Hacking ShoreTel!

Posted on August 5, 2013January 14, 2024 by DrVoIP

I though I had seen it all!

When you have been involved with the design, deployment and management of customer premise telephone systems for as long as we have, you think you have seen it all. Over the years as we learn from our mistakes we improve our “best practice” list to assure others gain from our experience. When I was barely a teenager, I learned how to assemble a string of MF tones using a Hammond organ keyboard. Recording two keys at a time, you could create toll call routing instructions that could be played back after making a 1-800 toll call before the terminating end answered! That, along with the famous Captain Crunch 2600Hz cereal box whistle, kept me and my friends entertained for years, stacking toll tandem switches and meeting other hackers in far away phone booths! Things have changed as in-band signaling has long ago been replaced with out of band signaling and whistles no longer work. Toll fraud however, continues to be a major source of unanticipated costs for business and the toll bandit syndrome is still alive and well in the Internet age.

Just like a web sever which uses well know port 8080 to serve up web pages, SIP phone systems use a common port. Scanning ports for open port 5060, then banging away for a user login and password to create a registration was child’s play and most companies now have this locked down. The fact that most Voice Mail systems used a common password was also a source of hacking entertainment, but now most manufacturers do not create mailboxes until someone needs one, eliminating a source of illegal phone calls though remote access. Direct Inward System Access or DISA used to be a favorite tool for making fraudulent toll calls. Users would call into the system, put in a pin and then be granted access to make phone calls. It did not take long to figure out how to abuse that feature!

Kevin Mitnick needs my help?

Like I said, just when you think you have seen it all, something new shows up. You have to laugh at how obvious and simple it was. I was recently contacted by a guy who you would think has seen it all, Kevin Mitnick. If that name does not immediately “ring a bell,” then maybe you might remember a couple of his books: The Art of Intrusion, The Art of Deception and most recently Ghost in the Wires. Kevin has not only seen it all, he has done it all! Anyway, Kevin was researching a compromised ShoreTel system for a client and wanted to compare notes with DrVoIP. Apparently someone had gained unauthorized access to the system and was making toll calls that were costing the target company a small fortune. If you have ever experienced toll fraud you know that your vulnerability is broadcast all of the Internet in just a matter of minutes.You will find yourself explaining to Homeland Security why you are making so many phone calls to Dubai!

Kevin had a sheet of CDR records that showed the date and time of the calls. Unfortunately the calls seemed to be originating from the Automated Attendant so they could not be traced to a particular extension number within the system. We brain stormed some possibilities. I thought for sure this had to be an inside job! Maybe someone was using the “find me follow me” feature, but that would only send the call to a single number. These calls were all over the map! Literally all over the globe! ShoreTel does not have a DISA feature and VM boxes do not exist unless they are assigned to a user. The password must be changed as a part of the setup process. So how was this system hacked?

Well, I could tell you but that would take all the fun out of hearing from you as to your thoughts on how this was done. I will promise you that it takes one to know one and Kevin, genius that he is, figured this out, not I! Even DrVoIP was taken in by this clever ruse! Post your comments below with your thoughts on how this was accomplished and we will send you the puzzle answer Kevin uncovered. My thinking is that all we can ever hope to do is to raise the bar, keeping out the less sophisticated mice. There will always be someone smarter, someone more dedicated and focused, who will make it his mission to crack your safe!

Updated with Answer September 1, 2013

– Well a couple of people actually broke the code (excuse the pun)! What Kevin learned was that one of the great flaws in VoIP is the complete lack of control when it comes to secure Caller ID! Simply stated, there is no security or verification of Caller ID! Using any number of readily available tools, it is possible to spoof your caller ID. You can make your phone display any number you want! ShoreTel has a voice mail feature that enables you to listen to a voice message and then return the call by pushing a voice mail menu option key! This is a very handy feature, especially if you are calling into your voice mail from you car, just hit the “return call” option and provided the system was able to capture the inbound Caller ID, the ShoreTel will place an outgoing call to that number and conference you in! So lets put this simple ShoreTel hack together – the hackers gained control of a voice mail box, then called into the ShoreTel Voice Mail system with a spoofed Caller ID and the left a brief message. Calling back into the system, this time to check their voice messages and then hit the “return call” option key, which then placed a call to an International Middle East location all billed to the the ShoreTel system owner and showing up only as a Call Detail Record owned by the Automated Attendant. Great feature, but we would recommend that you don’t allow the VM system to place International phone calls! Thanks to all who took time to write and special thanks to Kevin Mitnick for a really fun Service Call!

