Cisco’s Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX)

Do you use the telephone to communicate with your customers? If you said “Why, Yes we do!” then Cisco’s Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX) can help you deliver superior customer service.

“How can we do this?” you might ask.

We can answer that in two words, “Call Flow”…

Specifically, the Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX) system allows for complete customization of call flow. Applying techniques such as “Skills Based Routing” and “Call Queues” we can get your customer to the right person the first time. A call can be routed based on the time of day, the dialed number, or from an interactive selection made by the caller themselves.

If your customer does need to wait to reach an employee they can listen to pre-recorded information about your business, information regarding their hold time, or even a selection of music. If you would like to gather information about your caller, the system can be configured to prompt and collect that information from them and make it available to your employee when they answer that call. If your business application allows, the system can even “pop-up” customer information preparing the employee with information about the caller before the call is answered.

The reference to a “Call Center” often conjures up images of enormous rooms, spanning for miles, full of people at small desks taking calls. While those environments do exist and often exemplify the various needs for managing the call flow of customer calls, don’t let size fool you. Cisco’s UCCX product is not just for large businesses with large call centers. It can be used to improve efficiency, boost productivity, and enhance responsiveness in businesses, departments, and branches of all shapes and sizes.

With a little internal investigation, most businesses will find they have a group of employees (ranging anywhere from 2 to 200) that manage incoming phone calls from multiple phone lines, often using multiple line appearances on their phones, and currently juggle those exponential combinations by hand. If this sounds like a group within your business, we have news for you. You already have a “Call Center” in place, it’s simply being managed manually and although those individuals likely do a fantastic job of juggling all those callers, this situation can often result in a stressful and inefficient environment for both the employees and your customers.

Cisco’s UCCX product allows you to consolidate multiple line appearances on a phone into only one for each employee to manage. If your business has multiple numbers, they can be directed to a variety of “call queues” all represented by one line appearance on the phone. Rather than managing multiple calls and placing callers on hold, the system can do this for you. Employees can manage one line appearance (reducing their stress level) and be provided caller information on the Cisco Agent Desktop. This information can include caller id, dialed number, and information collected from the caller.

Not to worry, there’s something for the supervisors and managers as well. This system can provide them with real time call information, historical data and other advanced supervisory features. A supervisor can monitor live calls, barge in, or intercept calls to ensure a high quality level of service for your customers. Historical data allows you to track trends and help forecast the staffing needs, even by skill-set.

For more information or to see a demonstration of Cisco’s Unified Contact Center Express please contact your Keller Schroeder Senior Account Manager.

For several years, many have made use of the Cisco VPN Client as the standard of connecting to their business networks for application and system access. Although the traditional Cisco VPN Client has been extended to support the recent Microsoft Windows 7 release, support for the 64-bit architecture is not planned. For those devices, the Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client is required.

Since the Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client makes use of the SSL Protocol (unlike the Cisco VPN Client that uses IPSEC), specific licensing changes may be required for the appliance you’re terminating the VPN sessions on.

The Cisco ASA5500

This series originally required an additional SSL License Pack for each and every simultaneous user to be connected via SSL (AnyConnect VPN Client or WebVPN portal); however, with the recent changes in OS version 8.2 (pdf), you can acquire the licenses needed for your Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client users less expensively depending upon the type of access you wish to grant them.

The descriptions of the two predominant licensing models for the Cisco ASA5500 appliance are described as follows (from the Cisco website):

Cisco AnyConnect Essentials: This feature offers basic AnyConnect tunneling support for customers who require VPN remote access but do not need Cisco Secure Desktop features or clientless SSL VPN capabilities. AnyConnect Essentials supports mobile connectivity options with the AnyConnect Mobile license. Upgrade to the full-featured AnyConnect Premium license (traditional AnyConnect) is available by applying a traditional AnyConnect license or shared license to the ASA appliance.

Cisco AnyConnect Premium: Includes clientless SSL VPN and Cisco Secure Desktop capabilities (including Host Scan). Optionally provides Full Tunneling access to Enterprise applications. License is based on number of simultaneous users and is available as a single device or shared license.

