Lists

Lists contain destination data for automated outbound dialing. Each list record provides information about a single destination, and typically includes customer’s name, at least one telephone number, and other information specific to the dialing purpose. For example, lists used in a satisfaction survey campaign may include information about products purchased by the customers. Lists are used in outbound and blended services as discussed in section Services and Campaigns - Lists Tab.

List data is deleted from the calling list database automatically when the

• corresponding list object is deleted from configuration
• list is updated with new content via periodic import with the update policy set to replace list data

To work with lists, select the Lists option from the root menu. To import and configure a new list, click the button with the “+” sign. A list import wizard will open.

List Import

The list import wizard screens and properties are described as follows.

List Type screen

Select list type

Select the method that will be used to import data to this list: a file or Salesforce.com query. For the latter, you must have a Salesforce.com integration account configured in your system.

For detailed instructions on importing data from a Salesforce.com application see section Importing Calling Lists and Exporting Campaign Results of the Salesforce.com Integration Guide.

Name and Source screen

Data source

Data source is the source of data for this list. To upload a file from a local source, select Upload, click Browse, and select the data file. You can use results of previous campaigns, filtered by disposition if necessary, as the source of your list data.

To obtain data from an external source, select the transfer protocol (FTP or SFTP), and specify the address (URL), Username, and Password.

Note that only plain text list files (.CSV or fixed width) are supported as sources for list data. This setting is specified for list type File only.

List name

The list name is mandatory and must be unique within the contact center. The name of the selected data source is offered as the default name.

List format

If you want the format of a list to be based on the format of one of the previously imported lists, select the desired list format from the drop-down menu. Using an existing list format can save you time while going through the subsequent import steps, especially the Fields wizard screen.

If you need to review the desired format before assigning it, close the wizard, locate the desired format in the Format column of the list view, select the corresponding list, and click the view link in the Properties tab.

Note that if you select an existing list format but decide to introduce some changes for the imported list (e.g., change some field names), then upon completion of the wizard, you will be prompted to save these changes as a new format.

If you wish to create a new format using the layout of the imported list, select Create new format. This setting is specified for list type File only.

Salesforce.com integration account

The Salesforce.com integration account is what will be used to obtain Salesforce.com data for this list. This setting is specified for list type Salesforce.com only.

SOQL query to select object for list

Use this field to specify the query for selecting Salesforce.com records for this calling list. The query must be written in the Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL). Note that the records must contain object identifiers and have at least one phone number.

This setting is specified for list type Salesforce.com only. Note that there is a 30 second timeout on the Bright Pattern Contact Center side to begin receiving data from SFDC after the SOQL query is submitted.

Format Type screen (for list type File only)

Delimited

Select Delimited if a character, such as comma or tab, separates each field in the imported data

First line contains field names

Select this checkbox if the first line of the imported data appears to contain column headings. Field names are case insensitive starting from version 3.13. This means field names that differ in case only refer to the same field.

Fixed width

Select this option if fields of the imported data appear to be aligned in columns with spaces between each field.

Input file encoding

The Input file encoding option lets you select the encoding used by the source file. Initially, the UTF-8 encoding is assumed by default. If you select another encoding during a list import, the selected encoding will become the new default for subsequent list imports.

Format Options screen (for list type File only)

Delimiter

Select the character that is used to separate each field in the imported data. If the delimiting character is anything other than the comma, tab, or semicolon, use the Custom option to specify the character. When the correct delimiter is selected, the preview should show the imported data arranged as a table.

Fields screen

Do not import field (skip)

This field indicates whether the selected field is to be imported. Select this checkbox if the data in the selected field is not essential for any contact center operations (i.e., will not be used for dialing, analyzed in a scenario, or displayed for agents) and does not need to appear in campaign results.

Type

Specify the type of data that the selected field contains. If the type of data is anything other than the data types predefined in the drop-down menu, select Other. Note that at least one field of the imported list must have type Phone.

If the first row of the imported data contains column names, the wizard will try to automatically set field types according to matching column names (e.g., a column titled State will be set to field type State). You should review all name-type pairs to make sure the mapping is correct.

Possible uses of the available field types are described as follows.

Account

Account can be used for a field that contains a customer identifier. If defined, the value from this field will be stored as part of the history of all calls initiated by the corresponding calling record and can be used as a selection criterion in interaction record search. Unique account numbers can also be used as calling record keys (see below). A list can have only one field of this type.

Agent Login ID

Agent Login ID can be used to assign list records to specific agents in preview and progressive campaign modes. This may be useful, for example, for proactive contacts within established business relationships where clients might expect/prefer to be contacted by business representatives that they are familiar with. Note that such personal record assignments are used in preview and progressive campaigns only. When a list with records assigned to specific agents is used in a predictive, automatic/IVR campaign, all such assignments will be ignored.

Caller ID

If calling records contain numbers that should be displayed as caller IDs when dialing corresponding records during campaigns, use the field type Caller ID for the field that contains these numbers. Use of these numbers as Caller IDs for a particular campaign is enabled by the campaign's Caller ID settings (option From list field of type “Caller ID”, otherwise default). Note that your service provider may or may not allow use of arbitrary caller ID numbers for your outgoing calls. If use of arbitrary caller IDs is not available to you, the number specified in the calling record will be used only as a caller ID if it matches one of the access numbers assigned to your contact center; otherwise, the specified default number will be used. When using this field to specify caller IDs for your campaign, be sure to check all legal requirements and restrictions for what can be sent as a caller ID in the jurisdictions where you operate.

Company

Company can be used when calling record contains a company name.

Date/Time

If the calling list is based on customers’ callback requests (opt-in callback list), your local telemarketing regulations may require that such callbacks are made within a specific number of days. In this case, the imported list will typically have information about when the callback request was made. Use the field type Date/Time for this information. Fields of the Date/Time type cannot be used to set campaign quotas.

Date/Time - schedule call at

Date/Time - schedule call at can be used to provide, during list import, information about when this record needs to be called. It can be used to define the exact moment of time when this record needs to be attempted.

Note that the call will happen as close to the specified date and time as possible; the system will make the best attempt. Safe calling hours are not ignored. If the date and time are in the past at the time of list load, the field contents are ignored.

Encrypted data

Encrypted data can be used to store sensitive information that must be stored encrypted and only be presented in clear text to the agent who will be processing the record in case of a successful call attempt. Note that the encrypted data cannot be automatically processed by the system, and thus, may not include any information used for campaign automation, such as phone numbers, zip codes, states, or any information that is used to set campaign quotas. If you do not see the Encrypted data field type, the data encryption function is not enabled for your contact center by the service provider.

First name

First name is the person's first name.

Integer

Integer is intended for fields with semantically numeric data (e.g., person's age or account balance) that may be used to set a campaign quota.

Last name

Last name is a person's last name.

Other

Other can be used for fields that do not fall into any specific field type uses outlined here.

Phone

Phone should be set for fields with phone numbers that may be dialed during a campaign. A list must contain at least one field of this type.

Postal code

Postal code is a person's postal code. This must be present if the Use safe calling hours option is desired.

Priority

Priority can be used to indicate that the record shall be attempted as soon as possible relative to other records within the same list. This can be useful, for example, in order to give calling priority to the most recent web leads that tend to be most effective when followed up on immediately. A record will be treated as a prioritized record when its priority field is set to any value other than empty string, zero, "no", or "false". The priority setting only affects the first attempt to dial the record; for any possible subsequent attempts the prioritized record will be treated as a regular record. Priority of records can also be set to expire after a specified time period (see property Priority expires after).

State/Province

State/Province is a person's state/province. Either this field or the Postal code field must be present in the calling records in order to observe mandatory State Calling Hours.

Name

If the first line of the imported data contains column headings, these headings will be used as the default field names. Otherwise, default names Field1, Field2,…, FieldN will be assigned. Use this option to change the default field name if necessary. Field names are case-sensitive, which means that field names that differ in case only refer to the same field.

Required Field

Required Field indicates that the data in this field is required. If selected, the import process will not skip records that have no data in this field.

For all fields of the Phone type, this checkbox is preselected automatically. You can unselect it manually for any phone field that is optional. Remember, however, that at least one field of the imported list must have the type Phone.

For lists of the Salesforce.com type, field ID is preselected automatically and cannot be unselected.

Searchable Field

Searchable Field indicates this field may be searched for in the Agent Desktop application when associated with a custom Activity History field that is included in a screenpop activity form. For more information, see section Activity Forms.

The numbers are in the format for

This setting is displayed for the fields of type Phone only.

If all phone numbers in this field are within the USA and/or Canada, select United States and Canada. In this case, the numbers in this field will be processed according the following rules:

• If a number begins with “011”, it will be kept as is.
• If a number begins with “1” and has eleven digits, it will be kept as is.
• If a number does not begin with “1” and has ten digits, “1” will be prepended.
• In any other case, the record will not be imported.

If some or all numbers in this field are from countries other than the USA or Canada, select Other countries or multiple countries. In this case, the numbers in this field will be processed according the following rules:

• If a number begins with “+”, the leading "+" sign will be removed.
• In any other case, the number will be assumed to begin with a country code and also kept as is unless modified using the Remove prefix or Default country code settings.

Remove prefix

This setting is displayed for the fields of the type Phone only and can be used when the number format is set to Other countries or multiple countries. If phone numbers in this field contain a prefix that must be removed, specify this prefix here. Otherwise, this setting should be left blank.

Default country code

This setting is displayed for the fields of type Phone only and can be used when the number format is set to Other countries or multiple countries. By default, numbers in a field of type Phone are assumed to have country codes included. In this case, you can leave this field blank. Otherwise, specify the country code here; it will be automatically prepended to each number in the given field unless the number begins with “+”.

Note that a country code must be specified for campaigns with any calling hour restrictions and for campaigns where numbers are checked against DNC lists of the following types: Area Code, Geographic (Postal), and Geographic (State/Province).

Time zone

This setting is displayed for the fields of Date/Time type only. By default, the time in this field is assumed to be specified for the time zone indicated in the general settings of your contact center. You can use this setting to specify another the time zone for this field.

Date/Time format

This setting is displayed for the fields of Date/Time type only and allows you to select the format in which the date and time is specified in this field. If you cannot find a format that matches exactly the date/time pattern used in the imported list, use the editable field to specify this format manually, using the Java SimpleDateFormat conventions.

Note that campaign results report timestamps of call attempts in the following format: MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss z Z, where z Z is the time zone (e.g., 11/09/2015 13:59:57 PST -0800).

Order of prioritized records

This setting is displayed for the fields of type Priority only and defines the order in which prioritized records received during list updates will be attempted.

Priority expires after

This setting is displayed for the fields of type Priority only and specifies the time period during which records with a non-empty value of this field will be considered a prioritized record. Upon expiration, priority of these records will be lowered to normal. If you do not wish the priority of a record to expire at all, set this field to 0.

Key screen (for list type File only)

Fields

This screen allows you to select a field, or a combination of fields, whose values will be used as keys (i.e., will uniquely identify records within the list). Only the fields that were marked as Required in the previous wizard step will appear as possible keys. Records with the same key values are considered duplicates, and only one of such duplicate records will appear in the imported list. Keys are also used to reference the campaign results to the original list records.

Save config only

Click this button, instead of clicking Next, if you wish to save only the list format (i.e., the configured field and key information without the actual data). The result will appear as a new list with zero records in the list view.

Import Complete screen

Import results

This screen provides statistics about the imported list, including the number of successfully imported records, as well as the numbers of records that have not been imported for various reasons.

Calling records that contain the same phone number in multiple fields of the Phone type will be successfully imported. The dialer will detect duplicate numbers while processing the list for use in a specific campaign and will only use the number in the first phone field while ignoring that number in all other phone fields of the same record. For example, if a calling record contains the same number in the field Home Phone, which happens to be the fourth field in the record, and in field Mobile Phone, which is the sixth field, the dialer will use this number according to the calling hours set for home phones. It will ignore this number when dialing mobile numbers (or when sending preview records to agents in case of a preview campaign).

