Understanding Multichannel Applications

This chapter provides an overview of multichannel applications supported by PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management (PeopleSoft CRM) and discusses how to set up the universal queuing infrastructure.

Understanding Multichannel Applications Supported by PeopleSoft CRM

This section discusses:

Multichannel applications.
Desktop tools.
Universal queuing and Multichannel Toolbar.

Multichannel Applications

PeopleSoft multichannel applications facilitate interaction between you and your customers over multiple communication channels. Channels are specific communication technologies such as voice (telephone), email, and web collaboration (chat).

PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework (PeopleSoft MCF) provides the infrastructure on which PeopleSoft CRM multichannel applications are built. They use a number of services and elements in the framework, such as universal queue, real-time event notification (REN) server, centralized event logging (MCF log), JavaScript MultiChannel Application Programming Interface (JSMCAPI), and so on.

See Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework, “Understanding PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework.”

PeopleSoft CRM supports these communication channels:

Voice.
Email.
Chat.
Generic tasks.

To support these channels, PeopleSoft CRM offers the following products:

PeopleSoft CTI Integration.

This product enables you to integrate PeopleSoft CRM with a third-party computer telephony integration (CTI) solution implemented in your call center environment. It uses JSMCAPI to enable the CTI functionality on PeopleSoft CRM pages. You can map data that is provided by the interactive voice response (IVR) system to PeopleSoft CRM pages and key fields. The system uses this mapping to automatically display the appropriate page and data to the agent who accepts the incoming call.
PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications.

Multichannel Communications includes two modules: Email Response Management System (ERMS) and Chat.
- The email module provides a full-featured email management solution that collects emails from mail servers, analyzes email contents, performs automated actions on emails if applicable, and routes them to appropriate worklists or agents. ERMS leverages the PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework to manage the integration with external mail servers and mailboxes.
- The chat module offers customer to agent chatting capabilities on self-service PeopleSoft CRM pages. The browser-based agent chat window enables agents to transfer chat sessions and consult other agents on their buddy lists while the sessions are in progress. Agents can also push web pages (for example, sending PeopleSoft CRM transaction pages) to customers and perform common chat actions, such as sending chat logs or passwords.

Desktop Tools

PeopleSoft multichannel applications provide desktop tools that are targeted for agents and supervisors. These tools have a consistent interface and are equipped with features and functionality that are specific to each user group. They help users perform common tasks more effectively, thus improving productivity.

Unified Agent Desktop

Unified agent desktop provides an enhanced toolbar construct that is built into PeopleSoft CRM pages. From the desktop, agents receive and process voice, email, chat, and generic tasks that are assigned to them. It provides various button actions that agents use when handling voice calls. For email or chat tasks, the desktop brings up the corresponding email or chat workspace interface so that agents have access to the right set of tools to do their jobs.

Agents can be working on multiple tasks simultaneously. Unified agent desktop provides a task management tool for agents to switch among tasks easily.

See Working with Unified Agent Desktop.

Supervisor Desktop

Supervisor desktop provides a centralized environment for supervisors to evaluate and monitor agent and queue performance in a call center. Supervisors can view real-time information on multichannel and voice queues, as well as the status and workload of agents who are logged on to these queues. The desktop enables supervisors to perform common tasks efficiently from a single component, such as managing timeout entries, approving emails, running reports, configuring agents, initiating chat sessions with agents, and so on.

See Working with Supervisor Desktop.

Universal Queuing and Multichannel Toolbar

Universal queuing helps to make a customer's interaction experience efficient, consistent, and satisfactory. PeopleSoft MCF manages a universal queue that accepts, evaluates, and distributes incoming task requests from these communication channels: email, chat, and generic notifications. Tasks are delivered to agents through the PeopleSoft CRM Multichannel Toolbar, an integrated interface built for agents to manage voice, email, chat, and generic tasks.

The universal queue distributes work based on the priority of the task and the availability of agents possessing the required skill level. Availability is based on agent presence and the cost of the new task against the current workload of each agent. If an item that has been pushed to an agent is not accepted by the agent within the specified time, the queuing engine transfers the item to another agent in that queue.

Though agents receive voice tasks from the Multichannel Toolbar like all other tasks, voice tasks are not queued or routed by the universal queue, but by voice queues. Voice tasks take precedence over other tasks. When an agent accepts a call, the queue server adds the call's cost to the agent workload calculations that it uses to queue and assign other incoming tasks.

The PeopleSoft CRM Multichannel Toolbar is the exclusive interface for voice and chat communications. Email communications, however, can be managed through PeopleSoft CRM group worklists in addition to the Multichannel Toolbar. When using group worklists, agents are presented with a list of potential work items. Agents can select to work on emails that they can accept, and the system does not control the order in which the agent works on those emails. When using the Multichannel Toolbar, agents can work on only those emails that the system routes to them; the queuing engine controls the agent's work assignments.

