[cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express

Tue Oct 4 13:26:11 EDT 2011

Yeah, I'm more concerned with supported APIs getting these tools to work, not so much getting reports to work. I'd like to go into this knowing that using a supported driver X, your third party vendor (if they know what they're doing) will be able to connect to UCCx v8.x. If they can't, then the vendor can talk to Cisco about interoperability issues. 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Cooking with unix is easy. You just sed it and forget it. 
- LFJ (with apologies to Mr. Popeil) 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Leatherman" <ealeatherman at gmail.com> 
To: "Lelio Fulgenzi" <lelio at uoguelph.ca> 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 1:16:09 PM 
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

Depends on how you define "supported" 

>From some experience, if you call TAC and ask for help with crystal or custom reports in general, they will not help you (they just aren't set up for development support). They will point you to their developer forums and the general tech support community for help. 

But, as far as I know if you follow the guidelines in the documentation around developing reports, they won't deny you assistance with other issues just because of that. There is official documentation around 8.x that tells you how to setup ODBC, Crystal, and even mentions using 3rd party tools like SQuireL or AGS Server Studio. Check out Chapter 4 in the HR Admin and Developer Guide for UCCX 8.5. 

On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Lelio Fulgenzi < lelio at uoguelph.ca > wrote: 

That's good news Dennis. We were afraid if we went with Crystal Reports we would loose all the effort once we went to v8. Are these "hacks" or tried, true and supported options? 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Cooking with unix is easy. You just sed it and forget it. 
- LFJ (with apologies to Mr. Popeil) 

From: "Dennis Heim" < Dennis.Heim at cdw.com > 
To: "Lelio Fulgenzi" < lelio at uoguelph.ca >, "Erick A. Wellnitz" < erick.wellnitz at kattenlaw.com > 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 12:38:13 PM 

Subject: RE: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

The biggest issue with ccx is no doubt the canned reports. That being said with 7x or 8x you can use crystal reports. CCx 8.x still gives you access to the historical reporting database. You need some 3 rd party software like sql squirrel and the Informix db driver (ifxjdbc.jar), to get it done, but it is all there. Most 7.x and earlier historical reports work with 8.x, at least in my experience. 

Dennis Heim 
Network Voice Engineer 
CDW Advanced Technology Services 
10610 9 th Place 
Bellevue, WA 98004 

317.569.4255 Single Number Reach 
317.569.4201 Fax 
dennis.heim at cdw.com 
cdw.com/content/solutions/unified-communications/ 

From: cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net [mailto: cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net ] On Behalf Of Lelio Fulgenzi 
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 12:15 PM 
To: Erick A. Wellnitz 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

yeah, we've used that trick in the past. it works very well. 

we've used a database dip script in our case, not sure why we didn't go with XML... not in my hands at the time it was developed. 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Cooking with unix is easy. You just sed it and forget it. 
- LFJ (with apologies to Mr. Popeil) 

From: "Erick A. Wellnitz" < erick.wellnitz at kattenlaw.com > 
To: "Lelio Fulgenzi" < lelio at uoguelph.ca > 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net , "Bantz John F" < BantzJohnF at johndeere.com > 
Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 12:13:00 PM 
Subject: RE: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

If you have UM or IMAP access to voice messages, you can have someone leave you voicemails and the prompts will be in the correct format. 

I’ve used XML in the past with simple scripts to open or close. This way if poor weather doesn’t allow being on site a supervisor can call in and manually close a center. 

From: Lelio Fulgenzi [mailto: lelio at uoguelph.ca ] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 10:56 AM 
To: Wellnitz, Erick A. 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net ; Bantz John F 
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

Oh yeah, another thing I think we struggled with is the lack of client based configuration/customization. For example, we had to build our own prompt management tool and open/closed tool in order to give our clients what they needed. 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Cooking with unix is easy. You just sed it and forget it. 
- LFJ (with apologies to Mr. Popeil) 

From: "Erick A. Wellnitz" < erick.wellnitz at kattenlaw.com > 
To: "Lelio Fulgenzi" < lelio at uoguelph.ca >, "Bantz John F" < BantzJohnF at johndeere.com > 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 11:50:42 AM 
Subject: RE: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

V8 (not the juice) is indeed appliance based. 

There are three versions to choose from. Standard is pretty basic. No desktop client support and no redundancy are of main note as well as a few sundry items which many call centers find important. 

The two other levels add http, email and database functionality as well as redundancy and desktop client support even a web based client if I’m not mistaken. 

The main issue I’ve seen is where people go into UCCX with unrealistic expectations. It is a decent system but it probably won’t compare to many competitor’s products if you’re expecting the end-all-be-all of call center software. 

If Cisco turns out to not be what you’re looking for, check out I3 (it can be integrated with Cisco) and is IP based. 

From: cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net [mailto: cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net ] On Behalf Of Lelio Fulgenzi 
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2011 10:18 AM 
To: Bantz John F 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

I think you'll find issues with any contact centre software. The important thing is to come up with a set of requirements you need, want, can't live without, etc and see how they measure up. Some general comments: 

    • N-1 compatibility: although this is getting better, you'll find yourself completing upgrades on both your CUCM and UCCx installations at the same time. If not, you'll have to stage them. 
    • reports: I think the canned reports are not as granular as some people would like, especially if you're trying to plan for staffing 
    • v7 vs v8: v7 is still Windows based, v8+ will be appliance based. it closes off database access a bit so any custom work you have done will likely need to be re-evaluated, i.e. database dips for custom reports with CrystalReports 

I'm sure others will also contribute and/or correct me where I'm off... 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Cooking with unix is easy. You just sed it and forget it. 
- LFJ (with apologies to Mr. Popeil) 

From: "Bantz John F" < BantzJohnF at johndeere.com > 
To: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 9:59:25 AM 
Subject: [cisco-voip] anyone using Unified Contact Center Express 

Hello group, 

Anyone using Unified Contact Center Express? Can you give me any pros or cons to using this package, anything to watch out for? We have a business unit in Australia that has a Call Manager, and they want to add functionality. For all of our major call center locations, we are Avaya. We are not looking to move away from Cisco there so replacing it with Avaya is right out. We do have the option of extending one of our Avaya systems out there using ACD soft-phones, but we want to explore all of our options. 

Since we are talking about basic ACD functionality (prompting, routing & queuing) for less than 100 people, we thought about contact center express. 

I have heard good things and bad things about this package, but I am keeping an open mind and want to get the groups opinion. 

What has your experience been with it? Would you recommend using it or looking at other solutions? 

Thanks 
John Bantz 
John Deere - Global Infrastructure Services 
515-267-4628 - office 

515-314-6478 - cell 
BantzJohnF at JohnDeere.Com 

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-- 
Ed Leatherman 

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