Updating Lists

New lists imported via the list import wizard appear in the list view of Lists. You can update these lists manually or set up periodic automatic updates, in both cases list update procedure can be performed on-a-fly during actively running campaign.

Manual List Update

To update a list manually, select it from the list view and click the Add records button at the bottom of the screen. (Note that this function is not available for lists of Salesforce.com type.) A list update wizard appears. Its screens and properties are described as follows.

Name and Source screen

List name

List name is the name of the selected list. It is read-only.

Data source

Data source is the source of data for this list. To upload a file from a local source, select Upload, click Browse, and select the data file. To obtain data from an external source, select the transport protocol (FTP or SFTP), and specify the address (URL), Username, and Password.

Note that only plain text list files (.CSV or fixed width) are supported as sources for list data. Note that the data structure of the selected data source shall correspond to the data structure of the data source used for the original import.

Update Policy screen

replace list data

Select this option if the data from the specified data source shall replace the existing list data. Note the following:

• Any campaign results that may have been associated with the existing list records will be deleted.
• Replacement of existing list data requires internal re-processing of the entire calling list. Thus, if updates with this policy are applied to a list within a running campaign, use of this list within the given campaign will be suspended until list re-processing is complete. The suspension time will depend on the list size and, for long lists, may amount to tens of minutes. Other lists associated with the same campaign will not be affected.

add list data

Select this option if the data from the specified data source shall be added to the existing list data. Note that data records whose keys match with keys of the existing records will not be imported.

Import Complete screen

Import results

This screen provides statistics about the imported list, including the number of successfully imported records, as well as the numbers of records that have not been imported for various reasons.

List Properties and Automated Updates

To view the current content of a list, set up periodic automatic updates, or view the list import/update history, select the desired list from the list view.

Lists screen properties

Properties tab

Name

This is the name of the list. List name is originally defined during the initial list import, but it can be changed at any time. The name must be unique within the contact center.

Format

Format is the name of the format that this list is based on. It is read-only. (The format is selected or defined during the initial list import.)

To review the format, click the view link. A new dialog window will open with description of all fields defined within this format. For more information, see description of the Fields screen of the List Import Wizard above. If any activity forms are mapped to lists based on this format, this view will also show the mapping between the form fields and list fields.

For lists of the Salesforce.com type, the window will also show the SOQL query that is used to extract the list records from the Salesforce.com application. While you cannot change the field composition or formatting, you can modify the data selection criteria for these fields (i.e., any condition in the WHERE part of the query). To do so, hover over the SOQL query and click EDIT. The new selection criteria will be applied upon the next list update.

Campaigns

Click add to associate this list with one or more campaigns. For additional configuration options related to use of the list within the associated campaign, select this campaign in the Services and Campaigns list view and open the Lists tab.

Expire records

You can set the list records to expire in a specified number of days. If a record expires before it is completed according to the regular campaign dial rules, its processing within campaign will be finished with the predefined disposition Record Expired.

To set the records of the given list to expire, select the checkbox, specify the Expiration period, and indicate the starting point from which this period will be counted:

• To count from the date when records appear in the system (either via the initial list import or subsequent list updates), select Count expiration period since record insertion. This expiration mechanism can be used to comply with your local telemarketing regulations that may require periodic scrubbing of calling records against national or state-wide do-not-call lists, after which any unmatched numbers are considered to be good for dialing over a certain period (e.g., 30 days for numbers added to the US National Do-Not-Call Registry or 15 days for numbers ported to mobile phones).
• To count from the date specified in the calling record itself, select Count expiration period using date in record. This expiration mechanism can be used for calling lists that are based on customers’ callback requests (opt-in callback lists) if your local telemarketing regulations require that such callbacks are made within a specific number of days.

Expiration period

Expiration period is the number days in which the records of this list expire. See the description of the Expire records setting for more information.

Expiration field

Expiration field is the field of the calling list that will be used to determine when the callback request was made, which is necessary in order to calculate when it expires. Only fields of type Date/Time are available for selection as expiration fields. This setting is essential if you have selected the Count expiration using date in record option. See the description of the Expire records setting for more information.

Periodic Import

To set up automatic periodic updates for this list, click edit.

In the dialog that appears:

1. Specify the protocol (FTP or SFTP), URL with file name, FTP Username, and FTP Password; this setting is specified for lists of File type only.
2. Select the Start date and time of the first update and specify the desired Import interval.
3. Select the desired Update Policy. (Note that the replace list data policy may suspend use of this list within a running campaign for the time it takes to re-process the list.) This setting is specified for lists of the File type only.
4. Click OK.
5. Once these parameters are defined, select the Enabled checkbox to activate periodic import.

For lists of the Salesforce.com type, new records matching the original SOQL query will be added to the list during each update, while any records that may have been removed from Salesforce will be disabled in the list. If there are campaign results available for such disabled records, they will be preserved.

For lists of the 'Salesforce.com type, there is a 30-second timeout on the Bright Pattern Contact Center side to begin receiving data from SFDC after the SOQL query is submitted.

You can also run import with the above settings at any time by clicking Run import now.

Contents tab

List pane

The List pane shows the entire content of the list. It is read-only.

Record pane

The Record pane shows the content of the record selected from the List pane. It is read-only.

Timestamp

Timestamp is the timestamp of the operation.

Errors is the total number of records that were not imported due to various errors (missing required fields, duplicate keys, incorrect format).

Operator

Operator is the username of the user who performed this operation.

Comment

Comment is the operation result.

Log Tab

Timestamp

Time stamp of the operation

File

Name of the list data source file

Direction

Type of the operation (IN for import/updates, EXP for export of campaign results)

Number of records

Total number of successfully imported/exported records during this operation

Errors

Total number of records that were not imported due to various errors (missing required fields, duplicate keys, incorrect format)

Operator

Username of the user who performed this operation

Comment

Operation result

1. REDIRECT 5.3:Agent-guide/Work/CasesEmail/CasesEmailandThreads

1. REDIRECT 5.3:Agent-guide/Work/CasesEmail/CasesEmailandThreads

Global Interaction Identifier

Global interaction identifier (GIID) is a UUID-formatted number assigned to every interaction processed within Bright Pattern Contact Center. It can be used to track interaction history through all stages of processing within the system, including possible consultations, transfers, conferences, service changes, and media upgrades. At run-time, GIID can be exported to third-party applications via scenarios and/or desktop integration APIs. Historically, GIID appears in all records related to interaction processing, including call detail records, outbound campaign results, voice recording file names, and activity history of pre-integrated CRM applications. GIID is available as a search condition (i.e., data element) in the interaction records search.

Rules When Assigning a GIID

Depending on whether an interaction is new or related to another existing interaction, GIID is either generated or inherited. More specifically, the following general rules apply when assigning a GIID:

• For inbound voice and chat interactions, GIID is generated as soon as the interaction enters the contact center.

• For predictive, progressive, and automatic (IVR) campaign calls, a new GIID is generated for every new call attempt (i.e., different call attempts related to the same calling record have different GIIDs).

• For preview campaigns, a new GIID is generated each time a preview record is distributed to an agent. When the agent makes a call based on a preview record, the call attempt inherits the GIID of the record. If an agent makes several call attempts while handling one preview record, all such call attempts will have the same GIID.

• Manual consultation calls, both outbound and internal, inherit GIID of the held primary call. If several calls are on hold, the consult call inherits GIID of the call that has been placed on hold most recently.

• For manual outbound and internal calls unrelated to any existing calls, GIID is generated as soon as the call is dialed.

• For new inbound email interactions, GIID is generated when the email enters the contact center.

• For new outbound email interactions (emails unrelated to any existing cases), GIID is generated as soon as a draft is created (agent clicks the Compose button).

• For follow-up emails initiated by customers, GIID is generated when the email enters the contact center.

• Follow-up emails initiated by agents inherit GIID of the previous email in the email thread.

• A call originated in the context of a customer chat interaction inherits GIID of the chat interaction.

• A call originated in the context of an email interaction inherits GIID of the email interaction.

• A new email originated in the context of a voice call inherits GIID of the call.

• Transferred/forwarded interactions inherit GIID assigned to the original interaction in a transfer sequence.

• Conference portions of interactions inherit GIID assigned to the original interaction.

Example

A typical use of the GIID can be illustrated by the following example. When reviewing your customer relationship management (CRM) transactions, you need to find voice recordings of the related calls, both while they are still stored in the Bright Pattern Contact Center system and after they have been exported and stored elsewhere.

When configuring your system to support the above task:

• If you use one of the pre-integrated CRM applications, depending on your workflow, the GIID related to transactions handled by your agents may be available automatically as part of the activity history (see below). If this is not the case, consider using one of the available scenario integration blocks (e.g., Fetch URL) to store the content of variable $(globalInteractionId) as part of CRM transaction records associated with your calls.

• To make sure you can find voice recordings even after they have been exported out the system, add the $(GlobalInteractionId) component to the file names of exported recordings.

When looking for a voice recording related to your CRM transaction:

• Copy the GIID from the CRM transaction.

• Check the transaction date against the voice recording storage times agreed upon with your service provider (the default period is 90 days).

• If the voice recording is still stored within Bright Pattern Contact Center, open the Interaction Records Search page, select GIID as your search condition, and paste the GIID you have copied from your CRM transaction.

• If the voice recording is no longer within Bright Pattern Contact Center but has been exported for offline storage, look for the file containing the copied GIID on the location where the recordings are stored.

Note that depending on the workflow, your search may produce several voice recordings (e.g., recordings of call segments before and after a transfer, or a recording of an associated consult call).

How GIIDs Are Exposed

GIIDs are exposed via the data elements described in the following table. The "Where to Use" column names where the data element is used, and the "Data Element to Use" column describes the type and name of the element (i.e., field, variable, parameter, etc.).

Where to Use	Data Element to Use
Scenarios	variable $(item.globalInteractionId) - An Interaction property
Simplified Desktop .NET API	globalInteractionId - A property of events evtCallDialing and evtCallOffered globalInteractionId - An optional parameter of method CallDial
Desktop Integration API .NET Version	globalInteractionId - A property of event itemArrivedCallback globalInteractionId - An optional parameter of method makeCall
Salesforce.com integration	Call Object Identifier - A field of Salesforce.com activity history
Zendesk integration	https://<portal>/InteractionSearch?global_interaction_id=<x> - The URL of Zendesk activity history; clicking this URL opens the Interaction Records Search page with the global interaction identifier preset as a search condition
RightNow integration	global_interaction_id - A field from RightNow activity history
Reporting Database	global_interaction_id - A field from the table call_detail
Detail Reports	Global ID - A field from the Call Detail Report and Email Detail Report
Campaign Results	Global Interaction ID - A field from the campaign results in detailed and simple formats
Exported voice recording	$(globalInteractionId) - An optional file name component of exported voice recording files Global Interaction ID - A field of the recordings details .CSV file
Activity History Forms	$(ActivityHistory.global_interaction_id) - The Activity History list field data element is available in the Text form control.

Note the following:

• When two inbound calls are merged into a conference, the conference call gets GIID of the older call (the call that appeared in the system first).
• Consult calls initiated from a hardphone do not inherit GIID from the original call.
• GIID is not currently available as a scenario variable for the following types of interactions (because interactions of these types do not have exposed scenarios):
  • Preview campaign calls
  • Manual outbound and internal calls
  • Emails

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Users

A user is anyone who may need access to any functionality of Bright Pattern Contact Center. Each user in the Bright Pattern Contact Center configuration must be assigned to a team. The level of users' access to the system's functions is defined by their assigned roles. Thus, you should typically have both the roles and teams defined in your configuration before you begin to register your users.

Most of the users will access Bright Pattern Contact Center via the Agent Desktop application. The exact set of functionality available to a logged-on user via this application depends on the role(s) assigned this user in your contact center configuration.

