Version 5 Trials

Would you like to preview the new features in Contact Center Solutions and Call Accounting Version 5? Or how about providing input that directly impacts the features and functionality included in the new Visual Queue, Visual Architect, and Contact Center Softphone? We are looking for customers who are interested in using and providing feedback on our leading edge solutions.

If you participate in the Contact Center Solutions Version 5 field trials, you can install, or upgrade to, the prerelease version of the software free of charge. In return, you let us know which features you like and which features you want improved.

This field trial opportunity is targeted at any existing or potential Mitel Contact Center Solutions portfolio customers who meet the prerequisites so contact us today!

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New Features and Products for Version 5

With a planned release date in the first quarter of 2006, Contact Center Solutions and Call Accounting embrace new technologies. Here are some of the highlights:

  • New contact center database
  • New .NET real-time stream
  • Citrix support
  • MS .NET Framework 2.0
    • ClickOnce
    • SQL 2005 integration
    • RAD tools
  • IEX integration
  • Intelligent Queue features
    • Verified collected digits
    • Collocation
    • Multiple PBX support

Learn how the new Visual Queue, Visual Architect, and Contact Center Softphone applications can benefit your contact center. More >>

Service Pack 6 Now Available

In Service Pack 6 for version 4.5, Contact Center Management and Interactive Contact Center include six language variants. You can view the user interface (UI) in Dutch, English, French (European, French Canadian), or Spanish (European, Latin American (LAM)). Abridged user guides and Help files are available in each of these languages.

In addition, Service Pack 6 includes several new Contact Center Management and Contact Center Scheduling reports, Contact Center Scheduling time off enhancements, and traffic data collection via FTP.

 

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Meet the Documentation Team

The prairieFyre Documentation team (from left to right Linda, Alison, Justin, and Lana) builds communication products, including Web-based Installation and Maintenance (I&M) courses, technical manuals, Help files, newsletters, brochures, website pages, and multimedia sales CDs. Our team members have varied expertise, and we collaborate to produce the best products possible. Our main goal is to develop highly usable and searchable technical documents that shorten the learning curve for customers who install and use our products.

“At prairieFyre, everyone contributes to the quality of our software products, ensuring they are reliable and intuitive. For the Documentation team, this means assessing products for usability as we document them, and ensuring the text on all of our UIs is clear and informative. I

enjoy working on projects that have a creative element and writing documents that help customers use our products efficiently," states manager Alison Murphy.

"prairieFyre Software Inc is a great place to work," says Linda Schmalz. "Great people, great work ethic, great attitude, and great opportunity. Everyone is friendly, helpful, and enthusiastic about new ideas. I’ve worked at prairieFyre for three years now, and I love it."

Justin Deal says,"The most appealing thing about my job at prairieFyre is its diversity. I don't feel like I'm pigeonholed into doing one type of task over and over. I've only been here about half a year, yet in that time I've worked on everything from traditional technical writing publications to multimedia projects like our sales CDs and new website. I've even helped create the newsletter in which this quote appears. Suffice to say, I'm not likely to get bored with this job anytime soon."

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Technical Tips

In each newsletter, we provide you with a number of tips to help ensure your experience with Contact Center Solutions is a great one. This month's Technical Tips include information on the topics listed below. More >>

  • Avoiding configuration failures during Contact Center Management installation on Windows Server 2003
  • Viewing report updates while using remote SQL
  • Adding the Contact Center Management IP address to your Internet Explorer trusted sites
  • Running trace reports

Become a Reference Site

Have you had a positive experience with Contact Center Management? Do you find Call Accounting works wonders at your business? If so, maybe you'd like to help spread the word about prairieFyre!

We are currently seeking companies interested in becoming a prairieFyre reference site. As a reference site, you'll help us educate other companies about prairieFyre products by providing information on your own experiences with our software.

What better way for an interested company to learn about a product than through the first-hand observations of real users?

For more details about becoming a prairieFyre reference site, please contact Lillian Neitzel at referencesite@prairiefyre.com or call 613-599-0045, ext 1110.

   

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New Employees

Since our last newsletter in July, prairieFyre has hired 8 new employees, an increase in our company's size of almost 20%! In this section, we'd like to introduce you to the newest faces of prairieFyre:

 

Abdallah Diwani

Hi all, my name is Abdallah Diwani. I'm a new addition to the Customer Support team. Words can't describe how excited I am to be part of this talented and dedicated group of people. I plan to work hard and contribute positively to the continued success of Customer Support and prairieFyre in general. Hi everybody, I’m Daniel Lanthier, and I’ve been at prairieFyre since July, fresh out of university. I’ve joined the 6160 team and have had the chance to work with some of the members of the Framework team and the experience has been great so far! It’ll be a pleasure to apply, develop, and acquire new skills at prairieFyre!

Daniel Lanthier

Ghislain Moreau

Hello, my name is Ghislain Moreau. I am a new addition to prairieFyre Customer Support. I enjoy being part of a very dynamic team and look forward to helping you in the future. Hello everyone, my name is Jon Braganza, and I am the newest addition to the Applications team. I am very excited to be a part of the team at prairieFyre, and I enjoy the great atmosphere here. I am pleased to say that life at prairieFyre has been everything that I hoped it would be.

