Consider what percentage of the full meaning of communication is derived from verbal communication? Para-verbal (such as the tone of voice)? Non verbal (such as gestures)? Various research provides percentages that vary, but the general consensus is that the Verbal — the words — count only for approximately 10%, the para-verbal for 40% and the non verbal for 50%.

The learning here is that it is not only what you say that counts, it is mostly how you say it. And if approximately 50% of the meaning of the message is impacted by the non-verbal, what does that mean for any non face-to-face communication such as email, blogs, Twitter, or even conference calls or webinars? Attention needs to be paid to apply good communication practices to the new shortened and speedy communication of today’s world. An effective way to craft your message, face to face or in writing, is to use KUBA.

Just because there is more media and a constant and enormous flow of information does not mean that there is more understanding.

The Critical Balance of Seeking and Telling

One of the most powerful ways to communicate and coach others is by effectively balancing asking good questions and making recommendations; seeking and telling. The key is not forgetting to ask questions and let the other person come up with ideas, suggestions, reactions, etc. It could be tempting — almost a communication trap — to get into a “telling mode” when communicating, especially in quick virtual bursts such as email or text messages. Asking good questions will allow the person you are communicating with to expand her thinking and open up the conversation. It is also an effective way to check for understanding by reformulating the other person’s thoughts and asking a question.

Facing today’s business reality is not an option. The challenging Cs: Complexity, Competitiveness, Change, Customer-Centric, Creativity, Collaboration, Culture are here, and we can’t ignore them. Communicating in order to perform your work is also not an option. The options you have, or the decision you can make, is based on how effective you want your communication to be. The new technology, mediums, style, and pace of communication have their own idiosyncrasies. The mistake would be to think that proper communication cannot be achieved at such a fast pace. Methods and approaches can still be applied and learned to maximize the impact of your communication. As the retail experts insist on location, location, location, it is as imperative in our business and personal lives to communicate, communicate, and communicate… effectively.

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KUBA refers to a four-step process everyone can use to make their communication more effective and influential. When you consider engaging in communication you should take a moment and think through the KUBA process and the intention of your communication. Do so from the receiver’s perspective as well as your own.

KUBA Your Communication

• KNOW: First, people need to know what the core of the message is, or what they are being asked to do as clearly and specifically as possible. Key words: the “what”, the facts.
• UNDERSTAND: One characteristic of clear communicators is that they provide a solid context, helping people to understand why action is necessary. Key words: the “why”, the rational.
• BELIEVE: With information and context now provided, people need to believe in the value of what you are asking them to do, and they need to believe they can accomplish it. Key word: the benefits.
• ACT: Only when people know, understand and believe will they act. Key words: next steps, actions.

The New and Different About Communication

To summarize in a few words what is new, we could say: the amount, the pace, and the medium used. During a typical day, you read through (and respond to) your vast list of emails, discover interesting articles from the many RSS feeds you subscribe to, and catch up on your Twitter account and Facebook page for either personal or business communication. While you did that, you received a few SMS messages on your mobile phone and an email updating you on your LinkedIn contacts. But right now, you need to find some quiet time because you are doing a virtual session where you will discuss the introduction to a new system that is being implemented.

You expect some resistance because most people are comfortable with the current system. You suspect they may be somewhat confrontational. Dealing with emotion or negative feedback is much more challenging on a virtual session where you lose most of the non-verbal and para-verbal communication cues.

This is the “new” part of communication, and it brings a multitude of challenges inherent to these new ways of communicating. The fundamental model of communication is still the same; there is a sender and a receiver, multiple filters in between that can alter the way the message is sent, communicated, received, and interpreted. This communication process takes a whole new reality when new ways to communicate like webinars and instant messaging are the preferred mediums of modern businesses.

Numerous habits and behaviours were developed in relation to these new communication devices and ways to interact such as constant connectivity, new vocabulary, and micro-coordination, (i.e., last minute decision making, etc.) It was curious to observe the intensity of the reactions during RIM’s four-day system outage; Blackberry users realized they were so dependent upon their technology devices to communicate that it caused them to react emotionally, as if a friend had abandoned them.