Most Annoying Business VoIP Marketing Gotcha’s

Posted on July 3, 2013 by DrVoIP

If you have ever tried to decide on a new hosted business VoIP solution for your company, then you have most likely run into, and been frustrated by some of the “gotcha’s” that VoIP company’s use to get you to consider their service above all others. Even when you have narrowed it down to just a few options, you have likely struggled to perform a comparison of VoIP services that helps you make a final decision.

So what are we talking about here? Well here are just a few that come to mind and please add a comment below if you have run into any others that have caused some level of frustration:

Tiered Per user Pricing! – You spot an advertisement that states “Business VoIP service from $19.99 per month” and you immediately get excited and take a look. It turns out that the $19.99 price is only available to companies that want more than 50 lines and you only need 10 lines for your small business. Actual price for 10 lines turns out to be $34.99/user/month.

No Detailed Pricing on Website! – The aforementioned tiered pricing models are actually fairly common and it is great when the VoIP provider’s website clearly states these pricing tiers. There are some providers that do not even list tier pricing information and you need to get on the phone and as such become part of their sales funnel to just get a ballpark price.

Premium Features are NOT included!– Did you know that getting an auto-attendant in addition to business VoIP service can often cost you in the region of an extra $24.99 per month? Did you know that some VoIP companies will charge you an extra fee if you want numbers ported? Did you make sure that the “cool” VoIP feature that you have heard about is even available from the provider that you are about to sign with? The answer to these questions is quite often “NO”, and when you start to add these premium features to you service at a later date, the big savings that you made by switching to VoIP in the first place, slowly start to erode.

What does a Feature actually do anyway? – Believe it or not, there is often different terminology used for the same VoIP feature by different service providers. The common features (call forwarding, call hold, etc) are typically named the same but when it comes to more advanced, or premium features, the same feature can often be called something completely different. An example of this is “call pass”, “call flip” and “single number reach”. All of these do pretty much the same thing but are named differently by providers.

Are Smartphone apps supported and what do they actually do? – Functionality and availability vary from provider to provider. Most Smartphone apps are an extension of the in-office solution and create a virtual presence for the user. Others are stand-alone extensions that require an additional payment. Additionally, some of these apps will support VoIP calling via Wi-Fi while others will use cellular minutes for every call.

Does the provider support the Phones I already have? – If you already have IP phones, make sure the new VoIP provider that you are considering can actually support them, as otherwise you could end up with a hefty upfront cost that could have been avoided.

The good news is that there are actually a lot of providers that display this information very clearly on their websites and make it relatively easy to understand what the pricing is, what features are supported and what any extras will cost. The bad news is that it will likely be somewhat painful to perform a proper comparison by simply pulling up two or three provider websites on your screen.

Some options that can help with this comparison are:

1 – Call each provider and request a custom quote and full feature list with detailed pricing for any extra features. If a provider can’t deliver this quickly then you might want to ask yourself why.

2 – Use a 3rd party website that lists the providers that you are considering and check to see if they have a feature comparison tool.

3 – Avoid all the research and comparison and just go with your gut. Not the recommended approach but it can save you time and get you up and running with a business VoIP solution quicker. You may pay the price later though.

Regardless of any potential hassle or confusion, VoIP is still a great option for phone service that every company should be considering.

What is going on at ShoreTel now?

Posted on June 13, 2013 by DrVoIP

I very seldom comment, in this technology blog, on company policy and just try to stay focused on VoIP. This time I am speaking out as a ShoreTel Shareholder.You know, one of the people who bought into the $10 a share IPO (at about the time they were suddenly sued by Mitel for patent infringement)? ShoreTel stock (SHOR) is now trading at $3.50 or so? The company has been through at least three CEOs post start up. They are now scouting for yet another. Every key executive in the non-Engineering side of the house has jumped ship. What do you do when your key sales people go to work for a competitor, like Mitel? What signal does that send to the market?