• The Agent Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center agents and back-office (PBX) workers.

• The Supervisor Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center supervisors and campaign operators.

Although most of the Agent Desktop functionality is implemented using thin-client technologies, some of its capabilities require a software component that is installed on users’ computers. This component is called Agent Desktop Helper Application. For more information about the functions of this component and methods of its installation, see section Agent Desktop Helper Application.

The computers of users of the Agent Desktop application must conform to a number of system requirements.

How to Define and Edit User Information

To view, define, and edit user information, select the Users option from the Users & Teams menu.

The Users list provides the following information:

• First Name - The first name of the user
• Last Name - The last name of the user
• Extension - The extension number of the user
• Roles - The assigned role(s) for the user (e.g., agent, supervisor, etc.)
• Team - The assigned team(s) for the user
• Created on - The date that the user was created in the system
• Last login on - The date of the user's last login to the system

Importing and Exporting Users

The Contact Center Administrator application allows you to import users, including their passwords, teams, skills and other properties in bulk, by uploading a specially formatted spreadsheet. Additionally, you may export your existing users list, change it, and upload it back. Import and export operations are activated by the arrow buttons at the bottom of the user list view. Both the .XLS and the .XLSX formats are supported for import and export.

Export Users

To export a list of users, click the export users button; a window will pop that allows you to select the download format (i.e., .XLS or .XSLX). Then select Export and the list will download.

Note: An easy way to obtain a user import template is to apply the export operation, and then use the produced spreadsheet as an import template.

Import or Update Users

Using the import/update wizard, it is possible to upload new users or update existing users. To import a list of users, click the import or update users button. If you require a list of existing users, you may click the Download Current List of Users button. You may upload a list in either the .XLS or the .XSLX format.

During the upload, the system checks column header names in a case-insensitive way to match the specification. To ensure your list is successfully uploaded, you may download a sample template that displays the system-accepted format details. To download the template, click Download Sample with Format Details.

Most errors may be downloaded from the Errors screen, with the exception of errors due to an invalid import format. Invalid import format errors will be displayed immediately in the Contact Center Administrator UI. Note that you will not be able to complete the import until all errors are resolved.

The following ID fields are included in the upload format:

• Username - The user's username; note that this field is the primary key
• First Name - The user's first name
• Last Name - The user's last name
• Email - The user's email address
• Password - The user's password
• Disabled - Whether the user is disabled or not
  • On upload, enter Yes to disable the user or No to keep the user enabled
• Hardphone Number - The user's hardphone number; note that it is possible for hot-desked agents to have the same hardphone number
• Softphone Number - The user's softphone number
• DID number - The PSTN number associated with the user
• Team - The user's team; values are case insensitive
  • When assigning a user to a team and not specifying (or retaining) all values of that team’s assigned services skills’, the remaining service skill values are set to 100.
  • When moving an agent from one team to another, any existing skill values for services not assigned to the destination team are set to 0.
• Role - The user's role(s); note that values are case insensitive and multiple roles should be comma-separated (e.g., Agent,Supervisor)
• PIN - The user's PIN
• Rank - The user's rank
• Nickname - The user's chat nickname
• Maximum concurrent chats - The maximum number of concurrent chats allowed for the user
• Skill Group=Skillname - The user's skill group; note that:
  • Values from 0 to 100 may be entered
  • The skill name is in following format: <Skill group name>=<Skill name> (e.g., Skill Language=English)
  • Services are treated as a skills
  • Skill names are case insensitive
• Skill Name 2 - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Skill Name x - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Created on - When the user was created; read-only, updates are ignored
• Last login on - When the user last logged in; read-only, updates are ignored
• User must change password on next login - Requires the user to change their password at the next login attempt; accepted values are true or false
• Do not record calls - Disables recording of the user's calls; accepted values are Yes or No
• Delete - Deletes the user. Entering Yes or any other value deletes the user, leaving an empty field does not delete the user. Values are case insensitive; contains the No value in exported lists for users not deleted

User Import and Export Notes

• In order to perform a bulk upload, you must have all of the following privileges:
  • Manage roles and security settings
  • Manage skills
  • Manage all teams
  • Manage phones
  • Manage users
  • Grants for all privileges referred by the role you are trying to assign, or the Grant all privileges privilege

• When you are creating new users, only mandatory fields are required. The mandatory fields are as follows:
  • Username
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Softphone Number (auto-generated if empty)
  • Team

• If performing a bulk update, only Username and one other column are required.  

• Regarding passwords, note the following:
  • A user's password should be set according to their contact center’s and/or service provider’s policies.
  • When importing users, if a defined password for a given user is not supported by the contact center and/or service provider, this user will be not imported; the error will be displayed.
  • When updating a user with an import, if the user's password field is empty, the user's password will not be updated.
  • When exporting users, user passwords are not exported (i.e., the password fields will be blank).

• Column contents may be empty if you are performing an update or if the fields are optional. Empty fields are ignored during the update.

• If you do not wish to use certain records during a particular instance of import, but you would like to keep those records in the spreadsheet for possible use in the future, you can add a column with name Delete to the spreadsheet and set its value to yes for the records that are not to be imported.

• Softphones are deleted upon user deletion.

• It is not possible to add columns to the user import template (i.e., except the Delete column); any attempt to upload unknown columns will fail the import.

Screen Properties

Person tab

The Person screen properties are described as follows. Note that users can change some of their profile properties directly via the Agent Desktop application. These properties are marked with an asterisk (*). For more information, see section Configuring Your User Profile of the Agent Guide.

Note: Some service configuration changes that affect agent behavior are not picked up dynamically by Agent Desktop. Thus, after making a change to user information that appears in the user's profile, we recommend that all affected agents re-login to Agent Desktop and/or refresh their browser page.

Username

Username is the name that the user will enter when logging in to Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. Username is mandatory and must be unique within the contact center.

Note that a username can be changed; in order for changes to be made, this feature must be enabled by your service provider for your contact center. If enabled, username changes can be done only via the Contact Center Administrator application and the BPCC SCIM-Compliant User Provisioning API. Username changes cannot be done via the Agent Desktop application, user import, or the BPCC Configuration API.

When changing a username, please consider the following:

• Username change does not change the historical records created prior to the username change, which contain the old username. If a user’s username is changed and you wish to include the user’s data in historical reports from before and after the change, do the following:
  • From the Agent filter, select the user’s current name.
  • From the Agent filter, select the Show disabled/deleted agents checkbox, then select the user’s former name.
  • Please note that the Agent filter uses first and last name, so if the username was changed, but the first and last name stayed the same, a person with the same name may appear in both active and disabled/deleted users.
• If a user is logged into the Agent Desktop application when her username is changed, a banner displays the message, "Your username has changed. Please log out and log in with the new username." The user’s softphone will continue the current call; however, they will not be able to refresh registration, accept, or make new calls.

Password

Password is the password that the user will enter when logging into Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. This field is displayed for new users only and its specification is mandatory. Note that some rules related to password complexity (i.e., length, special characters, etc.) may be defined and enforced at the service provider level.

Confirm password

The Confirm password field is mandatory.

Change password

The Change password option is displayed for existing users only, and it is used to change the selected user’s password. This option will typically be used by an administrator to change passwords of other users. Users can change their own passwords via the Agent Desktop application.

API secret

The API secret is a unique, secret string that identifies the user (i.e., user credentials). The API secret is used during authentication to request an access token for Bright Pattern APIs, such as the Configuration API and others.

Disabled

Disabled indicates whether the user is active. Select this checkbox to disable user's access to all system functions temporarily. Disabled users are shown dimmed in the user list view.

Note that inactive user accounts may also be disabled automatically. See section Security Policy for more information. Disabled users are still counted as named users in your configuration.

User must change password on next login

This property indicates whether the user will be forced to change the password upon the next login. To comply with the PCI DSS security standard, select this checkbox for every new user.

As soon as the user changes the password, the check mark will be removed automatically. You can force the user to change password at any time by selecting this checkbox again.

This property exists to support manual password change enforcement. Note that the system also supports automatic password expiration. See section Security Policy for more information. The related automatic password changes are not reflected by this property.

Lockout

Lockout indicates whether this user can access the system or is currently locked out due to a security policy violation. See section Security Policy for more information. You can click the link to view current lockout status. If the user account is locked out, you can unlock it by clicking the Unlock button.

First name

First name is the user’s first name. This field is mandatory.

Last name

Last name is the user’s last name. This field is mandatory.

Team

Team is the team to which this user is assigned. A Bright Pattern Contact Center user must be assigned to a team, and a user cannot be assigned to more than one team. See section Teams for considerations regarding assignment of users to teams.

Note that teams may be associated with services. Upon assignment to such a team, the user may get a corresponding service skill with a certain level automatically. You can change the level or remove the skill from the user manually using the Skill Levels option.

Training Class

Training Class, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a training class for a given user. Training Classes are created in the Contact Center Administrator application, section Users & Teams > Training Classes. Training Class is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Supervisor in charge

Supervisor in charge, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a specific supervisor as being responsible for a given user. Supervisor in charge is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Record calls

The Record calls checkbox allow you to record a specific agent's calls. Note: If call recording is enabled as a global setting, this checkbox option will change to Do not record calls and you can mark specific agents to not record.

Title

Title is the user’s job title. This property is used for information only. For user’s access privileges, see section Roles below.

About me

About me is the optional information that users will typically enter themselves via their Agent Desktop profile settings.

Photo

This is the user’s photo. The photo will appear in the Contact Info Panel of the Agent Desktop application during internal communications. If you use chat services, the photo can also be displayed to customers when they communicate with this agent via chat. To upload a photo, click upload. To remove the photo, click remove.

There is a maximum size of 9MB for photos. However, photos are compressed to fit the user interface elements where they are displayed. Note that the maximum size for uploaded files may be further limited by your service provider.

Maximum concurrent chats - Limit number of chats on the agent

Maximum concurrent chats lets you define the total number of concurrent chats an agent will process at a given time. If this setting is configured, the system will choose the smaller number from between this setting and the Omni-Channel Routing setting for chat (i.e., if chat is configured at the maximum, too).

Note that when set to a lower number of chats than set in omni-channel routing, this setting will impact agent occupancy, where 100% of occupancy will be the maximum number of chats from the omni-channel routing setting, and less when clamped down by this per-user setting (e.g., 4 chats in omni-channel routing - 100%, clamped to 3 - 75%).

Contacts tab

Chat nickname

Chat nickname is the name that will be displayed to other parties when they communicate with this user via chat.

Rank

Rank is the user’s rank. This optional setting can be used as an additional selection criterion in custom agent reports. This setting is essential for users who are agents only.

Phone extension

Phone extension is the extension number of the user’s softphone. This mandatory setting must contain numeric characters only and must be unique within the contact center. Note that if you have any hardphones registered in the system, their numbers cannot be assigned as users' phone extensions. See section Hardphones for more information.

The extension can be used in combination with a user’s PIN code for phone login (see below) for authentication through interfaces that only accept numeric input (e.g., an IVR system).

Bright Pattern Contact Center assigns extension numbers to new users automatically in ascending order starting from 1000. You can change the default number to any other value. In this case, the default extension number assigned to the next new user will be the newly defined value + 1. Extension numbers are recycled (i.e., when you delete a user, that user's extension number will be assigned by default to the next new user).

A user’s extension number cannot be changed while the user is logged on to that extension; if a change is attempted, an error message will display, "Cannot change extension number while agent is logged on that extension." Also note that the user can log in with a different number (e.g., a hardphone number).

For more information about user phone device options, see section Selecting a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

Forward all calls for ext…

This indicates whether call forwarding is activated for the user’s phone extension.

Call forwarding can also be activated via the extension’s properties; see section Softphones. Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how forwarding will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. If the user has had voicemail enabled (see below), activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function.

to

This field represents the phone number to which incoming calls will be forwarded. The phone number must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected.