Ultimately communication needs to achieve some level of effectiveness, whatever the communication medium utilized.

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In today’s complex world there is a plethora of business and people challenges. If one discipline, one school of thought, or one grandiose solution was the panacea for all, we would all adopt it in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, such a single, powerful solution does not exist. If one thinks there is such a solution, it is likely that this person is part of the problem rather than part of the solution! When scanning and looking at trends worldwide, it seems that many current challenges are a bunch of C’s. C is for Complexity. Competitiveness. Change. Customer-Centric. Creativity. Collaboration. Culture. So many common challenges that make the top list of critical consideration in the management of 21st century organizations. No pun intended toward our healthcare professionals, but to illustrate the immensity of the previous C list, we could almost call it “C. Difficile”!

Every profession from all economic segments will have different viewpoints and recommendations on how to more effectively manage our organizations. And each of those viewpoints will have value. As a professional of talent management, people interactions, and development, it seems that a common ‘C’ running through the ocean of business challenges is C for Communication.

Ask any retail expert what the three most critical characteristics of a successful retail business are, and invariably they will respond, “Location, location, location!”. This characteristic is so fundamental to their type of business. Even if they have excellent products, services, or people, they cannot be successful in the wrong location.

Communication as the Key to Success

Location is to retail what communication is to people interactions. Communication is the de facto fundamental success factor of any type of working relationship. You could be an engineer specialized in cloud computing, a nurse in an emergency room, a team leader in a call centre, a salesperson, or a vice president of operations in a multi-national organization. Regardless of your role or level in your business, one of your keys to success is to communicate, communicate, communicate.

As demonstrated by the results in a national survey done by Global Knowledge’s research group, communication was rated as the most important competency to the success of leaders. Really? Is this new information or old news? Surprising or disappointing? It is definitely intriguing. There is nothing new in the fact that communication was rated as critically important to the success of leaders. Studies and reports with similar results have been published every decade since the 1960s. Communication has long been touted as the most important factor to leadership effectiveness.

But let’s do what Descartes taught us to do (i.e., do not take things at face value), and question what we see. Is the “second decade of the twenty-first century communication” new and different than what it was before? The answer is what the French would call une réponse de normand, yes and no.

The Not-So-New of Communication

Numerous fundamentals related to humanity’s need to communicate have been the same for many years. Humans are gregarious by nature, so we need to communicate, whether we are introverted or extroverted. The need to communicate encompasses the need to express ourselves, as well as the need to be listened to. A multitude of behaviours determined as effective communication are still very contemporary and relevant. Adapting the communication style to the audience, asking open ended questions, and responding with empathy are only a few examples. The need to craft influential and effective communication, verbal or written, still holds true.

Other fundamentals like the need to be understood, to convince or influence, and making sure we get our message across so we instill desirable actions are more necessary than ever. We could say the same for communicating with clarity, and with conviction, either to entertain or for business reasons. The fundamentals are so timeless and at the same time still so contemporary!

While writing this article, I decided to take a break and watch a few minutes of TV. The easiest channel to watch — requiring very little thinking on my part and relaxing to the brain — is the sports channel! I tuned in at the end of an American football game. The commentator was interviewing the winning quarterback and his best player of the game. He asked them what was the key to their significant win over a strong opponent. The quarterback replied with no hesitation: “Our communication was excellent!”. And I am not making this up!

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Virtualization Simplifies the Way We Do Business

Once again, datacenters can be very interesting and challenging environments. Due to the drastic decrease in server prices over the years, we have gone from large monolithic mainframe servers that process many applica­tions to one that utilizes much cheaper and smaller servers used for individual applications.

This change in datacenter design means that we have drastically increased the number of physical servers from a few large ones to hundreds and even thousands of very small ones. This created a problem known as “server sprawl.” The result of this was many, many servers added to our datacenter that each ran a single application. These servers were extremely underutilized and collectively created excessive amounts of heat. Since this heat had to be dissipated with appropriate cooling measures, this resulted in equally excessive power and cooling costs.

