by Steven Fitzgerald, Chief Technical Officer, Consistacom
The three most common help requests we field are for documentation, simplification, and cleaning up the mysterious tangle left by previous programmers. These goals comprise a formidable challenge when attempted with legacy practices. Let’s look at how to do it the modern way.
First understand what you have. Automatic flowcharting of existing vector programs shows what they do and what resources they use. Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) Audit automatically finds latent programming errors and identifies vectors, skills, announcements and other resources that are configured but unused.
Then release those unused resources, but before you start subscribe to the online Change Management Service. If you make a mistake it will show how to undo it even without documentation.
Finally, start simplifying. Most large businesses duplicate the same program logic (encoded business rules) in many places. One example is providing common call center services to USA callers in both English and Spanish. The old way requires two identical vector programs with different announcement numbers. Another example is checking whether the call arrives within business hours and playing some combination of messages if not. When these rules are programmed in many places it becomes difficult to track them down and make quick, error-free changes. The obvious solution is using a small number of standardized call flow program segments but that was impossible within ACDs until Avaya recently introduced two long-needed features, variables and subroutines.
To find simplification opportunities look at the flowcharts. Two vectors with the same logic will be drawn exactly the same. Anybody can scroll or leaf through them and find the common programming. Place the common flowcharts side-by-side and highlight the different announcements, skills and transfers. Set the variables in VDN routing to these values.
Be uniform. The first announcement number goes in V1, the second in V2, the skill number in V3, etc. Create one new vector that uses the VDN variables instead of specific numbers. Test it to get the bugs out and then point all the old VDNs to the new vector. You now have uniformity, fewer resources used and a single place to make changes.
One important point: trading multiple vector programs for one that uses variables means trading the management of multiple programs for the management of variables. Neither is easy. Use ACD Auditor reports to manage variables and your job will be much easier. It will also be easier if you avoid the temptation to stuff multiple values into a single variable.
Contact the author at tooltalk@consistacom.com.
© 2008 Telecom Reseller. All Rights Reserved.