ShoreTel had a real lead on VoIP technology. They make excellent products. They have had, and still have, some really great people! Leadership, at this point, is lacking.There have been some clear mistakes! Acquiring a “hosted PBX company” that cannot even use ShoreTel phones? Come on, I know I am a bit dense but really? (Note: “Follow the Money”.) The acquisition of the Mobility Router company, Agito Networks, made some strategic sense, but there has been no real follow through. (The secret weapon that was acquired from Agito was the SIP over TLS, which should have replaced the OEM VPN strategy ages ago, and built into ShoreTel phones and Gateways.) Just like their OEM acquisitions of previous products like the conference server, this will end up being yet another boat anchor!

I was hopeful that someone would buy ShoreTel before it becomes another Altigen (ATGN)! When I see Directors and the company’s own counsel filing Form 4s with the SEC, that does not sound very likely either. ShoreTel was the iPhone/iPad but like those products, it has fallen behind. The competitors are moving in with updated solutions and it has lost its luster. The adopted cloud strategy was a poorly placed wager on what could have been a winning strategy. They have missed the Virtualization market completely. Actually, very sad indeed! Maybe Mitel (MITL) does have it right? Maybe these two companies will merge? Why not, most of their executives have?

Open Letter to CISCO Certification Management!

Posted on May 31, 2013 by DrVoIP

Martin Sloan CCIE Voice Candidate #211151677 speaks for the entire CCIE Candidate community (DrVoIP included) when he wrote the following letter:

I’m writing you this morning to express my great disappointment in regard to Cisco’s recent announcement to retire the CCIE Voice track with no reasonable upgrade path to the CCIE Collaboration. I know that you’re well informed as to all the arguments which are being made against this decision on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, so I won’t go into any detail on why I think this is a bad decision. At this point, the facts are well laid out for everyone to see.

I’d like to ask you to please reconsider this decision and provide a reasonable upgrade path for the certified CCIE Voice candidates. I, myself, am not yet certified but I will make my first attempt on July 29th of this year. I don’t need to tell you how much time, money and effort I’ve put into preparing for this exam. It’s been a goal of mine since I first started on the CCNA. To completely retire a certification track that is still very relevant is incomprehensible.
At the very least, I want to request that Cisco provide it’s community with an intelligent argument to support it’s recent decision to retire the CCIE Voice without a reasonable upgrade path. We’ve heard very hallow responses citing new exam topics (that are already on v3) or that the description of the certification path wasn’t accurate with the technology. These answers are very much an insult to those that have been so loyal and sacrificed so much to achieve CCIE certifications. Please, ask your team to reach out to the community so we can come to an objective decision on this.

https://www.change.org/petitions/cisco-provide-a-reasonable-transition-path-from-ccie-voice-to-ccie-collaboration

Should You Run Your Company from Smartphones?

Posted on March 11, 2013 by DrVoIP

With an estimated 45 percent of Americans now using smartphones (66 percent for those under 30), it smartphones are starting to bleed into the enterprise. And now some businesses are beginning to evaluate whether they can manage their phone system needs directly from a smartphone.

But before jumping directly into managing your business via smartphone, you need to ask yourself a few questions. For instance, what if you want more than one employee to be responsible for responding to your company number? Or, how should you handle call recording, phone routing and other services you traditionally associate with landline service?

In this article, I’ll summarize research from Software Advice contributor Kelly Lindner. She recently shared her insights on strategies for deploying smartphones for business, as well as pros and cons for transitioning to this type of business phone system.

To PBX, or Not to PBX?
Companies with three or fewer employees can usually get by just using their smartphone network to run operations. But larger organizations might instead opt for a “virtual” private branch exchange (PBX) – a call routing and management service – to unite their mobile-device empowered workforce. In this model, one employee’s number is designated as the main line, and other individuals provide their numbers to customers as needed.

Or, companies can leverage products such RingCentral or Google Voice to provide a main line, that routes callers to individual smartphones using business extensions. As an added bonus, when an employee calls from their mobile phone, these PBX systems will show the main line on recipient’s caller ID. Some of these Cloud-based services also offer call recording, voice transcription and other business-focused services.

The Pros of a Smartphone-Run Business
The first and most obvious benefit is customer accessibility. If employees are reachable anywhere – in or out the office – customers are less likely to have to wait on hold, or for their messages to be returned.