In modern datacenters, we are now able to virtualize these many servers onto a relatively few physical servers. Although it depends on the type and utilization of a particular application, a normal rule of thumb has shown that we can effectively virtualize 10–15 servers per physical host. This represents a significant reduction in a data­center’s footprint and heat generation. For our Unified Communications servers, we are currently able to virtual­ize up to four servers per physical host. However, this capability will certainly increase with each new version.

Lower CAPEX and OPEX

Given that datacenters are incredibly expensive to run (they require expensive real estate, use incredibly large amounts of electrical power, and have high operational costs), virtualization of our datacenters represent a reduction in a company’s Capital Expenditures (CAPEX), but more significantly, their Operational Expenditures (OPEX).

One of the highest operational costs within a datacenter is the servers themselves. Modern single-purpose servers have been shown to only have 5–10% utilization, on average. Conversely, if your servers are using a large per­centage of your datacenter’s power, like 75%, then we have a very inefficient scenario. By virtualizing these serv­ers, we can now combine many servers (10–15) onto a single physical server, which raises the overall utilization significantly and, therefore, lowers the power requirements, relative to running 10 to 15 separate servers. This alone represents a savings of millions of dollars in a year’s time, according to feedback from many companies.

Additional benefits can be seen beyond the reduced power requirements. In a traditional datacenter, many smaller servers generate a LOT of heat, which must be dissipated via cooling efforts. The yearly cooling costs are extremely expensive; but just as bad, strict formulas dictate that we can place only so many servers within so many of square feet in the datacenter. Through virtualization, we are able to place a greater number of serv­ers per square foot of the datacenter with reduced cooling requirements. This equates in a much more efficient datacenter that is more productive and profitable.

Likewise with these other operational costs, cabling represents a HUGE investment in a typical datacenter. For every server that is virtualized, we are able to reduce the physical cabling required to connect that server. Ad­ditionally, when implemented within the Cisco UCS, we are able to take advantage of Unified Fabric and further reduce cabling requirements, since we can send both LAN and Storage signaling over the same cables.

Improved Availability

In a traditional datacenter, if one of your Unified Communications servers crashes, you normally must restart that device manually. This represents a potentially significant outage for that UC device.

When we virtualize our UC servers, we can take advantage of VMware’s great tools like High Availability (HA) and Site Recovery Manager (SRM).

• With HA, the failed virtual server will be automatically restarted, which saves a significant amount of downtime, resulting in greater productivity and profits from that server.
• With SRM, we can provide Disaster Recovery by quickly failing over a virtual machine from a main pro­duction site to a secondary site while ensuring the VM remains active.

Licensing

One of the great benefits that we’ll see when virtualizing our UC servers on the Cisco UCS platform is that we can achieve actual platform mobility. On traditional Cisco Media Convergence Servers (MCS), the UC license is tied to the physical server’s MAC address of the primary network interface card (NIC). This means that the instance of the UC application is always tied to that physical device. But what if that server hardware fails? This means that we are forced to endure some amount of outage until we can build a new server.

With the Cisco UCS, we are able to create Service Profiles that represent the identity of the actual server. We can then “associate” this service profile with any of the blade servers within the UCS 5108 chassis. By doing this, we can simply associate our UC server with a new blade server, if needed.

Of course, you may ask how this is possible when the UC license is tied to the physical NIC of the server. Within Cisco UCS, we are able to build what’s called a “MAC license,” which is based on several configuration compo­nents of the UC server:

1. Time zone
2. NTP server
3. NIC speed
4. Hostname
5. IP Address
6. IP Mask
7. Gateway Address
8. Primary DNS
9. SMTP server
10. Certificate Information (Organization, Unit, Location, State, Country)

Once the MAC license has been configured, it can simply be associated with the Service Profile and applied to whichever physical blade server is needed.

Ease of Installation in UCS Using OVF Templates

One of the barriers to entry, when it comes to UC servers, is the general complexity required to build and config­ure these applications properly. There is a considerable learning curve required, which requires the presence or availability of administrators or engineers with these specific skillsets.