Jon Braganza

Sheri-Lynne Leskiw

I am Sheri-Lynne Leskiw, the new manager of Human Resources & Finance. I am so excited to be working with such a dedicated and passionate group of professionals. I truly believe that people are the company’s greatest asset, and I am anxious to have a positive impact on each employee’s experience at prairieFyre. I am looking forward to really getting to know everyone here —something that seemed impossible with the larger organizations I’ve worked in! Hello, my name is Shaun Haapala, and I am excited to be the latest addition to the 6160 Intelligent Queue team. As a former self-employed software consultant, I am looking forward to applying my eagerness for a challenge and my reputation for delivering to my new position at prairieFyre. I see prairieFyre as the perfect fit for providing me with an environment of constant learning, cutting-edge technology and talented co-workers. I am proud to be a part of the prairieFyre team.

Shaun Haapala

Nardos Erque

Hello, I am Nardos Erque, and I’m a new member of the prairieFyre Applications team. I am grateful and pleased for this opportunity to work with a team that has a strong passion for technology. I already feel at home at prairieFyre, and I am determined to give the best of my abilities.

Everybody loves a success story. I have had the pleasure of watching prairieFyre grow from five to 50 people through a combination of hard work and customer focus. I am excited to be an integral part of this team and hope to leverage my 27 years experience in the telecom industry to help take us to the next level. My personal goal is to see the March sign at the top of this building replaced with the prairieFyre logo.

Todd Simons

     

Version 5 Trials...continued

Version 5 trials overview

We are currently accepting applications for the following Version 5 beta trials:

  • Contact Center Management (6110)
  • Interactive Contact Center (6115)
  • Contact Center Scheduling (6120)
  • Real-Time Scheduled Adherence (6125)
  • Multimedia Contact Center (6150): Email, WebChat, and/or Fax
  • Intelligent Queue (6160)
  • Call Accounting
  • NEW! Visual Queue: a real-time grid that enables you to monitor calls within a queue and move calls from busy queues to idle queues
  • NEW! Visual Architect: a visual representation of the ACD call flow from which you can configure your telephone system and the YourSite database
  • NEW! Contact Center Softphone: adds PC functionality to stand-alone soft phones using MiAUDIO, and to traditional telephone sets

Field trial benefits

During the trial

  • Become an early adopter of the latest Microsoft technologies: .NET 2.0.
  • Take advantage of comprehensive remote instructor-led training on the products you are trialing.
  • Receive premium, dedicated technical assistance for the software you are trialing.

Existing Contact Center Solutions customers who trial

  • Upgraded versions only (of what you already own): receive 12 months of Extended Service and Support FREE from the trial closure date for all of the Contact Center Solutions software.
  • New add-on components: keep the software for FREE when you purchase a 1-year Service and Support package after the trial for the additional products.

New Contact Center Solutions Customers

  • 50% discount on the initial purchase of all Contact Center Solutions software FREE 12 months of Extended Service and Support from closure date of the trial for all Contact Center Solutions software.

Required commitments

Customer

  • Participate in the base Contact Center Management trial only OR trial Contact Center Management with your choice of add-on applications.
  • Install Version 5 software
  • New customers: install and configure Contact Center Management/Interactive Contact Center
  • Existing customers: upgrade to the beta Version 5 software
  • Provide a server meeting the required hardware and software specifications
  • Begin/continue to use all existing Contact Center Management/Interactive Contact Center features
  • Use the software on a daily basis
  • Provide feedback to prairieFyre on a regular basis: what you like, what you don't like, what works well and what needs improvement
  • Provide remote access to the prairieFyre Enterprise Server and provide a minimum of one client desktop to capture log information and to track progress
  • Participate in conference calls (once every week or two) to discuss features and functionality

Mitel Channel Partner

As the liaison in the Contact Center Solutions Version 5.0 trial, it is your role to work together with prairieFyre and your customers to facilitate trials. At your own expense,

  • Assist participating customers with initial software deployment (installation, upgrade, or patch)
  • Provide on-site maintenance during the trial to supply support packages, provide remote access to the customer site, attend conference calls, and provide feedback

prairieFyre Software

As the developer of the Contact Center Solutions Version 5 trial, prairieFyre will

  • Provide dedicated remote technical assistance with the installation/upgrade to Version 5.0 trial software on the customers' servers
  • Make available for each trial site a single point of contact (name, email, and phone number) to whom you can report the status of the trial
  • Conduct complementary remote user-training, if required
  • Supply complementary on-site technical assistance, if required

Contact prairieFyre at Version5trial@prairiefyre.com, or 613-599-0045x1110, and let us know which products you want to trial.

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Version 5 Features and Products...continued

In addition to several new features, Version 5 introduces three new products to the Contact Center Solutions suite: Contact Center Softphone, Visual Queue, and Visual Architect. Below, you will find a general overview for each of these products.

