IPO 9 / VMPro - Indicator to let call centre know when phones are open or closed

[stevewt]

We are running a small call center with 5-10 concurrent agents. Depending on the time of year our hours change from week to week. We are using a "test" condition in VMPro to route calls either an hunt group staffed by agents or to after hours messaging.

I would like to have the "open" or "closed" status displayed for agents on the wallboards (we are using a 3rd party app for call stats). Any ideas on how we can have an open or closed status displayed on a webpage, or trigger a relay (we could connect a light)?

We are running IPO preferred Edition 9.0 500v2 with separate app server running VMPro, One-X portal, wallboard software and reporting . Agents are all using Avaya video softphones

 

[flyguy2]

You could set up mobile twinning for a user and check the "twinned when logged out" box. Have the user logout their phone when they leave and have the twinned destination be an analog set that is connected to a strobe light. Give folks a pickup button to pickup the call from the strobe. Haven't tested it but I think it would work.

 

[amriddle01]

None of this would be an issue if they had actual phones, as you've used softphones you're pretty screwed (softphones are for home/roaming workers, not call centre agents)

 

[stevewt]

thanks for the suggestion Flyguy2, the existing setup is working well - calls are distributed to agent extensions which are logged into the hunt group. We have a wallboard and can see available agents, calls in queue etc. - what I am looking for is an dynamic indicator letting us know if the call center is either on open hours or closed hours. This would be based on the hours "test" we have setup in VMPro

Amiriddle01 - how would this be different if we used hard phones?

 

[intrigrant]

Here is the ultimate solution:

 

[stevewt]

lol, thats what we have now. Unfortunately, the hours change from day to day or week to week. I'd like to somehow pull the hours dynamically from the system and display them without having to open the voicemail pro app to check.

 

[intrigrant]

Can't be done so stick to your current solution.
You could also build a callflow which you can call and it will tell the current open/close hours.
If you don't have TTS licenses it will be pronounced as "open at zero nine zero zero hours close at one seven zero zero hours

 

[amriddle01]

Amiriddle01 - how would this be different if we used hard phones?

You would use group status to route the calls and then all Agents could have a set group night service button that would light up when it's closed and also the handset screen would indicate the groups in Night service, so they all get told twice on their own handset, no need for wallboard indication

 

[derfloh]

It would be also possible to set the business hours as status message on the phone.

 

[amriddle01]

Indeed, softphones (Avaya ones) really are a terrible choice for a call centre

 

[stevewt]

Thanks guys, night service and buttons make sense; right now we are using VMpro to route calls based on a working hours condition / time test. looks like I would need to setup a time profile to use night mode - correct?

I found what I was looking for in the root.vmp file - I'm thinking I can copy this file twice a day, have a script parse out the working hours and display them on a webpage and stick that up on our wallboards.

Do you think IPO will ever get a decent softphone? the IP Agent softphones worked great, but they were only for the CM platform.