With Cisco UCS, configuration templates are available that allow administrators to build and configure complex UC servers, often with little to no knowledge of datacenter requirements to install UC applications. To make things even easier, these templates are freely downloadable from Cisco.

The templates conform to an industry-recognized virtualization format called the OVF, or Open Virtualization For­mat. The OVF is an open standard for describing a virtual machine template. These templates will actually come with an .ova extension. The Open Virtualization Archive (OVA) is an open standard to package and distribute these templates. For most supported UC applications, a preconfigured OVA file is provided by Cisco and must be used. Otherwise the customer must manually build OVA files that meet the indicated requirements.

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This post is reprinted and used with permission from Virtualizing Your Cisco Unified Communications with Cisco UCS

Likewise, the PBX also defined and controlled the signaling of external trunks to the telephony carrier’s central office (CO).

Today, the implementation of server-based solutions based on the TCP/IP protocol suite has become standard practice. These newer IP-based PBXs fulfill exactly the same role as traditional PBXs by housing the dial plan; identity of endpoints, gateways, trunks, etc.; device features like Call Park, pickup, Music on Hold (MoH), confer­encing, etc.; and other communications configurations.

While the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) is at the heart of Cisco’s UC design, there are many additional components that greatly increase the organization’s capabilities to stay connected.

For example, a few of these additional server-based resources include:

Cisco Unified Presence

This feature-rich UC component uses standards-based protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the Jabber Extensible Communications Platform (XCP) to work with a range of native and third-party client ap­plications.

Users are able to initiate such activities as instant messaging, presence, click to call, phone control, voice, video, visual voicemail, and web collaboration. Cisco Unified Presence lays the foundation to deliver enterprise IM and Cisco rich, network-based, presence-enabled collaboration capabilities.

Cisco Unity Connection

Cisco Unity Connection is a Linux-based appliance that provides a robust unified messaging platform for Cisco’s Unified Communications suite of products. This product allows the user to access and manage voice messages in a variety of ways, using his/her email inbox, web browser, Cisco Unified IP Phone, smartphone, Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, etc.

Additionally, Unity Connection provides speech recognition features for mobile users, ensuring the user can safely and quickly manage and access voicemail while driving or otherwise preoccupied.

Cisco Unified Contact Center

This powerful set of products comes in two variations:

1. Enterprise — Delivers intelligent contact routing, call treatment, network-to-desktop computer telephony integration (CTI), and multichannel contact management for large-scale enterprise deployments
2. Express — Designed for midmarket, enterprise branch, or corporate departments requiring a sophisti­cated customer interaction management solution for up to 400 agents

Cisco’s UC products evolved over the years from Windows applications installed on Microsoft Server plat­forms to predominantly appliance-based solutions installed on Linux platforms. The included system, network, and user features have increased steadily with each release, but the most dramatic improvements can be seen in the most recent version of the Cisco UC, currently in version 8.x. As of version 8.0(2), virtualized deployment is fully supported, when installed on the Cisco UCS architecture.

UC on UCS Requirements

Cisco supports virtualizing your Unified Communications solutions on the UCS system, according to these require­ments/considerations:

1. Cisco UC applications supported in a virtual environment include:
   • Unified Communications Manager 8.0(2)
   • Unified Contact Manager Express 8.0(2)
   • Cisco Unified Presence 8.0(1)
   • Cisco Unity 7.0(2)
   • Cisco Unity Connection 8.0(2)
2. The only hypervisor supported initially is VMware vSphere ESXi version 4.x which includes more of the real-time enhancements required for UC than ESX. Any other hypervisor versions, products, or vendors are not supported.
3. Bare-mental/physical/non-virtualized installs are not supported.
4. Dedicated CPU/RAM/Storage is required for the VMs, oversubscription is not yet supported.
5. VMware supported SAN storage is required.
6. 1–4 Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) Virtual Machines per server, dependent on the model, with MCS 7845 parity per VM (7,500 users).
7. Application co-residency is not yet supported — the ultimate goal is “mix and match.”
8. Only “Basic” features supported (e.g., copy VM, restart VM, HA, SRM), “Advanced” features are deferred to future versions (e.g., vMotion, snapshots, DRM, templates, DPM, etc.) .
9. The hardware BIOS, firmware, and drivers are managed by UCS and VMware, not by CUCM.
10. The boot order is controlled by the VMware virtual machine’s BIOS instead of by the CUCM Application.

