TSAPI application and ACD licenses 2

[xyz111]

Avaya CM 3.1.1 and AES 3.1.1.43

I'm working on a CTI application (TSAPI) that interacts with AES. This application also does predictive dialing (cstaMakePredictiveCall) from a VDN and following a route request from the switch it routes the call to a device (cstaRouteSelectInv). To avoid nuisance calls I use cstaQueryAgentState to check the status of a device/agent before calling cstaRouteSelectInv.

In this context the only way the ACD is used is to log agents into the ACD and then check their state. The ACD will not be used for call distribution.

Does anyone here know what type of CM licensing is needed for such purpose and how much would cost?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[nohuhu]

xyz111,

1. to use predictive calling, you need aes advanced tsapi licenses. they're sold in packages depending on pbx platform, i.e. different ones for csi, s8300, s8500 and s8700.
2. to monitor physical extension, vdn and acd group you'll need one aes tsapi basic license per object, i.e. one license per each extension, vdn and acd group. these licenses are sold one by one, you can buy as much as you need and nothing more.
3. i'm not too sure about agent state polling but i'll check with our developers at monday. afaik there are two methods of getting agent state: either poll extensions or monitor agents to receive state change events. i know the latter requires cc elite leve licenses and a special agent state events license, but i'm not sure about simple polling. maybe you don't need any cc licenses at all, since in cm3 there's cc basic that does include all basic functionality you need for your agents.
4. and don't forget a cm user license for every physical and virtual extension you will be using.

 

[xyz111]

Thank you dwalin. This is really useful information.

I actually monitor the physical extensions and get most of the info that way. For this I understand we only need TSAPI basic licenses.

The only thing I need to clarify is if we would need CC Elite level licenses. I don't need to get agent state change events automatically. I'm only using cstaQueryAgentState to check agent state (polling).

Thanks

 

[nohuhu]

xyz111,

if you're polling agent states then afair you don't need cc elite licenses and agent events license, but i'm not totally sure on this now. you see, we had a problem like this some time ago when a customer ordered a custom web-based reception application and we decided to develop it based on contact center express phonex agent control. to save money the customer bought cc intro licenses (for advanced vectoring) instead of cc elite and it turned out that agent states license that comes standard with cce does require cc elite, otherwise rfa tool won't generate valid license file. so we had to turn agent states off and bypass it via polling. there were some issues with development but afaik this part is solved now but i have to check this with our developers to be 100% sure. if it's working with cc intro level then i see no restrictions for it to work even with cc basic because there are no significant differences between basic and intro on this part. that would mean you don't have to buy any call center licenses for your agents since cc basic comes standard now and depending on platform its capacity is up to 5200 agents.

 

[nohuhu]

xyz111,

our developer said he's using cce phonex object that polls agent state by itself, you only need to set the polling interval. judging by tsapi spy traces, it does use cstaQueryAgentState. our demo switch has expert agent selection licensed but it is turned off at this time (to emulate customer environment) and cstaQueryAgentState does work with this setup so i can say pretty sure that it should work with introductory level call center. considering that the difference between basic and intro lies only in advanced vectoring and some auxillary functions, i don't see any reason for it not to work with basic cc.
however, to be 100% sure you should try it out yourself.

 

[xyz111]

dwalin,

Thank you very much for this. Much appreciated.
I will try it, as our customer does not have CC Elite atm.

Have a nice day.

 

[nohuhu]

xyz111,

well, i guess you will develop your application in your own lab so it's easy to emulate this situation. just turn eas off in ch sys fe and you have it.

 

[xyz111]

In regards to TSAPI advanced (VALUE_AEC_xxx_ADVANCED) licenses I found this confusing statement on the Developer Connect TSAPI FAQ :

"When the first advanced TSAPI function is used against a particular switch the acquired count for that size switch (small, medium, or large) will be incremented. The request will only be permitted if the number acquired is not greater than the allocated count for that size switch. Once the license is acquired it will not be released until the TSAPI Service is restarted. "

Does the above mean that if, say for a small switch, the count is 1000, the cstaMakePredictveCall function can only be called 1000 times before the TSAPI service needs restarting? 1000 calls is quite a small number for a Predictive Dialler. Am I missing something here?

This is about licenses for CM 3.1 and AES 3.1.1

Thanks for any help.

 

[nohuhu]

xyz111,

no, afaik it means that when an application opens cti stream and uses advanced tsapi function the first time, one license is acquired and is not released until tsapi service is restarted. consequent function calls from the same application will not acquire additional licenses.
in plain english, that mean:
a) that you can't fire up more advanced tsapi applications than you have advanced tsapi licenses (depends on platform), i.e. you can't place a heavy load on small'n'poor s8300;
b) that if your application hangs up and restarts continuously, it will eat up all license pool really fast and you'll need to restart aes tsapi service to get it working again.

 

[xyz111]

That makes sense now, dwalin. Thank you very much again.

 

[xyz111]

I have asked the above question on the Developer Connect and here is the answer I've got from Avaya:

"
On the CM side, the minimum CC Introductory license is needed. CC Basic comes free with CM 3.0 but does NOT provide the Basic Vectoring functionality, and you will need that with call origination from VDN. The CC Introductory license is capped at 50 agents, so if you need to go beyond 50 agents or if you use EAS functionality, then you will need CC Elite. "

Could this be true? Does this mean that anyone with more 50 agents has to pay thousands of dollars for CC Elite licenses even if they don't use EAS?

 

[nohuhu]

xyz111,

yes it sounds possible to me, i didn't think about this side of your task. i need to check it with my developers to be sure. however, you can check it with customer beforehand, if the system they have was not bought recently but upgraded it is very possible that it can have basic vectoring from previous releases. all you need to do is to check 'disp sys cust' page 9 'call center optional features' to be sure.

 

[Cti4all]

Agent status can be obtained by the query method, or if using Avaya CTI apps like IC, CCE etc, you can have agent states provided realtime.

Agent States are not relevant if you cannot admin your agents as EAS agents, ACD agents are either available or not, so there is no ACW/AUX etc status for an ACD (Basic) agent. so, to give agents ability to change their status and be able to query or be notified, you need enough licenses to admin your users as EAS agents.

To query Agent Status on each EAS agent, you need a TSAPI Basic license to put a monitor on each agent. This will also tell your app if they make or recieve calls outside the dialer app.

Advanced TSAPI requires a SMALL license to connect to 8300/8400/csi platforms and use Advanced methods like Predictive call, Adjunct Route etc. MEDIUM is used for 8500, LARGE for 8700. They are not interchangeable.

TSAPIADVANCEDUSERS are typically set to a high number when you buy these SMALL/MEDIUM/LARGE licenses as a throwback to AES 3.0 which required an ADVANCEDUSER for each concurrent transaction.

If you dont want to pay for EAS agents, you could leave them as ACD agents and create a softphone interface to your dialer app with an Agent State machine. Have them click buttons on the dialer controls on their desktop to let the dialer know if they are ACW or AUX etc, and do not offer calls to these agents if they tell you they are not available. This method would require no EAS licenses and the app would check this module for availability. Also use events from the station monitors to put the state to 'in call' if the agent takes or makes calls outside of the dialer app.

 

[Nvidia1]

Hi all,

we are a enterprise that are certified by avaya. Our product is a CTI (multi contact channel inbound&outboun).
We are working now with the same software in a AES 3.1 scenario but all the time the cti link goes down!!!

There are no information in the AES log's about why happend this... Do you have any similar experience with the CM3 + AES3.1 + CTI problems?

thanks a lot in advance.

David.

 

[nohuhu]

Nvidia1,

did you try to install the latest aes load?