AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud Prerequisites
A simplified view of Dialogue Cloud. For a full overview see Dialogue Cloud Architecture Overview: All Building-blocks
List of prerequisites
For the AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud to run properly, the following conditions must be met:
- A Microsoft Graph app configured to read user information (Presence, Names, Uri's),
See Properly configured Microsoft Graph Presence Read Source - A Microsoft Graph app configured to change/set agent Presence information,
see Properly configured Microsoft Graph Presence Set Source - At least one properly configured and running Azure SQL Database for CDR Call Detail Records (CDR) are the meta data of a converstation: who talked to whom, at which time, for how long and with which identity among other things (skill, optional classification, etc) which gets stored in your SQL (analytical) database. data,
See Properly Configured and Running SQL Database - Optionally, at least one properly configured and running Azure SQL Database for DialogueManager content (only required if DialogueManager will be used),
See Properly Configured and Running SQL Database - At least one properly configured SharePoint site for configuring your UCC A Unified Contact Center, or UCC, is a queue of interactions (voice, email, IM, etc.) that are handled by Agents. Each UCC has its own settings, IVR menus and Agents. Agents can belong to one or several UCCs and can have multiple skills (competencies). A UCC can be visualized as a contact center “micro service”. Customers can utilize one UCC (e.g. a global helpdesk), a few UCC’s (e.g. for each department or regional office) or hundreds of UCC’s (e.g. for each bed at a hospital). They are interconnected and can all be managed from one central location.,
See Configuring SharePoint Site(s) for use with Dialogue Cloud. - A properly configured and running PSTN/SIP The Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, is a protocol for multimedia communication (audio, video and data communication). SIP is also used for Voice over IP (VoIP). SIP has interactions with other Internet protocols such as HTTP and SMTP. Connection,
See Proper Sip construction and connectivity. - A properly configured Microsoft Teams environment,
See Proper Teams Environment Configuration. - Configure your tenant to run AnywhereNow WebAgent for your agents,
See Configure Sign-in for AnywhereNow WebAgent - Optionally, a valid PowerBI license, if reporting is needed,
See Power BI License For Reporting (Optional). - Optionally, a properly configured CRM Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is (usually) a software-based, data management method to deal with interactions with customers and potential customers. connection,
See Setting up CRM for Dialogue Cloud (Optional). - Optionally, AnywhereNow Authentication properly configured and running.
See Properly configuring AnywhereNow Authentication(Optional) - Optionally, a properly configured Snapper,
See Properly configured p.c.'s for running Snapper (Optional) - Optionally, a properly configured Inflight Wallboard,
See Properly configured p.c.'s for running fullscreen inflight Wallboard application (Optional)
Brief detail of prerequisites
Properly configured Microsoft Graph Presence Read Source
AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud requires access to agent name and presence information contained in Microsoft Graph. To configure this Microsoft Graph app, refer to the separate article Microsoft Graph Presence Source (Get) Configuration.
Properly configured Microsoft Graph Presence Set Source
AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud requires ability to change presence information contained in Microsoft Graph of agents when in discharge state or in a Reason Code. To configure this Microsoft Graph app, refer to the separate article Microsoft Graph Presence Publisher (Set) Configuration.
Properly Configured and Running SQL Database
AnywhereNow uses a SQL database(s) for at least two of its product features:
-
To store and retrieve Call Detail Records or CDR's and meta-data (e.g. recording hyperlinks, Classifications and QM scores) for UniversalTimeLine and Power BI to read . At least one DB per region is required but also a DB per UCC service or even per UCC is possible.
-
When DialogueManager (e.g. WebChat and/or e-mail) is implemented, a separate database to process the DialogueManager content and meta-data is required. One DB per UCC service is required.
To be able to make a connection to these databases we need the following information:
- An Azure SQL database per region: recommended at least S1 20DTU during project initiation (and is typically sufficient for Golive to production, but exceptions may apply, see warning below)
- Azure SQL DB is remotely accessible
- SQL user account (for SQL authentication): which is database owner
- For access to the CDR database a Microsoft Entra account (for Microsoft Entra authentication) is also supported.
- Connection string to the database(s): Only the formats provided below are supported (i.e. only connections directly to <server>.database.windows.net and the other parameters are required).
- Firewall allowance for regional Dialogue Cloud IP address: will be provided by your AnywhereNow contact.
Note
After Go-live, maintenance and regular monitoring of the database(s) is the customer's responsibility.
Read more
Your database(s) will accrue data for every conversation and will grow with use over time, or your final UCC count and configuration may be heavy on DB processing (many simultaneous dialogues in queue, frequent queries from PowerBI or e-mails with large attachments for example), so your maintenance (like monitoring size, adding additional archiving databases, deleting old data, reclaiming unused space or maybe even upgrade to a higher tier or storage) may be required. For more information on Azure SQL limits, pricing and maintenance tips a good starting point is https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/resource-limits-dtu-single-databases, or consult your SQL DB Administrator.