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This post is reprinted and used with permission from Virtualizing Your Cisco Unified Communications with Cisco UCS

1. Basic Treatment
   • Queuing
   • Initial Announcements
2. Loop Function
   • Repeat announcements
   • Check for changes to the call’s status

Basic Treatment

Queuing

After checking for scheduled and unscheduled closures, our scripting logic dictates that we must be open if the call made it to this point in the script (in other words, we haven’t disconnected or otherwise treated our call for a closed condition). Our previous action was to queue the call to the appropriate skillset, provided that the skillset was in service. If an agent is available, the Contact Center Manager Server uses Skill Based Routing to direct the call to an agent. If no agents are available, the call continues through your script commandsm, and now is the time to play an announcement indicating the name of the business and the status of the agents.

(It’s important to note that the announcement can be played before the call is queued, especially if the message must be heard by all callers — such as a legal disclaimer.)

The GIVE RAN or GIVE IVR command is used to play the message. Use GIVE RAN if you have RAN routes, use GIVE IVR if you have CallPilot or a voice messaging system.

Skillset Intrinsics

An option at this point is to use skillset intrinsics to assess the skillset’s status. If the skillset is particularly busy, you can provide some additional option or treatment to the call. Instead of automatically playing a message about “the agents are busy and will be with you shortly,” you can determine if the wait is likely to be longer than usual and provide the option to leave a message:

IF THE QUEUED COUNT customer_service_sk >
3 * LOGGED AGENT COUNT customer_service_sk THEN
GIVE IVR 8000 WITH TREATMENT 1000
ELSE
GIVE IVR INTERRUPTIBLE 8000 WITH TREATMENT 2000
END IF

In this case, we analyze the number of callers in the skillset queue and compare that value to the number of agents logged into the queue. If the number of waiting callers is more than three times the number of agents staffing the queue, the caller is directed to IVR (CallPilot) queue and presented with a menu service that informs the caller of situation and gives him the option to leave a message (1000 is an entry in the Service Directory Number table of CallPilot that points to the menu service).

If the described criteria isn’t met, the call is pointed to the ELSE clause, and the caller hears the standard announcement naming the company and the intent to answer the call as soon as possible. The INTERRUPTIBLE syntax is required when using the GIVE IVR command while the call is queued so the CCMS can deliver the call to an agent if one becomes available during the playback of the announcement. As a reminder, the code we’re discussing would immediately follow the END IF portion of the IF statement that checked for the status of the skillset and queued the call when the skillset was in service.

Now that the caller heard the initial message (provided he didn’t opt out by leaving a message and hanging up), use the GIVE MUSIC command to play music until the next announcement is played.

Loop Function

Oh no! The dreaded loop! No one wants to be here because now the wait time is starting to grow. While we can’t make the agents work faster through script commands, there are a few simple techniques we can use that will make the extended wait more interesting. How about this:

(a) ASSIGN 1 TO Loop_counter
(b) SECTION Loop_Around
© WAIT 45
(d) IF NOT QUEUED THEN
GIVE RAN 35
DISCONNECT
END IF
(e) IF NOT LOGGED OUT AGENT 12345 THEN
GIVE RAN 32
DISCONNECT
END IF
(f) WHERE Loop_counter EQUALS
VALUE 1: GIVE IVR INTERRUPTIBLE 8000 WITH TREATMENT 3001
VALUE 2: GIVE IVR INTERRUPTIBLE 8000 WITH TREATMENT 3002
VALUE 3: GIVE IVR INTERRUPTIBLE 8000 WITH TREATMENT 3003
VALUE 4: GIVE IVR INTERRUPTIBLE 8000 WITH TREATMENT 3004
VALUE 5: GIVE IVR INTERRUPTIBLE 8000 WITH TREATMENT 3005
ASSIGN 0 TO Loop_counter
END WHERE
(g) ASSIGN Loop_counter + 1 TO Loop_counter
(h) EXECUTE Loop_Around

Let’s examine what takes place in this loop.