The online documentation for the Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client is available for your review.

As you continue to review and improve your voice infrastructure, the time to update your Cisco Unity voice messaging system has arrived. Back in early 2008, Cisco announced End of Support (EOS) for version 4.x of Cisco Unity products. The most recent version – Cisco Unity version 7.x – is available to Unity 4.x customers with specific support agreements (contact your Sr. Account Manager for details).

Unity’s remaining product lifecycle is detailed in the table below:

Those currently utilizing the Cisco Unity version 4.x may want to visit the official announcement that lists each of the product part numbers affected by the original announcement:

A few additional links you might find of interest:

Have a need for faster wireless access? Cisco is now offering 802.11n Access Points capable of speeds as fast as 300 Mbps over both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio frequencies. This is accomplished using MIMO (pronounced “mee-moh”) or Multiple Input, Multiple Output technology for enhanced reliability.

The following are highlights regarding the two current 802.11n Access Point models from Cisco.

Aironet 1140 Series

Available in LWAPP or IOS mode

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With new technology comes new responsibility – and often new questions. Below are a few of those you may find yourself or your co-workers asking:What about my current Cisco wireless infrastructure?
No need to worry about incompatibilities with your current WLAN the 802.11n APs from Cisco are fully backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g!Can I simply upgrade my current Cisco 1100/1200 Series AP to 802.11n?
Unfortunately, current access points are not upgradeable to 802.11n.Will my current Cisco Wireless LAN Controller support 802.11n?
Absolutely! We may need to install the latest WLC software, but 802.11n is supported!Could I build a wireless bridge using the Cisco 1250 AP?
Yes, the 1250 can be configured for bridging in autonomous mode. This would provide a quick ROI when compared to monthly circuit costs.For those readers that enjoy geeking-out or just reading up on the technical specifications of new products, you’ll definitely want to take a look at the following: 802.11n: The Next Generation of Wireless PerformanceIf you think the new 802.11n speeds are for you, contact your Keller Schroeder Senior Account Manager to learn more or discuss the benefits of implementing 802.11n technology within your environment. 

Employee ownership makes a difference! Keller Schroeder celebrated five years as an employee-owned enterprise in March. Since becoming majority-owned by an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) in 2004, the firm’s positive momentum has accelerated:

• Named as one of Indiana’s “Best Places to Work” in 2006
• 2007 Cisco Outstanding Indiana Customer Satisfaction Award
• Became the first Evansville-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in 2007
• 2008 Cisco Outstanding Growth Award
• Celebrated 30-year anniversary in 2008 (founded in 1978)

As you continue to review and improve your infrastructure security, the time to update firewall security has arrived. Cisco’s End of Life (EOL) announcement for the Cisco PIX Firewall products in early 2008 is now accompanied by an additional financial incentive.

Now through July 31st, 2009 you can trade in your Cisco PIX security appliance for a credit of up to $15,000* toward the purchase of a Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliance on eligible trade-in combinations.

The following details the time table under which the product’s lifecycle now falls.

Those currently utilizing the PIX OS versions 7.0/8.0 will recognize similarities between it and the operation of the ASA; however, a few of the advantages the ASA products provide include:

A few additional links you might find of interest:

Contact your Keller Schroeder Senior Account Manager to learn more.

Addressing Network Challenges of Virtualization

Server virtualization is a challenge to server and network administrators. As server virtualization is deployed, the edge of the network or access layer is automatically extended into the server itself as each hypervisor deployed contains one or more virtual switches. This extension not only multiplies the number of switches that need to be managed, but also moves control of the network edge from the network administrator to the server administrator. That change makes the server administrator responsible for network design, configuration, VLAN creation, application security, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Having these additional responsibilities at the server level, with visibility from the network administrator cut off, can increase the risk of accidental misconfiguration, network loop creation, security holes, and slow problem resolution in server virtualization environments. Cisco helps you address these challenges with a new network technology for server virtualization environments called Cisco VN-Link.