Forward on no answer after

Forward on no answer after is the time (in seconds) after which incoming calls will be forwarded to the number specified if the user is logged on and does not answer. The amount of time must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected. For immediate (unconditional) forwarding, set the timeout to 0.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be forwarded to the specified number immediately, regardless of this setting.

Default hardphone number

Default hardphone number is the extension number of the hardphone assigned to the user. This setting is optional but if specified, it must be one of the existing hardphone extension numbers (see section Hardphones). This parameter should be defined only for users who normally use permanently assigned hardphones installed at their personal desks. To log into the Agent Desktop application with this hardphone, the user should select option Default phone. For more information about a user’s phone device options, see section How to Select a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

The call forwarding settings will not take effect on the default hardphone. Instead, the forwarding settings configured for the hardphone itself will apply (see section Hardphones).

Enable voicemail

Enable voicemail indicates whether the voicemail function is enabled for the user. For general voicemail settings, see section Voicemail.

Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how voicemail will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. The voicemail function cannot be enabled if the user already has call forwarding activated. If the user has had voicemail enabled, a temporary activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function; however, the voicemail configuration (the No Answer timeout and current greeting) will be preserved and will take effect as soon as call forwarding is deactivated.

Send to voicemail after

Send to voicemail after is the time in seconds after which an incoming call will be forwarded to voicemail if the user is logged on and does not pick up the call. The amount of time must be specified if the Enable voicemail checkbox is selected.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be sent to the user’s voicemail immediately, regardless of this setting.

Use this voicemail greeting

This option lets you upload up to three different personal voicemail greetings for the user and select which one should be used. Individual greetings may be deleted as necessary.

Users can also record their personal greetings directly via their Agent Desktop application. For more information see section Configuring Your Voicemail of the Agent Guide.

Work phone

Work phone is the user’s work phone. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

Mobile phone

Mobile phone is the user’s mobile phone number. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

PIN code for phone login

The PIN is the user’s numeric password that can be used in combination with user’s Phone extension for authentication through interfaces that accept only numeric input (e.g., an interactive voice response (IVR) system).

Email address

Email address is the user’s email address that the system will use for delivery of password reset instructions, voicemail messages, and scheduled reports. It must be specified if the voicemail is enabled because the user will be notified of new voicemail messages via email. Additionally, this email address is not used for distribution of service email interactions to the agents.

Note: This field must be filled out in order to save an assigned System Administrator role to a user.

Location tab

This tab lets you specify various optional properties related to a user’s geographical location.

Region

The geographic region for the user (e.g., "US"). This property is required.

Your contact center is associated with a region by default. The Region selector is used to initialize user region at the time of creation. If your service provider has enabled multiple regions to be used for your contact center, you will be able to select a non-default region for the user from the selector.

Time zone

The time zone for the user (e.g., "-08:00 America/Los_Angeles"). This property is required.

Country

The country in which the user works (e.g., "United States"). This property is optional.

State/Province

The state or province in which the user works (e.g., "CA"). This property is optional.

City

The city in which in which the user works (e.g., "San Bruno"). This property is optional.

Login Info tab

This tab provides a variety of user login information; it may be consulted for quick user diagnostics. The properties are as follows.

Login state

Displays the login state of the user

Since

Captures the date and time of user's last login state change (i.e., the Contact Center Administrator application or the Agent Desktop application); note that it is not updated if the user opens additional applications or changes to/from the Supervision mode

App Type and version

Displays the name and the version of the app the user used in the most recently, including Mobile Agent

Browser type and version

Displays the name and the version of the web browser the user used in the most recent session

Selected phone device option

Displays the phone device option the user used in the most recent session

OS

Displays the name of the user's operating system, including mobile devices.

IP address (public)

The public IP address of the user

Raw User-Agent string

Displays the HTTP User-Agent browser identification header, which is automatically submitted by the web browser

Agent Desktop Helper version

Displays the version number of the user's Agent Desktop Helper Application

Mobile Device Model

If the Mobile app is used by this agent, this field displays the mobile device the app was used on.

Roles tab

A user can be assigned any number of roles that define what kind of system functionality can be accessed. For more information, see section Roles. Select a role from the list in order to assign it to the user.

By default, new users do not have any roles assigned to them. Since the majority of users registered in your configuration are likely to be agents, you can configure automatic assignment of the Agent role to every new user. See the description of property Assign this role to newly created users in section Roles for more information.

Users

A user is anyone who may need access to any functionality of Bright Pattern Contact Center. Each user in the Bright Pattern Contact Center configuration must be assigned to a team. The level of users' access to the system's functions is defined by their assigned roles. Thus, you should typically have both the roles and teams defined in your configuration before you begin to register your users.

Most of the users will access Bright Pattern Contact Center via the Agent Desktop application. The exact set of functionality available to a logged-on user via this application depends on the role(s) assigned this user in your contact center configuration.

• The Agent Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center agents and back-office (PBX) workers.

• The Supervisor Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center supervisors and campaign operators.

Although most of the Agent Desktop functionality is implemented using thin-client technologies, some of its capabilities require a software component that is installed on users’ computers. This component is called Agent Desktop Helper Application. For more information about the functions of this component and methods of its installation, see section Agent Desktop Helper Application.

The computers of users of the Agent Desktop application must conform to a number of system requirements.

How to Define and Edit User Information

To view, define, and edit user information, select the Users option from the Users & Teams menu.

The Users list provides the following information:

• First Name - The first name of the user
• Last Name - The last name of the user
• Extension - The extension number of the user
• Roles - The assigned role(s) for the user (e.g., agent, supervisor, etc.)
• Team - The assigned team(s) for the user
• Created on - The date that the user was created in the system
• Last login on - The date of the user's last login to the system

Importing and Exporting Users

The Contact Center Administrator application allows you to import users, including their passwords, teams, skills and other properties in bulk, by uploading a specially formatted spreadsheet. Additionally, you may export your existing users list, change it, and upload it back. Import and export operations are activated by the arrow buttons at the bottom of the user list view. Both the .XLS and the .XLSX formats are supported for import and export.

Export Users

To export a list of users, click the export users button; a window will pop that allows you to select the download format (i.e., .XLS or .XSLX). Then select Export and the list will download.

Note: An easy way to obtain a user import template is to apply the export operation, and then use the produced spreadsheet as an import template.

Import or Update Users

Using the import/update wizard, it is possible to upload new users or update existing users. To import a list of users, click the import or update users button. If you require a list of existing users, you may click the Download Current List of Users button. You may upload a list in either the .XLS or the .XSLX format.

During the upload, the system checks column header names in a case-insensitive way to match the specification. To ensure your list is successfully uploaded, you may download a sample template that displays the system-accepted format details. To download the template, click Download Sample with Format Details.

Most errors may be downloaded from the Errors screen, with the exception of errors due to an invalid import format. Invalid import format errors will be displayed immediately in the Contact Center Administrator UI. Note that you will not be able to complete the import until all errors are resolved.

The following ID fields are included in the upload format:

• Username - The user's username; note that this field is the primary key
• First Name - The user's first name
• Last Name - The user's last name
• Email - The user's email address
• Password - The user's password
• Disabled - Whether the user is disabled or not
  • On upload, enter Yes to disable the user or No to keep the user enabled
• Hardphone Number - The user's hardphone number; note that it is possible for hot-desked agents to have the same hardphone number
• Softphone Number - The user's softphone number
• DID number - The PSTN number associated with the user
• Team - The user's team; values are case insensitive
  • When assigning a user to a team and not specifying (or retaining) all values of that team’s assigned services skills’, the remaining service skill values are set to 100.
  • When moving an agent from one team to another, any existing skill values for services not assigned to the destination team are set to 0.
• Role - The user's role(s); note that values are case insensitive and multiple roles should be comma-separated (e.g., Agent,Supervisor)
• PIN - The user's PIN
• Rank - The user's rank
• Nickname - The user's chat nickname
• Maximum concurrent chats - The maximum number of concurrent chats allowed for the user
• Skill Group=Skillname - The user's skill group; note that:
  • Values from 0 to 100 may be entered
  • The skill name is in following format: <Skill group name>=<Skill name> (e.g., Skill Language=English)
  • Services are treated as a skills
  • Skill names are case insensitive
• Skill Name 2 - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Skill Name x - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Created on - When the user was created; read-only, updates are ignored
• Last login on - When the user last logged in; read-only, updates are ignored
• User must change password on next login - Requires the user to change their password at the next login attempt; accepted values are true or false
• Do not record calls - Disables recording of the user's calls; accepted values are Yes or No
• Delete - Deletes the user. Entering Yes or any other value deletes the user, leaving an empty field does not delete the user. Values are case insensitive; contains the No value in exported lists for users not deleted

User Import and Export Notes

• In order to perform a bulk upload, you must have all of the following privileges:
  • Manage roles and security settings
  • Manage skills
  • Manage all teams
  • Manage phones
  • Manage users
  • Grants for all privileges referred by the role you are trying to assign, or the Grant all privileges privilege

• When you are creating new users, only mandatory fields are required. The mandatory fields are as follows:
  • Username
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Softphone Number (auto-generated if empty)
  • Team

• If performing a bulk update, only Username and one other column are required.  

• Regarding passwords, note the following:
  • A user's password should be set according to their contact center’s and/or service provider’s policies.
  • When importing users, if a defined password for a given user is not supported by the contact center and/or service provider, this user will be not imported; the error will be displayed.
  • When updating a user with an import, if the user's password field is empty, the user's password will not be updated.
  • When exporting users, user passwords are not exported (i.e., the password fields will be blank).

• Column contents may be empty if you are performing an update or if the fields are optional. Empty fields are ignored during the update.

• If you do not wish to use certain records during a particular instance of import, but you would like to keep those records in the spreadsheet for possible use in the future, you can add a column with name Delete to the spreadsheet and set its value to yes for the records that are not to be imported.

• Softphones are deleted upon user deletion.

• It is not possible to add columns to the user import template (i.e., except the Delete column); any attempt to upload unknown columns will fail the import.

Screen Properties

Person tab

The Person screen properties are described as follows. Note that users can change some of their profile properties directly via the Agent Desktop application. These properties are marked with an asterisk (*). For more information, see section Configuring Your User Profile of the Agent Guide.

Note: Some service configuration changes that affect agent behavior are not picked up dynamically by Agent Desktop. Thus, after making a change to user information that appears in the user's profile, we recommend that all affected agents re-login to Agent Desktop and/or refresh their browser page.

Username

Username is the name that the user will enter when logging in to Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. Username is mandatory and must be unique within the contact center.

Note that a username can be changed; in order for changes to be made, this feature must be enabled by your service provider for your contact center. If enabled, username changes can be done only via the Contact Center Administrator application and the BPCC SCIM-Compliant User Provisioning API. Username changes cannot be done via the Agent Desktop application, user import, or the BPCC Configuration API.

When changing a username, please consider the following:

• Username change does not change the historical records created prior to the username change, which contain the old username. If a user’s username is changed and you wish to include the user’s data in historical reports from before and after the change, do the following:
  • From the Agent filter, select the user’s current name.
  • From the Agent filter, select the Show disabled/deleted agents checkbox, then select the user’s former name.
  • Please note that the Agent filter uses first and last name, so if the username was changed, but the first and last name stayed the same, a person with the same name may appear in both active and disabled/deleted users.
• If a user is logged into the Agent Desktop application when her username is changed, a banner displays the message, "Your username has changed. Please log out and log in with the new username." The user’s softphone will continue the current call; however, they will not be able to refresh registration, accept, or make new calls.

Password

Password is the password that the user will enter when logging into Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. This field is displayed for new users only and its specification is mandatory. Note that some rules related to password complexity (i.e., length, special characters, etc.) may be defined and enforced at the service provider level.

Confirm password

The Confirm password field is mandatory.