(a) The code declares an initial value for the call variable Loop_counter. It’s like saying, “X = 1”; Loop_counter is like X in a simple math formula. We use this call variable to keep track of how many times the caller passes through the loop. Since the call is about to pass through the loop for the first time, we set the value to 1.

(b) This is a sign post; a reference point. The system returns to this line as a result of the last line of instruction in the loop (h).

© This WAIT command is filled with music from the previous GIVE MUSIC command.

(d) Here we make sure that the call is still queued. If the agents log out during the call’s wait in the loop or if an assignment puts all of the agents staffing the skillset into standby, then we detect the fact that now the caller won’t get answered and give him the sad news before we disconnect. Of course this should rarely occur, but it is an important fail-safe.

(e) The “emergency” agent might get logged in while the caller waits in the loop. We must identify this change of events and respond accordingly. It’s exactly the same code we discussed in the Unscheduled Closures section.

(f) This code can make a big difference in the caller’s perception of the wait process. What we’re doing here is looking at the value of the Loop_counter and playing a different announcement each cycle through the loop. This is possible because we change the value of the loop counter each time the call passes through the loop (see (g) below for the explanation of how the Loop_counter is changing). Company history, interesting facts, even jokes could serve as the content of these announcements. The ASSIGN 0 TO Loop_counter starts the series of recordings all over again after the fifth pass through the loop. You can create more recordings and corresponding VALUE statements if you expect longer wait times.

(g) The system increases the value of the variable each time the call executes the loop via the instructions in this line. This code takes the current value of our call variable and increases it by 1. If Loop_counter is a value of 1 at the beginning of the statement, it becomes a value of 2 by the end.

(h) This line tells the system to continue the loop by going to the section with the same name (b).

Scripting doesn’t seem quite so mysterious now, does it? The outline (four primary components) provides flow and order. The IF-THEN-END-IF lets us examine the current conditions for the call and respond accordingly.

This post is excerpted and reused with permission from Avaya Aura Contact Center Scripting Demystified by Brett Hanson.

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• Computing
• Network
• Storage

Instead of being simply the next generation of blade servers, the Cisco UCS is an innova­tive architecture designed from scratch to be highly scalable, efficient, and powerful with one-third less infrastructure than traditional blade servers. The net effect of this is dramat­ically reduced power and cooling costs and easier, centralized management.

The Cisco UCS is made up of the following major components:

• Cisco 6100-series Fabric Interconnects
• Cisco UCS 5100-series Blade Server Enclosures
• Cisco 2100-series Fabric Extenders
• Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers
• Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-mounted Servers
• Cisco UCS Converged Network Adapters (CNA)
• Cisco UCS Manager

Gone are the days of disparate (siloed) systems all across the datacenter with their many different management tools and networking infrastructure. Here to stay is a unified architecture that offers these key features:

