Managing Response Group Service in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Nireshen Beerbul

Senior ConsultantMicrosoftnireshb@microsoft.com

Agenda What is Response Group Service (RGS)?How should RGS be used?How does RGS work?How do I get RGS deployed?How do I manage RGS?

DemoReporting, Tips & Tricks

Response Group Service

New in OCS 2007 R2, Response Group Service distributes incoming calls

to groups of agents.

Response Group Service is NOT a replacement for full featured call centers or a

lookup-based auto attendant.

Common RGS Scenario

A call arrives at the Fabrikam Team Help groupIf a holiday -> voicemailIf not within business hours -> voicemailTry an available member of the help desk group

If no answer, try the next receptionist (round-robin)Parallel-ring a small group of designated backupFinally -> voicemail

Basic PBX features(Basic Hunt group)

Add-on ACD solutionFully featured

Additional licensing costs

Dedicated ACDHigh scale

High Additional Costs

• Basic hunt groups• Agent sign-in/out• Various hunting methods

• MoH• Business hours• Basic CDRs

• Supervisor • Live views• Advanced CDRs

• High Scale• High Availability• Advanced CDRs• Interop w/ LoB apps

Solutions Today

Departmental SolutionsInternal

helpdesks, Small CCs

Large CCs

Basic PBX features(Basic Hunt group)

Add-on ACD solutionFully featured

Additional licensing costs

Dedicated ACDHigh scale

High Additional Costs

• High Scale• High Availability• Advanced CDRs• Interop w/ LoB apps

Response GroupService 2007 R2

• Huntgroups and basic IVRs• Support for end-users managing RGS• Integration with OCS presence• Speech recognition and TTS in 12 langs• Music on hold• Basic CDRs

Positioning of RGS

Internal helpdesks, Small CCs

Large CCs

• Supervisor • Live views• Advanced CDRs

Ringing

Typical Call Flow, Simple Hunt Group

OCS 2007 R2 with RGS

1. Customer calls main office number

2. Customer has an established call with RGS (listening to music); RGS trying to reach an available AgentEstablished

Ringing

Established

3. Agent picks up, RGS connects the two calls. The customer is now talking with the Agent.

Components - Overview

Response Group

Queue

Agent Group

Agent

Agent

Agent Group Agent

Queue Agent Group Agent

Components - Response Groups and Contact Objects

Each RG needs a separate RG contact object aka COLives in Active Directory (AD)The contact contains the Response Group’s SIP URI, display name and tel URI

4 Response Group types called “templates”Basic hunt group (1 Queue, n Agent Groups)Enhanced hunt group (= basic hunt group + more options such as welcome msg & hold-music)One-level interactive (single-level basic IVR)Two-level interactive (two-level basic IVR)

Components - Queues

Queues hold calls that haven’t been routedRelationships

Multiple Agent Groups can be added to a QueueTwo Queues can contain the same Agent Group

Queue timeoutQueue overflow

Components - Agent Groups

Groups of Agents that Queues point toAgents can be added to Agent Groups individually, or by AD distribution groupAgent Group Types

Informal - agent does not need to ‘sign in’ Formal - agent must ‘sign in’ to the group

Routing MethodsParallel - all agents at the same timeSerial - always start ringing the first agentRound robin - ring the next agent in the order specifiedLongest Idle - ring the longest idle agent

Components - Agents

Agents are users that RGS routes incoming calls toTo be an agent, a user must be enabled for Office Communications Server and also enabled for Enterprise VoiceAn agent can belong to multiple Agent Groups even if the Agent Groups live in different pools

Deploying RGS

RGS is deployed by default for both OCS Standard and Enterprise editions

Deploying RGS: Speech Packs

Speech Language packs (used for TTS and SR)By default, only US-English installed; 12 available languagesInstall more language packs on every front end server

After installing, run rgslang.exe from ResKit to sync registry & WMI so that RGS picks up the new languages, then restart RGSGet packs from DVD, or download them; name is “Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 UCMA 2.0 Speech Language Packs”

TechNet article link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd441219.aspx

Managing RGS or displaying OC Tab in different language than OCS installation language

Download “OCS 2007 R2 Response Group Service Language Pack”

Questions so far?