Change password

The Change password option is displayed for existing users only, and it is used to change the selected user’s password. This option will typically be used by an administrator to change passwords of other users. Users can change their own passwords via the Agent Desktop application.

API secret

The API secret is a unique, secret string that identifies the user (i.e., user credentials). The API secret is used during authentication to request an access token for Bright Pattern APIs, such as the Configuration API and others.

Disabled

Disabled indicates whether the user is active. Select this checkbox to disable user's access to all system functions temporarily. Disabled users are shown dimmed in the user list view.

Note that inactive user accounts may also be disabled automatically. See section Security Policy for more information. Disabled users are still counted as named users in your configuration.

User must change password on next login

This property indicates whether the user will be forced to change the password upon the next login. To comply with the PCI DSS security standard, select this checkbox for every new user.

As soon as the user changes the password, the check mark will be removed automatically. You can force the user to change password at any time by selecting this checkbox again.

This property exists to support manual password change enforcement. Note that the system also supports automatic password expiration. See section Security Policy for more information. The related automatic password changes are not reflected by this property.

Lockout

Lockout indicates whether this user can access the system or is currently locked out due to a security policy violation. See section Security Policy for more information. You can click the link to view current lockout status. If the user account is locked out, you can unlock it by clicking the Unlock button.

First name

First name is the user’s first name. This field is mandatory.

Last name

Last name is the user’s last name. This field is mandatory.

Team

Team is the team to which this user is assigned. A Bright Pattern Contact Center user must be assigned to a team, and a user cannot be assigned to more than one team. See section Teams for considerations regarding assignment of users to teams.

Note that teams may be associated with services. Upon assignment to such a team, the user may get a corresponding service skill with a certain level automatically. You can change the level or remove the skill from the user manually using the Skill Levels option.

Training Class

Training Class, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a training class for a given user. Training Classes are created in the Contact Center Administrator application, section Users & Teams > Training Classes. Training Class is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Supervisor in charge

Supervisor in charge, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a specific supervisor as being responsible for a given user. Supervisor in charge is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Record calls

The Record calls checkbox allow you to record a specific agent's calls. Note: If call recording is enabled as a global setting, this checkbox option will change to Do not record calls and you can mark specific agents to not record.

Title

Title is the user’s job title. This property is used for information only. For user’s access privileges, see section Roles below.

About me

About me is the optional information that users will typically enter themselves via their Agent Desktop profile settings.

Photo

This is the user’s photo. The photo will appear in the Contact Info Panel of the Agent Desktop application during internal communications. If you use chat services, the photo can also be displayed to customers when they communicate with this agent via chat. To upload a photo, click upload. To remove the photo, click remove.

There is a maximum size of 9MB for photos. However, photos are compressed to fit the user interface elements where they are displayed. Note that the maximum size for uploaded files may be further limited by your service provider.

Maximum concurrent chats - Limit number of chats on the agent

Maximum concurrent chats lets you define the total number of concurrent chats an agent will process at a given time. If this setting is configured, the system will choose the smaller number from between this setting and the Omni-Channel Routing setting for chat (i.e., if chat is configured at the maximum, too).

Note that when set to a lower number of chats than set in omni-channel routing, this setting will impact agent occupancy, where 100% of occupancy will be the maximum number of chats from the omni-channel routing setting, and less when clamped down by this per-user setting (e.g., 4 chats in omni-channel routing - 100%, clamped to 3 - 75%).

Contacts tab

Chat nickname

Chat nickname is the name that will be displayed to other parties when they communicate with this user via chat.

Rank

Rank is the user’s rank. This optional setting can be used as an additional selection criterion in custom agent reports. This setting is essential for users who are agents only.

Phone extension

Phone extension is the extension number of the user’s softphone. This mandatory setting must contain numeric characters only and must be unique within the contact center. Note that if you have any hardphones registered in the system, their numbers cannot be assigned as users' phone extensions. See section Hardphones for more information.

The extension can be used in combination with a user’s PIN code for phone login (see below) for authentication through interfaces that only accept numeric input (e.g., an IVR system).

Bright Pattern Contact Center assigns extension numbers to new users automatically in ascending order starting from 1000. You can change the default number to any other value. In this case, the default extension number assigned to the next new user will be the newly defined value + 1. Extension numbers are recycled (i.e., when you delete a user, that user's extension number will be assigned by default to the next new user).

A user’s extension number cannot be changed while the user is logged on to that extension; if a change is attempted, an error message will display, "Cannot change extension number while agent is logged on that extension." Also note that the user can log in with a different number (e.g., a hardphone number).

For more information about user phone device options, see section Selecting a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

Forward all calls for ext…

This indicates whether call forwarding is activated for the user’s phone extension.

Call forwarding can also be activated via the extension’s properties; see section Softphones. Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how forwarding will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. If the user has had voicemail enabled (see below), activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function.

to

This field represents the phone number to which incoming calls will be forwarded. The phone number must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected.

Forward on no answer after

Forward on no answer after is the time (in seconds) after which incoming calls will be forwarded to the number specified if the user is logged on and does not answer. The amount of time must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected. For immediate (unconditional) forwarding, set the timeout to 0.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be forwarded to the specified number immediately, regardless of this setting.

Default hardphone number

Default hardphone number is the extension number of the hardphone assigned to the user. This setting is optional but if specified, it must be one of the existing hardphone extension numbers (see section Hardphones). This parameter should be defined only for users who normally use permanently assigned hardphones installed at their personal desks. To log into the Agent Desktop application with this hardphone, the user should select option Default phone. For more information about a user’s phone device options, see section How to Select a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

The call forwarding settings will not take effect on the default hardphone. Instead, the forwarding settings configured for the hardphone itself will apply (see section Hardphones).

Enable voicemail

Enable voicemail indicates whether the voicemail function is enabled for the user. For general voicemail settings, see section Voicemail.

Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how voicemail will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. The voicemail function cannot be enabled if the user already has call forwarding activated. If the user has had voicemail enabled, a temporary activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function; however, the voicemail configuration (the No Answer timeout and current greeting) will be preserved and will take effect as soon as call forwarding is deactivated.

Send to voicemail after

Send to voicemail after is the time in seconds after which an incoming call will be forwarded to voicemail if the user is logged on and does not pick up the call. The amount of time must be specified if the Enable voicemail checkbox is selected.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be sent to the user’s voicemail immediately, regardless of this setting.

Use this voicemail greeting

This option lets you upload up to three different personal voicemail greetings for the user and select which one should be used. Individual greetings may be deleted as necessary.

Users can also record their personal greetings directly via their Agent Desktop application. For more information see section Configuring Your Voicemail of the Agent Guide.

Work phone

Work phone is the user’s work phone. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

Mobile phone

Mobile phone is the user’s mobile phone number. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

PIN code for phone login

The PIN is the user’s numeric password that can be used in combination with user’s Phone extension for authentication through interfaces that accept only numeric input (e.g., an interactive voice response (IVR) system).

Email address

Email address is the user’s email address that the system will use for delivery of password reset instructions, voicemail messages, and scheduled reports. It must be specified if the voicemail is enabled because the user will be notified of new voicemail messages via email. Additionally, this email address is not used for distribution of service email interactions to the agents.

Note: This field must be filled out in order to save an assigned System Administrator role to a user.

Location tab

This tab lets you specify various optional properties related to a user’s geographical location.

Region

The geographic region for the user (e.g., "US"). This property is required.

Your contact center is associated with a region by default. The Region selector is used to initialize user region at the time of creation. If your service provider has enabled multiple regions to be used for your contact center, you will be able to select a non-default region for the user from the selector.

Time zone

The time zone for the user (e.g., "-08:00 America/Los_Angeles"). This property is required.

Country

The country in which the user works (e.g., "United States"). This property is optional.

State/Province

The state or province in which the user works (e.g., "CA"). This property is optional.

City

The city in which in which the user works (e.g., "San Bruno"). This property is optional.

Login Info tab

This tab provides a variety of user login information; it may be consulted for quick user diagnostics. The properties are as follows.

Login state

Displays the login state of the user

Since

Captures the date and time of user's last login state change (i.e., the Contact Center Administrator application or the Agent Desktop application); note that it is not updated if the user opens additional applications or changes to/from the Supervision mode

App Type and version

Displays the name and the version of the app the user used in the most recently, including Mobile Agent

Browser type and version

Displays the name and the version of the web browser the user used in the most recent session

Selected phone device option

Displays the phone device option the user used in the most recent session

OS

Displays the name of the user's operating system, including mobile devices.

IP address (public)

The public IP address of the user

Raw User-Agent string

Displays the HTTP User-Agent browser identification header, which is automatically submitted by the web browser

Agent Desktop Helper version

Displays the version number of the user's Agent Desktop Helper Application

Mobile Device Model

If the Mobile app is used by this agent, this field displays the mobile device the app was used on.

Roles tab

A user can be assigned any number of roles that define what kind of system functionality can be accessed. For more information, see section Roles. Select a role from the list in order to assign it to the user.

By default, new users do not have any roles assigned to them. Since the majority of users registered in your configuration are likely to be agents, you can configure automatic assignment of the Agent role to every new user. See the description of property Assign this role to newly created users in section Roles for more information.

Users

A user is anyone who may need access to any functionality of Bright Pattern Contact Center. Each user in the Bright Pattern Contact Center configuration must be assigned to a team. The level of users' access to the system's functions is defined by their assigned roles. Thus, you should typically have both the roles and teams defined in your configuration before you begin to register your users.

Most of the users will access Bright Pattern Contact Center via the Agent Desktop application. The exact set of functionality available to a logged-on user via this application depends on the role(s) assigned this user in your contact center configuration.

• The Agent Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center agents and back-office (PBX) workers.

• The Supervisor Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center supervisors and campaign operators.

Although most of the Agent Desktop functionality is implemented using thin-client technologies, some of its capabilities require a software component that is installed on users’ computers. This component is called Agent Desktop Helper Application. For more information about the functions of this component and methods of its installation, see section Agent Desktop Helper Application.

The computers of users of the Agent Desktop application must conform to a number of system requirements.

How to Define and Edit User Information

To view, define, and edit user information, select the Users option from the Users & Teams menu.

The Users list provides the following information:

• First Name - The first name of the user
• Last Name - The last name of the user
• Extension - The extension number of the user
• Roles - The assigned role(s) for the user (e.g., agent, supervisor, etc.)
• Team - The assigned team(s) for the user
• Created on - The date that the user was created in the system
• Last login on - The date of the user's last login to the system

Importing and Exporting Users

The Contact Center Administrator application allows you to import users, including their passwords, teams, skills and other properties in bulk, by uploading a specially formatted spreadsheet. Additionally, you may export your existing users list, change it, and upload it back. Import and export operations are activated by the arrow buttons at the bottom of the user list view. Both the .XLS and the .XLSX formats are supported for import and export.

Export Users

To export a list of users, click the export users button; a window will pop that allows you to select the download format (i.e., .XLS or .XSLX). Then select Export and the list will download.

Note: An easy way to obtain a user import template is to apply the export operation, and then use the produced spreadsheet as an import template.

Import or Update Users

Using the import/update wizard, it is possible to upload new users or update existing users. To import a list of users, click the import or update users button. If you require a list of existing users, you may click the Download Current List of Users button. You may upload a list in either the .XLS or the .XSLX format.

During the upload, the system checks column header names in a case-insensitive way to match the specification. To ensure your list is successfully uploaded, you may download a sample template that displays the system-accepted format details. To download the template, click Download Sample with Format Details.

Most errors may be downloaded from the Errors screen, with the exception of errors due to an invalid import format. Invalid import format errors will be displayed immediately in the Contact Center Administrator UI. Note that you will not be able to complete the import until all errors are resolved.