1. Hardware State Abstraction
   With Cisco UCS, we can use “service profiles” that represent the physical characteristics of a server that make it unique from other servers (MAC address, WWN, UUID, BIOS, boot order, etc.). We are then able to attach these service profiles to individual servers. So, as long as the individual blade servers are booting from either a PXE Server or doing a SAN boot, we can achieve a stateless server capability by moving the identity of a server (profile) to any physical blade server when needed.
2. Unified Fabric that provides “Lossless” connectivity
   Within the UCS architecture, a single cable is used for all signaling transmissions, regardless of whether it’s data or storage. Additionally, through the use of Priority-Based Flow Control (PFC), we can replicate the same capability within Ethernet that Fiber Channel already has of ensuring that frames are never dropped.
3. Virtualized adapters
   Virtualization is a key enabling technology within the Cisco UCS architecture, and the network adapters within the individual servers are no exception. While there are multiple adapter models, there are specific PCIe adapters within the C-Series servers and mezzanine adapters within the B-Series blade servers that allow for multiple virtual network adapters (vNICs) to be present over the single physical network adapters. This capability allows for the “stateless” capability that was previously mentioned.
4. Expanded memory
   One of the key performance enhancements in Cisco UCS is the ability to virtualize the physical memory installed in the server DIMM slots. This virtualization allows us to increase the effective capability of the physical memory to four times the original capacity. This is a significant technology, since it allows us to use cheaper memory and still achieve a greater memory footprint.
5. Unified management
   The Cisco UCS Manager (UCSM) allows for many blade servers and their related networking and storage con­nectivity, regardless of whether it’s Ethernet or Fiber Channel, to be managed within a single and very intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI). Additionally, a very powerful Command-Line Interface (CLI) is provided as is an XML Application Programming Interface (API). These management capabilities provide a very powerful and centralized management functionality that is simply not present in other vendor solutions.

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This post is reprinted and used with permission from Virtualizing Your Cisco Unified Communications with Cisco UCS

1. Call Sorting/Filtering
2. Closed Condition Check
   • Scheduled Closures
     • Holidays
     • Weekends and after hours
   • Unscheduled Closures
     • Meeting/Emergency/Issue that arises during business hours
     • Weather conditions or circumstances that prevent agents from staffing the contact center
     • Skillset closed during regular business hours
3. Basic Treatment
   • Queuing
   • Initial Announcements
4. Loop Function
   • Repeat announcements
   • Check for changes to the call’s status

Almost all well-written scripts have code that meets the above criteria. You’ll certainly encounter scripts that have more than the above — especially when integrating the Contact Center Manager Server with other systems, but we’ll focus on the basics. It’s astounding how much scripting logic you can extrapolate/create/discover once you understand the fundamentals.

Call Sorting/Filtering

This process takes place in the master script of identifying the purpose of the call and distributing it to the appropriate primary script.

Closed Condition Check

We’ll start with the second point in the outline. The key to understanding scripting logic — the essence of transforming the outline above to actual code — is the IF-THEN-END IF statement and its brother, the IF-THEN-ELSE-END IF statement. Fundamental to mastering the art of script writing is learning how to play the contingency game. Think like a boy scout and be prepared. It’s all well and good if the contact center is open, agents are logged in, there aren’t too many calls waiting, and it’s sunny outside. But what if the contact center is closed, all the agents are logged out, there are lots of calls waiting, or there’s a storm?

Conditions vary in a call center, and we must determine the current conditions for the caller in order to process his call appropriately.

The IF-THEN-END IF is the scripting language method for asking a question and processing the answer. The Contact Center manages all kinds of conditional information in the form of intrinsics. Circumstances continually change, and intrinsics tell us the current state of affairs. Our job as script writers is to know how to ask the right questions and when to ask them. The outline above identifies the “what” and the “when”; let’s address the “how.”

Scheduled Closures

Consider:

IF DATE = JAN 1 THEN
GIVE RAN 30
DISCONNECT
END IF

The question we’re asking here is, “what is the date for the call being processed?” If the system answers that indeed the caller reached our contact center on the first day of the year, the system will execute the THEN statements. In this instance, our caller will hear a recording from RAN 30 and then be disconnected. There is no need to examine any further script instructions because the call center is not open for business.

How about:

IF DAY OF WEEK = SATURDAY..SUNDAY
OR TIME OF DAY <> 8:00..16:59 THEN
GIVE RAN 31
DISCONNECT
END IF

Now we’re asking two questions in one statement: is it the weekend or outside of regular business hours? The “OR” on the second line indicates that either condition is acceptable for identifying a scheduled closure. The business will be closed on the weekend or when the time of day is not (the “<>” means “not equal to”) during normal business hours.

