Are Cisco’s 10.5 and 10.6 UCCX Updates Worth it?

Cisco UCCX 10.6 is not a minor release above 10.5, as its name may suggest. It introduces two new important features:

1. The ability for the Finesse Agent Desktop to handle inbound email.  I will cover that a little later.
2. The ability to run both Finesse and CAD at the same time – a configuration that’s not available in Cisco’s UCCX 10.0 or 10.5. It’s important that agents on the same team use the same desktop, as well as their supervisors.  Being able to run both CAD and Finesse at the same time will greatly aid in the migration away from CAD for larger contact centers.  The migration can take place on a team-by-team basis, allowing for proper support on the first days of operation.  It is important to remember that CAD will not exist in UCCX 11, so customers should be planning for the transition to Finesse.

Additional Cisco UCCX features, broken out by channel

Voice

• Finesse based Outbound Progressive and Predictive dialing – This feature allows for outbound calls to be placed to contacts and for live contacts to be serviced by agents.
• Finesse based Direct Preview Outbound – Agents can use the Finesse Agent Desktop to preview an outbound call before accepting it.
• Outbound contacts are now supported in the +E.164 format (Finesse only).
• Finesse now supports multiple lines on an agent phone. This is feature that has been available in CAD, but Finesse did not support.

Web Chat

• Predefined Responses – When configured, responses are available to agents in the Manage Chats gadget in Finesse Agent Desktop.
• Agent Alias – Administrators can set an alias for the agents to use in chat.  Customers will now see this alias instead of the agent’s system username.
• Chat Transcript Download – The customer can download chat transcripts as a PDF at the end of a chat session.

Email

• Finesse based Agent Email – Finesse agents can handle routed emails through the email gadget.  This was an option that was previously available in CAD, but has now been re-worked for Finesse.  The new Finesse Email system has the following features:

• Attachments – Agents can add up to 10 attachments to an email reply

• Last-Agent Email Routing – Emails are routed to the agent that handled the last leg of the email conversation

• Predefined Responses – 500 chat and email predefined responses can be configured

• Requeue of Email by Agent – Agents can transfer an email to either the same conqueue or to another queue

• Various historical reports have been added to CUIC to facilitate the new Finesse based email solution

As you can see, Cisco is continuing to invest in its UCCX platform focusing on making the Finesse Agent Desktop a great experience.  If you are looking ahead to the mandatory migration to Finesse in version 11, it’s well worth looking at version 10.6 as a jumping off point, allowing for a smooth transition away from CAD.  Version 10.6 maintains compatibility with Cisco Unified Communications Manager all the way back to the 9.1.2 release, so updating just your UCCX server is a possibility.

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