the Agent Desktop.

• Install as an Application: Agents can install the Agent Desktop as a desktop application.

• Localization: The Agent Desktop user interface supports localization in 27 languages. The following languages are supported:

  Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

• Accessibility: The Agent Desktop supports features that improve accessibility for low-vision and vision-impaired users.

• More user experience enhancements which include the following:

  • Incoming requests that appear either in the Task List pane or in a popover flash for a few seconds, before the agent state is changed to RONA.

  • A badge in the Task List pane indicates the number of unread chat and social messages in a conversation.

• Browser support includes Microsoft Edge Chromium (MS Edge V79 and later).

• Multiple agents can edit and save CAD (Call-Associated Data) variables with real-time updates.

• Agents can make outdial calls when they are in the Available state.

• Agents can enable sound notifications to play sound and use the slider to adjust the volume.

• The Agent Interaction History pane displays details of the previous communications that the agent had in the last 24 hours, across customers.

• The Contact History tab in the Auxiliary Information pane displays the previous communications with the customer for the last 90 days. The Contact History is consolidated for all digital channels, whereas for Voice, the history is restricted to the Voice Channel.

• The Agent Desktop supports a responsive view that enables easy reading and navigation across small (< 640 pixels), medium (641 to 1007 pixels), and large (> 1008 pixels) screen resolutions. The recommended display size for the Agent Desktop is 500 x 400 pixels or higher. Non-responsive widgets cannot ensure the best user experience and are not displayed in the smaller view.

Desktop Layout

The Desktop Layout feature allows the administrator to customize the Agent Desktop layout and assign it to a team.

There are two types of desktop layouts:

• Default Layout: A system-generated desktop layout that is available for all of the teams.

• Custom Layout: The layout that the administrator creates based on the requirements of specific teams, and assigns to one or more teams.

The custom layout allows the administrator to customize the following:

• Title and Logo

• Drag-and-drop and resize widgets

• Notification timer and maximum notification count

• Custom icons, custom tabs, custom header, custom pages, and custom widgets

• Persistent Widgets: Any custom widget can be defined as persistent. Persistent widgets are displayed on all pages of the Agent Desktop.

• Screen Pop: The browser pops up on the Agent Desktop when an agent accepts an incoming call. The agent can view screen pop details either in a new browser tab, existing browser tab, or the Screen Pop tab of the Auxiliary Information pane based on the screen pop display and the desktop layout settings.

The administrator can add or remove the following widgets in the custom layout:

• IVR Transcript

• Campaign Contact and Call Guide

• Cisco Webex Experience Management Widgets: Customer Experience Journey (CEJ) and Customer Experience Analytics (CEA)

The following Experience Management widgets are displayed on the Agent Desktop only if your administrator has configured the widgets:

• Customer Experience Journey (CEJ): Displays all past survey responses from a customer in a chronological list. The widget helps agents to gain understanding about the customer’s past experiences with the business, and engage appropriately with the customer. This widget is automatically activated when an agent engages with a customer through a call, chat, or email. An agent can view ratings and scores such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) along with all other feedback collected from a customer.

• Customer Experience Analytics (CEA): Displays the overall pulse of the customers or agents through industry-standard metrics such as NPS, CSAT, and CES, or other KPIs tracked within Experience Management.

When an agent signs in to the Agent Desktop, the desktop layout associated with the agent's team is available to the agent. The agent can customize the desktop layout by using the Drag-and-Drop and Resize features.

RONA Popover

If an agent is unable to accept any contact request (voice or digital channel) within the time period configured by the administrator, the contact request is returned to the queue and the system changes the agent state to RONA. The system cannot deliver any new contact requests to an agent who is in the RONA state. When an agent is in the RONA state, a popover appears with the following options:

• Go To Idle: Indicates that the agent can change the state from RONA to the default idle reason configured by the administrator.

• Go To Available: Indicates that the agent can change the state from RONA to Available, to accept and respond to contact requests.

New URL for Analyzer

Users can now access Analyzer using the new URL https://analyzer.wxcc-us1.cisco.com/analyzer/home.

