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Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

  • 1.  Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-13-2020 10:39
    We are exploring moving our agents to Interaction Connect. Right now they will only be taking call interactions and using Interation Scripter. Most agents are using SIP Soft Phone and having their screens recorded so we will still have to install the IC User Apps. We are looking at placing a shortcut which launches a browser in application mode and points to the Interaction Connect URL on all agents desktops. 

    I am wondering what issues other folks may have encountered when moving agents from Interaction Desktop to Interaction Connect and would appreciate any feedback. 

    Best practices based on our experiences that might not be documented on the Genesys website?

    Was there anything you encountered after moving agents that wasn't expected?

    Is there a browser that is better to use? (i.e. Chrome vs. Edge)? 

    What pain points did the users have? Was there any changes that were a struggle for agents to get used to or overcome?


    Thanks in advance!

    #InteractionConnect
    #InteractionDesktop
    #Deployments




    ​​​
    #AskMeAnything(AMA)
    #Implementation
    #Omni-ChannelDesktop/UserInterface
    #SystemAdministration

    ------------------------------
    Michael Bishop
    Senior Telecom Engineer
    UnitedHealth Group/Optum
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 07:57
    Michael,

    We are in the early stages of making this transition, we only have a handful using IConnect, and they never used IDesktop, so I do not have feedback yet on agent acceptance/transition.   Whenever talking with Genesys, so always seem to recommend Chrome, that is what we use.
    IConnect does not allow for use of SIP Soft phone, but uses WebRTC via an option called "Web Based Phone"  this requires an integration with GenesysCloud, we are in the early stages of scoping this out, but this requires "Edge" devices (at least for our environment) available as an appliance or software only.
    Comments about Iconnect, while a very visually appealing interface, for those who prefer/need to see a great deal of info "on Screen"  the design does not allow for as many rows to be seen in directories/queues etc.   Directory/Queues  a little limited in what columns can be sorted/filtered.  IConnect also allows for many supervisory tools and can be used for creating Chat Widgets.  WE are a little concerned about custom applications we have created to work with IDesktop, what will be needed to work with IConnect, In the near future we will start looking at screen pops too.  To date, overall quite pleased so far,  the additional features not available to Idesktop are great, and feature parity to IDesktop is getting VERY close.

    I am sure you have seen this, but just in case not: https://help.genesys.com/pureconnect/desktop/pdfs/client_comparison_qr.pdf

    Feel free to reach out to me directly, would love to hear any feedback you have as you progress,  and I can share any discoveries as we progress.

    ------------------------------
    Pete Schroeder
    American Customer Care, Inc
    pschroeder@accare.com
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 09:32
    @Peter Schroeder,

    Just one "correction". You can use the SIP Softphone with iConnect, it's just that it cannot launch it automatically and it isn't available as "SIP Softphone" as a station option.

    If you launch it manually, and specify it by name as a Workstation, then it works.

    Having ​said that, with a lot of people currently migrating to iConnect to support at-home Agents, I'm not sure I'd want to use the SIP Softphone, but the option is there ;-)


  • 4.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 09:42
    @Paul Simpson

    Thanks for pointing that out!  Not surprised sales did NOT mention that when discussing WebPhone with Genesys cloud.
    That said, SIP Soft phone software has to be installed locally and can not take advantage of the Opus codec, correct?
    Yes we are experiencing some challenges with @home agents using SIP Soft phone

    Thanks again, you are always a wealth of information 
    ​​

    ------------------------------
    Pete Schroeder
    American Customer Care, Inc
    pschroeder@accare.com
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 09:46
    @Peter Schroeder,

    You are quite correct about OPUS and the need to install locally.

    From what I have seen / heard, some sites switching to iConnect for their office-based agents are still using the Softphone since the Network is less of an issue and they control the desktops (at least, in theory on both of those!). I have also been told that putting the Softphone in the Startup folder reduces the incidence of people forgetting to start it before logging in....



  • 6.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 11:09

    Paul,

    Could you elaborate more on SIP Softphone and OPUS? We are currently using OPUS and SIP Soft Phone with Interaction Desktop. We need the OPUS format for our integration with Afiniti routing.