We’ve covered:What RGS isHow RGS can be usedRGS componentsRGS deployment

Still to come:Management & demoClient and Agent ExperienceReportingTips & Tricks

Managing RGS - Overview

Agents

Agent groups

QueuesResponse Group contacts

Response Groups

Managing RGS

Agents, Agent Groups, Queues

Managed with the MMC snap-in, which installs as part of OCS Admin Tools

Response GroupsManaged with your web browser @ RGS webpageCan get to this from MMC, or directly via URLhttps://srv/Rgs/Deploy/Default.aspx

Managing RGS, Contact Objects

Contact objects (for Response Groups)Created using the RGSCot.exe which is installed as part of the Administrative ToolsLives in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Creating your first Response Groupdemo

What Client should Agents use?Agent Group type Recommended Agent ClientsInformal (no sign-in to Agent Groups required)

Office Communicator or Attendant Console recommended.

Otherwise OC Phone Edition is supported; Communicator Mobile Edition not supported.

Formal (sign-in to Agent Groups required)

Office Communicator required for sign-in (unless you build your own web-service consumer to handle sign-in)

Communicator - Configuring Agents

In order to allow user agents to sign in and out of formal groups you must configure a custom tab in OC

Push it down to clients via Group Policy: URL to tab XML fileThe tab points to the RGS sign-in page (pre-built)

Communicator Tab definition (XML) example:<?xml version="1.0"?><tabdata> <tab> <image>https://ocs02.df.int/rtcbranding/RgsOcTab.png</image> <name>Response Group Tab</name> <tooltip>Response Group Tab</tooltip> <userid>true</userid> <contenturl>https://ocs03.df.int/rgs/clients/Tab.aspx</contenturl> <contactid>false</contactid> </tab></tabdata>

Communicator - Configuring Agents

Any sites specified in tabs.xml file must be listed in trusted sites section in IE to avoid having to enter extra username and password

Required because the pool URL is not already listed in the local Intranet Site

Communicator - Agent Experience

As an agent of Response Group “Ask.Astana”:

Communicator - Calling a RG

In Office Communicator, looking at “Benefits Bot” (a Response Group)

Reporting

Install ArchiverCDRReporter ResKit toolRGS data is stored in the CDR database along with all other CDR calls. Each call to a Response Group will generate three dialogs in the CDR database

Dialog 1 - The caller calls RGSDialog 2 - RGS calls the agent Dialog 3 - RGS connects the agent to the caller

Report entry “Wait time of call” = Dialog 1Report entry “Length of call” = Dialog 2+3

Tips and Tricks

If you are trying to access the RGS webpage as a domain admin be sure to add your account to the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group RGS manager role does not have access to manage QueuesChanges made to Response Groups take a few minutes to take effectDeactivating RGS causes its COs to be deletedThere is a ResKit tool to export/import Response Groups (including COs)

Key Takeaways

RGS should be used as a departmental ACD solutionYou’ve probably already deployed RGSYou probably need to install more speech packs (don’t forget to run rgslang.exe)Create the components in this order: agents, agent groups, queues, COs, response groupsPut the OC tab XML file on a fileshare and push it out to Office Communicator with a GPO

question & answer

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© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS,

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Feature Overview of RGS 2007 R2

• IVR (Interactive Voice Response) - Input: DTMF or SR - Playback: .wav or TTS - SR/TTS supported in 10 languages

• Call queuing - Music on hold - Queue time out / queue overflow action on first call/last call: route to PSTN, other queue, SIP URI or VoiceMail

• Routing - Serial, parallel, longest idle, round robin

• Presence - Icon in OC representing a Response Group

• Workflow templates - Basic & advanced hunt group - Simple Q&A and advanced Q&A

• End user managed settings on hunt groups

• Agent side - Call context on incoming call (options selected by caller during the IVR) - Ring time out configured by admin

• Agent groups - Distribution Group - Custom admin defined group

• Basic CDRs

Response Group Service ComponentsApplication Server: The Response Group Service is one of the applications that are hosted on the Application Server. The Application Server is installed automatically during Office Communications Server deployment. Language pack: A language pack is required to support text-to-speech and speech recognition in Interactive Voice Response. The language pack is installed as part of the Office Communications Server deployment. Administrative tools: The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Administration Snap-in is available in the Office Communications Server Administrative Tools package.Web Components Server: The Response Group Configuration Tool, which is a Web-based tool that is used to create and manage workflows, is installed with the Web Components Server.Internet Information Services: Internet Information Services (IIS) is required to support the Response Group Configuration Tool and the agents’ sign in/out functionality.Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2: Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2 is required if you have agent groups that are configured to require agents to sign in and out. In this situation, the agents use a custom tab on the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client to sign in and out

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Administering Response Groups

Supported Operating Systems for Web Configuration tool:

Not listed: IE8 (supported)

Microsoft Internet Explorer® 6 with SP2

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.x

Windows® XP with SP2

X X X

Windows Server® 2003 with SP2

X X X

Windows Vista® X XWindows Server® 2008

X X

Mac OS X 10.5.2 X