“Having a landline tied us to a specific location and was presenting a barrier to connecting with clients. … Now we don’t have to run back to the office to check messages,” said Stuart Randell, a virtual PBX user and head of business strategy at Code & Company Inc.

A smartphone-run business also has advantages for employees. They get to use the device they are most comfortable with. Also, business owners realize savings (though sometimes small) compared with traditional VoIP-based systems.

The Cons of this Telephony Model
There’s nothing worse than hearing that dooming beep indicating your phone is about to lose power. Loss of battery life is a huge negative to using smartphones only for your business. You depend on workers to keep their phones charged, and chargers close by. But we all know it can be easy to forget to plug and recharge your phone.

Additionally, cell networks are not always dependable in certain locations. This connection is particularly at risk during a natural disaster. And, generally speaking, voice quality in any condition can be fickle.

What advantages and disadvantages do you see with using PBX-enabled smartphones over traditional VoIP? Join the conversation by commenting here.

UCCX Scripting – “Get Statistics” and manage your call flow dynamically!

Posted on March 9, 2013 by DrVoIP

Have you ever call into a customer service function, been answered with “all of our Agents are currently busy with other customers, please wait and the next available customer service representative will be right with you” and then waited and waited and waited. It probably crossed your mind that maybe they all went home! Is it possible that a call center could queue a caller for service when nobody is actually logged in to handle the call? Well, the answer is absolutely yes! A bit of careless script writing and you will find that customers are queueing for Agents that went home hours ago!

Influencing the call flow within your Contact Center, based on the dynamics of your environment, is an essential part of call center management. The dynamics of your call center are changing by the minute. More callers are entering the queue; call holding time is increasing; the position of callers within the queue is changing and the priority of the caller is also changing. We have Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze (Yes Virginia, all customers are not create equal) and we handle them differently! How do we estimate holding time? Do we even know if someone is logged in? That is the stuff of call flow scripting using real time reporting data!

ShoreTel has an entity in their ECC Scripting tool called a “service”. One of the elements of the service is “Agents Logged Out” call handling. It is a great solution, but it is an all or nothing binary solution. (There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don’t). If anyone is logged in, the service continues to define the call handling strategy. What happens if I want to handle callers base don the absolute number of agents logged in? Maybe it is not a smart idea to handle callers the same way given that there is only one Agent logged in rather than an army of 20 Agents. We are going to need a more sophisticated filter to handle callers based on this dynamic.

The CISCO UCCX Script Editor has an amazing library of Java Beans that can be used to find out not only if an Agent is logged in, but how many are logged in! Now that is a level of flexibility that can make your call flow really intelligent. In this video clip we take a look at the very powerful “get statistics” icon within the CISCO UCCX scripting error. We can use this icon to participate in the real time data stream that defines the dynamics of our call center. We can tap the number of callers in queue, the number of agents available, the average call holding time and even handle a caller based on the fact that they have become the oldest call in queue. The UCCX Scripting editor in the hands of a talented programmer can add a “knowledge” based routing component to your call flow! Intelligent Call Management indeed!

Compare ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX call back from queue scripts!

Posted on February 18, 2013 by DrVoIP

It is almost expected that a modern call or contact center be able to offer a “call back from Queue” option to your callers. In fact some call centers are now offering a Call Back with no phone call required from your caller at all! The caller can text a message to the call center and receive a text back with an approximate wait time until the next agent is ready! Take the time to develop a custom “smartphone” application and the incoming text message can also contain business appropriate CRM information like a client ID or policy number.
While you are waiting for your contact center to be updated with this advanced SMS text caller option, most modern contact centers can offer a “Call Back From Queue” option.

Generally, we want to capture the inbound call, route it to an available agent and if the agent is not available, we will play a customer care message to the caller and keep them in Queue. Should an agent not become available in the next programmable period of time, we will play yet another customer care message, but this time we might invite them to “press 1” to arrange a call back without losing their place in queue.
Should the caller elect to activate this option, they might then be asked to enter the number that they can be reached at when an agent becomes ready.

Optionally you can offer to call the customer back at a scheduled time in the future and also prompt them to enter a date and time for call back. How this is accomplished is dictated to by the system that you are planing to use for your call center. Generally, some kind of IVR functionality that can “prompt and collect digits”. The ShoreTel ECC and the CISCO UCCX both enable this option though they do it quite differently.