The following ID fields are included in the upload format:

• Username - The user's username; note that this field is the primary key
• First Name - The user's first name
• Last Name - The user's last name
• Email - The user's email address
• Password - The user's password
• Disabled - Whether the user is disabled or not
  • On upload, enter Yes to disable the user or No to keep the user enabled
• Hardphone Number - The user's hardphone number; note that it is possible for hot-desked agents to have the same hardphone number
• Softphone Number - The user's softphone number
• DID number - The PSTN number associated with the user
• Team - The user's team; values are case insensitive
  • When assigning a user to a team and not specifying (or retaining) all values of that team’s assigned services skills’, the remaining service skill values are set to 100.
  • When moving an agent from one team to another, any existing skill values for services not assigned to the destination team are set to 0.
• Role - The user's role(s); note that values are case insensitive and multiple roles should be comma-separated (e.g., Agent,Supervisor)
• PIN - The user's PIN
• Rank - The user's rank
• Nickname - The user's chat nickname
• Maximum concurrent chats - The maximum number of concurrent chats allowed for the user
• Skill Group=Skillname - The user's skill group; note that:
  • Values from 0 to 100 may be entered
  • The skill name is in following format: <Skill group name>=<Skill name> (e.g., Skill Language=English)
  • Services are treated as a skills
  • Skill names are case insensitive
• Skill Name 2 - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Skill Name x - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Created on - When the user was created; read-only, updates are ignored
• Last login on - When the user last logged in; read-only, updates are ignored
• User must change password on next login - Requires the user to change their password at the next login attempt; accepted values are true or false
• Do not record calls - Disables recording of the user's calls; accepted values are Yes or No
• Delete - Deletes the user. Entering Yes or any other value deletes the user, leaving an empty field does not delete the user. Values are case insensitive; contains the No value in exported lists for users not deleted

User Import and Export Notes

• In order to perform a bulk upload, you must have all of the following privileges:
  • Manage roles and security settings
  • Manage skills
  • Manage all teams
  • Manage phones
  • Manage users
  • Grants for all privileges referred by the role you are trying to assign, or the Grant all privileges privilege

• When you are creating new users, only mandatory fields are required. The mandatory fields are as follows:
  • Username
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Softphone Number (auto-generated if empty)
  • Team

• If performing a bulk update, only Username and one other column are required.  

• Regarding passwords, note the following:
  • A user's password should be set according to their contact center’s and/or service provider’s policies.
  • When importing users, if a defined password for a given user is not supported by the contact center and/or service provider, this user will be not imported; the error will be displayed.
  • When updating a user with an import, if the user's password field is empty, the user's password will not be updated.
  • When exporting users, user passwords are not exported (i.e., the password fields will be blank).

• Column contents may be empty if you are performing an update or if the fields are optional. Empty fields are ignored during the update.

• If you do not wish to use certain records during a particular instance of import, but you would like to keep those records in the spreadsheet for possible use in the future, you can add a column with name Delete to the spreadsheet and set its value to yes for the records that are not to be imported.

• Softphones are deleted upon user deletion.

• It is not possible to add columns to the user import template (i.e., except the Delete column); any attempt to upload unknown columns will fail the import.

Screen Properties

Person tab

The Person screen properties are described as follows. Note that users can change some of their profile properties directly via the Agent Desktop application. These properties are marked with an asterisk (*). For more information, see section Configuring Your User Profile of the Agent Guide.

Note: Some service configuration changes that affect agent behavior are not picked up dynamically by Agent Desktop. Thus, after making a change to user information that appears in the user's profile, we recommend that all affected agents re-login to Agent Desktop and/or refresh their browser page.

Username

Username is the name that the user will enter when logging in to Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. Username is mandatory and must be unique within the contact center.

Note that a username can be changed; in order for changes to be made, this feature must be enabled by your service provider for your contact center. If enabled, username changes can be done only via the Contact Center Administrator application and the BPCC SCIM-Compliant User Provisioning API. Username changes cannot be done via the Agent Desktop application, user import, or the BPCC Configuration API.

When changing a username, please consider the following:

• Username change does not change the historical records created prior to the username change, which contain the old username. If a user’s username is changed and you wish to include the user’s data in historical reports from before and after the change, do the following:
  • From the Agent filter, select the user’s current name.
  • From the Agent filter, select the Show disabled/deleted agents checkbox, then select the user’s former name.
  • Please note that the Agent filter uses first and last name, so if the username was changed, but the first and last name stayed the same, a person with the same name may appear in both active and disabled/deleted users.
• If a user is logged into the Agent Desktop application when her username is changed, a banner displays the message, "Your username has changed. Please log out and log in with the new username." The user’s softphone will continue the current call; however, they will not be able to refresh registration, accept, or make new calls.

Password

Password is the password that the user will enter when logging into Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. This field is displayed for new users only and its specification is mandatory. Note that some rules related to password complexity (i.e., length, special characters, etc.) may be defined and enforced at the service provider level.

Confirm password

The Confirm password field is mandatory.

Change password

The Change password option is displayed for existing users only, and it is used to change the selected user’s password. This option will typically be used by an administrator to change passwords of other users. Users can change their own passwords via the Agent Desktop application.

API secret

The API secret is a unique, secret string that identifies the user (i.e., user credentials). The API secret is used during authentication to request an access token for Bright Pattern APIs, such as the Configuration API and others.

Disabled

Disabled indicates whether the user is active. Select this checkbox to disable user's access to all system functions temporarily. Disabled users are shown dimmed in the user list view.

Note that inactive user accounts may also be disabled automatically. See section Security Policy for more information. Disabled users are still counted as named users in your configuration.

User must change password on next login

This property indicates whether the user will be forced to change the password upon the next login. To comply with the PCI DSS security standard, select this checkbox for every new user.

As soon as the user changes the password, the check mark will be removed automatically. You can force the user to change password at any time by selecting this checkbox again.

This property exists to support manual password change enforcement. Note that the system also supports automatic password expiration. See section Security Policy for more information. The related automatic password changes are not reflected by this property.

Lockout

Lockout indicates whether this user can access the system or is currently locked out due to a security policy violation. See section Security Policy for more information. You can click the link to view current lockout status. If the user account is locked out, you can unlock it by clicking the Unlock button.

First name

First name is the user’s first name. This field is mandatory.

Last name

Last name is the user’s last name. This field is mandatory.

Team

Team is the team to which this user is assigned. A Bright Pattern Contact Center user must be assigned to a team, and a user cannot be assigned to more than one team. See section Teams for considerations regarding assignment of users to teams.

Note that teams may be associated with services. Upon assignment to such a team, the user may get a corresponding service skill with a certain level automatically. You can change the level or remove the skill from the user manually using the Skill Levels option.

Training Class

Training Class, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a training class for a given user. Training Classes are created in the Contact Center Administrator application, section Users & Teams > Training Classes. Training Class is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Supervisor in charge

Supervisor in charge, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a specific supervisor as being responsible for a given user. Supervisor in charge is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Record calls

The Record calls checkbox allow you to record a specific agent's calls. Note: If call recording is enabled as a global setting, this checkbox option will change to Do not record calls and you can mark specific agents to not record.

Title

Title is the user’s job title. This property is used for information only. For user’s access privileges, see section Roles below.

About me

About me is the optional information that users will typically enter themselves via their Agent Desktop profile settings.

Photo

This is the user’s photo. The photo will appear in the Contact Info Panel of the Agent Desktop application during internal communications. If you use chat services, the photo can also be displayed to customers when they communicate with this agent via chat. To upload a photo, click upload. To remove the photo, click remove.

There is a maximum size of 9MB for photos. However, photos are compressed to fit the user interface elements where they are displayed. Note that the maximum size for uploaded files may be further limited by your service provider.

Maximum concurrent chats - Limit number of chats on the agent

Maximum concurrent chats lets you define the total number of concurrent chats an agent will process at a given time. If this setting is configured, the system will choose the smaller number from between this setting and the Omni-Channel Routing setting for chat (i.e., if chat is configured at the maximum, too).

Note that when set to a lower number of chats than set in omni-channel routing, this setting will impact agent occupancy, where 100% of occupancy will be the maximum number of chats from the omni-channel routing setting, and less when clamped down by this per-user setting (e.g., 4 chats in omni-channel routing - 100%, clamped to 3 - 75%).

Contacts tab

Chat nickname

Chat nickname is the name that will be displayed to other parties when they communicate with this user via chat.

Rank

Rank is the user’s rank. This optional setting can be used as an additional selection criterion in custom agent reports. This setting is essential for users who are agents only.

Phone extension

Phone extension is the extension number of the user’s softphone. This mandatory setting must contain numeric characters only and must be unique within the contact center. Note that if you have any hardphones registered in the system, their numbers cannot be assigned as users' phone extensions. See section Hardphones for more information.

The extension can be used in combination with a user’s PIN code for phone login (see below) for authentication through interfaces that only accept numeric input (e.g., an IVR system).

Bright Pattern Contact Center assigns extension numbers to new users automatically in ascending order starting from 1000. You can change the default number to any other value. In this case, the default extension number assigned to the next new user will be the newly defined value + 1. Extension numbers are recycled (i.e., when you delete a user, that user's extension number will be assigned by default to the next new user).

A user’s extension number cannot be changed while the user is logged on to that extension; if a change is attempted, an error message will display, "Cannot change extension number while agent is logged on that extension." Also note that the user can log in with a different number (e.g., a hardphone number).

For more information about user phone device options, see section Selecting a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

Forward all calls for ext…

This indicates whether call forwarding is activated for the user’s phone extension.

Call forwarding can also be activated via the extension’s properties; see section Softphones. Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how forwarding will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. If the user has had voicemail enabled (see below), activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function.

to

This field represents the phone number to which incoming calls will be forwarded. The phone number must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected.

Forward on no answer after

Forward on no answer after is the time (in seconds) after which incoming calls will be forwarded to the number specified if the user is logged on and does not answer. The amount of time must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected. For immediate (unconditional) forwarding, set the timeout to 0.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be forwarded to the specified number immediately, regardless of this setting.

Default hardphone number

Default hardphone number is the extension number of the hardphone assigned to the user. This setting is optional but if specified, it must be one of the existing hardphone extension numbers (see section Hardphones). This parameter should be defined only for users who normally use permanently assigned hardphones installed at their personal desks. To log into the Agent Desktop application with this hardphone, the user should select option Default phone. For more information about a user’s phone device options, see section How to Select a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

The call forwarding settings will not take effect on the default hardphone. Instead, the forwarding settings configured for the hardphone itself will apply (see section Hardphones).

Enable voicemail

Enable voicemail indicates whether the voicemail function is enabled for the user. For general voicemail settings, see section Voicemail.

Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how voicemail will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. The voicemail function cannot be enabled if the user already has call forwarding activated. If the user has had voicemail enabled, a temporary activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function; however, the voicemail configuration (the No Answer timeout and current greeting) will be preserved and will take effect as soon as call forwarding is deactivated.

Send to voicemail after

Send to voicemail after is the time in seconds after which an incoming call will be forwarded to voicemail if the user is logged on and does not pick up the call. The amount of time must be specified if the Enable voicemail checkbox is selected.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be sent to the user’s voicemail immediately, regardless of this setting.

Use this voicemail greeting

This option lets you upload up to three different personal voicemail greetings for the user and select which one should be used. Individual greetings may be deleted as necessary.

Users can also record their personal greetings directly via their Agent Desktop application. For more information see section Configuring Your Voicemail of the Agent Guide.

Work phone

Work phone is the user’s work phone. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

Mobile phone

Mobile phone is the user’s mobile phone number. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

PIN code for phone login

The PIN is the user’s numeric password that can be used in combination with user’s Phone extension for authentication through interfaces that accept only numeric input (e.g., an interactive voice response (IVR) system).

Email address

Email address is the user’s email address that the system will use for delivery of password reset instructions, voicemail messages, and scheduled reports. It must be specified if the voicemail is enabled because the user will be notified of new voicemail messages via email. Additionally, this email address is not used for distribution of service email interactions to the agents.

Note: This field must be filled out in order to save an assigned System Administrator role to a user.

