Avaya CMS Agent State Connector

The Avaya Call Management System (CMS) Agent State Connector (ASC) connects to CXone WFM for data integration. This includes both Real Time Adherence(RTA) and historical data.

Avaya CMS ASC is on-premise software that connects to your Avaya ACD to receive a stream of agent state information and relays this information to support RTA.

Diagram of the Avaya ASC connection to CXone WFM

How each type of data is used in CXone WFM:

  • Historical skill-based data: This is used in the Forecasting and Staffing pages.

  • Historical adherence data: This is used in Real Time Adherence and in the CSV report you export from the Real Time Adherence page.

  • Intraday data: This is not supported.

Functional Description

Here is a breakdown of what Avaya CMS ASC supports:

  • Real-time data:

    Data

    Support
    RTA Yes
    Method of Integration

    Avaya CMS ACD node
    Reason Codes

    Yes

  • Historical data:

    Data

    support
    Skills Yes
    Method of Integration SQL queries on Avaya ACD database
    Interval Setting 15 minutes

  • Data types:

    data

    support
    Inbound Voice Yes
    Outbound Dialer No
    Email No

    Chat

    Yes

    Fax

    No

    Text (SMS)

    No

    Web

    No

  • Historical adherence:

    data

    support
    Agent Activity Log Historical adherence data is pulled every 15 minutes

  • Reports:

    Reports

    support
    Agent Adherence Report Yes
    Real Time Adherence Yes

Installation

Steps to installing the Avaya CMS Agent State Connector:

  1. Generating an Access Key, which will be used in the installation.

  2. Running the Installation Wizard

Prerequisites

CXone supports Avaya CMS ASC version 19.

In addition, the following prerequisites are needed for installing the Avaya CMS ASC:

  • Access to Avaya ACD devices via TCP/IP connection

  • IBM Informix Database on the Avaya side

  • Java Runtime Environment for Java version 1.8 - https://www.java.com/en/download/

    This links to an external site that is not maintained by NICE.

  • Over 100 MB disk space for installation, at least 1 GB for execution

  • Configure the firewall to allow outbound ports 443 and 80

  • Internet access

  • The following permissions must be granted to the user account where the installation and execution of ASC occurs:

    • Create and modify directories

    • Create and modify files

    • Open server sockets

    • Execute processes and services (daemons on Linux, Mac)

  • The user installing Avaya CMS ASC has Admin privileges on the agent computer

  • The user installing Avaya CMS ASC has below CXone permissions:

    • Access Key: Create

    • Can access support downloads: On

    These permissions are located in Admin > Security > Roles and Permissions, under the Admin section.

Generating an Access Key

The access key grants the Avaya CMS ASC connector access to CXone. You generate the key in CXone and later enter it when running the installation wizard.

The access key receives all of the permissions of the CXone user who generates it. If this user is an administrator, then anyone with the access key would have administrator privileges.

Therefore, for security reasons, you must first create a CXone user and role for the connector, and then generate the key with that user.

To generate the access key:

  1. Create a role for the Avaya CMS ASC. In CXone:

    1. Click the app selector and select Admin.

    2. Go to Security > Roles and Permissions.

    3. Click New Role, and enter a relevant name for the role. For example, Role for Avaya CMS Connector.

    4. Remove all permissions for the role.

    5. Save & Activate the role.

  2. Create an employee for the Avaya CMS ASC:

    1. Click the app selector and select Admin.

    2. Click Employees.

    3. Click New Employee and enter a relevant name for the employee. For example, name the employee Avaya CMS Connector.

    4. From the Primary Role drop-down list, select the role you just created for the connector.

    5. In the General tab, deselect all the attributes.

    6. Create the connector employee (the Access Keys tab will only appear after you create the account).

  3. Open the connector employee again, then go to the Access Keys tab and generate an access key.

  4. Copy both the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key and save them somewhere safe.

    If you don't copy the Secret Access Key, or lose it, you'll need to create a new one.

    Use this access key ID and secret access key when installing the connector on any computer.

  5. Activate the connector employee account by clicking the Activate Account button in the activation email.

Running the Installation Wizard

Once you generate the access key, you are ready to install the Avaya CMS ASC.

  1. If you haven't already, go to the Support-Downloads page, locate the asc-avayacms-installer-distribution file and click the Download button.

  2. Once the download is complete, unzip the installer to a convenient location.

  3. Right click on the install.bat file and select Run as Administrator to open the installation wizard.

  4. In the first window, click Next. The Installation Path window opens.

  5. Browse for the installation path. If the directory you select is not accessible, the wizard prompts you to alter the path or create a new directory.

  6. Click Next. The Package Selection window opens.

    The Avaya ASC installer preselects the required package. There is no need to select or deselect any other packages.

  7. Click Next. The Agent State Connector Configuration window opens.

  8. Configure the following information for the Avaya CMS Agent State Connector:

    • ASC Host: The machine where the Avaya connector runs. The default is the local machine on which the installation is running, however, this should be changed.

    • ASC Port: The port with which Avaya ACD will connect to the running ASC instance.

      The Avaya ACD must support the Avaya CMS protocol and must be configured to relay agent state information to the specified port.

    • ASC Manager URL: The base URL + the port of the service to which agent state events will be transmitted for use in the RTA application.

    • Access Key: This is the ID of the access key (Access Key ID) you generated in CXone using the connector employee.

    • Secret Key: This is the Secret Access Key you generated in CXone using the connector employee.

    • ACD Reports ACD ID: The ID of the ACD account from which data is coming in to the ASC. For example:

      • Tenant name

      • Account name

  9. Configure the following information for the Historical Data CMS DB:

    • CMS Database Host: This is the IP address of the Informix database

    • CMS Database Port

    • CMS Database server

    • CMS Database schema

    • CMS Database username

    • CMS Database password

  10. Click Next.

    Once you click Next, you cannot go back and change the configuration.!

  11. Wait until the installation progress is complete, and then, click Next.

  12. In the final installation wizard window, click Done.

  13. Configure the Avaya CMS ASC as a service.

    1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\acd-node-avaya-cms\wrapper\bat.

    2. Right click on each of the following .bat files (in order) and select Run as Administrator:

      • stopService.bat

      • uninstallService.bat

      • installService.bat

      • startService.bat

    The installation is complete, and the Avaya CMS ASC is configured as a service.