Contact Center Scheduling Trials
Would you like to preview enhancements to Contact Center Scheduling, Schedule Adherence, and Employee Portal? This is your opportunity to provide input on the features and functionality of these applications. Participate on our customer panel and software trials and tell us which features are important to your business. More >>
In this issue…
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Products and Features for Version 5.2
With a planned release date of November, Customer Interaction Solutions boasts new applications and enhancements. Here are some of the highlights:
- NEW Product! Visual Architect
- NEW Product! Flexible Reporting
- NEW! Integration of Live Communication Server
with Contact Center Client - NEW! Soft phone features
- Unified address book
- Pre-announce
- Call history
- Support for ACD Resiliency
- Support for Teleworker
- NEW! Intelligent Queue features
- Updated position in queue
- Enhanced call flows
- Voice read back
- G729 Compression support
- NEW! Automatic notification of critical server alarms More >>
Customized Version 5.1 Training Now Available
prairieFyre provides end-user training on all of the Version 5.1 Customer Interaction Solutions applications. You can select basic or advanced pre-packaged training courses or create your own. We provide instructor-led training over the Web or on site.
You can now create your own Contact Center Management training package comprised of basic and/or advanced modules. A 4-hour session typically consists of 15 units of training. For example, in building your own 4-hour course you could include Soft phone (2 units), Contact Center Client real-time (3 units), Running reports (3 units), Contact Center Client Auditor (1 unit), YourSite configuration (4 units), and Forecasting (2 units).
Learn more about custom training packages.
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prairieFyre Presence in EMEA
prairieFyre would like to officially welcome Shameem Smillie, Sales Manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), to the prairieFyre sales team!
Having a dedicated prairieFyre resource in the UK means that Mitel Channel Partners and their customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have a more direct avenue to prairieFyre.
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Professional Services
The prairieFyre Professional Services group offers you a variety of services to improve the effectiveness of your contact
center operations.
Our team of Microsoft-certified specialists employs a flexible suite of services that can support our
contact center products from initial planning and design to installation and on-going management. As well, we provide custom
development services to tailor our solutions to the unique needs of your business.
prairieFyre Software is a Microsoft Gold
Certified Partner for Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions
Among the services we offer
- Installation and training of our suite of contact center, call accounting and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) products
- End-user training in either a classroom or web-based format
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation, customization and integration
- Integration of a wide variety of CRM, contact management, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions with our suite of contact center products to provide screen-pop functionality for voice, email, fax or chat interactions
- Custom Integrated Voice Response (IVR) and out-bound dialing solutions
- Integration with 3rd party Workforce Management solutions such as Witness Impact 360 (formerly Blue Pumpkin) and IEX TotalView
- Customized report creation
- Contact center operational effectiveness audits
Meet the Pro Serv Team
The Professional Services team includes (from left to right) Nathan, Kevin, Christine, Todd, Justin, and Greg. "The most exciting aspect to being in the Professional Services group is that we often find ourselves on the tip of the spear
in competitive situations where our customized solution ultimately wins the the deal for our partners", states Todd Simons, VP of
Business Development.
"Growing prairieFyre’s
business into new markets and solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, is a great compliment to our main
contact center
and call accounting product lines."
"Being a project manager in the Professional Services group has been a
nice change from managing projects for the Customer Interaction Solutions portfolio," states Kevin Ferris, Professional
Services Manager. "This group provides an exciting environment where we work closely with customers on projects that
have short time frames and incorporate multiple technologies."
"I’ve been at prairieFyre for about a year and a half, primarily working on Microsoft CRM implementations,"
says developer Christine Goodyear. "I’m excited about the prospect of helping customers take advantage of the
new features in CRM 3.0, and integrating it with our software to give them a streamlined solution."
"I’ve been a Software Developer in the Pro Serv group for a little over
two months now. The best part
about working in this group is taking our fantastic product line, integrating it into proprietary/third-party
software (CRM) and creating a value-added solution in a customer’s environment that meets the unique needs of their business,"
states developer Greg Thomas.
