Nireshen Beerbul
Senior Consultant
Microsoft
[email protected]
Agenda
What is Response Group Service (RGS)?
How should RGS be used?
How does RGS work?
How do I get RGS deployed?
How do I manage RGS?
Demo
Reporting, Tips & Tricks
Response Group Service
New in OCS 2007 R2,
Response Group Service
distributes incoming calls
to groups of agents.
Response Group Service is
NOT a replacement for full
featured call centers or a
lookup-based auto attendant.
Common RGS Scenario
A call arrives at the Fabrikam Team Help group
If a holiday -> voicemail
If not within business hours -> voicemail
Try an available member of the help desk group
If no answer, try the next receptionist (round-robin)
Parallel-ring a small group of designated backup
Finally -> voicemail
Solutions Today
Basic PBX features
Add-on ACD solution
Dedicated ACD
(Basic Hunt group)
Fully featured
Additional licensing costs
High scale
High Additional Costs
• Basic hunt groups
• Agent sign-in/out
• Various hunting
methods
• MoH
• Business
hours
• Basic
CDRs
Departmental Solutions
• Supervisor
• Live views
• Advanced
CDRs
Internal
helpdesks,
Small CCs
• High Scale
• High Availability
• Advanced CDRs
• Interop w/ LoB apps
Large CCs
Positioning of RGS
Basic PBX features
Add-on ACD solution
Dedicated ACD
(Basic Hunt group)
Fully featured
Additional licensing costs
High scale
High Additional Costs
Response Group
Service 2007 R2
• Huntgroups and basic IVRs
• Support for end-users managing RGS
• Integration with OCS presence
• Speech recognition and TTS in 12 langs
• Music on hold
• Basic CDRs
• Supervisor
• Live views
• Advanced
CDRs
Internal
helpdesks,
Small CCs
• High Scale
• High Availability
• Advanced CDRs
• Interop w/ LoB apps
Large CCs
Typical Call Flow, Simple Hunt Group
2. Customer has an established
1. Customer
calls RGS (listening to
call with
main office
number
music);
RGS trying to reach an
available Agent
OCS 2007 R2
with RGS
3. Agent picks up, RGS
connects the two calls. The
customer is now talking
with the Agent.
Components - Overview
Agent
Group
Queue
Response
Group
Queue
Agent
Agent
Agent
Group
Agent
Agent
Group
Agent
Components - Response Groups and
Contact Objects
Each RG needs a separate RG contact object aka CO
Lives in Active Directory (AD)
The contact contains the Response Group’s SIP URI,
display name and tel URI
4 Response Group types called “templates”
Basic hunt group (1 Queue, n Agent Groups)
Enhanced hunt group (= basic hunt group + more
options such as welcome msg & hold-music)
One-level interactive (single-level basic IVR)
Two-level interactive (two-level basic IVR)
Components - Queues
Queues hold calls that haven’t been routed
Relationships
Multiple Agent Groups can be added to a Queue
Two Queues can contain the same Agent Group
Queue timeout
Queue overflow
Components - Agent Groups
Groups of Agents that Queues point to
Agents can be added to Agent Groups individually,
or by AD distribution group
Agent Group Types
Informal - agent does not need to ‘sign in’
Formal - agent must ‘sign in’ to the group
Routing Methods
Parallel - all agents at the same time
Serial - always start ringing the first agent
Round robin - ring the next agent in the order specified
Longest Idle - ring the longest idle agent
Components - Agents
Agents are users that RGS
routes incoming calls to
To be an agent, a user
must be enabled for
Office Communications
Server and also enabled
for Enterprise Voice
An agent can belong to
multiple Agent Groups
even if the Agent Groups
live in different pools
Deploying RGS
RGS is deployed by default for both OCS
Standard and Enterprise editions
Deploying RGS: Speech Packs
Speech Language packs (used for TTS and SR)
By default, only US-English installed; 12 available languages
Install more language packs on every front end server
After installing, run rgslang.exe from ResKit to sync registry & WMI
so that RGS picks up the new languages, then restart RGS
Get packs from DVD, or download them; name is “Microsoft Office
Communications Server 2007 R2 UCMA 2.0 Speech Language Packs”
TechNet article link: http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/dd441219.aspx
Managing RGS or displaying OC Tab in different
language than OCS installation language
Download “OCS 2007 R2 Response Group Service Language
Pack”
Questions so far?
We’ve covered:
What RGS is
How RGS can be used
RGS components
RGS deployment
Still to come:
Management & demo
Client and Agent Experience
Reporting
Tips & Tricks
Managing RGS - Overview
Agent
groups
Agents
Response
Response
Groups
Group
Queues
contacts
Managing RGS
Agents, Agent Groups,
Queues
Managed with the MMC
snap-in, which installs as
part of OCS Admin Tools
Response Groups
Managed with your web
browser @ RGS webpage
Can get to this from MMC,
or directly via URL
https://srv/Rgs/Deploy/Default.aspx
Managing RGS, Contact Objects
Contact objects (for Response Groups)
Created using the RGSCot.exe which is installed as
part of the Administrative Tools
Lives in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Creating your first Response Group
What Client should Agents use?
