Howto:IQM Agent Hot-desking
This article describe how free seeding can be realized using iQM.
“Free seeding” basically means that an Agent can work from any Phone. That is the simple interpretation.
The extended one is that each Agent should be able to work form every Phone and on each WQ.
So if you have a couple of Agents and one WQ probably no really an issue; but if the scenario is more extended and complex … read this article.
Applies To
This information applies to
innovaphone PBX version 9
innovaphone iQM server and iQM client 1.70 or higher (Build 8105)
More information
iQM can realize free seeding in two ways:
The “classic” one (works even with earlier versions of iQM):
an Agent has to do a login in Windows on the iQM Agent PC. After that he has to activate the user on the Phone or register the Phone.
Advantage: setup of the Agent is stored in the user directory and so individual.
Disadvantages: The user has to do two operations: log in at the PC and register the phone. Logging into a Windows PC is boring and for some customer too boring and slow.
Huge setup work to be done in larger installations. Imagine a scenario with 3 WQ’s and 20 Agents. On each of the 20 PC has must be activated 20 user. But if the customer wants that each of the 20 Agent should be able to work with each if the 3 WQ’s there are 60 user setups necessary on each PC. 60 users from a windows point of view, but also 60 setups for the individual iQM Agents, means 2400 setups. True that you can copy the setup files, anyway it is a lot.
It is possible to run just one iQM Agent session on a PC. While that is normally good and not a problem, it could be necessary run more iQM Agent sessions because the supervisor want more than one wallboard on one single PC (remember that a wallboard is just a iQM Agent with a particular setup).
The “Hot-desking” way.
The user is doing a registration on the phone, the iQM client will automatically log in with this user.
Advantage:
Just one operation for the Agent (on the phone).
Small setup work: just one profile for each phone and each WQ. Compared with the example (3 WQ and 20 Agents) means 60 setup (20 PC x 3 Setup per WQ on each PC), reasonable, remember that you can even copy setup files.
Disadvantage: Individual Setup is possible just for each WQ, not for each single Agent.
Remember that the classic and the Hot-desking method to realize a free seeding can be combined, so both ways are possible at the same time in the same scenario.
Individual free seeding setup
You just have to activate for each Agent on each PC a Windows user. When an Agent is doing a login in the PC and start the iQM Agent software (automatically with auto start or manually) he will find his setup, name, logged WQ etc. This is so because the setup of the iQM is stored as default in the Windows user directory (directory “user\userxxx\AppData\Roaming\iQMagent”, file “iQMagents_Setup”, it is a XML file but can be read and modify with each text editor). Please note that you have to switch on in your PC file explorer the option “view hide files” to see this directory.
If you have more than one WQ and an Agent should be able to work on all of them (normally this is not so in a CC, but some customer like that. For example one day a agent works on the Queue “Sales” and the next day on the queue “Marketing”) you have to create profiles for all queues. Therefore a Agent “Bill” will have a profile “Bill_Sales” and “Bill_Marketing” logging so in in one or the other WQ.
From the Phone view there are two possibilities: switch the active user or work with registrations.
Switch user: simple, just press menu and select the active user. But remember that form a PBX point of view you must first exit from the queue (with the key on the set or with the client), than switch the user and log in. Disadvantage: just 7 user possible, in larger scenarios not enough.
Registration: you deregister the actual user and register your user. You must put in a password also in the Phone, the default user on the Phone can also be an Agent, but this will just confuse, better is that the basic registration has nothing to do with the iQM.
Now if an Agent came to a workplace he has to do: logout from the actual user on the PC and Phone (typically that is jet done be the previous Agent). Windows login, the client will start automatically, registration at the Phone, done.
“Hot-desking” free seeding
If Hot-desking is activated the Agent has just to do the registration on the phone, the running iQM client will work now automatically with the name of the Agent. No Windows login necessary, if there is more than one WQ and the Agent should work with each WQ he has to activate the desired one.
To enable that kind of operation you have to switch on options in the iQM Agent Setup.