"Every training session is unique. Even though I am the teacher, I still manage to learn something new with every customer interaction."
"I’m the newest addition to the training section of Professional Services, but I’ve been with prairieFyre for about a year and a half," states instructor Justin Deal.
"I was previously with the Documentation team and I hope to apply some of what I’ve learned there to update and enhance our existing training workbooks and course material. I also look forward to interacting with prairieFyre’s many customers and Channel Partners during our training sessions. One of the things that makes this job exciting is having the chance to talk to the various people who use our software on a daily basis."
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Technical Tips
In each newsletter, we provide you with a number of tips to help ensure your experience with Customer Interaction Solutions is a great one. This month's Technical Tips include information on the topics listed below.
prairieFyre Training Team
Bulks Up
The training demand for prairieFyre products has been on the rise for several months. So much so, that we decided to double our efforts on the training front.
Armed with seven years of experience in QA and two years of experience in documentation, Justin is well suited to run with the pack. He adds value on the courseware side of things and provides Web-based training. North American and EMEA customers who contact their Channel Partners to book Version 5.2 training can expect short lead times and friendly, prompt service.
Learn more about prairieFyre training.
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Meet Our New Employees
Since our last newsletter in July, prairieFyre has hired 3 new employees. In this section, we'd like to introduce you to the newest faces of prairieFyre:
|
Shameem Smillie
|
"prairieFyre has always intrigued me," states Shameem Smillie. "Now that I am on the inside,
I can see for myself that prairieFyre is an impressive organization to work for. I am very pleased to have
the opportunity to work with such a positive, hard working bunch of individuals who make an extraordinary team. I believe the key
to success is customer satisfaction which does not end when the deal is closed. Continually ensuring that the customer is at the
heart of the business is what makes prairieFyre stand out in the crowd. |
"I work as part of the Admin team with Fran Pioro," says Maria Montuoro. "We fill purchase orders, generate quotes for extended service and support, provide travel arrangement services, and work on other projects. I have been here for nearly three months and am very happy and proud to be part of the prairieFyre team." |
Maria Montuoro |
| "I work with the Customer Service team," says Awil Abdi. "This is a highly technical and energetic team that I am proud to be joining. I was previously working for Dell as Quality Manager. My first impression of prairieFyre was that it had a big family environment. Everybody was always willing to lend a helping hand if I needed it. A lot of great individuals here made it easy for me transition into my new role. My objective is to provide the best service I can to each and every one of our customers." |
Awil Abdi |
Contact Center Scheduling Trials...continued
Contact your Channel Partner to confirm your interest in participating in the Contact Center Scheduling and Schedule Adherence trials.
The customer panel and software trials for the new Contact Center Scheduling, Schedule Adherence, and Employee Portal applications start November 1. If you participate on the panel and in the field trials you will benefit in the following ways.
Benefits
During the panel and trials you can
- Communicate your scheduling needs in an online customer forum.
- Understand the needs and solutions of other customers that may apply to your business.
- Preview ongoing design and functionality updates over the Web.
- Receive remote instructor-led training.
- Receive dedicated technical assistance.
Product enhancements
Recent product enhancements to Contact Center Scheduling and Schedule Adherence enable you to
- Schedule up to 1500 agents in a single schedule and view their adherence in real time.
- Configure schedules and employee preferences with ease with a step-by-step configuration wizard.
- Enjoy enhanced usability, such as quick access to commonly used scheduling functions.
- Benefit from new product features, such as employee shift trade or time off requests.
- View Schedule Adherence monitors in Contact Center Client.
NEW! Employee Portal
The Employee Portal application enables employees to request time off, request shift changes, change availability, and post shifts for exchange. Supervisors can preview shift change requests and implement an automated approval / denial process with minimal up-front configuration required.
Version 5.2 Features and Products...continued
In addition to notable enhancements to existing products, Version 5.2 introduces two new products to the Customer Interaction Solutions portfolio: Visual Architect and Flexible Reporting. Here's an overview of the new products and features.