Agent Group type Recommended Agent Clients
Informal (no sign- Office Communicator or Attendant
in to Agent
Console recommended.
Groups required)
Otherwise OC Phone Edition is supported;
Communicator Mobile Edition not
supported.
Formal (sign-in to
Agent Groups
required)
Office Communicator required for sign-in
(unless you build your own web-service
consumer to handle sign-in)
Communicator - Configuring Agents
In order to allow user agents to sign in and out of formal
groups you must configure a custom tab in OC
Push it down to clients via Group Policy: URL to tab XML file
The tab points to the RGS sign-in page (pre-built)
Communicator Tab definition (XML) example:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<tabdata>
<tab>
<image>https://ocs02.df.int/rtcbranding/RgsOcTab.png</image>
<name>Response Group Tab</name>
<tooltip>Response Group Tab</tooltip>
<userid>true</userid>
<contenturl>https://ocs03.df.int/rgs/clients/Tab.aspx</contenturl>
<contactid>false</contactid>
</tab>
</tabdata>
Communicator - Configuring Agents
Any sites specified in tabs.xml file must be listed
in trusted sites section in IE to avoid having to
enter extra username and password
Required because the pool URL is not already listed
in the local Intranet Site
Communicator - Agent Experience
As an agent of Response Group “Ask.Astana”:
Communicator - Calling a RG
In Office Communicator, looking at “Benefits
Bot” (a Response Group)
Reporting
Install ArchiverCDRReporter ResKit tool
RGS data is stored in the CDR database along with
all other CDR calls. Each call to a Response Group
will generate three dialogs in the CDR database
Dialog 1 - The caller calls RGS
Dialog 2 - RGS calls the agent
Dialog 3 - RGS connects the agent to the caller
Report entry “Wait time of call” = Dialog 1
Report entry “Length of call” = Dialog 2+3
Tips and Tricks
If you are trying to access the RGS webpage as a
domain admin be sure to add your account to the
RTCUniversalServerAdmins group
RGS manager role does not have access to manage
Queues
Changes made to Response Groups take a few
minutes to take effect
Deactivating RGS causes its COs to be deleted
There is a ResKit tool to export/import Response
Groups (including COs)
Key Takeaways
RGS should be used as a departmental ACD
solution
You’ve probably already deployed RGS
You probably need to install more speech packs
(don’t forget to run rgslang.exe)
Create the components in this order: agents,
agent groups, queues, COs, response groups
Put the OC tab XML file on a fileshare and push
it out to Office Communicator with a GPO
Resources
www.microsoft.com/teched
www.microsoft.com/learning
Sessions On-Demand & Community
Microsoft Certification & Training Resources
http://microsoft.com/technet
http://microsoft.com/msdn
Resources for IT Professionals
Resources for Developers
www.microsoft.com/learning
Microsoft Certification and Training Resources
10 pairs of MP3
sunglasses to be won
Complete a session
evaluation and
enter to win!
© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should
not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS,
IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.
Feature Overview of RGS 2007 R2
• IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
- Input: DTMF or SR
- Playback: .wav or TTS
- SR/TTS supported in 10 languages
• Call queuing
- Music on hold
- Queue time out / queue overflow action
on first call/last call: route to PSTN, other
queue, SIP URI or VoiceMail
• Routing
- Serial, parallel, longest idle, round robin
• Presence
- Icon in OC representing a Response Group
• Workflow templates
- Basic & advanced hunt group
- Simple Q&A and advanced Q&A
• End user managed settings on hunt groups
• Agent side
- Call context on incoming call
(options selected by caller during the IVR)
- Ring time out configured by admin
• Agent groups
- Distribution Group
- Custom admin defined group
• Basic CDRs
Response Group Service Components
Application Server: The Response Group Service is one of the applications that are
hosted on the Application Server. The Application Server is installed automatically
during Office Communications Server deployment.
Language pack: A language pack is required to support text-to-speech and speech
recognition in Interactive Voice Response. The language pack is installed as part of the
Office Communications Server deployment.
Administrative tools: The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group
Administration Snap-in is available in the Office Communications Server
Administrative Tools package.
Web Components Server: The Response Group Configuration Tool, which is a Webbased tool that is used to create and manage workflows, is installed with the Web
Components Server.
Internet Information Services: Internet Information Services (IIS) is required to
support the Response Group Configuration Tool and the agents’ sign in/out
functionality.
Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2: Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2
is required if you have agent groups that are configured to require agents to sign in
and out. In this situation, the agents use a custom tab on the Office Communicator
2007 R2 client to sign in and out
3
Administering Response Groups
Supported Operating Systems for Web
Configuration tool:
Microsoft Internet Explorer® 6
with SP2
Windows® XP with
SP2
Windows Server®
2003 with SP2
Windows Vista®
Windows Server®
2008
Mac OS X 10.5.2
Microsoft Internet
Explorer 7
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.x
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Not listed: IE8 (supported)
X