Page Comparison

General Availability Features

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In Summer ‘20, Vonage’s integration with Salesforce for chat routing will move out of pilot and external routing moved into limited availability. When integrated and configured, VCC manages the routing for interactions for all of your channels; administrators can configure routing logic for all interactions in VCC Admin Portal. User experience and reporting will be is consistent across all channels.

Limited availability means that a limited number of customers will be enabled. If you are interested in this feature, contact your account manager or customer success manager. As demand increases, we will enable the feature for all of our customers.

Live chat

From Since Summer ‘20, Vonage is integrating integrates with Salesforce external routing. This means that you will are now be able to add chat routing to your contact center.

During the pilot program for chat routing, the following features were identified to fit the needs of our customers. All these features will be were delivered in our Summer ‘20 release:

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Different agents can effectively handle different numbers and types of interactions simultaneously. What might be suitable for one agent may be frustratingly too much or frustratingly too little for another. CurrentlyPreviously, you can could only configure capacity settings for your account; the settings apply applied to all agents in your contact center account.

From Since Summer '20, you will be able to can configure different capacities for individual agents.Image Removed

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For information about configuring agent capacity, see How do I set interaction capacity for an agent user? in Configuring individual users.

Voice capacity configuration

CurrentlyPreviously, administrators can could configure capacity—the number of interactions agents can handle at the same time—for semi- and non-live interactions.

From Since Summer '20, if enabled, administrators can configure capacity for live interactions—for example, calls—from 51% to 100%. If the capacity of a live interaction is less than 100%, VCC can potentially route a call to an agent who is busy on another type of interaction. Conversely, VCC can potentially route an email to an agent who is handling a call.Image Removed

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For information about configuring voice capacity, see Interaction Capacity Settings in Editing System Settings.

Optimal load routing

The optimal load feature enables administrators to set agents' ideal capacity. An agent’s optimal load is the capacity that their assigned interactions should ideally consume to ensure the agent is best utilized. With optimal load, VCC will route semi- or non-live interactions to agents who are already working on such interactions, up to their optimal load. Agents who are idle therefore have enough capacity to handle live interactions which require at least 51% agent capacity. VCC will avoid routing interactions to agents whose assigned interactions consume more than their optimal load.Image Removed

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For information about configuring optimal load rating, see Configuring optimum load settings for multi-interaction routing in Configuring multi-interaction routing.

Omnichannel in ContactPad

In From the Summer ‘20 release onwards, additional controls for handling multiple interactions—calls, chats, or emails—will appear emails—appear in ContactPad. When the agent clicks the interaction in ContactPad’s information panel, the associated Salesforce record will come comes into focus or pop—if the record is already open it will come comes into focus; if it is not and it is a case, it will poppops.

When a chat is routed to an agent, the agent’s state will change changes to an alerting state. This preserves the capacity for the chat before the agent accepts or declines the chat.

Interactions will appear in ContactPad individually and their details will be are available from the Insights Stats API and in Dashboards.

This feature, along with the multi-interaction ContactPad, will be is supported for all our omnichannel customers, whether you are using Unite to route cases, Salesforce to route non-call interactions and for presence synchronization, Salesforce External Routing to route Salesforce interactions to VCC which completes the routing, or our Interactions API in which you develop your own omnichannel integration with our platform.

For information about using omnichannel in ContactPad, see Using multi-interaction routing.

End chat (Lightning)

CurrentlyPreviously, if an agent closes closed a live chat using the End Chat button in Salesforce Lightning Experience, the chat is was not released in ContactPad. From Since Summer '20, agents will be able to can release chats in the way that suits them best—from ContactPad or from Salesforce.

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When configured, agents can select disposition codes during and after their interactions in ContactPad. Administrators and supervisors can monitor and report on disposition codes in Dashboards.

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Post call quality rating

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For information about setting and reporting on disposition codes, see Call Logging, Logging a call in ContactPad, and Viewing disposition codes in Dashboards.

Post call quality rating

In Spring ‘20, the Report audio problems feature was released. Report audio problems gives VCC operations and support staff early visibility of developing problems. However, because this feature only reports problems it gives a distorted view of VCC call quality.

From Since Summer '20, Post call quality rating will complement complements existing problem reporting. The feature will enable enables agents to provide a single overall rating (good or bad) at the end of a call. Agents will provide a number which maps to an opinion score (a whole number between 1 and 5). These opinion scores can be are averaged into Mean Opinion Scores (MOS)—a number between 1.0 and 5.0. The MOS can be are calculated for an interaction (as multiple VCC users can be engaged on a call), a location, an entire VCC account, and so on.

