This chapter covers the following topics:
The following is a list of documentation containing information that will assist you when implementing Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony:
Oracle Marketing Implementation Guide
Oracle Marketing User Guide
Oracle TeleSales Implementation Guide
Oracle TeleSales User Guide
Oracle Universal Work Queue Implementation Guide
Oracle Universal Work Queue User Guide
Oracle Advanced Collections Implementation Guide
Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide
Oracle Advanced Inbound Telephony Implementation Guide
You install Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony by performing the Oracle Applications Rapid Install process.
The Rapid Install is intended for customers who are installing Oracle Applications for the first time or upgrading to Release 12 from to earlier releases.
The Rapid Install is provided on CD-ROMs and is available from Oracle Store at http://oraclestore.com. For information about installing Oracle Applications using Rapid Install, see Installing Oracle Applications. For information about upgrading Oracle Applications using Rapid Install, see Upgrading Oracle Applications.
Oracle Applications uses two different technology stacks:
Oracle Application Object Library (AOL)
Java Technology Foundation (JTF)
AOL applications are Oracle Forms developed using Oracle Developer and are usually referred to as Forms-based applications. JTF applications are Java Server Pages (JSPs) developed using Oracle JDeveloper and are usually referred to as HTML-based applications. Each type of application accesses the same database and can share information with the other.
The product interfaces are accessed by providing the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the environment in an Oracle Applications 12-compliant Web browser and navigating to the hyperlink for the login page for the specific technology stack. You can also provide the URL for the specific login page. This URL is referred to as your login URL.
Use this URL to navigate to the Personal Home Page URL or the CRM Home page URL.
http://<host>:<port>/
To navigate to the Personal Home Page URL, choose Apps Logon Links > Personal Home Page.
To navigate to the CRM Home Page URL, choose Apps Logon Links > CRM Home Page.
This URL is sometimes referred to as the Apache or JTF login URL. Use this URL to open the login page for HTML-based applications.
http://<host>:<port>/OA_HTML/jtflogin.jsp
This URL is sometimes referred to as the Self-Service Web Applications or SSWA login URL. Use this URL to open the login window for Oracle Applications via the Personal Home Page. You can access Forms-based or HTML-based applications from the Personal Home Page.
http://<host>:<port>/OA_HTML/US/ICXINDEX.htm
Use this URL to open the login page for Forms-based applications. This login URL is typically used by system administrators, not end users.
http://<host>:<port>/dev60cgi/f60cgi
An application user is an authorized user of Oracle Applications and is uniquely identified by a username. After the user account has been defined, the application user can sign on to Oracle Applications at the CRM Home Page, Personal Home Page, or Forms login.
Note: Oracle Applications is installed with a system defined username and password.
Username: sysadmin
Password: sysadmin
An application user enters a username along with a password to sign on to Oracle Applications. The password assigned by the system administrator is temporary. When signing on for the first time, the application user will be prompted to change the password. Access to specific functionality and data will be determined by the responsibilities assigned to your user account.
A system administrator assigns one or more responsibilities to an application user. A responsibility is a level of authority that allows a user to access specific functionality and data in Oracle Applications. Oracle Applications is installed with predefined responsibilities. A system administrator can modify a predefined responsibility or create custom responsibilities.
The following table describes the predefined responsibilities that are used to implement Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony.
Responsibility | Function | Interface |
---|---|---|
Call Center HTML Administration | Allows you to manage multiple aspects of interaction center, including: ICSM, and UWQ Media Actions. | HTML |
Oracle Marketing Campaign WorkBench SuperUser | Allows you to manage Oracle Marketing operations, including the creation of campaigns, and campaign activities. | HTML |
Oracle Marketing Audience SuperUser | Allows you to manage Oracle Marketing operations, including the creation of lists, and target groups. | HTML |
Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Administrator | Allows you to manage Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony operations. | HTML |
Advanced Outbound Performance Monitor | Allows you to monitor Call Center performance. | HTML |
Interaction History JSP Admin | Allows you to create outcome, result, and reason codes. | HTML |
Oracle Marketing Administrator | Allows you to create custom target group priority levels. | HTML |
Sales Online Super User | Allows you access to the Oracle Sales Application, where you can assign agents to campaigns. | HTML |
In the Forms interface, if an application user has only one responsibility, then the related menu or application (if there is only one function in the menu) appears after the user signs on. If an application user has more than one responsibility, then a list of available responsibilities appears after the user signs on. To switch responsibilities, choose Switch Responsibility from the File menu.
In the HTML interface, an application user must select a default responsibility (even if the user has only one responsibility). The next time the application user signs on, the tabs related to the default responsibility appear. To switch responsibilities, go to Navigation Preferences in your profile (Profile icon). In the Switch Responsibilities section, select another responsibility from the Current Responsibility list.
