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Understanding Multichannel Applications Supported by PeopleSoft CRM

These topics discuss:

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 PeopleTools: 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.

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 Understanding Multichannel Toolbar Functionality.

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 Understanding Supervisor Desktop and Monitoring Real-Time Information.

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.