Penn’s existing on-premises (legacy) Contact Center is scheduled to be retired. Contact Center clients will migrate to the CXone cloud-based service in phases between July 2021 and August 2022.
The new service offers features and functionality that the user community has requested. The new MAX agent and Supervisor applications run within Chromium browsers, eliminating the requirement for Windows PCs with local software. The MAX agent application is used to handle all types of interactions: voice, email, and chat. Agents use the integrated softphone to answer and place phone calls, allowing agents and supervisors a greater level of flexibility – agents can work on campus or remotely with a USB headset and an internet connection.
We hope this website will provide you with helpful resources to aid in this transition.
The Contact Center service provides automated contact distribution of incoming telephone calls and other types of contacts (e.g., email) to a specific group of people (agents) responsible for answering those inbound telephone calls or responding to other types of contacts. Contact Center systems are used by organizations that handle telephone calls from callers who generally do not need to talk to a specific person but want to talk to any qualified agent able to assist them quickly.
Initially, as we migrate from our legacy service to the CXone solution, we aim to ease the transition by mirroring existing call flows and features as closely as possible. However, a benefit of this new service will be the ability to enable features more quickly and easily than was possible on the legacy service. CXone can also scale up and down more quickly as each client’s needs for agents and capacity fluctuate over time.
What’s new?
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The MAX agent has a built-in softphone
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Synthesized text to speech available for announcements.
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Fewer logins for Supervisors, log in once for agent and supervisor tools
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Agents can relocate and reconnect to the service with minimal effort.
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Commit - schedule a follow-up phone call for a specified date and time.
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Single Sign-On – using PennKey
What’s different?
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Supervisors can easily assign/un-assign to skills agents and adjust proficiency
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SLA information visible without pulling a report
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Disposition codes replace wrap codes - used for tracking reasons why someone reached out to the contact center.
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Address book - used to place a manual outbound call or transfer a contact to another agent, or skill.
What to expect:
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Data Gathering: ISC will meet with representatives from each client department (what do we want to call this?) to review existing call flows and other configurations. We will work with you to understand how you use the software today so we can make necessary updates. While we aim to keep the experience as similar as possible to the previous solution for your agents and callers, we also want to take this opportunity to review and update configurations.
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Build and Test: After gathering your requirements, ISC will build your workgroups and call flows in the new system. We will do initial testing to ensure the caller experience matches your expectations. None of this will impact your production callers.
- Training: ISC will offer live and on-demand training sessions for your agents and supervisors. This can be tailored to your needs. Live training will often use your own contact center build so agents will be trained in the exact environment where they will be taking calls in the future.
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Go Live: ISC will work with each client individually to choose a Go Live date that best fits in with your business needs.
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Review and Optimize: After you have used the service for a couple of weeks, we will schedule a review session to answer questions and to make any necessary changes to your new environment
Agents and Supervisors log in to the CXone Portal using Penn Weblogin (Pennkey credentials). The MAX agent or Supervisor application is then launched from the CXone Portal.
Supervisors will use the application to monitor their agents and queues in real-time. To obtain key metrics, use the pre-built Reports, ….
To access the CXone Portal:
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Navigate to the Contact Center service page:
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Click “CXone Login” on the right-hand panel to be redirected to Penn WebLogin Single Sign-on (SSO)
| SUMMARY | DESCRIPTION | DATE REPORTED | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| VDI environments | MAX agent does not work in VDI environments | 7/12/2021 | No workaround |
This page lists guidelines regarding the use of headsets with PennFlex Phone. Using a headset is highly recommended, especially in busy call center environments where there may be other agents taking calls at the same time. Headsets are not included as part of the service.
Note: Most laptops are equipped with speakers and built-in microphones. Laptop microphones are prone to picking up ambient noise, while a laptop's speaker output can sometimes cause an "echo" effect. Your results may vary, but for the best experience, we recommend using a wired headset with a microphone.
CXone does not sell or recommend specific headsets, but they do state that headsets are required for use with the CXone service. The vendor also states, “NICE inContact strongly recommends that customers avoid using wireless headsets, and opt for the wired versions in order to minimize the potential for voice quality degradation.”
Depending on the ports available and the capability of your computer, you may require a USB headset or may be able to use an analog headset. Some computers are equipped with both a 1/8" "mini" headphone and a mic jack, while others, especially newer Dell OptiPlex systems, may be equipped with a "combo" jack. Dell offers some analog headsets that are compatible with these systems, but these are also available from other vendors. Some higher-quality headsets provide noise-canceling abilities.
ISC recommends testing a single unit prior to purchasing a large quantity of headsets.
Answers to frequently asked questions are listed below
- Customers have been asking for built- in soft phones for several years.
- Agent benefits
- Better agent ergonomics (less neck strain, etc. when using headset) and agent’s hands are free to type and use, mouse.
- Eliminates confusion for agents; they no longer need to juggle another device or application to handle calls.
- Agent work location flexibility. Move the agent and laptop, or simply go to another location and sign in (browser/internet, user account, and headset).
- Administration & reporting benefits
- Soft phones eliminate problems when troubleshooting, (saving time and effort) since phone calls are no longer spanning multiple services/devices each of which could be causing a problem.
- Call control is all in one location. Inbound and outbound calls placed from one interface, helps us capture more call metrics.
- Cost benefits
- Sending and receiving call traffic over the internet significantly reduces costs for Penn.
- Do I have any other options?
- Most agents taking calls are sitting in one location so using a headset is generally not an issue. For those folks needing to get up and down from a desk frequently, there are USB handsets available.
- We can enable a “remote number” option temporarily to allow an agent to take calls from a cell phone or desk phone. This will typically be used to solve a short duration problems like a broken headset.