     

    We are planning on using the SIP Softphone application (and screen recorder) and know that those will have to still be installed on the users machine. Is there a difference in how call recordings are accomplished in Interaction Connect vs Interaction Desktop that causes OPUS to not work with Interaction Connect?

     

    Thanks,

    Mike

     

     

    ____________________________

                   
    Michael Bishop
    | Optum

    Senior Telecom Engineer
    Optum OmniChannel

     

    6150 Trenton Ln, Plymouth, MN 55442

    443-492-5367

    Michael_Bishop@optum.com

     






  • 7.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-15-2020 15:15
    Mike,

    Never let it be said that I don't admit if I'm wrong, or that I claim to be infallible!

    I was under the impression that the Softphone does not support OPUS, if you're using it then that is clearly incorrect!


  • 8.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 09:34

    Peter,

    Thanks for the info. We have been successful in using SIP Soft Phone, however the application still needs to be installed (as well as for Screen Recorder). Glad to hear you didn't have a lot of issues. I think our agents will like it as well! I appreciate your feedback.

     

    Thanks,

    Mike

     

    ____________________________

                   
    Michael Bishop
    | Optum

    Senior Telecom Engineer
    Optum OmniChannel

     

    6150 Trenton Ln, Plymouth, MN 55442

    443-492-5367

    Michael_Bishop@optum.com

     

     


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  • 9.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 08:19
    Edited by William Chávez 10-14-2020 08:22
    Good morning Michael:

    We worked in a migration to Interaction Connect between August, 2018 to January 2019, in a PureConnect 2018 R3 and then R5 platform. In my experience, first I noticed the following critical points developing the Agent Scripts:

    1. The architecture was different, because, in Dialer Campaigns, the IS_Events received from CIC Server, and also the IS_Actions triggered from the Agent Scripts, pass through the ICWS (https://help.genesys.com/developer/cic/docs/icws/webhelp/conceptualcontent/welcome.htm). We did not notice clearly by using Interaction Scripter .NET. 
    2. Those ICWS HTTPS requests and responses logs could be checked inside the WebServer (IIS/Apache 2.4) logs, web server in which we decided to install and configure the CIC Web Applications. You can check both the HTTPS requests that was done to ICWS and also its related HTTPS response codes (2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx). It was very useful to do troubleshooting tasks.  
    3. In order to identify, in Dialer Campaigns using Custom Scripts, that the Custom Script was ready to start processing IS_Events and IS_Actions, I found, by looking in the Google's Chrome console logs, that Interaction Connect had sent to us an IS_Event_Init, every time we start a new Dialer Campaign as Outbound Agents or every time we navigate through the next Outbound campaign stages (web pages). When that event was received by our Script, then we initialized the callObject or performed a request logoff (depends on the stage we received it). 
    4. We first started to develop a Custom Script developed using JS Framework Angular, but was quite difficult to consistently coordinate the processing of events sent by ICWS. Then I developed a different HTML-CSS-JS web page for every Outbound Dialer campaign stage, it means, in conclusion, one HTML-JS script per every agent status: 
    - Available  or Waiting for call.
    - Campaign Call & Follow-Up (ACW).
    - Break.
    - Logoff.
    So, based on that, I recommend to you to do the same (one web page per every agent status or campaign stage).
    5. We had assisted by Genesys Developers Team, as well, in order to refine the script that I had built. So, I recommend to you to request for assistance with the Genesys Professional Services team.
    6. IMPORTANT! We needed to manage, also with the Genesys Professional Services team, in very detailed level, the following critical functionalities:
    - CallObject initialization: we had to do it by using both scripter.createCallObject(); statement and callObj.callObjectInitializedHandler custom handler.
    - Prevent the JavaScript callback hell by making a good design of the script, following the Single Responsibility Principle representated in JS functions. 
    - Handlers, CallObject state processing, scripter.dialer.breakStatus._breakStatus object processing to grant Break requests based on events and campaign stages, clear script variables and include the meta tags to received events or to perform actions.