The dependencies for Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony can be divided into two categories, including: Oracle products, and third party products.
Oracle Products
These products must be completely installed and configured prior to the installation and implementation of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony. For more information on installing these products, please refer to each product's individual Installation and Implementation Guides. Each of these products may have its own prerequisites, for example TeleSales and UWQ require Oracle Resource Manager and can integrate with Oracle HRMS.
Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony depends on the following Customer Relationship Management (CRM) products:
CRM Foundation, including Oracle Customer Interaction History and Universal Work Queue (non media component)
Oracle Marketing
Campaign, Activity, List
Prepare Campaigns/Activities for Advanced Outbound Telephony
Oracle Universal Work Queue
Enables Media for AO
Associates AO with appropriate Media Action
An Oracle business application (such as Oracle Telesales or Oracle Advanced Collections)
Oracle Advanced Inbound (unless using manual dialing)
Oracle Telephony Manager
Telephony Media Controller (optional)
Inbound Telephony server (optional)
Routing server (optional)
Server Monitor (optional)
UWQ server
Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony integrates with Oracle Advanced Inbound in several ways:
The Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Server must be added to the Interaction Center Server group which was created during the Advanced Inbound Implementation
Third Party Products
Envox CT-Connect or Cisco ICM
These are middleware products that provide a command interface between computers and telephony -- computer-telephony integration (CTI). They enable Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony to issue dialing commands to the PBX and to route successful calls to the agent desktop.
A web browser - Microsoft Internet Explorer (5.5 or above with Service Pack 2)
An ACD or PBX switch approved for use with Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony
Note: Compatibility between Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony and third party products, including Computer-Telephony Integration middleware and switches, is certified after testing with each release of these Oracle products. Each combination of a switch, the switch vendor's own software release, and each CTI middleware release, must be certified independently. While Cisco ICM and Dialogic CT-Connect are the two middleware products currently supported by Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, there are limitations on the certified combinations of phone switches, switch software, and CTI middleware with each version of these Oracle products.
Note: The certification information changes with some frequency, as third parties add and drop products and versions, and as Oracle's certification process proceeds. Therefore, current certification information is maintained on a web site, accessible to Oracle sales and product development personnel and to Oracle partners.
Note: Customers should always have their Oracle sales channel verify, from the web site, that the combination of phone switch, switch vendor software and version, switch configuration, CTI middleware software and version are compatible and supported, prior to making an implementation plan.
This topic group contains the following topics:
To successfully implement Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, the following software must be installed and configured prior to the implementation of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony:
Oracle Applications release 12
The Oracle CRM system database must be installed and configured prior to the installation of Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony. You must enter database information during installation and configuration steps. Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony supports Oracle 8i database release 8.1.6 or later
CRM Foundation components, including Oracle Customer Interaction History and Resource Manager.
Note: Each of these products may have its own dependencies: Oracle Universal Work Queue requires Oracle Resource Manager and Oracle HRMS; Oracle Marketing requires Oracle Discoverer, and Oracle Workflow; etc.
The goal of Oracle Customer Interaction History is to provide Oracle CRM applications with a common framework for capturing and accessing interaction information associated with every customer contact. IH is the central repository and provides a consistent API for tracking all automated or agent-based customer interactions. Oracle Customer Interaction History is part or CRM Foundation and installed with Oracle Rapid Install 12.
Resource Manager provides the capability for sales managers to easily add and update sales agent and partner profiles. It enables the managers to import sales group hierarchy from Oracle Human Resources on the vendor side, and to create and maintain agent and group profile for vendor or partner
Oracle Marketing
Oracle Marketing is a complete marketing automation software application designed to effectively plan, manage, execute, and ultimately analyze and optimize overlapping customer-focused programs to assist companies in winning and retaining profitable customers. Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony interconnects with Oracle Marketing, which creates campaigns and lists to execute. You must purchase and implement Oracle Marketing separately from Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony.
You also need Oracle Discoverer and Oracle Workflow for Oracle Marketing
Oracle TeleSales or Oracle Advanced Collections (business application)
Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony 12 is supported by Oracle TeleSales and Oracle Advanced Collections as desktop applications and should be implemented at this time.
Oracle Universal Work Queue (UWQ)
UWQ is required for both Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony and Oracle TeleSales. UWQ provides a graphical user interface that serves as a work portal for the agent and delivers telephony metadata to the agent work area.