Visual Architect
Visual Architect provides a visual representation of your telephone system and Contact Center Management (YourSite) enterprise database setup, and enables you to add, edit, and rearrange queues, agents, and agent groups. With future iterations of Visual Architect, you will be able to manage and maintain all devices in your enterprise.
Visual Architect simplifies multi-site networked ACD. With Visual Architect’s bi-directional programming, you can make changes to the telephone system configuration and synchronize the YourSite database with the telephone system, or vice versa. You can configure the the YourSite database from any location over the Web. Visual Architect is an add-on application that works with Contact Center Management Enterprise Edition and the Mitel 3300 Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) for Networked ACD.
Visual Architect integrates with Contact Center Management Enterprise Edition and Interactive Contact Center Enterprise Edition to provide
- A visual representation of your Contact Center Management enterprise configuration, including overflow and interflow timers
- Bi-directional programming over the Web
Learn more about Visual Architect.
Flexible Reporting
In addition to the 425 reports provided by Customer Interaction Solutions and Call Accounting, Flexible Reporting enables you to create custom reports for your business. Flexible Reporting is an add-on option to Customer Interaction Solutions Enterprise Edition, and soon, Call Accounting.
With Flexible Reporting, you can
- Build reports using a configuration wizard
- Configure custom column selection
- Combine like-data across device types
- Control column order
- Customize column headings
- Insert columns with custom calculations
Learn more about Flexible Reporting.
Integration of Live Communication Server with Contact Center Client
Live Communications Server 2005 delivers instant messaging (IM) and presence as part of a scalable, enterprise-grade solution. Contact Center Client natively integrates Live Communication Server with Microsoft Office Communicator presence and ACD Softphone. Agents can use the rich, integrated presence of Live Communication Server and Contact Center Client to view agent availability, and use Live Communication Server enabled presence for availability to IM.
When integrated with Live Communication Server Contact Center Client enables you to
- View the IM presence of agents in Live Communication Server
- Extend your chat communication capabilities using Microsoft Office Communicator IM instead of Contact Center Client Chat
- Communicate with people who are
- In your business, but are not using Contact Center Client
- In your business, but are not on your intranet
- External to your business and use Microsoft Communicator
- External to your business and use popular public IM services (MSN, AOL, Yahoo!)
- Communicate with people who are
- Take advantage of the phone, video conferencing, white boarding, and desktop sharing capabilities of Microsoft Office Communicator
Learn more about the integration of Live Communication Server with Contact Center Client.
New features for Soft phone
Soft phone comprises ACD PhoneSet Manager and ACD Softphone. Designed with agent productivity in mind, both applications enable agents to use their desktop computers as IP-based phones, with intuitive point-and-click functionality. ACD Softphone integrates with both wired and wireless USB headsets.
Version 5.2 enhancements to ACD PhoneSet Manager and ACD Softphone include
- A unified address book
- Provide agents with a pick list of either YourSite database phone extensions or Outlook (Personal Contacts or Global Address List) extensions to access when handling calls.
- Pre-announce
- Agents who have ACD Softphone can record introductions that are played to callers (for example, "Hi. This is Paul Jones in Customer Support. Could you please tell me your customer site key?") The introduction that is played is based on the queue the call arrives on and the time of day it is received. A recorded introduction provides customers with a consistent greeting and gives the agent extra time to retrieve customer information.
- Call history
- Record all calls made, received, and missed and display the information for agents to access and use.
- Support for ACD Resiliency
- Enable ACD hot-desking agents to continue to use ACD Softphone in the event of a network outage.
- Support for Teleworker
- Enable agents to run Contact Center Client and ACD PhoneSet Manager or ACD Softphone from home or from a remote location without the need for a VPN connection.
New features for Intelligent Queue
Intelligent Queue is an all-in-one, scalable, Web-based integrated voice processing solution that provides intelligent messaging, voice and web callbacks, call recording, enhanced routing, reporting capabilities, database verification and screen pops when integrated with Mitel Agent Portal.
Version 5.2 enhancements to Intelligent Queue include
- Updated position in queue
- Intelligent Queue now informs callers of their position in queue, not only when they first enter the queue, but continually throughout their wait. You can add a wave file (for example, "You are caller number") to play in front of the position (for example, "Three") provided by Intelligent Queue and can configure the frequency in which Intelligent Queue updates the customer.