    The following were some issues we had in that experience:
    1. Sometimes, when supervisors activated campaigns by using Interaction Administrator or by changing the agents from one workgroup to another or by assigning them to a new workgroup, the agents started to received calls, but visually were in Available status. Sometimes that could be happen because a delay between Interaction Connect and CIC Server. So I recommend to you, first do tests to cover this kind of issues.
    2. In the first releases of Interaction Connect we noticed that Agents could manually change its status, while were in Follow-up (ACW) stage, by clicking the drop down status list. So, Genesys resolved it quickly:  https://my.inin.com/products/Pages/SCR-Search.aspx?SCRID=WEB-2461. 
    3. Also, In the first releases of Interaction Connect we noticed that Agents could manually change its status, while were in Break status in a Dialer Campgin, by clicking the drop down status list. Please check it also, beacause it was not simple to manage (in your Dialer Scripts you have to consider the break request or the change to availabe status in every stage of the script), but I considered that while we were in a Dialer Campaign the responsibility of allow the change of agent´s status need to be only performed by the Custom Script and not by Interaction Connect UI. This point is critical, for both Outbound or Blended campaigns. 
    4. In the first releases of Interaction Connect we noticed that Agents could manually place calls, while were in a Dialer Campgin, by clicking the dial button and by writing the phone number in the text field. In ICBM supervisor views we could check that were, for example, people in available status but with a phone call. So, we needed to solve it, considering the Genesys Support Team recommendations, by configuring Workgoups and permissions; and by allowing and by managing the manually placing of calls in the script and its related IS_Events and IS_Actions. That was critical for operation campaigns, so I recommend to you to verify those details not only in your tests but also with the Genesys Support Team.
    5. Consider do the installation of CIC Web Applications in a Windows Server, in order to get a efficient support. There is an alternative installation process by using Apache 2.4 on a Linux server, but was not recommended to us because of the support. 
    6. We had issues with the Global Campaign Logon functionality in Dialer Campaigns in that time, but Genesys started to solve it in this SCR: https://my.inin.com/products/Pages/SCR-Search.aspx?SCRID=DIALER-12986. I recommend to you to consider it in your tests.
    7. Also, always, for troubleshooting purposes and in order to solve them by yourself or with the Genesys Customer Care Team, you need to trace the following logs:
    • Dialerserver to Notes
    • CampaignServer to Notes
    • acdserver to Notes with Subtopic Selection to Notes
    • ip to Notes
    • Tsserver to Notes
    • Notifier to Notes
    • sessionmanager to Notes. Those specially were very important. 
    • clientServices to Notes
    • Export the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Interactive Intelligence
    • Call Ids. Those specially were very important. 
    • httpPluginHost to Verbose. Those specially were very important. 
    • Video Reproduction of the issue.
    • Fiddler Capture during the issue reproduction.
    • Interaction Connect logs (we can capture this from IConnect UI). Those specially were very important. 
    8. Finally:
    - In my experience Interaction Connect was awesome not only to agents but also to the operation (supervisors, administrators, etc.). When we migrate to Interaction Connect we received a really good feedback about the UI/UX with it from all the operational stakeholders. 
    - We tested it in Chrome and Firefox, in both worked well, but I recommend Chrome, because of troubleshooting purposes and performance. 
    - In my experience, it worked really well for Inbound campaigns and also with outbound campaigns considering the points I descrived above.
    - To understand the CIC Web Application logs, Interaction Connect logs in the web server side, I recommend to you to ckeck some HTTPS requests and responses based on the following ICWS specification: https://help.genesys.com/developer/cic/docs/icws/webhelp/conceptualcontent/welcome.htm
    - Always be sure that the network performance (delay, jitter, etc.) is well to support  your operation by using Interaction Connect. And please, do not implement Reverse Proxies in front of Interaction Connect, please check the prerrequisites in the following guide: https://help.genesys.com/pureconnect/mergedprojects/wh_tr/desktop/pdfs/cic_web_applications_icg.pdf  

    I expect that helps to you.

    ------------------------------
    William Martín Chávez González
    Systems Engineer
    Global Networks Solutions S.A.S.
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 09:43
    Mike,

    I'm not sure if you are using Dialer, but there are a couple of things to watch out for, if you are.