ShoreTel offers a scripting tool that enables calling options through per-programmed routines encapsulated in high level Icons. These Icons are interconnected on a pallet that graphically mirrors your call flow. This is “brilliantly simple” and is often all that is required to establish control and options over your call center. CISCO uses a scripting option based on Java and you will be more comfortable with this option if you have a background in software development. CISCO is a bit more demanding then the ShoreTel scripting tools, but along with its complexity comes greater flexibility in feature definition. In the hands of a talented programmer, you will be able to create features that could not easily be encoded in a higher level graphical scripting tool. The UCCX Scripts enable you to not only “prompt and collect” but also to “prompt and record” the callers voice message for playback to the agent prior to placing the out bound return call.

Call Back from Queue is a useful customer service option in those business centers that care about customer satisfaction. I would not expect to see this on the IRS toll free line, but rest assured that Charles Schwab will have it! As the cost of keeping callers on the line continues to escalate with the cost of wireline facilities, you can expect other options to become more available. The SMS option, being one, offers higher customer satisfaction potential while reducing the infrastructure costs associated with paying for more telephone lines than you have agents to handle the calls! Keep your eye on this option as it is sure to change the nature and value of existing call center strategies!

How to Upgrade your ShoreTel System!

Posted on January 21, 2013 by DrVoIP

The actual task of upgrading your ShoreTel system from one software version to the other is “brilliantly simple”. The process, however, requires attention to the detail! Any software upgrade will challenge your “change management” process! It is a complex process with many moving parts and it is up to you to understand what those parts are and how upgrading your software will effect those parts. Even a small ShoreTel deployment has many touch points beyond the upgrade of the server software. How many servers do you have in your deployment? Do you use CSTA? Citrix? Vmware? Are you on a 32 bit platform? Is it the right version to support the new Version of ShoreTel? What hardware do you have in your deployment that might no longer be supported by the new ShoreTel software upgrade? These are only a few of the more obvious questions you should be asking!

Where do you get answers to these questions? It is essential that your review the ShoreTel Release and Build notes prior to attempting an upgrade. These notes are an invaluable source of information that can provide needed detail on all key issues related to your upgrade. ShoreTel also provides “tips and tricks” and with V13 there is a new compatibility tool available. Compatibility guides, firmware lists, bug fixes as well as “known issues” will be outlined in these documents. Together with the system administration guide and planning guide, these documents are absolutely essential for your review before attempting an upgrade.

Have you backed up your configuration? There is no excuse for a system administration professional to attempt an upgrade without a backup of the system configuration, database, prompts and everything you need to restore a system from bare metal! (See also http://www.blog.drvoip.com/backing-up-your-ipbx-call-center-what-is-your-plan ). Do you have a written upgrade plan? Team assignments? “Hands and feet” available at each site? Have you reduced the time needed to do this upgrade by previously downloading the required software? This is a “resume creating event”! After all how do you explain not having a fallback strategy?

You will have alerted your User group to check voice mail messages before the upgrade and you will have provided them sufficient notice of the “maintenance window” during which time the system will be unavailable. Sometimes it is a good practice to call forward your main line to an alternative answering point during the upgrade! Make sure the users know in advance about any new features or required behavior they should expect post upgrade as nobody likes surprises! We also recommend a “post cut” help desk be established and that the User group be made aware of the resouce when the system returns to service, post upgrade!

We generally create a folder for our downloads and unpacking. Get your software distributed out to each of your servers before hand, it will save you time! The actual task list is very straight forward. You will upgrade your HQ server first, during which time you will have an operating phone system without voice mail and automated attendant. When this server comes back on line, upgrade your distributed servers next. Some may argue that you should finish the HQ site first, but we recommend that you get all servers upgraded and communicating before upgrading the firmware in your ShoreGear switches and phones. If you are going to find an upgrade issue, it will be with the servers, so lets get that behind us before addressing firmware!