Unscheduled closures

IF NOT LOGGED OUT AGENT 12345 THEN
GIVE RAN 32
DISCONNECT
END IF

If an unplanned closure (e.g., meeting, network problem, building evacuation) needs to occur during regular business hours, there are a variety of ways to address the situation through scripting. The most common approach is to implement the “emergency agent.” An agent profile is created in Contact Center Management that doesn’t belong to an actual person. Instead, the supervisor or administrator logs in the emergency agent when the unscheduled event occurs. There is no intrinsic for “logged in agent;” therefore, we must employ a double negative. If the agent is not logged out, he is logged in.

IF weather_boolean_gv = TRUE THEN
GIVE RAN 33
DISCONNECT
END IF

This works very well when the unscheduled event takes place while the contact center is staffed. We must take a different approach when weather conditions prevent personnel from reaching the contact center in the first place. A variable that can be set to TRUE or FALSE (weather_boolean_gv) is configured and assigned a value of FALSE for regular call processing. When weather or some other event prevents agents from physically staffing the call center, an administrator makes a browser connection to the CCMA (Contact Center Manager Administration) interface (typically via Virtual Private Network) and changes the value of the variable to TRUE. Now callers will hear the announcement in RAN 33.

IF NOT OUT OF SERVICE customer_service_sk THEN
QUEUE TO SKILLSET customer_service_sk
WAIT 2
ELSE
GIVE RAN 34
DISCONNECT
END IF

Whoa! What’s happening here? Now the ELSE clause makes an appearance. Let’s make sense of this. The condition we’re evaluating is the status of the skillset. We checked for scheduled and unscheduled closures. It’s possible that the call arrives during regular business hours and no previous unscheduled closure check is in effect. However, we must determine if one or more agents is staffing the skillset. During a shift change, a faulty Agent to Skillset Assignment or simply tardy agents could cause the skillset to be out of service.

The condition evaluated in our IF statement is whether the skillset is in service (open). Again we must use a double-negative to determine something positive. If the skillset is staffed, we queue the call to the skillset (the THEN statements are executed). When the skillset is not staffed, our IF condition is FALSE, and, as a result, the ELSE statements are executed. Consider how this example varies from the previous examples that lacked an ELSE clause. The issue is what happens when the condition (intrinsic) being evaluated by the IF statement is not met. When there is no ELSE clause, the system follows the next command — that which follows the END IF — provided, of course, that we did not disconnect the call. When there is an ELSE clause, the system follows the instructions that follow the ELSE when the IF condition is not met.

This post is excerpted and reused with permission from Avaya Aura Contact Center Scripting Demystified by Brett Hanson.

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Facilitating meetings between people for status updates, analysis, brainstorming sessions, emergency conferences, customer meetings, executive meetings and all the other get-togethers required in business is an art that needs to be understood and followed.

Planning is paramount.

Who has to be there, and who should be there if some power struggles or technical issues arise? What is the expected outcome, and what might derail the plan? Why is this meeting necessary, and how efficient can we make it? What information do the participants need in advance and/or at meeting time for the meeting to be effective? And… what risks or surprises should we be prepared to deal with, such as conflict, politics, time constraints, fatigue, passing the buck, etc.?

Being a good manager usually includes the ability to keep a meeting on task, keep the delegates engaged, and ensure the outcome is delivered as expected. Accept that the odd meeting will not go as planned… and learn from it. Analyze the lessons learned. You only get better if you plan to succeed.

Are you open to listening to their ideas without initially trying to fix any issues? Spend time “helping” them probe around the issues: what facts do they have or know, what is conjecture, what are the assumptions, any associated constraints, and — most importantly — what do they think they should do or work on next? Help them develop their own analysis skills!

Analysis skills are best honed with practice.

Get involved with your staff and associates, listen and probe for boundaries, assist them when they ask, and watch over them as they develop.

The old proverb (ad libbed somewhat) “give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach this man to fish, he eats everyday” can also be construed as “give them the answer, they will always want an answer; teach them analysis, they will come to you less.”

Mentor them in the way of mind… your padawans may surprise you!