Location tab

This tab lets you specify various optional properties related to a user’s geographical location.

Region

The geographic region for the user (e.g., "US"). This property is required.

Your contact center is associated with a region by default. The Region selector is used to initialize user region at the time of creation. If your service provider has enabled multiple regions to be used for your contact center, you will be able to select a non-default region for the user from the selector.

Time zone

The time zone for the user (e.g., "-08:00 America/Los_Angeles"). This property is required.

Country

The country in which the user works (e.g., "United States"). This property is optional.

State/Province

The state or province in which the user works (e.g., "CA"). This property is optional.

City

The city in which in which the user works (e.g., "San Bruno"). This property is optional.

Login Info tab

This tab provides a variety of user login information; it may be consulted for quick user diagnostics. The properties are as follows.

Login state

Displays the login state of the user

Since

Captures the date and time of user's last login state change (i.e., the Contact Center Administrator application or the Agent Desktop application); note that it is not updated if the user opens additional applications or changes to/from the Supervision mode

App Type and version

Displays the name and the version of the app the user used in the most recently, including Mobile Agent

Browser type and version

Displays the name and the version of the web browser the user used in the most recent session

Selected phone device option

Displays the phone device option the user used in the most recent session

OS

Displays the name of the user's operating system, including mobile devices.

IP address (public)

The public IP address of the user

Raw User-Agent string

Displays the HTTP User-Agent browser identification header, which is automatically submitted by the web browser

Agent Desktop Helper version

Displays the version number of the user's Agent Desktop Helper Application

Mobile Device Model

If the Mobile app is used by this agent, this field displays the mobile device the app was used on.

Roles tab

A user can be assigned any number of roles that define what kind of system functionality can be accessed. For more information, see section Roles. Select a role from the list in order to assign it to the user.

By default, new users do not have any roles assigned to them. Since the majority of users registered in your configuration are likely to be agents, you can configure automatic assignment of the Agent role to every new user. See the description of property Assign this role to newly created users in section Roles for more information.

Users

A user is anyone who may need access to any functionality of Bright Pattern Contact Center. Each user in the Bright Pattern Contact Center configuration must be assigned to a team. The level of users' access to the system's functions is defined by their assigned roles. Thus, you should typically have both the roles and teams defined in your configuration before you begin to register your users.

Most of the users will access Bright Pattern Contact Center via the Agent Desktop application. The exact set of functionality available to a logged-on user via this application depends on the role(s) assigned this user in your contact center configuration.

• The Agent Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center agents and back-office (PBX) workers.

• The Supervisor Guide provides detailed instructions for the use of Agent Desktop by contact center supervisors and campaign operators.

Although most of the Agent Desktop functionality is implemented using thin-client technologies, some of its capabilities require a software component that is installed on users’ computers. This component is called Agent Desktop Helper Application. For more information about the functions of this component and methods of its installation, see section Agent Desktop Helper Application.

The computers of users of the Agent Desktop application must conform to a number of system requirements.

How to Define and Edit User Information

To view, define, and edit user information, select the Users option from the Users & Teams menu.

The Users list provides the following information:

• First Name - The first name of the user
• Last Name - The last name of the user
• Extension - The extension number of the user
• Roles - The assigned role(s) for the user (e.g., agent, supervisor, etc.)
• Team - The assigned team(s) for the user
• Created on - The date that the user was created in the system
• Last login on - The date of the user's last login to the system

Importing and Exporting Users

The Contact Center Administrator application allows you to import users, including their passwords, teams, skills and other properties in bulk, by uploading a specially formatted spreadsheet. Additionally, you may export your existing users list, change it, and upload it back. Import and export operations are activated by the arrow buttons at the bottom of the user list view. Both the .XLS and the .XLSX formats are supported for import and export.

Export Users

To export a list of users, click the export users button; a window will pop that allows you to select the download format (i.e., .XLS or .XSLX). Then select Export and the list will download.

Note: An easy way to obtain a user import template is to apply the export operation, and then use the produced spreadsheet as an import template.

Import or Update Users

Using the import/update wizard, it is possible to upload new users or update existing users. To import a list of users, click the import or update users button. If you require a list of existing users, you may click the Download Current List of Users button. You may upload a list in either the .XLS or the .XSLX format.

During the upload, the system checks column header names in a case-insensitive way to match the specification. To ensure your list is successfully uploaded, you may download a sample template that displays the system-accepted format details. To download the template, click Download Sample with Format Details.

Most errors may be downloaded from the Errors screen, with the exception of errors due to an invalid import format. Invalid import format errors will be displayed immediately in the Contact Center Administrator UI. Note that you will not be able to complete the import until all errors are resolved.

The following ID fields are included in the upload format:

• Username - The user's username; note that this field is the primary key
• First Name - The user's first name
• Last Name - The user's last name
• Email - The user's email address
• Password - The user's password
• Disabled - Whether the user is disabled or not
  • On upload, enter Yes to disable the user or No to keep the user enabled
• Hardphone Number - The user's hardphone number; note that it is possible for hot-desked agents to have the same hardphone number
• Softphone Number - The user's softphone number
• DID number - The PSTN number associated with the user
• Team - The user's team; values are case insensitive
  • When assigning a user to a team and not specifying (or retaining) all values of that team’s assigned services skills’, the remaining service skill values are set to 100.
  • When moving an agent from one team to another, any existing skill values for services not assigned to the destination team are set to 0.
• Role - The user's role(s); note that values are case insensitive and multiple roles should be comma-separated (e.g., Agent,Supervisor)
• PIN - The user's PIN
• Rank - The user's rank
• Nickname - The user's chat nickname
• Maximum concurrent chats - The maximum number of concurrent chats allowed for the user
• Skill Group=Skillname - The user's skill group; note that:
  • Values from 0 to 100 may be entered
  • The skill name is in following format: <Skill group name>=<Skill name> (e.g., Skill Language=English)
  • Services are treated as a skills
  • Skill names are case insensitive
• Skill Name 2 - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Skill Name x - See Skill Group=Skillname
• Created on - When the user was created; read-only, updates are ignored
• Last login on - When the user last logged in; read-only, updates are ignored
• User must change password on next login - Requires the user to change their password at the next login attempt; accepted values are true or false
• Do not record calls - Disables recording of the user's calls; accepted values are Yes or No
• Delete - Deletes the user. Entering Yes or any other value deletes the user, leaving an empty field does not delete the user. Values are case insensitive; contains the No value in exported lists for users not deleted

User Import and Export Notes

• In order to perform a bulk upload, you must have all of the following privileges:
  • Manage roles and security settings
  • Manage skills
  • Manage all teams
  • Manage phones
  • Manage users
  • Grants for all privileges referred by the role you are trying to assign, or the Grant all privileges privilege

• When you are creating new users, only mandatory fields are required. The mandatory fields are as follows:
  • Username
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Softphone Number (auto-generated if empty)
  • Team

• If performing a bulk update, only Username and one other column are required.  

• Regarding passwords, note the following:
  • A user's password should be set according to their contact center’s and/or service provider’s policies.
  • When importing users, if a defined password for a given user is not supported by the contact center and/or service provider, this user will be not imported; the error will be displayed.
  • When updating a user with an import, if the user's password field is empty, the user's password will not be updated.
  • When exporting users, user passwords are not exported (i.e., the password fields will be blank).

• Column contents may be empty if you are performing an update or if the fields are optional. Empty fields are ignored during the update.

• If you do not wish to use certain records during a particular instance of import, but you would like to keep those records in the spreadsheet for possible use in the future, you can add a column with name Delete to the spreadsheet and set its value to yes for the records that are not to be imported.

• Softphones are deleted upon user deletion.

• It is not possible to add columns to the user import template (i.e., except the Delete column); any attempt to upload unknown columns will fail the import.

Screen Properties

Person tab

The Person screen properties are described as follows. Note that users can change some of their profile properties directly via the Agent Desktop application. These properties are marked with an asterisk (*). For more information, see section Configuring Your User Profile of the Agent Guide.

Note: Some service configuration changes that affect agent behavior are not picked up dynamically by Agent Desktop. Thus, after making a change to user information that appears in the user's profile, we recommend that all affected agents re-login to Agent Desktop and/or refresh their browser page.

Username

Username is the name that the user will enter when logging in to Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. Username is mandatory and must be unique within the contact center.

Note that a username can be changed; in order for changes to be made, this feature must be enabled by your service provider for your contact center. If enabled, username changes can be done only via the Contact Center Administrator application and the BPCC SCIM-Compliant User Provisioning API. Username changes cannot be done via the Agent Desktop application, user import, or the BPCC Configuration API.

When changing a username, please consider the following:

• Username change does not change the historical records created prior to the username change, which contain the old username. If a user’s username is changed and you wish to include the user’s data in historical reports from before and after the change, do the following:
  • From the Agent filter, select the user’s current name.
  • From the Agent filter, select the Show disabled/deleted agents checkbox, then select the user’s former name.
  • Please note that the Agent filter uses first and last name, so if the username was changed, but the first and last name stayed the same, a person with the same name may appear in both active and disabled/deleted users.
• If a user is logged into the Agent Desktop application when her username is changed, a banner displays the message, "Your username has changed. Please log out and log in with the new username." The user’s softphone will continue the current call; however, they will not be able to refresh registration, accept, or make new calls.

Password

Password is the password that the user will enter when logging into Agent Desktop or any other Bright Pattern application. This field is displayed for new users only and its specification is mandatory. Note that some rules related to password complexity (i.e., length, special characters, etc.) may be defined and enforced at the service provider level.

Confirm password

The Confirm password field is mandatory.

Change password

The Change password option is displayed for existing users only, and it is used to change the selected user’s password. This option will typically be used by an administrator to change passwords of other users. Users can change their own passwords via the Agent Desktop application.

API secret

The API secret is a unique, secret string that identifies the user (i.e., user credentials). The API secret is used during authentication to request an access token for Bright Pattern APIs, such as the Configuration API and others.

Disabled

Disabled indicates whether the user is active. Select this checkbox to disable user's access to all system functions temporarily. Disabled users are shown dimmed in the user list view.

Note that inactive user accounts may also be disabled automatically. See section Security Policy for more information. Disabled users are still counted as named users in your configuration.

User must change password on next login

This property indicates whether the user will be forced to change the password upon the next login. To comply with the PCI DSS security standard, select this checkbox for every new user.

As soon as the user changes the password, the check mark will be removed automatically. You can force the user to change password at any time by selecting this checkbox again.

This property exists to support manual password change enforcement. Note that the system also supports automatic password expiration. See section Security Policy for more information. The related automatic password changes are not reflected by this property.

Lockout

Lockout indicates whether this user can access the system or is currently locked out due to a security policy violation. See section Security Policy for more information. You can click the link to view current lockout status. If the user account is locked out, you can unlock it by clicking the Unlock button.

First name

First name is the user’s first name. This field is mandatory.

Last name

Last name is the user’s last name. This field is mandatory.

Team

Team is the team to which this user is assigned. A Bright Pattern Contact Center user must be assigned to a team, and a user cannot be assigned to more than one team. See section Teams for considerations regarding assignment of users to teams.

Note that teams may be associated with services. Upon assignment to such a team, the user may get a corresponding service skill with a certain level automatically. You can change the level or remove the skill from the user manually using the Skill Levels option.

Training Class

Training Class, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a training class for a given user. Training Classes are created in the Contact Center Administrator application, section Users & Teams > Training Classes. Training Class is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Supervisor in charge

Supervisor in charge, a feature of the Omni QM module, allows you to define a specific supervisor as being responsible for a given user. Supervisor in charge is used as an optional search parameter in select QM Reports; for more information, contact your service provider.

Record calls

The Record calls checkbox allow you to record a specific agent's calls. Note: If call recording is enabled as a global setting, this checkbox option will change to Do not record calls and you can mark specific agents to not record.

Title

Title is the user’s job title. This property is used for information only. For user’s access privileges, see section Roles below.

