Skilled hunt / IVR question 1

[criling]

Hi,

I'm working on a new IVR system, and I have two seperate boxes (for redundancy) running the IVR software, with a DS1 off of each one to the PBX. Each channel on each DS1 is assigned to a station, and these stations auto-login as agents into a skill. This way, if one DS1 goes down, those agents drop out of the queue, and calls will not be routed to that box. However, my concern lies with a situation when the DS1 is functional, the box is up, but the services or the software crashes, and the DS1 is effectively ring no answer. How would you guys handle this? Will it just try more channels (agents) until one picks up on the other box? Is there a better way to approach the problem?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[wildcard100001]

Program IVR by-pass logic... do this by entering something like the following:
xxx = IVR skill

goto step xx if staffed-agents in skill xxx < 1

step xx = route to VDN.... answered by live agents etc...

or...

Program an actual backup bypass skill (xxx).... so instead of the logic checking the IVR skill... check the backup skill if agents are logged in.. route to it etc...

the logic would be: goto step xx if staffed-agents in skill xxx > 0

Either way both of these would be placed at the begining of the vector, then the routing at the end of the vector.

Hope this helps,

Wildcard

 

[criling]

That is easy enough to do, however the problem isn't really if one of the lines isn't there, because those agents would drop out, and the ones from thie DS1 on the other box would be there to take the call. The problem is what happens if both lines are up (hence the agents are there) the calls get routed there, but the software or services on the box takes a crap, this would result in a call getting routed to a box with a ring no answer...

 

[wildcard100001]

I would program an emergency by-pass skill...

So, you have a "emergency skill" if logged in, route the calls to a skilled CSR... So, if the emergency agent is logged in, calls by pass the IVR.

Very few people would know this agent id, plus add a security code to it. That way it doesn't get accidentally logged in.

So if you want calls to by-pass the IVR, login the emergency agent and the route the call to a CSR manned skill....route step to the VDN. Same logic applies... just checking the emergency skill instead. You'd be able to turn on calls to the IVR by having the agent logged off, or by-pass it if logged in.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks,

Wildcard

 

[criling]

It does make sense, and that may be an option, but I'm looking for a way to automate the routing between whichever box is working, that's why there are two servers running the software... the IVR is available 24/7, while the CSRs are not. On that same note, I'd rather notice and have a problem resolved before a customer sees it.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[wildcard100001]

You could use RONA on the skill, the IVR AAS agent would be put in AUX if they didn't answer the PBX would route the call to another available IVR agent. If you use this method, to get the IVR agents back to available you'd need to busy and release them once the issue was resolved, or remove them from the hunt and put them back..

This would do what you want... but would require manual intervention to get back to normal if you did have issues.

Thanks,

Wildcard

 

[criling]

I apologize for what seems to be a simple question, but what is RONA and how would I go about doing this?

 

[wildcard100001]

RONA is Re-direct on No Answer, page 2 of the hunt group. You can set the number of rings and if you want the call to go to a diffrent VDN... If the number of rings threshod is reached, the PBX places the agent in AUX.

Thanks,

Wildcard

 

[NetworksMD]

Are you using a converse on step to route the IVR? I have run across this exact same issue and there is not an easy solution to it.

The one issue with RONA we have found on the converse on step, even if you have a redirect VDN in place, is that they system will cycle through all of the AAS agents before it redirects. So if you have RONA set to 3 rings and have 20 ports available it will take 60 rings to activate either by one caller or multiple callers.

One small tweak you can use is to setup a few ports no each box with a higher skill level then all of the others. What this will do alternate calls on the first few ports and between the boxes, so if you do have an issue, it will only affect 50% of the calls for the higher skill level ports.

The issues are that the actual IVR application and PBX have no communication between them, so the PBX doesn't know when the app is down. The PBX is looking at the voice card. Another option we have been looking into is a way for the voice card software or firmware to keep track of the app and if the app is not present place the voice ports or T1 in a busy state on the voice card side.

 

[criling]

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm battling with, let me know if you find a good way around it...

Thanks,
Chris

 

[nohuhu]

criling,

The Right Way to solve this problem is to use cti integration between pbx and ivr platform. when ivr goes up, it register its ports as agents and logs them in. pbx consider them "alive" and route calls to ivr. if ivr software dies, it misses a keepalive or two, cti stream goes down, all ivr ports are logged off and pbx does not route calls to ivr.
avaya ir works either via cvlan or tsapi, can't say about 3rd-party ivrs.

 

[criling]

I would agree with this, however, it's not what was purchased, and not what the company wanted to spend their money on; unfortunately not my choice. I am doing something similar on another PBX at another site with a CTI server. I did, however, get it working with RONA and a couple fancy vectoring steps thanks to the gentlemen above...

Thanks!
Chris