In the Agent Setup there is a flag “Save setup local”. If checked the iQM Agent setup is not stored in the user directory but in the directory where the software in running. Therefore it is possible to create more directories and start more time the iQM Agent software. The individual setup will be stored in the relative directories. In this way on one single PC can be started more than one iQM Agents. This is usefully just if there is more than one WQ and one PC should be able to work with all the WQ’s or run more iQM Agent software at the same time (for example to show more dashboards). If there is just one WQ this flag has no sense and Hot-desking is working also without that.
The second parameter to indicate for Hot-desking is the IP-Address of the phone. While in normal iQM Agent operation the Common name indicated in the setup is the “ID” for the client, in Hot-desking scenarios the IP-Address of the phone is the link to the Phone.
So the IP Address of the phone has to be known and indicated, if IP Address is in the setup automatically the indicated name is skipped (and will be modified form the iQM Agent software). If the user registers an Agent at this Phone = IP-Address the name of this Agent will be automatically activated in the iQM Agent client. If this user will be deregistering the client will blank the user name and the Agent client window will not display the keys to pilot the Phone.
Remember that a client work always just with one iQM server and that one iQM server will work with just one WQ. Therefore if you have more Queues and therefore more iQM server, for each should be running one iQM Agent on the client PC; doing this the Agent has just to activate the right window and is immediately online. As an alternative you can also create more links from the desktop and start the relative iQM Agent client if a user has to work on another WQ.
Confused? Let’s do an example.
You have 2 WQ’s: “Sales” and “Marketing” and 10 Agents. Each Agent should be able to work on each of the 10 Workplace and on each WQ. Agent 1 is “Bill” and has the extension “201”, Agent 2 is “Sara” and has the extension “202”, Agent 3 is “Joe” and he has the extension “203”. Bill and Joe works for Sales while Sara operate for Marketing.
You have done a setup that if a PC of a workplace is starting up, automatically he will start up even the iQM agent software for the Sales and Marketing WQ. So you will see 2 open iQM Agent windows, in the Top line of each windows the name of the Queue is indicated. On the desktop there are 2 icons names “Sales” and “Marketing”; if a user stops a client for error he can start it up again double clicking the icon. Bill and Joe will minimize the iQM Agent Marketing window; Sara will do this with the Sales window. Now Sara will login as extension 203 on the IP-Phone, the client will automatically named “Sara” and work on her Phone (wherever he is).
Bill is doing the same with extension 201 and his client will be named Bill. At a certain point Bill is going to lunch and Joe should work on his workplace. Bill will deregister the extension (pressing just one key on the phone, see setup), the iQM client now is blank. Joe register extension 203 on the same phone and the client will be named and become active with Joe.
Now also Sara is leaving and checks out the phone. Bill return from lunch and want to continue working form Sara’s workplace: he registers the phone with his extension, but has to open (maximize or start-up) the client of the Sales queue (remember, Sara has the marketing View open).
Note: If an extension is doing a registration he will find the user unlogged. Login to the group can be done lift and restore the receiver or pressing the relative key on the Phone or client.
Setup
While the setup of the iQM Agent for hotdeking is simple (just the IP address…) the setup in the innovaphone PBX is more complex and has to be done like described.
Create the user in the PBX, remember that you must give them Password for login and flag in the user form “store phone config”. This is necessary because the setup of that user should be activated from every workplace. Now assign the group to the user like normally done in iQM. Open the config template in the PBX and assign the keys. You must assign the keys “login” and “logout” from the group (dynamic, not static), see relative iQM article. But remember also to assign a key with the function “Delete Registration”: pressing this key the user will logout.
In the main registration you have also to foresee a key “Hot-desking” for logging in again when logged out. See relative Wiki articles.
Unreg warnings
If Hot-desking is active there will be always user not registered and therefore the warning triangle in the iQM server main form will be always on. In the setup of the iQM server you can flag the option “No Unreg Warning”; in this way the warning triangle will not be switched on and no logfiles entry will be written while in the Agent status table the Unreg status will still be indicated.