Next upgrade your ShoreGear switches. Logging into the ShorewareDirector administration portal will enable you to see that the switches are online, but not communicating with the server as they are in “yellow” alert as the result of a firmware mismatch. Just restart them, the firmware will automatically be downloaded and installed. Depending on the number of switches, don’t restart them all at once! Switches across the WAN are the most vulnerable, as any break in communication during the firmware download will cause your switches to become stupid! You will need an appropriate serial cable to recovers, so that needs to be on your “required tools” list prior to upgrade.

As your switches come alive with a Green indication and the correct firmware, start to reset your phones. Your phones register with a specific Shoregear switch, so make sure that switch has completed its upgrade before restarting your phones. When restarted they will automatically download and install new firmware. You can restart the phones from inside ShorewareDirector!

If you have taken the time to adequately review your deployment using a “change management” methodology, created the necessary backups, prepared in advance with a written upgrade plan including team assignments, you should have no trouble! The old Carpenters adage rings true: measure twice and cut once!

Compare ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX Contact Centers!

Posted on January 1, 2013 by DrVoIP

As Contact Center implementation consultants we get to work with both ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX. The fact of the matter is they are both really excellent solutions and very similar in many respects. Historically, ShoreTel has had a single administration portal for the deployment of their iPBX solution. You go to one portal to define your Users, Gateways, Call Flow, Automated Attendants, Workgroups and Voice Mail. Add a User in ShorewareDirector and that user has a voice mail box, is instantly in the online Directory and it is “brilliantly simple”. CISCO has always been bit more challenging to configure. You have multiple Administration portals, the Call Manager Users are not necessarily in the Unity Voice Mail and you most definitely go to different portals to administer these systems. Gateways are programmed in addition to being created and registered with the Call Manager and multiple servers are the rule regardless of the number of sites.

When it gets down to the Contact Center, both companies have very similar implementations. For example, both companies use a separate server to run the Contact Center run time engine, manage agent states, store configuration data, usage data, scripts and prompts. The system use the CTI strategy of Route Points to logically interconnect the host PBX to the Contact Center and they both have separate administration interfaces. Both Systems require you to define your Agents twice, once in the iPBX and then again in the Contact Center, though CISCO has an import capability. ShoreTel is clearly migrating toward a single browser interface for the entire product line, but currently, you open one portal for the PBX and another for the Contact Center. CISCO does the same thing and clearly does not think that multiple administration portals is a market requirement.

ShoreTel has a straight forward license model for the ECC. You get a fully feature contact center to which you just add agents and IVR ports. Email, Chat and Campaign dialing are options, but everything else, at least with Version 7, is included. Pricing is simple and easy to understand. Real time reporting, historical reporting and the ability to do custom reporting are standard platform features. Integration options include DDE, Triggers and Active X. CISCO is a bit more complex in its packaging offering Standard, Enhanced and Premium packages. The Standard package, however, provides all that is required for a fully functioning Contact Center. The Standard package does not provide CAD or CISCO Agent Desktop. CISCO has the ability for phones to subscribe to XML based services and Agents use that option to log in, log out and generate wrap codes. CISCO provides all IVR ports in the base system, where ShoreTel has ten packs to grow IVR ports as required.

From a sizing perspective, the CISCO UCCX supports 400 Agents and 400 IVR ports, while ShoreTel boasts 1000 agents and 250 IVR ports. I used to operate with the understanding that I could have a maximum of 150 IVR ports on a single server and would required a three server solution for 300 IVR ports and Agents. I was not able, thought I did try diligently to get ShoreTel product management to confirm the server requirements and specify Busy Hour Call Handling, but could not get anyone at ShoreTel to respond ( DrVoIP is not a ShoreTel partner, so why bother? Then again, we are not a CISCO partner either and they sent us truck load of documentation, lab licenses, Virtual Machine Templates and answered all questions). If you do the arithmetic with 1000 agents and a maximum of 250-300 IVR ports, something does not add up? IVR ports are used to prompt and collect as well as source media streams for music on hold. Clearly if you have 1000 agents, nobody is holding and 250 IVR ports may be more than appropriate. Why the large disparity in Agent and Supervisor sizing for these two solutions?