- Enhanced call flows
- When programming interactive trees in Intelligent Queue, you can now direct call flow based on a condition (ANI, DNIS, redirected number, day of year, day of week, time of day, number of calls in queue, queue wait times, or operating mode). This new ability enables you to create enhanced call flows and simplify existing call flows. For example, Sue calls a clinic at 6:00 P.M. looking for Dr. Green. Sue is offered a menu to help her locate her doctor. The clinic is open, but Dr. Green finished work at 4:00 P.M. You can program Intelligent Queue to redirect the caller from Dr. Green to Dr. White, who works until 6:00 P.M.
- Voice read back
- Using a verified collected digit action plan, you can now configure Intelligent Queue to verify the digits callers press, and give callers the option to subsequently adjust their digit selection. Once verified, if callers want to change their selection, they may. When the digits are confirmed, the verified collected digits action plan then compares the collected digits to a list in a database to determine what action to perform next. You can configure the action plan to take one action if the digits exist in the database and another action if the digits do not exist.
- G729 Compression support
- Intelligent Queue now offers the option to use the G729 codec with a voice compression rate of 1/8 (80 bytes are compressed to the size of 10 bytes). The compression optimizes security and network bandwidth so that networked branches of a company can communicate with each other safely and quickly. As an added benefit, the optimized bandwidth improves the connection between the company and its teleworkers using Mitel Teleworker. Previously Intelligent Queue used the G711 codec.
- Network alarms
- Intelligent Queue now has network alarms that alert you when the server is not functioning optimally and when messaging is interrupted. For example, you are alerted when disk space is low or when you are missing an audio file.
Automatic notification of critical server alarms
You can define alarms that alert you when the Enterprise Server is not functioning optimally. You can specify the severity of, and performance thresholds for each server malfunction.
You can be notified of critical alarms in several ways:- A pop-up notification appears on your desktop.
- A sound prompt, such as a beep or .wav file, plays.
- You are notified by email.
- Contact Center Client appears on top of all open applications and the Network Monitor toolbar flashes red.
Tech Tips…continued
Avoiding errors when restoring the configuration database on a new server
When you restore the configuration database on a new server, ensure you select the Synchronize the server IP address and computer name information after you restore your configuration data check box. If you do not select this check box, when you attempt to restore the configuration database the system will try to restore the old IP address and computer name instead of the IP address and computer name of the new server. To restore the configuration database, perform the following steps:
- On the Enterprise Server, Click Start=>Programs=>Mitel=>Contact Center Client.
- Type your user name and password.
- On the main toolbar, click Management.
- Click Configuration.
- Click Back up/Restore configuration data.
- Follow the steps in the Backup and Restore Wizard to back up or restore the database.
- Select the Synchronize Server IP and computer name after restore check box.
Avoiding errors when assigning a computer to a media server while restoring the configuration database on a new server
When you restore the configuration database on a new server, after you complete the steps in the Backup and Restore Wizard, ensure that the computer assigned to the media server is the correct computer. To verify the correct computer is assigned to the media server, perform the following steps:
- On the Enterprise Server or on a client computer, Start Internet Explorer in your browser and type your Enterprise Server IP address http://[your Enterprise Server IP address]/CCMWeb/.
- Click YourSite=Enterprise.
- Expand the Enterprise tree and select the media server that corresponds to the new server to which you backed up data.
- After This media server is installed on the computer you named, select the computer name of the new server.
- Click Save.
Locating management functions in Contact Center Management
Management Console continues to house the configuration, maintenance, and support management functions. Management Console has moved from the Start menu of the Enterprise Server to Contact Center Client. To access Management Console on the Enterprise Server or on a client computer, complete the following steps:
- Click Start=>Programs=>Mitel=>Contact Center Client.
- Type your user name and password.
- Click Log on.
- Click View=>Administration.
- On the main toolbar, click Management.
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 Customer Interaction 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.