About me

About me is the optional information that users will typically enter themselves via their Agent Desktop profile settings.

Photo

This is the user’s photo. The photo will appear in the Contact Info Panel of the Agent Desktop application during internal communications. If you use chat services, the photo can also be displayed to customers when they communicate with this agent via chat. To upload a photo, click upload. To remove the photo, click remove.

There is a maximum size of 9MB for photos. However, photos are compressed to fit the user interface elements where they are displayed. Note that the maximum size for uploaded files may be further limited by your service provider.

Maximum concurrent chats - Limit number of chats on the agent

Maximum concurrent chats lets you define the total number of concurrent chats an agent will process at a given time. If this setting is configured, the system will choose the smaller number from between this setting and the Omni-Channel Routing setting for chat (i.e., if chat is configured at the maximum, too).

Note that when set to a lower number of chats than set in omni-channel routing, this setting will impact agent occupancy, where 100% of occupancy will be the maximum number of chats from the omni-channel routing setting, and less when clamped down by this per-user setting (e.g., 4 chats in omni-channel routing - 100%, clamped to 3 - 75%).

Contacts tab

Chat nickname

Chat nickname is the name that will be displayed to other parties when they communicate with this user via chat.

Rank

Rank is the user’s rank. This optional setting can be used as an additional selection criterion in custom agent reports. This setting is essential for users who are agents only.

Phone extension

Phone extension is the extension number of the user’s softphone. This mandatory setting must contain numeric characters only and must be unique within the contact center. Note that if you have any hardphones registered in the system, their numbers cannot be assigned as users' phone extensions. See section Hardphones for more information.

The extension can be used in combination with a user’s PIN code for phone login (see below) for authentication through interfaces that only accept numeric input (e.g., an IVR system).

Bright Pattern Contact Center assigns extension numbers to new users automatically in ascending order starting from 1000. You can change the default number to any other value. In this case, the default extension number assigned to the next new user will be the newly defined value + 1. Extension numbers are recycled (i.e., when you delete a user, that user's extension number will be assigned by default to the next new user).

A user’s extension number cannot be changed while the user is logged on to that extension; if a change is attempted, an error message will display, "Cannot change extension number while agent is logged on that extension." Also note that the user can log in with a different number (e.g., a hardphone number).

For more information about user phone device options, see section Selecting a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

Forward all calls for ext…

This indicates whether call forwarding is activated for the user’s phone extension.

Call forwarding can also be activated via the extension’s properties; see section Softphones. Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how forwarding will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. If the user has had voicemail enabled (see below), activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function.

to

This field represents the phone number to which incoming calls will be forwarded. The phone number must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected.

Forward on no answer after

Forward on no answer after is the time (in seconds) after which incoming calls will be forwarded to the number specified if the user is logged on and does not answer. The amount of time must be specified if the Forward all calls to ext… checkbox is selected. For immediate (unconditional) forwarding, set the timeout to 0.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be forwarded to the specified number immediately, regardless of this setting.

Default hardphone number

Default hardphone number is the extension number of the hardphone assigned to the user. This setting is optional but if specified, it must be one of the existing hardphone extension numbers (see section Hardphones). This parameter should be defined only for users who normally use permanently assigned hardphones installed at their personal desks. To log into the Agent Desktop application with this hardphone, the user should select option Default phone. For more information about a user’s phone device options, see section How to Select a Phone Device of the Agent Guide.

The call forwarding settings will not take effect on the default hardphone. Instead, the forwarding settings configured for the hardphone itself will apply (see section Hardphones).

Enable voicemail

Enable voicemail indicates whether the voicemail function is enabled for the user. For general voicemail settings, see section Voicemail.

Section Forwarding and Voicemail Operation explains how voicemail will work with various phone devices that the user can select upon login.

Note that call forwarding takes priority over voicemail. The voicemail function cannot be enabled if the user already has call forwarding activated. If the user has had voicemail enabled, a temporary activation of call forwarding for this user will automatically disable the voicemail function; however, the voicemail configuration (the No Answer timeout and current greeting) will be preserved and will take effect as soon as call forwarding is deactivated.

Send to voicemail after

Send to voicemail after is the time in seconds after which an incoming call will be forwarded to voicemail if the user is logged on and does not pick up the call. The amount of time must be specified if the Enable voicemail checkbox is selected.

If the user is unreachable (busy or logged out), incoming calls will be sent to the user’s voicemail immediately, regardless of this setting.

Use this voicemail greeting

This option lets you upload up to three different personal voicemail greetings for the user and select which one should be used. Individual greetings may be deleted as necessary.

Users can also record their personal greetings directly via their Agent Desktop application. For more information see section Configuring Your Voicemail of the Agent Guide.

Work phone

Work phone is the user’s work phone. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

Mobile phone

Mobile phone is the user’s mobile phone number. This optional setting is used for informational purposes only.

PIN code for phone login

The PIN is the user’s numeric password that can be used in combination with user’s Phone extension for authentication through interfaces that accept only numeric input (e.g., an interactive voice response (IVR) system).

Email address

Email address is the user’s email address that the system will use for delivery of password reset instructions, voicemail messages, and scheduled reports. It must be specified if the voicemail is enabled because the user will be notified of new voicemail messages via email. Additionally, this email address is not used for distribution of service email interactions to the agents.

Note: This field must be filled out in order to save an assigned System Administrator role to a user.

Location tab

This tab lets you specify various optional properties related to a user’s geographical location.

Region

The geographic region for the user (e.g., "US"). This property is required.

Your contact center is associated with a region by default. The Region selector is used to initialize user region at the time of creation. If your service provider has enabled multiple regions to be used for your contact center, you will be able to select a non-default region for the user from the selector.

Time zone

The time zone for the user (e.g., "-08:00 America/Los_Angeles"). This property is required.

Country

The country in which the user works (e.g., "United States"). This property is optional.

State/Province

The state or province in which the user works (e.g., "CA"). This property is optional.

City

The city in which in which the user works (e.g., "San Bruno"). This property is optional.

Login Info tab

This tab provides a variety of user login information; it may be consulted for quick user diagnostics. The properties are as follows.

Login state

Displays the login state of the user

Since

Captures the date and time of user's last login state change (i.e., the Contact Center Administrator application or the Agent Desktop application); note that it is not updated if the user opens additional applications or changes to/from the Supervision mode

App Type and version

Displays the name and the version of the app the user used in the most recently, including Mobile Agent

Browser type and version

Displays the name and the version of the web browser the user used in the most recent session

Selected phone device option

Displays the phone device option the user used in the most recent session

OS

Displays the name of the user's operating system, including mobile devices.

IP address (public)

The public IP address of the user

Raw User-Agent string

Displays the HTTP User-Agent browser identification header, which is automatically submitted by the web browser

Agent Desktop Helper version

Displays the version number of the user's Agent Desktop Helper Application

Mobile Device Model

If the Mobile app is used by this agent, this field displays the mobile device the app was used on.

Roles tab

A user can be assigned any number of roles that define what kind of system functionality can be accessed. For more information, see section Roles. Select a role from the list in order to assign it to the user.

By default, new users do not have any roles assigned to them. Since the majority of users registered in your configuration are likely to be agents, you can configure automatic assignment of the Agent role to every new user. See the description of property Assign this role to newly created users in section Roles for more information.

Service Level Tab

Service Level specifies the percentage of calls/chats associated with this service that are expected to be answered within a specified threshold.

The actual percentage of the interactions answered within the specified threshold time is monitored in real time, and supervisors can be alerted in case it drops below the specified target.

The Service Level tab is displayed for inbound voice, blended voice, and chat services only. For email services, the service level is defined differently. Email service level is configured in the Email tab.

Properties

The Service Level tab has the following parameters to be set: answered calls and within threshold.

Answered calls

Answered calls is the percentage of calls or chats expected to be answered within the specified threshold relative to all calls/chats that are answered at any time or abandoned after this threshold. (Calls/chats abandoned within the threshold time are considered short-abandoned.)

Within threshold

Within threshold is the threshold time (in seconds).

Natural Language Understanding Integration

Bright Pattern offers IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding integration to provide sentiment analysis for services. Natural Language Understanding is enabled for voice and chat per service and for email in the scenario entry point.

Properties

The properties of the Natural Language Understanding type of integration account are described as follows.

Name

The name of the integration account.

Type

Watson Natural Language Understanding is the type of integration.

Url

Your URL copied from the Natural Language Understanding service credentials.

For example:

https://api.us-south.natural-language-understanding.watson.cloud.ibm.com/instances/1234ede1-23b4-1fb2-ad34-b123afbb4123

Authentication method

Select either API key or username/password (legacy) to set the appropriate credentials for your Natural Language Understanding service.

API key

The API key from your Natural Language Understanding service credentials.

Username

The username used to authenticate the Watson Natural Language Understanding API with Basic Authentication. The username is provided when you sign up for IBM Bluemix and create an account.

Password

The password used to authenticate the Watson Natural Language Understanding API with Basic Authentication. The password is provided when you sign up for IBM Bluemix and create an account.

Limit

The maximum number of API calls per day. A limit (e.g., “100”) can help keep the number of API calls within the boundaries of free subscriptions. The default is no limit.

Metrics

In the "service_in_time_counters" table, how is the value for "num_calls_answered" determined?

If the call is distributed to an agent, and that agent answers either manually or via auto answer, that call would count toward the num_calls_answered metric. For more information on this metric and others in the service_in_time_counters table, see the Reporting Database Specification.

How is EWT Calculated?

The real-time metric Estimated Wait Time (EWT) is calculated using a composite approach: it combines calculated EWT (the method of calculation is described as follows) with real Average Speed of Answer (ASA) on the service. A composite approach allows EWT to better adjust to complex configurations (e.g., teams serving multiple services, blended services, scenarios that require specific skills sets in the Find Agent block, etc.).

To calculate EWT, we use a probabilistic approach. That is, the conditional probability of an event occurring within a given time interval is calculated with the assumption that agents become Ready over time, according to the exponential distribution.

Imagine there is a service queue with incoming interactions and a pool of agents assigned to this service. If an interaction comes into the service queue and there is an agent in the Ready state, then EWT is 0. If all agents are in a Busy state at this moment, we can calculate the probability of the event when an agent becomes available within a certain amount of time.

The probability distribution, in this case, can be approximately described as an exponential distribution where the parameter of distribution is proportional to the total number of agents and inversely proportional to the sum of Average Handle Time and Average After Call Work (ACW) Time.

If we select a confidential interval, then we can calculate a distribution of probability for agents to become available. Resolving the equation after a number of transformations, we can find a value for probable wait time. This is proportional to the queue length and inversely proportional to some probable handling time with current handling time uniformly distributed among available agents and the probable number of interactions, which sit in the queue ahead of current interactions and will be abandoned based and calculated on the value of average abandon time.

What is the definition of "total_busy_time_in"? What about "total_busy_time_out" and "total_ready_time"?

These metrics and others are defined in the Reporting Database Specification. Those specific metrics are defined in section agent_performance:

• total_busy_time_in - Specifies the sum of times the agent was busy with inbound calls; includes hold times, but does not include ringing time or after call work time
• total_busy_time_out - Specifies the sum of times the agent was busy with outbound calls; includes hold times, but does not include dialing time or after call work time
• total_ready_time - Total time the agent spent in the Ready state during the aggregation interval

About

Bright Pattern Contact Center software integrates with Surfly, a co-browsing solution, in order to allow co-browsing between agents in the Agent Desktop application and customers viewing specific web resources. Co-browsing is an ideal solution for helping customers negotiate confusing web pages, fill out complex forms, and so forth.

The Surfly Integration Guide describes how to do the following:

• Configuring your Surfly account’s settings to optimize Bright Pattern Contact Center integration
• Configuring a co-browsing integration account
• Adding the integration account to a messaging/chat scenario entry
• Training your agents how to operate co-browsing with customers