The ShoreTel ECC Script Editor is a powerful little box of goodies and just gets the job done! Clearly, there are always ways to improve capabilities, but I have yet to encounter a client requirement that we could not resolve with the ECC tool kit. I would like to see the ability to import and export scripts; run the editor when not connected to the server and a simple record to file capability. XML document processing and HTTP triggers could be improved, but again, we have always been able to meet the client requirements and at the end of the day that is what it is all about. CISCO has a script editor that is also very powerful and offers options for XML document processing and configurable HTTP triggers. We particularly like the ability to run the editor while disconnected from the Server. Makes travel time more productive for us consultants!

CISCO has a number of desktop applications to support both Agent, Supervisors and Administrators. We value the fact that the applications are downloaded from the UCCX server via a web page. CISCO phones have a native ability to subscribe to XML services and a display large enough to make this a viable option. In many UCCX deployments not Agent Desktop application is necessary. ShoreTel provides an Agent and a Supervisor desktop application. The desktop Agent application is currently a two EXE solution, one for the ECC application and one for the ShoreTel Communicator. Again, ShoreTel has done an excellent job of integrating the two desktop applications, but there are in fact, two applications running on your desktop. Some end users like the smaller Agent toolbar anyway, so I vote to keep it as a desktop option! CISCO has a powerful tool named the WorkFlow Administrator which enables the creation of Agent buttons, work flow processing, web page push that enable a range of optional agent capabilities without the need to grant administrator rights.

Both systems have a long history and have undergone many changes in packaging and functionality. ShoreTel is about to release Version 8 and CISCO is at about the same level. The ShoreTel engine is running on a Windows server, where CISCO has migrated away from Microsoft to a Linux platform. ShoreTel uses MySQL and CISCO uses Informix for the configuration, activity and repository database functions. There is no reason that you could not have multiple ECC or UCCX servers on a single PBX. In fact, why not? They would not share the same Agent database or inbound trunk groups, but that may not be necessary in a large multi-site enterprise spanning the country or globe in which there are multiple business units.

We find both Contact Center solutions to be powerful, fully feature and very capable of handling blended activities at very aggressive price points. Though it may be such that you choose a PBX based on the Call Center, it is more likely that you will select your Call Center based on which vendor PBX you select! In either case DrVoIP can help develop your Contact Center call flow and scripting!

New ShoreTel ECC and CISCO UCCX feature – Text Messaging?

Posted on November 20, 2012 by DrVoIP

We continue to focus on call center strategies that optimize the caller experience by reducing or eliminating wait time. Now clearly, you have to be in a business that actually cares about customers, we don’t expect the IRS will be implementing this feature in the near future! In our last blog we took a look at the use of Smartphone based applications that can do the “wait” for you, alerting the call center to call you back when an agent is available to speak with you. We thought we would take the state of the art to the next level, and interface an SMS resource to the call center. Using this technology, you can have your clients send a text message to your call center. The call center receives the message and queues you for call back. When an agent becomes available, the call center places a call to the phone number that originated the text message.

The smart phone applications have the advantage of offering the user a visual menu to alert the call center as to the reason for the call. “Make a Service appointment” would be a different button then “My bill has an error”. The SMS or Text message, however, has the advantage of being interactive. Sending a text message to the phone number associated with “make a service appointment” or just texting “service” could trigger a return text message that indicates available service times and the estimated wait time for your agent to call and confirm the appointment. Text messages can also contain key customer service information that can be used to trigger the CRM application when the agent does call you back.

If you don’t mind a third party service bureau, or being on a list of competitors offering a similar call back functionality you might look at the emerging players in the Smartphone market. Both fastcustomer.com and Lucyphone.com are offering Smartphone applications that you can tap almost immediately. In either case, the technology is basically augmenting the call centers existing call back feature set. We have been implementing our early SMS to CC interfaces using Twiio scripts and have just written the return telephone number to the database containing the abandoned call or call back from queue requests. These applications are relatively straight forward to implement and can be customized and refined as you call center learns more about how your clients make use of the application. The advantage of SMS approach is that you can implement it with your existing call center technology and you do not need an outside service bureau or the creation of a new iPhone application.

Call Center technology is going through a comparatively vigorous revision. If you really care about the experience your customers have when they call you, the old Music-on-hold model may not be what you want. Basically, you want to call them when they want to talk to you! Don’t make them wait on hold for the next available agent. Have the next available agent call them! We think these programs can be funded in the overall reduction in telephone lines alone. You can now size your call center based on how many agents you have not on how many clients are holding!

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