Using Webex Contact Center with Webex Calling

Customers who are subscribed to both Webex Contact Center and Webex Calling can use their Webex Calling Dial Number (endpoints) as their preferred agent endpoint devices when used in conjunction with the Webex Contact Center Agent Desktop. This enables agents to log in using their Webex Calling extension number and be remote on supported Webex Calling devices and clients, and enable on-net call transfers to internal users on both the solutions bypassing the PSTN and saving on toll charges.

Webex Contact Center supports the following agent devices for Webex Calling endpoint devices (clients):

• Webex Calling Desk Phone

• Webex Calling Desktop App (PC Audio)

• Webex Mobile App on the cell phone

• Webex Client that is integrated with Webex Calling (PC Audio)

Call Manager Integration with Webex Contact Center

This feature enables integrating Webex Contact Center with On-premises Call Manager via the Webex Calling Local Gateways (LGW) connectivity option. With this capability, Webex Contact Center agents can use the connected Private Branch Exchange (PBX) extensions as the agent device.

This feature enables enterprises that use LGWs, such as the Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) or the Session Border Controller (SBC) along with Webex Calling, to integrate with Webex Contact Center.

OEM Integration with Acqueon - Preview Campaigns

Webex Contact Center is integrated with the Acqueon LCM (Link and Campaign Manager) application to enable outbound preview campaign management for the voice channel. Administrators can configure outbound preview campaigns using the Acqueon LCM interface. Agents can then initiate campaign calls from the Agent Desktop. When an agent initiates a campaign call, a new contact is dynamically retrieved from the ongoing active preview campaigns and assigned to the agent.

Various campaign reports are available in the Campaign Manager modules. Administrators can measure the effectiveness of campaigns via the OEM Integration with Acqueon report in the Analyzer.

Cisco Webex Experience Management Post-Call Survey

Webex Contact Center is integrated with Webex Experience Management, the platform for Customer Experience Management (CEM). This enables administrators to configure SMS and email post‐call surveys to collect feedback from customers.

Social Messaging Channels

Social Messaging is trending as a major way to connect with businesses, to perform all types of one-on-one customer service and query processing tasks. It is asynchronous and personal; Social Messaging apps are already familiar to customers as a means to communicate with friends and family.

Webex Contact Center now supports Social Messaging channels. Customers can interact with agents in the contact center via Facebook Messenger and SMS (Short Message Service). While customers use their Social Messaging app to interact with agents, agents handle the contacts similar to web chat, which does not require any additional training. Additionally, Social Messaging conversations can be integrated with a Virtual Agent (bot) for Chat to enable customers to get self-help before being routed to a live agent, just as in web chat. Intents detected by the Virtual Agent can be used either to service the request directly, or to route the contact appropriately.

The integration supports Google Dialogflow. For SMS, customers need to procure one or more SMS numbers from the supported vendor MessageBird ( www.messagebird.com). For Facebook Messenger integration, customers must have a Facebook page.

Business Rules Engine Support through Flow Control

The Business Rules Engine (BRE) provides a means for tenants to incorporate their data into the Webex Contact Center environment for custom routing as well as for general implementation. With this feature, new and existing customers who are already using the Business Rules Engine (BRE) solution with Webex Contact Center can leverage BRE data through Flow Control for their organization.

Service Specific Administrator Role for Webex Contact Center

A new service specific administrator role is introduced for Webex Contact Center. This role can be assigned to external administrators and administrators in the customer organization. The service specific administrator role enables restricted administrative access on Control Hub. An administrator with this role can manage contact center licenses and administer the contact center service.

Support for provisioning administrators is also enabled in this release. Partner administrators who have provisioning administrator privileges for the contact center service can perform all activities that a partner full administrator can perform.

Support for external read-only administrators is available with this release. External administrators with the read-only role can access all Webex Contact Center administrative interfaces in the read-only mode.

External Administrator Support in Flow Designer

Flow Designer is enhanced to support external administrators. External administrators can view, create, modify, and delete flows using Flow Designer. External administrators with read-only privileges can only view the flows in Flow Designer.

Content Security Policy

Content Security Policy defines an approved list of trusted domains that can be accessed from Webex Contact Center applications. This feature helps comply with the content security policy framework that browsers enforce.