Contact Center Softphone

Mitel Contact Center Softphone is software that enables agents to use their PCs like a telephone. Contact Center Softphone adds PC functionality to traditional telephone sets, as well as stand-alone soft phones using MiAUDIO. Contact Center Softphone integrates with USB headsets, both wired and wireless.

Contact Center Softphone provides the following benefits:

  • Facilitates worker mobility (home-based workers and traveling employees)
  • Enables easy remote access to the corporate network
  • Fits seamlessly into the existing contact center technology framework with Contact Center Solutions
  • Is easy to set up and use

 In the future, Contact Center Softphone will integrate with presence, collaboration, and multi-media applications (voice, video, and text) to provide the ability to record calls and track call history.

Visual Queue

Mitel Visual Queue provides supervisors greater control over incoming calls’ wait times in queue. Visual Queue is a real-time grid that enables agents to monitor calls within a queue and then use a drag-and-drop operation to move calls from busy queues to quiet queues. Visual Queue is an add-on application that works in conjunction with Contact Center Management (6110) and Interactive Contact Center (6115).

Visual Queue ensures that agents can recognize contacts immediately and that agents answer priority calls first.

The benefits of providing immediate contact recognition:

  • Supervisors can identify who the callers are.
  • Supervisors can see the queue priority and answer position of the callers.
  • Supervisors can see the duration the callers have been waiting in queue.

The benefits of providing contact prioritization:

  • Supervisors can make informed decisions on how to serve callers with their current resources.
  • Supervisors can force high priority calls to be answered first.
  • Callers experience the minimum wait time before their calls are answered.

Visual Architect

Using Mitel Visual Architect, it is easier for supervisors to set up and maintain their contact center. Visual Architect provides a visual representation of Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) call flow from which supervisors can configure their telephone system and their YourSite database. Data synchronization is accomplished using XML to update the PBX. It is an add-on application that works in conjunction with Contact Center Management and the Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) (for Networked ACD).

Visual Architect enables supervisors to

  • See how calls flow in their ACD enterprise – whether local or networked
    • Local call flow – supervisors can view how their local calls interflow and overflow.
    • Networked call flow – supervisors can view how their networked contact centers interact with each other and how they compare to each other.
  • Work online with the PBX to affect immediate updates, or work offline with the PBX to support what-if scenarios or timed updates
  • Save time and effort because they need only configure either the telephone system or the YourSite database and then align one with the other

For more detailed information about these exciting new additions to Contact Center Solutions, view Contact Center Solutions (6100) Version 5 Initiatives.

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Tech Tips…continued

Avoiding configuration failures

When installing Contact Center Management (6110) on Windows Server 2003, make sure IIS allows ASP.net. To avoid a failure at Step 4 of the configuration, follow these steps:

  1. Open Control Panel in the Start Menu and double-click Administrative Tools.
  2. Double-click Internet Information Services.
  3. Expand the folder in the left pane.
  4. Click Web Server Extension.
  5. Click ASP.NET in the right pane.
  6. Click Allow. The status of ASP.NET changes to Allow.
  7. Close the window.
  8. Click Start=>Run.
  9. Type iisreset and click OK.

Viewing report updates with remote SQL

When running remote SQL, if you are not seeing report updates for the current day, this may be due to three prairieFyre services that should be using special logon credentials:

  • prairieFyre Maintenance Service
  • prairieFyre Enterprise Server Service
  • prairieFyre SQL Writer Service

These services should all have full permissions to write to the remote SQL machine. You can enable these permissions as follows:

  1. Open Control Panel in the Start Menu and double-click Administrative Tools.
  2. Double-click Services.
  3. Right-click prairieFyre Maintenance Service.
  4. Click Properties and then click the Log On tab.
  5. Ensure the service is using an account with valid credentials.
  6. Repeat steps 3-5 for the remaining two services listed above.

Adding CCM to your trusted sites

It’s a good idea to add the IP address of the Contact Center Management server to your trusted sites. Doing so will help you avoid connection problems. You can add the IP address as follows:

  1. Open Control Panel in the Start Menu and double-click Internet Options.
  2. Click the Security tab.
  3. Click Trusted sites and then click Sites.
  4. Verify Require server authentication for all sites in this zone is not selected.
  5. After Add this website to the zone, type your server's IP address (such as http://192.1.1.10/6110ccm), then click Add. The IP address appears in the Web sites box.
  6. Click OK twice to save your changes.

You can also access Internet options in Internet Explorer by selecting Tools=>Internet Options.

Running trace reports

If you would like to run trace reports, follow these steps:

  1. In Contact Center Management, click YourSite=>Enterprise.
  2. Under local site, click the green media server, and then click the Data summary options tab.
  3. Select the Inbound/Outbound/Make Busy Trace reporting check box.

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About the prairieFyre Newsletter

The prairieFyre newsletter is a quarterly bulletin that contains information on the latest news, events, product features, and tips to help you make the most of 6100 Contact Center Solutions and Call Accounting.

If you no longer want to receive the prairieFyre newsletter, unsubscribe or send an email to support@prairiefyre.com.

 


Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risk, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.