The opinion scores and MOS are available in Dashboards and Statistics alongside the data from Report audio problems and together this will provide provides VCC customers and VCC staff with a holistic view of VCC call quality.

For information about post call quality rating, see Post Call Quality Rating.

Routing

Skill levels

CurrentlyPreviously, in User Admin, admin users can could assign skills to agents. Agents either have a skill or not. When an interaction that requires a specified skill arrives in VCC, VCC routes that interaction to any agent with that skill. VCC might assign have assigned the interaction to an agent with limited knowledge or experience in the skill, or to an agent who is an expert.

In the Summer ‘20 releaseSince Spring '20 and if enabled for your account, an admin user can assign a skill to an agent at a level from 1 through 10. A level of 1 indicates a low skill level, while 10 is the highest level of skill an agent can have. VCC will assign assigns an interaction to the most appropriate available agent, based on the interaction’s mandatory and optional skills and skills levels of available agents. Admin users can use the Routing Simulator to work out the best configuration for their business needs.Image Removed

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For information about skill levels, see How do I define the proficiency of an agent user in a skill? in Configuring individual users and How do I assign a skill to a user? in Configuring skills.

Group overflow

CurrentlyPreviously, all agents within groups configured in an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) applet in skills based mode—or a Universal Contact Distributor (UCD)—are —were considered for routing.

From Since Summer '20, an ACD applet in skills based mode will support supports group overflow. With group overflow, VCC tries to assign interactions to agents in each group in turn, only trying the next group after the specified overflow time.

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For information about group overflow, see Group Settings in Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet.

Announce place in queue

In From the Summer '20 release onwards, an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) applet in skills-based mode can optionally announce a caller's place in the queue.

For information about announcing a caller’s place in the queue, see Queue Settings in Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet.

ContactPad queue management (skills based routing)

The number of interactions queueing queuing in ContactPad currently includes previously included interactions that an agent has had the skills to take immediately. An agent who becomes became eligible to handle an interaction after a specified period of time (due to a skill expiring or group overflow) does did not see the change reflected in ContactPad.

From Summer '20, the number of interactions queueing queuing in ContactPad will increase increases as interactions are considered eligible for an agent. This helps agents to self-manage in an increasingly isolated environment.

Improve queue experience

For In the Summer ‘20 release, we have made some significant improvements in skills-based routing. CurrentlyPreviously, even if an agent is was available to answer an inbound call, callers may hear have heard music or announcements for a very short time before being connected to the agent. The upcoming Our recent improvements mean that we determine whether an agent is available before the call enters the queue. If an agent is available, we can connect the caller to that agent before playing any music or announcements.

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As part of the Summer '20 release, a new field, Enable Barge-in, will be was made available in the Data Announcer applet. If barge-in is enabled, callers can press any key on their telephone keypad to skip the remainder of this announcement and any following announcements. The key that the caller presses is logged and used by the first subsequent applet that uses or collects keypad tones, a Menu Tone applet for example.

Enable Barge-in facilitates the creation of a dynamic menu, using a string of Data Announcer applets leading into other applets. Such applets route interactions according to the key or keys pressed by associated callers.

For information about barge-in, see Data Announcer applet.

PCI

Self-service secure payments

The Summer '20 release includes included the self-service secure payments feature. This feature enables agents to take secure payments through interactive voice response (IVR). Using IVR, customers can pay for goods and services without interacting with an agent. Instead of speaking to an agent, VCC transfers the caller to an automated payment system. The automated payment system collects and verifies card details from caller. The payment system processes the payment request and then routes the call back to VCC.

For information about self-service secure payments, see IVR Secure Payments solution.

Dashboards

Dashboards provide interactive displays that provide insights into a VCC account's activity. Dashboards are made up of various visual components known as widgets that represent past and current activity. Widgets display VCC metrics, optionally filtered (by timeframe, queue, media type, and so on), in the chosen visualization style (gauge, donut, and so on). The built-in threshold capability enables users to draw attention to changes in account performance.

Dashboards are currently were previously available to a proportion of our customers, giving us feedback to improve the visibility they provide. From Since Summer '20 Dashboards will be have been generally available, and will be are default on for all accounts.

The Summer '20 release also includes included the following improvements for existing users:

• Interaction states are colored to help show when an agent is available to take a new interaction

• Presence and interaction state colors match ContactPad state colors to improve consistency

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Agent dashboards

Previously, dashboards were most commonly used by account supervisors or on a shared wallboard, but more recently contact center users have become remote. In recognition of this change, the Summer '20 release includes included read-only agent dashboards.