Note
At least one additional Azure SQL database is required when you are using the WebAgent in combination with the DialogueManager for Webchat or e-mail or other DialogueProviders (a.k.a. the DialogueManager database).
Note
Further additional Azure SQL databases are required for every additional UCC service deployed in another global region (APAC, AMER EMEA), for archiving older data, or if one or more UCC's need to collect their CDR's in a private Database.
For more information about connecting to Azure SQL, see: How to connect to Azure SQL
Configuring SharePoint Site(s) for use with Dialogue Cloud
For the configuration page of a UCC a SharePoint site is used. To be able to connect to the SharePoint site and to install the SharePoint template we need the following information:
- A Site per UCC in SharePoint online.
- The AnywhereNow Ucc.Creator template installed on each site
- The Url of the Site
- Register SharePoint Site against AnywhereNow App-only Enterprise App (region specific)
For information about the template installation, see: Creating a OneUCC Site using PnP.PowerShell
For information on Registering your sites for App Only access by AnywhereNow, see: SharePoint Online Authentication for Anywhere 365 Dialogue Cloud Microsoft Entra ID App-Only
Proper Sip construction and connectivity
For calls to be handled within the AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud, the only thing that’s required is a connection between the AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud SBC and a (virtual) SBC on the customer’s (or partner’s) side for which Direct Routing is set up. Alternative methods are available, but have less flexibility or are in the process of being decommissioned by Microsoft. See the complete Direct Routing Setup guide on 1 Overview.
Proper Teams Environment Configuration
Microsoft Teams licenses and equipment (e.g. headsets) used need to be setup according to Microsoft specification. PSTN connectivity via Microsoft Phone System configured. See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/setting-up-your-phone-system
Federation
If federation When using AnywhereNow in combination with Federation you can add agents working with a Skype for Business or Teams account to your UCC. signalling has been agreed upon (please contact AnywhereNow or their partners directly for limitations or expected features) to allow external access for the *.anywhere365.io and *.anywhere365.cloud domains. This is necessary for our Anywhere Dialogue Cloud to invite the agents of the customer to the conferences.
Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-external-access
Configure Sign-in for AnywhereNow WebAgent
The AnywhereNow WebAgent is a powerful application that provides agents with access to relevant information about dialogues, CRM data, and text handling. To get started with the WebAgent, you'll need to configure sign-in for your tenant. For detailed instructions on how to do this, please refer to our guide:Configure Sign-in for WebAgent. Once you've completed the sign-in process, you can proceed with installing the WebAgent service. For more information on this step, please see our guide: Install WebAgent Service.
Power BI License For Reporting (Optional)
The reports of the AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud can be viewed using Power BI. It is required to have Power BI working on your client. If you would like to publish the reports to the rest of your company, you need at least 1 Power BI Pro user or a Power BI Premium license.
A template will be provided that you can import into Power BI to create the connection with your SQL DB and create all the default reports.
The power of Power BI gives you the ability to adjust all templates to your own wishes. Installing the AnywhereNow Power BI template
Setting up CRM for Dialogue Cloud (Optional)
If a CRM connection is included in the PO, we will setup a connection between the AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud and your CRM environment. This will enable the AnywhereNow Dialogue Cloud to match all incoming calls with the existing contacts in CRM and extract relevant data to present to the agent in the AnywhereNow WebAgent.
Each integration is difference, so see CRM Service Installation for more information.
Properly configuring AnywhereNow Authentication(Optional)
If you want more secure end-user access to various AnywhereNow applications, anAnywhereNow Authentication App needs to be created and enabled. NOTE: For optional end-user access (read-only or edit) to Dialogue Studio, additional steps on your AzureAD are required. Please refer to the separate articles via Authentication Articles
Properly configured p.c.'s for running Snapper (Optional)
Even though most of functionality of Snapper has been moved to WebAgent, Snapper may still be required, installed and properly configured on Agent's and or Supervisor's p.c.'s if they still require some of its functionality not available in WebAgent (yet). Please see the preparation steps for Snapper on Preparation
Properly configured p.c.'s for running fullscreen inflight Wallboard application (Optional)
The Inflight wallboard was developed as a full-screen, high visibility alternative to the call center call and queue statistics bar found in many traditional call centers with many agents/desks occupying the same room all facing a wallboard. With the advent of distributed contact centers (i.e. work-from-home) the request for physical wallboards has now declined. A WebWallboard (web browser based) exists with a limited replacement feature set, and further options like Agent status overview are planned for integration into WebAgent. If the Wallboard application is still required see install instructions on Preparation