Genesys with a Nortel

[cavagnaro]

Hi guys,
I have a customer that is running a Nortel PBX with a Symposium and a Genesys. As you may noted I'm an Alcatel Engineer, no idea how Nortel works or a very basic idea.
Now, i have serious problems with the stats. No match. I have tried almost everything, but there are always missing numbers.
I mean for example Entered@RP = 100, Answered = 100, on Agents , Inbound = 96.
I have my strategies target to a Group of Agents.
The agent has it's place which has 2 DN's, extension and ACD Position.
As the PBX people is our competitors they don't help a lot.

Is it ok that i route to the agent group? Or should i route to the Place groups?
Agents answer using their hardphone as SAP is not answering the phones. They press a extension key not the agent number, is that ok?

Which is the best way to configure agents?

Any help is welcome

Thanks a lot in advance

[victor]

Cavagnaro,

I am a bit rusty on Nortel now-a-days, but here are some of the tipcs from my experience so far:

one of the weirdest things about Nortel is that you do not get EventQueued until call actually LEAVES the queue, so you get EventQueued and EventDiverted at the same time. So, you need tp use TWO CDNs - one being a jump CDN and another a queing one. 
This should resolve your problem.

so, RP 2000 --> ACDQ 3000 ---> Agent Group

or

    RP 2000 --> RP 2001 -->Agent Group.

One way to fix this problem is to use develop an application that would monitor all of queues and issue EventQueued for them. This works like this:

RP 2000 --> RP 2001 ---> Agent Group

RP 2000 routes a call unconditionally to RP 2001. RP 2001 queues the call and then distributes it. You would need to monitor RP 2000 to have your application issue EventQueued to TServer with ThisDN and ThisQueue equal to the queue you have in  RP2001.

The fastest way to check if everything alright is to look at the logs and see if your EventQueued and EventDiverted are issued at the same time. If they are, then the above will hold true.

Remember:
URS routes a call to EXTENSION and PBX routes the call to ACD POSITION. So, if you are using URS to distribute calls, your calls will be arriving on extension.

Also, do you have DCID enabled for both entered, distributed and answered?

Best regards,

Vic

[Kevin S]

C: The agent has it's place which has 2 DN's, extension and ACD Position.
--> This is how I've configured agents in a Nortel Meridian environment in the past.

C: I have my strategies target to a Group of Agents.  ... Is it ok that i route to the agent group?
--> In my experience, preferred. I've used the place group for routing to IVR ports.

C: They press a extension key not the agent number, is that ok?
--> I have always been told that limitations in Nortel prevent calls from being routed to the ACD position, unless the switch is in control of them - hence the call will be routed to the Extension. Because of this, the agent will need to manually answer the phone, unless you can configure your front-end to answer the phone for the agent, based on certain conditions.
For example, we had our softphone coded to "Force Answer" the call if PairExists ("ACDCalls", "Y") for Inbound calls.

C: No match. I have tried almost everything, but there are always missing numbers.
I mean for example Entered@RP = 100, Answered = 100, on Agents , Inbound = 96.
--> Dumb question [and no disrespect intended]: Have you confirmed that all the calls coming into the RP are of type Inbound? Do your totals match if you also consider other call types ( such as Internal and Unknown)?

-------
Regarding Vic's response, in 5 years dealing solely with a Nortel Meridian 1/Symposium, I have only had to use a single CDN for routing - I had never heard of using the "jump" CDN on a Nortel, but I have had to do so on an NEC.

[cavagnaro]

Hi,
Thank guys for the answers.
Hum seems Nortel is not a very good one think. Never had those problems with my Alcatel babies

Ok, on stats yes i checked the DCID. This was my first problem.
I even attached a KVP so i know when calls are routed from the RP, in this way numbers got more closer, before this the difference was huge.
And no problem, as i said, don't know how exactly a Nortel do the job and i may be missing some configurations issues.

In my humble opinion this is a very complicated way to do the job.

What is a Forward on Nortel? What happen if agent never answer the phone?

[victor]

RONA But don't remember if Nortel supports it. Should though...

[Michael]

Cavagnaro,

We have two Nortel 81c's w/ Symposium 5.0 in our environment. We route using single CDN's but do have ACD positions / Extensions configured per agent. IVR ports are configured as VTO ports and we route to them via Place Group. For queuing calls / reporting, we use virtual queues and virtual agent groups. We then route to agents via skills based routing.

I would be happy to share whatever I can. Contact me via e-mail for more info.

Thanks!
Mike

[cavagnaro]

Uh interesting solution.
Will email you but will be good also to post here to share info 

[Dave]

I'd also look at the definition of each of the agent telephone sets.  Frequently, one or more keys on the agent set won't be AST-enabled... if the extension key on an agent's phone isn't AST-enabled, a call can still be routed there (because their status is managed from their Position instead of the extension) but if they answer via the hardphone then no event will be sent to TServer/StatServer to indicate that the call was delivered.  It will show that it was diverted out of the queue, but it'll never show arrived to an agent.

[Kevin]

One thing to keep in mind when routing to agents directly (not through a PBX queue) on the Nortel, is that you have to set the UseDNType[CFGExtension] in a function in your routing strategy.  This instructs Router/StatServer to only target the agents Extension and not to target the Postion ID (In Calls Key).

[eugene]

Kevin, you can also achieve that by
configuring the 'use_dn_type' option to 'extension' in the URS application option.

[cavagnaro]

Hi guys, a question, today i went to agents positions and found a very peculiar issue. They have 2 lines with same extension number for answering. I don't know about Nortel but Alcatel doesn't allow us to do that.