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This feature is available for all customers; admin users can enable the feature within the VCC Admin Portal.

For information about agent dashboards, see Viewing a dashboard as an agent.

Administration

Configurable data retention

From Since Summer '20, the Data Retention area will be has been available in VCC Admin Portal. The Data Retention area contains retention settings. These settings apply to interaction content such as call recordings, audio transcripts, and so on, and agent and interaction statistics. Retention settings determine the frequency with which such data is automatically deleted from an account. Users with an admin license can change these settings.

To give you full visibility of the data retention settings for your account, we are pausing paused automatic deletion of content for all accounts in the Summer release. Admin users in your account will be prompted when they log in to review and update data retention settings for both interaction content, and agent and interaction statistics. When reviewed and updated, automatic deletion will be resumed. To avoid keeping data longer than required, you must review and update settings as soon as possible after the release.Image Removed

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For information about data retention, see Data Retention.

Enhanced password security

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In the Summer '20 release, we are removing removed the ability to configure PIN logins for agents. All agents currently previously using PINs will have to set a new password meeting the password strength settings configured within your account.

In addition to this change, we will further enhance enhanced password security by checking active and new passwords against a database of more than half a billion passwords. These passwords have been previously exposed in data breaches or are insecure. When an agent logs in or changes their password, if their current or new password is compromised or insecure, the agent must change their password.Image Removed

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For information about enhanced password security, see Passwords in Vonage Contact Center.

Simplified email notifications

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Interaction Content Search

From Summer '20 onward, the Interaction Content Search area will replace has replaced Call Recordings in the VCC Admin Portal. Using Interaction Content Search, users will be able can to search for interactions and their associated audio recordings, and, if Conversation Analyzer is enabled for the their account, analysis of the recording. Users can search for and filter content by date, agent ID, call direction, and so on.

For information about Interaction Content Search, see Interaction Content Search.

Interaction Content API

The Interaction Content API enables VCC users to search for interactions with content such as call recordings, transcripts, categorization results, and screen recordings (pilot). Users can then download that content. The API replaces our SFTP offering for downloading call recordings. Our SFTP capability is being deprecated. All existing SFTP customers will be given access to the API and are encouraged to migrate.

For information about using the Interaction Content API, see Interaction Content API.

Call recording

Auto pause/resume recordings during consults, conferences, and transfers

CurrentlyPreviously, when an agent consults with an external third-party while on a call, if the call is being recorded, the recording continues. The agent must manually pause the recording if required. Relying on the agent to manually pause the call or explicitly get the third-party’s consent to be recorded every time is risky.

From Since Summer '20 onwards, if enabled, when an agent consults with an external third-party, VCC automatically pauses recording the call. When agent ends the consult, VCC automatically resumes the recording. The same applies to conferences that include an external party and transfers to an external partyexternal party and transfers to an external party.

For information about pausing and resuming recordings during consults, conferences, and transfers, see Automatic pause and resume recording in Call recording.

One-sided call recording using the VCC API

Currently, what VCC records—both sides, agent only—is configured for an account by Vonage.

From Since the Summer '20 release, when initiating calls using our API, users can choose what to record—both sides, agent only, or nothing—for each outbound call. This capability is especially useful when strict rules about what can be recorded without prior agreement exist.

For information about configuring your Salesforce integration to use consent-based call recording, see Configuring one-sided call recording.

Microsoft Integration

Microsoft Teams direct routing for agent connect

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In the first half of 2020, we began rolling out updates to the VCC WebRTC layer. We designed the updates to be transparent to VCC WebRTC users so they should not observe any differences before, during, or after the updates. If you have strict firewalls, you will need to update your allowlist of IP addresses to ensure that your users will continue connecting to the WebRTC service.

For information about the IP addresses you need to add to your allowlist, see WebRTC firewall configuration within Telephony in Technical prerequisites.

Feature Retirement

Along with the exciting new functionality added to the product with every release, we are also working to retire older parts of the product. The removal of functionality within our product is completed in up to these stages:

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As previously announced, Vonage introduced new URLs to access the Contact Center platform within each region. The regional URLs ensure that your agents and users benefit from our active-active cloud infrastructure, such that in the event of an outage, no users will be required to change their URL to access VCC and can simply log back in to resume their work. Instead of using specific cloud numbers in your URLs, we ask that you update your links and bookmarks to use the regional URL stated below. You can also find an article in the Vonage Community Hub called “How Can I Configure Salesforce for Enhanced Disaster Recovery?”.

The cloud-based URLs are now formally deprecated and all users accessing VCC using these URLs will receive a warning during login.

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