At the heart of Cisco VN-Link is a Cisco NX-OS feature called Port Profiles. Port Profiles are a collection of network attributes such as VLAN assignment, quality of service (QoS) metrics, access control list (ACL) configurations, and other network properties that would traditionally be applied to a given network interface. Unlike traditional network provisioning, which usually requires ports to be configured independently, Port Profiles can be deployed on a group of ports simultaneously.

Collaborative VM Deployment

In a virtual server environment, Port Profiles are distributed through API integration to each hypervisor, where they are made available to server administrators as Virtual Center Port Groups in the hypervisor’s VM management tool (VMware’s Virtual Center). To provision a new VM, the server administrator simply selects the correct Port Profile using Virtual Center and Cisco VN-Link automatically configures the network layer for proper network connectivity and policy.

With Cisco VN-Link technology, network administrators define network policy with the available network properties and server administrators select the appropriate Port Profile for the application they are deploying. Thus network administrators can provide consistent provisioning and management of the network while maintaining the server administrator’s flexibility to rapidly deploy VMs. In short, Cisco VN-Link provides you with the ability to define and deploy consistent network and security policy while preserving autonomy for the different functional groups in your organization (network, server, security, operations).

With Cisco VN-Link, network administrators have a consistent set of troubleshooting tools to quickly diagnose and resolve network-related issues in their server virtualization environments. They can also use the advanced diagnostic features of Cisco NX-OS. For example, Encapsulated Remote SPAN (ERSPAN) allows network administrators to mirror a VM’s traffic to a packet analyzer elsewhere in the network. This allows for detailed analysis of traffic between VMs inside a server, which would otherwise be invisible to the physical network. By combining basic and advanced troubleshooting tools with Cisco debugging facilities, Cisco NX-Link increases visibility into the virtual network access layer to help reduce potential application downtime. As server virtualization deployments continue to grow, server administrators face a challenging new management model and shifting technical responsibilities. The additional network-centric workload may add delays in application deployment and failure recovery. Cisco VN-Link brings the deployment and management of the network back to networking experts while at the same time creating a collaborative management model that meets the requirements server administrators to support rapid VM deployment.

Consistent Operation and Serviceability

 Conclusion

Cisco VN-Link technology is available within the Cisco Nexus product line, including the software-based Nexus 1000V and the hardware based Nexus 5000 and 7000 series switches.

Contact your Keller Schroeder Senior Account Manager to learn more or discuss the benefits of implementing the Cisco Nexuss within your environment.

For More Information

Contact your Keller Schroeder Senior Account Manager to learn more or discuss the benefits of implementing the Cisco Nexuss within your environment.

As Network Security continues to play an important role within any company environment, as IT professionals, we continue to explore additional tools and mechanisms to enhance infrastructure security. One such product is the Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) product set.

The Cisco NAC solution is a combination of three primary products including Cisco’s Clean Access Server (CAS), Clean Access Manager (CAM), and Clean Access Agent (CAA). In addition, other products such as the Cisco NAC Network Module for ISR model routers, the Cisco NAC Profiler, Cisco Access Control Server (ACS), and 3rd party product integration (eg. Microsoft’s Network Access Protection) can be deployed to further enhance the overall solution.

The concept behind the Cisco NAC solution is simple. Any device attempting to access a network is quaranteened until NAC enforces company policies regarding anti-virus, anti-spyware, and OS levels. Once determined to be compliant, the device is permitted access based upon the role assigned as part of the process either by user authentication, IP address MAC address, or other means. This can be deployed for wired devices (LAN or WAN), wireless devices, and remote access (VPN) connections.

The two primary methods of deployment are In-Band and Out-of-Band. This is specific to the Cisco CAS (Clean Access Server) placement and relevant to the type of connection for which it is designed to protect. In-Band (“in the path”) deployments are generally for wireless, remote access (VPN) and branch office connections; whereas the Out-of-Band deployments are typically more applicable to the single site campus LAN segment of the infrastructure. The combination of these two deployment methods create a dynamic and flexible solution for most environments.

For more information pertaining to the Cisco NAC solution and the products of which its comprised, you can visit Cisco’s website http://www.cisco.com/go/nac/ and contact your Keller Schroeder Sr. Account Manager to discuss how your environment can benefit from a Cisco NAC solution.