    Firstly, Custom Scripts. They are different and, AFAIK, it isn't possible to mix agents using Scripter.Net with those using iConnect and the Scripter View on a Campaign with a Custom Script..
    Secondly, I'm not sure how you (or even if you can) remove the option to connect as a "Finishing Agent", even if you don't use them!
    ​​
    HTH


  • 11.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-14-2020 15:07
    One issue that is slowing our progress on moving to Interaction Connect is the transfer window. When you go to do a transfer, it overlays the Interaction Connect window and prevents you from accessing the dial pad. This is a problem for us as many times our agents transfer to an IVR profile and have to make a numbered menu selection.

    This would not be an issue if we had physical phones, but our agents are remote and on Virtual Images. So having them minimize the image to access the SIP Station on the laptop to use its dial pad, is not operationally viable. 

    Thank you,

    ------------------------------
    Scott Williams
    Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-15-2020 08:56
    @Scott Williams

    While I do not know how you agents are configuring the display of IConnect or how much screen real estate is available with other applications​,  couldn't you just re-size/move the "My Interactions" tab so the dial pad appears in a different location?​

    ------------------------------
    Pete Schroeder
    American Customer Care, Inc
    pschroeder@accare.com
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-15-2020 09:49
    I think the issue (correct me if I'm wrong here) is that the Transfer window is Modal, so it prevents access to the underlying application while it is displayed.


  • 14.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-15-2020 10:02
      |   view attached
    Correct, when you are in the transfer window, you are not able to access anything behind it, see screenshot attached.

    This issue is probably only a problem for a view Company's since most either have physical phones they can use or their SIP Softphone and Interaction Desktop application is on the same Computer. Our environment is completely virtual, so our agents us VMWare horizon to connect to their work image and use Physical phones. When remote, like they are now, they use SIP Softphone which are installed on their physical laptops, while they still use VMware Horizon to connect to their work image which has Interaction Desktop applicaiton.

    I have been talking with Bishay Bishesh, who is a Sr. Product Manager of Pureconnect and they are looking to resolve this issue, but no ETA on when that might be.

    ------------------------------
    Scott Williams
    Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    GENESYS
    Posted 10-15-2020 10:00
    Edited by Scott A Thomas 10-16-2020 10:02
    Scott-
    Would you be willing to meet with our PM of Interaction Connect (Bishay Bishesh) so we can review your user experience in a screen share? We want to remove adoption barriers for Interaction Connect.

    This same offer goes for anyone else with adoption barriers for Interaction Connect. We're specifically making a push to remove as many as we can.

    Scott

    ------------------------------
    Scott Thomas
    Director, Product Management
    PureConnect
    ------------------------------



  • 16.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-15-2020 13:44
    ​Hi Scott Thomas,

    Yes I have. I brought this up in his Interaciton Connect Pain Point Thread he started a few months ago and he reached out to me.

    thank you,

    ------------------------------
    Scott Williams
    Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-16-2020 09:30
    Edited by Peter Schroeder 10-16-2020 09:41
    @Scott A Thomas

    As I mentioned in my initial post, we are in the infancy stages of deploying IConnect, learning of the issue Scott Williams identified, will prevent a large part of our agents being moved to IConnect​!    Anything you can do to expedite the resolution would be greatly appreciated!

    ------------------------------
    Pete Schroeder
    American Customer Care, Inc
    pschroeder@accare.com
    ------------------------------



  • 18.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    Posted 10-16-2020 09:55
    @Peter Schroeder Could you verify you see the same results? All my testing was on 2018 R3, so  if you are on a newer version it might be resolved. I also didn't try it with all browsers, only with Chrome which is Genesys recommended browser. ​​

    Right now my Connect Server is down, broke after we moved our system to a single signed cert, so i can't test if its an issue on our currently release 2020 R2.

    ------------------------------
    Scott Williams
    Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: Interaction Connect transition - Best Practices, Pain Points, Lessons Learned?

    GENESYS
    Posted 10-16-2020 10:02
    Edited by Scott A Thomas 10-16-2020 10:02
    Scott and Pete-

    I've spoken with Bishay. This is now on our roadmap, though it will take us some time to get to it. Thanks for your input.

    ------------------------------
    Scott Thomas
    Director, Product Management
    PureConnect
    ------------------------------



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