Integrating QueueMetrics with a Fonality PBX
Revision history:
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0.1: First draft.
December 3, 2009.
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0.2: Working RPM installation.
December 17, 2009.
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0.3: Revised text, fixed typos.
December 24, 2009
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0.4: Initial QueueMetrics configuration.
January 8, 2010
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1. Installing QueueMetrics on a TrixboxPRO or PBXtra system
This tutorial explains how to install a working QueueMetrics system on a
Fonality TrixboxPRO or PBXtra system.
1.1. Call centers 101: the very basics
Before we start building a small call center, we have to focus a bit on the terminology:
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A campaign is a set of calls that belong to the same scope, e.g. your technical
support versus commercial support line are different campaigns, though they
may be staffed by the same agents.
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An inbound campaign is devoted to answering people calling in, while an
outbound campaign is made up by agents dialing out. Call centers often mix
inbound and outbound activities in order to optimize the use of available
personnel.
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A queue is the physical implementation of an inbound campaign. The queue
receives calls and pipes them to the available agents according to a predefined
logic (usually, FIFO for the calls and round-robin for the agents). In call center
terminology, this functionality is often referred to as the ACD (Automated Call
Distribution).
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An agent is a person working at a call center. The agent is different from a
casual user as an agent logs in and out, in order to tell the system when he is
available or not. In this way, the ACD searching logic minimizes agent
searching time, as it almost never has to ring up an agent who is not available.
An agent can be working on one or more queues: whenever he is available, all
calls coming in to any queue he’s working on will be piped to him.
1.2. Requirements and deployment scenario
In the course of this tutorial, we will assume that you will be installing QueueMetrics on
a different system from your main PBX; this scenario offers many advantages (the most important
one being not loading the PBX when running very large reports) but requires a distinct physical
or virtual server.
The following steps are required:
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perform a basic installation of QueueMetrics and its database on a separate box
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install a piece of software (Fonloader) on the PBX to send data to QM
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configure QueueMetrics
As QueueMetrics is a complex piece of software, this tutorial only covers its installation
in a Fonality environment. The main QueueMetrics manual applies for all that is not
specified here, and it can be found at: http://queuemetrics.com/manual_list.jsp
The following known issues/limitations are present with the ciurrent version of the loader:
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Audio listening: it is impossible to listen to recorded files on the Fonality server
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No manager events: you cannot send commands to the PBX over QM
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Agents page: logon-logoff buttons do not work
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Logins: "teleworker" agent logins are not supported.
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Queue exits: if a queue can terminate without routing a call to agents (e.g. because of a timeout)
the PBX does not log this correctly, so such calls will linger on for a while in the
realtime reports.
The following issues will be fixed for this manual.
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Time zones - setting QM to handle different time zones if not in EST.