Note. Only email that is sent to ERMS mailboxes can be queued and accessed through the Multichannel Toolbar.

Setting Up Universal Queuing

This section lists prerequisites and discusses how to:

Define queue defaults.
Use PeopleSoft CRM group worklists to create queues and agents.

Note. Although queues and agents are part of PeopleSoft MCF, administrators can create these objects on the PeopleSoft CRM system as well. The PeopleSoft CRM group worklist definition acts as a front end for queue and agent creation: the worklist becomes a queue, and the worklist members become agents. From Supervisor Desktop, administrators can configure agents to work on voice tasks (voice configuration), and email, chat, and generic ones (multichannel configuration).

Prerequisites

Before setting up queues and agents, you must define these PeopleSoft MCF objects:

Universal queue server.

This object accepts, evaluates, and distributes incoming task requests from multiple communication channels, including telephone (CTI), email, and chat.
REN server.

This object pushes event notifications to the agent consoles, manages chat sessions, and notifies the queue server of newly enqueued contacts.
MCF log server.

This object subscribes to all REN server events, logging chat conversations, agent presence changes, contact transfers and closures, and so on, based on configurable logging parameters.
Queue clusters.

These objects are groups of redundant servers that provide failover protection in the event of a hardware failure.

See Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft MultiChannel Framework.

Pages Used to Set Up the Universal Queuing Infrastructure

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
System Installations	RB_ERMS_SYSDEFN	Set Up CRM, Product Related, Multichannel Definitions, Email, System Installation, System Installations	Define default values for queues that are created through PeopleSoft CRM group worklists.
Group Worklist	RB_WF_WL_GRP	Set Up CRM, Common Definitions, Workflow, Group Worklist, Group Worklist	Define a group worklist and its members so that the system will create corresponding queue and agent definitions.

Defining Queue Defaults

Access the System Installations page.

REN Server Cluster ID

Select a default queue cluster to associate with queues that the system creates when you set up queues and agents using PeopleSoft CRM group worklists.

Maximum Workload and Skill level

Enter default values to associate with agent definitions that the system creates when you set up queues and agents using PeopleSoft CRM group worklists. The values in these fields determine an agent's capacity to accept additional work and thus determine the agent to whom a new email is routed.

Note. You don't use the other page elements on the System Installations page when defining queues and agents. Refer to the documentation for setting up ERMS and running ERMS processes for more information about other page elements.

Using PeopleSoft CRM Group Worklists to Create Queues and Agents

Access the Group Worklist page.

Note. Remember to run the DMS script after you upgrade PeopleTools to a newer version to ensure that all ERMS queues are saved properly to the Tool's table.

Group Worklist is ERMS Queue	Select to make the system create both queue and agent definitions when the group worklist definition is saved. The default REN server for all queues created from the Group Worklist page is established on the System Installations page. The queue can be used by either the ERMS or chat features of PeopleSoft Multichannel Communications. If worklist entries for other types of transactions (which are not supported in queues) are sent to this worklist, the system treats the worklist as a true worklist. In particular, ERMS alert notifications that are sent to this worklist are delivered though My Worklist, rather than the Multichannel Toolbar.
Queue Name	Enter the name that is used for the PeopleSoft MCF queue that the system creates when you save the group worklist. The system populates this field with the group worklist name when you select the Group Worklist is ERMS Queue check box.
User ID	Enter user IDs of members who belong to this group worklist. When you save the worklist, the system creates PeopleSoft MCF agent definitions for each user. The agents are automatically made members of the newly created queue. The agents' default maximum workload and skill level come from the default values that you enter on the System Installations page. Subsequent saves create agents and remove agents from the queue as necessary to keep the queue definition synchronized with the worklist definition.
Queue Setup and Agent Setup	Click to access PeopleSoft MCF pages, where you can further define the queues and agents that are associated with the group worklist. When you create queue and agent definitions using PeopleSoft CRM group worklists, the system enters only basic, required information in those definitions. For example, go to the PeopleSoft MCF Agents component to override the default maximum worklist and skill level for newly created agents and to set up personalizations such as a standard greeting for chat sessions. Note. Administrators can configure agents from Supervisor Desktop. The unified agent desktop (UAD) role is automatically set up as a sample user for CTI, universal queueing, and voice configuration.

Note. This section discusses only those page elements that are used to create PeopleSoft MCF queues and agents. Refer to the PeopleSoft CRM worklists documentation for a complete description of this page. Refer to your PeopleTools PeopleBooks for detailed documentation on setting up queues, agents, and agent personalizations.

REN Server Cluster ID	Select a default queue cluster to associate with queues that the system creates when you set up queues and agents using PeopleSoft CRM group worklists.
Maximum Workload and Skill level	Enter default values to associate with agent definitions that the system creates when you set up queues and agents using PeopleSoft CRM group worklists. The values in these fields determine an agent's capacity to accept additional work and thus determine the agent to whom a new email is routed.