Is that ok? 7575 Is where they push to answer the call. 6500 is the ACD Queue.
As you can see on the pictures 7575 is on 2 buttons, for me it's wrong.
Can you please advice?
What happens if on an Inbound Call another arrives on the other button?
Which one does Genesys monitors?

[cavagnaro]

Any comments? Does anybody has this configured as i show? Any recomendations?

Thanks

[Michael]

Cavagnaro,

Nortel environment does not support this type of configuration. We have had to create differing POSID's / Ext's per phone set. Each DN must be unique to the PBX (ours are phantom).

Genesys can monitor both the POSID and EXT as long as they are both AST enabled and registered with T-Server. This is great from a call routing perspective because you get all events coming back to T-Server from the phone set. However, it costs twice as much for licensing as each DN requires both an AST license and a Genesys license.

Inbound calls should arrive on the POSID as default calls only because Genesys cannot route to the POSID.

Mike

[bcyk]

FYI and sharing.....may be a bit later.....


A. ============= Nortel M1 switch configuration for CTI-server =============
No Item Description Remark
1 Configuration record in LD 17
- define an AML
- define a VAS server with VAS ID of AML port
Remark: Some configuration may not be required for Nortel Symposium Server (new Symposium Link)!

2 Customer for Status Change messages in LD 15
- VSID = VAS ID of Meridian Link in LD 17
Remark: The configuration may not be required for Nortel Symposium Server (new Symposium Link)!

3 500/2500 sets LD 10
- AST = YES
- IAPG = 1
- AACD = YES (ACD only)
- Class of Service includes XFA for transfer and conference features
Remark: Analogue line types may be defined for line-side T1, dialer port configuration

4 Digital sets LD 11
- AST = YES for programmed keys
- Maximum of 2 keys; 1 Position & 1 Extension
- Example: AST 00 07 (Key 00 and Key 07)
- IAPG = 1
- programmed transfer / conference keys for corresponding features

5 ACD DNs LD 23
- AST = YES (release 16 and earlier)
- ISAP = YES
- VSID = VSID assigned to Meridian Link in LD 1

6 Controlled DNs (CDNs) LD 23
- for external host-based routing service only
- CNTL = YES
- VSID and HSID = VAS ID assigned to Meridian Link in LD 17
Remark: Not required in higher S-Link + Genesys 7.2 environment; CNTL value is set to YES once CME defines RP for the CDN. Please verify in specific environment

7 DNIS Notification
- OPT = DNIS in Customer Data Block LD 15
- DNIS = YES of Route to pass DNIS in Trunk Route Configuration LD 16



B. ============ Nortel ACD queue events ===================

Case 1:
    -> call flow: inbound call --> CDN-1/RP (switch control) --> ACD ----> agents
    -> CDN-1 is not monitored/controlled by T-server
    -> ACD and other agent positions/extensions are monitored by T-server
    Result: EventQueued will not be generated/received until EventDiverted or EventAbandoned
    Reason: the actual voice interactiion is parked in CDN which is not monitored by T-server
   
Case 2:
    -> call flow: identical to case 1
    -> CDN-1 is monitored by T-server but CNTL = No is set in Nortel switch
        *** in old versions of S-link and T-server (e.g., S-link 3.x/4.x and T-server 5.1/6.5)
        status of CNTL is controlled by switch; in new versions, CNTL is controlled by CME/T-server
    -> ACD and other agent positions/extensions are monitored by T-server
    -> EventQueued, EventDiverted and EventAbandoned behave 'normally' since T-server monitors
        both ACD queue DN and its upper stream RP!

Case 3:
    -> call flow: identical to case 1
    -> new version of S-link (as in 1st Quarter 2007) and Genesys T-server 7.2
        -> CNTL is set to YES if CME defines the CDN/RP, with [Register] = true
        -> CNTL is set to NO if CME defines the CDN/RP, with [Register] = false (or disable the DN)
    -> if skill routing is NOT applied (i.e, switch ACD queue is used)
        -> create a simple strategy and load to CDN/RP
        -> the strategy routes incoming call to the ACD DN immediate
            -> or, defined the ACD association as default destination of CDN/RP in CME
        Interesting point: Genesys does not require routing license for ACD or Default object routing,
                                does it?


C. =============== Nortel M1 host-based routing service ==============
    -> there is a built-in hard-coded time-out value of 4 seconds in Nortel M1 switch for CDN/RP
    -> if ther is no response for external application, CDN/RP diverts call to its default ACD
    -> in URS option, the give_treatment = true will send a "ringing treatment" message to
        S-Link. Once Nortel M1 switch has received 'response', it passes interaction control to
        the external application (e.g., T-server/URS)


D. =============== Genesys URS routes call to Extension =======
    -> External routing applicatin diverts call to Extension DN only
    -> Genesys URS may be configured to divert call to Position DN, providing that
        1. each agent phone is configured with 3 DN, e.g.
              extension = 1610
              position  = 2610
              ACD DN  = 3610
        2. use URS translation (in strategy or CME) to map extension to ACD
                  Switch: NortelMeridian_251
                  Code: <leave this field blank>
                  Target Type: Target Agent
                  Route Type: Get From DN

                  DN Source: <leave this field blank>
                  Destination Source: 3[CALL.DN(-1:3)]
                  Location Source: [DEST.SWITCH]

                  use dn Type set to Position
                  use_translation set to true

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[cavagnaro]

very nice thanks a lot