Oracle HRMS for UWQ
Oracle Resource Manager for UWQ
Oracle Advanced Inbound
Oracle Telephony Manager (required)
Oracle Telephony Media Controller (optional)
Oracle Inbound Telephony Server (optional)
Oracle Routing Server (optional)
Server Monitor (optional)
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, SP3 or Windows 2000
Oracle approved internet browser
Netscape XXX
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5
CTI Middleware
CT-Connect Client 5.2 (if using CT-Connect as the CTI middleware)
Cisco ICM (no client necessary for the Cisco ICM middleware)
When implementing Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony, you should consider the following when deciding on your minimum hardware requirements:
Advanced Inbound and CRM disk space and memory requirement guidelines
Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony disk space and memory requirement guidelines
The number of agents in the call center
Call center volume
Memory requirements vary with the number of CRM applications being used on a particular instance, the number of users using each of the applications, and the estimated volume of customer interactions and application use.
You will need the following:
ACD/PBX, outbound telephony lines (trunks)
The ACD/PBX must be installed and operational. It must also be configured by the vendor for computer telephony integration.
Trunks are dependent upon call volume, call center size, and so on. Each agent must have 1 channel to go out and 1 channel for the dialer. Oracle recommends a 1 to 1 trunk to agent ratio in cases of high voice rate (when we expect a high percentage of dials to result in a live voice). However, if the voice rate is low (say 30%) or when live agents are expected to leave answering machine messages, a higher dialer-to-agent ratio is acceptable. This ratio should not be 2 to 1.
Telephony middleware server
The telephony middleware server acts as the translator between the ACD/PBX and the Oracle Telephony Manager (OTM) and the Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Server. Two choices are available, Dialogic CT-Connect and Cisco ICM.
When Dialogic CT-Connect is used, the Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Server connects through CT-Connect through the network. OTM uses the Telephony Adapter Server to reach CT-Connect. Both CT-Connect and ICM include server software that must be installed on an appropriate server machine. Consult respective Dialogic and Cisco documentation for details.
When Cisco ICM is used, the call center services use a Cisco-provided API to connect to the ICM server. No client is necessary on the Telephony Adapter Server box(es).
Agent telephone set
The agent, supervisor, and manager telephone set must be installed and operational. Each telephone set must be able to accept incoming calls from the ACD/PBX.
Call center server(s)
Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony is dependent on several other Interaction Center Servers. These include:
Oracle Telephony Manager (OTM)
Universal Work Queue (UWQ)
Oracle Telephony Adapter Server
The Telephony Adapter Server component is crucially important to Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony. There are, however, several additional AO-specific configuration steps to be done
The Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Server uses the Telephony Adapter Server for CTI control.
The Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony services can be run on any approved CRM platform.
This topic group contains the following topics:
The Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Server is moderately memory intensive, however, it is heavily network intensive due to its communications with the UWQ agent and UWQ server, as well as the database.
The following table provides sizing recommendations for the Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Server:
# Agents | Minimum Memory | Maximum Memory | Thread Count |
---|---|---|---|
1 - 100 | 128 Megs | 256 Megs | 300 |
101 - 250 | 256 Megs | 512 Megs | 500 |
251 - 500 | 512 Megs | 1024 Megs | 1000 |
The number of trunks is dependent upon call volume, call center size, and so on. Each agent must have 1 channel to go out and 1 channel for the dialer. Oracle recommends a 1 to 1 trunk to agent ratio in cases of high voice rate (when we expect a high percentage of dials to result in a live voice). However, if the voice rate is low (say 30%) or when live agents are expected to leave answering machine messages, a higher dialer-to-agent ratio is acceptable. This ratio should not be 2 to 1.
The Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Central Server is not memory or server intensive, however, it does rely heavily upon the database. Therefore, when you are considering an AO implementation, ensure that you have allocated enough disk space, memory, and have a large enough CPU to handle all of the requirements that AO will place on it in the future.
Most of the Central Server's operation consists of scheduling the execution of PL/SQL on the database. However, it requires 20 or so database connections (problems will arise if the database connection (dbc) file has a low value for the number of connections (NUM_CONNECTIONS).
The amount of disk space is largely determined by the level of logging you want to utilize. Logging levels can be set from 0 to 4.
Oracle recommends that you use Output Level 1 in normal operations for moderate logging without slowing performance or taking up large amounts of disk space.
Level 0 returns no logging, but results in the fastest performance and takes up very little disk space.
Level 4 returns the most detailed logging, such as for troubleshooting, but results in slower performance and requires a large amount of disk space.
The following factors must all be taken into consideration when determining the hardware size for Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony:
Number of concurrent agents
Expected volume of calls
Network throughput
The number of services (one service = one running instance of the software) and servers varies, based on the needs of an individual call center. There will only be one Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Central Server needed per CRM instance, but you may need multiple Oracle Advanced Outbound Telephony Dial Servers (depending on your business needs).