Manage Finesse IP Phone Agent

Finesse IP Phone Agent

With Finesse IP Phone Agent (IPPA), agents and supervisors can access Finesse features on their Cisco IP Phones as an alternative to accessing Finesse through the browser. Finesse IPPA supports fewer features than the Finesse desktop in the browser, but it does allow agents and supervisors to receive and manage Finesse calls if they lose or do not have access to a computer.

Supervisor Tasks

Finesse IPPA does not support supervisor tasks such as monitor, barge, and intercept, but supervisors can sign in and perform all agent tasks on their IP Phones.

Administration Tasks

After you configure Finesse IPPA, the administration tasks that you perform for the Finesse desktop also apply for the supported Finesse IPPA features. For example, the Call Variables Layouts that you configure for the desktop also apply for Finesse IPPA, although the column layout is modified to fit the IP Phone screen.

Reason Code Limitations

  • On the IP Phone, Finesse can display a maximum of 100 Not Ready, Wrap Up, or Sign Out reason codes. If more than 100 codes are configured, the phone lists the first 100 applicable codes (global codes or applicable team codes).

  • When Finesse IPPA displays reason codes, some IP Phone models truncate the codes due to character length limitations on the phone. To ensure they meet your requirements, verify the display of the reason codes on all phone models in your environment.

HTTP Only

Finesse IPPA phone clients communicate with the Finesse server using HTTP only, whether or not HTTPS access is enabled on Finesse.

Failure Behavior

Unlike the Finesse desktop, the Finesse IP Phone Agent does not automatically failover to the alternate Finesse server. To resume normal operations in a failure scenario, the Finesse IPPA agents must exit from the current Finesse IP Phone service and manually sign in to another configured Finesse service that connects to an alternate Finesse server.

To ensure continued operations in a failure situation, you must configure at least two Finesse IP Phone services in Unified CM, each pointing to different Finesse servers.

One Button Sign In

With One Button Sign In, you can set up the Finesse IPPA phones with prepopulated agent ID, extension, and password. In this case, agents can sign in to Finesse on the IP Phone without credentials just by selecting Cisco Finesse from the Services menu.

Alternatively, you can set up One Button Sign In and prepopulate only a subset of agent credentials. For example:

  • You can prepopulate only the agent ID and extension, forcing the agents to manually enter their password at sign-in for increased security.

  • You can prepopulate only the extension, forcing agents to manually enter their ID and password at sign-in (useful for agents who share the same phone).

You can use Unified CM Administration to prepopulate the agent credentials, or you can set up the agents with access to the Unified CM Self Care Portal to prepopulate their own credentials.

The following table shows examples of how you can assign the responsibility of defining agent credentials to the administrator or the agent, or share that responsibility between them.

Example Set Up

Prepopulated in Unified CM Administration

(by Administrator)

Prepopulated in Self Care Portal

(by Agent)

Entered at Sign-In

(by Agent)

Administrator populates the extension only

extension

-

id

password

Administrator populates the ID and extension

id

extension

-

password

Agents enter password only using Self Care Portal

id

extension

password

-

Agents enter all credentials using Self Care Portal

-

id

extension

password

-

Agents enter ID and extension only using Self Care Portal

-

id

extension

password

Finesse IP Phone Service Subscription Options

To set up access to Finesse on agent IP phones in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, you must create the Finesse IP Phone service to which the phones can subscribe. To set up the Finesse service, you can choose one of the following options:

  • Set up an enterprise subscription to automatically subscribe all IP phones in the cluster to the Finesse service. (Not supported with One Button Sign In.)

  • Set up a manual subscription, and manually subscribe each IP phone to the Finesse service.

  • Set up a manual subscription, and set up the agents with access to the Unified CM Self Care Portal to subscribe to the Finesse service themselves.

The following table lists the Finesse IPPA configuration procedures and indicates which procedures are required depending on the subscription option you choose.

Finesse IPPA Configuration Procedures

Enterprise Subscription

Manual Subscription

Administrator Manually Subscribes the Phones

Agents Manually Subscribe Their Phones Using the Self Care Portal

Set Up Application User, Web Access, and HTTPS Server Parameters

Required

Required

Required

Configure Finesse IP Phone Service in Unified CM

Required

Required

Required

Add Service Parameters for One Button Sign In

Not applicable

Required only with One Button Sign In

Required only with One Button Sign In

Subscribe Agent Phones to Manual Subscription Service

Not applicable

Required

Optional. Allows the administrator to enter agent credentials for One Button Sign In.

Set Up Agent Access to the Self Care Portal

Not applicable

Optional. Allows agents to enter their own credentials for One Button Sign In.

Required

Set Up Application User, Web Access, and HTTPS Server Parameters

To support Finesse IPPA functionality, you must configure an application user in Unified Communications Manager that is associated with all Finesse IPPA phones. And for proper Finesse IPPA operation, you must also set the Web Access and HTTPS Server parameters in Unified CM.

These steps are required for both manual and enterprise subscriptions.

Before you begin

Set up call capabilities for the agent phones in Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

Procedure

Step 1

Set the following parameters in Unified CM:

  • Set the Web Access parameter to Enabled.

  • Set the HTTPS Server parameter to HTTP and HTTPS Enabled.

To set these parameters in Cisco Unified CM Administration, use either of the following pages:

  • Phone Configuration page (Product Specific Configuration portion of page): choose Device > Phone.

  • Enterprise Phone Configuration page: choose System > Enterprise Phone Configuration.

Step 2

Configure an application user in Unified Communications Manager.

  1. In Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration, select User Management > Application User.

  2. Click Add New.

  3. Under User Information, enter a user ID and password for the new user.

    The password must be 95 characters or less and must contain ASCII characters only.

  4. Under Device Information, in the Available Devices pane, select all phones that Finesse IP Phone Agents will use and move them to the Controlled Devices pane using the arrows.

  5. Under Permissions Information, click Add to Access Control Group.

  6. From the list of search results, select Standard CTI Enabled and Standard CTI Allow Control Of All Devices and then click Add Selected.

    The application user is added to the Standard CTI Enabled and Standard CTI Allow Control Of All Devices groups.

  7. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Note 
In UCCX deployments, usage of an existing RMCM User for Finesse IPPA is known to cause problems in functionality, however, the physical phones must be associated with the RMCM User.
Step 3

Enter the application user's credentials in the Finesse IP Phone Agent Settings gadget.

  1. Sign in to the Cisco Finesse Administration Console.

  2. Choose Settings > IP Phone Agent Settings.

  3. Under Phone URL Authentication Settings, enter the same username and password that you entered in Unified CM for the application user.

    The password must be 95 characters or less and must contain ASCII characters only.

  4. Click Save.

  5. Restart Cisco Finesse Tomcat on the primary Finesse server.

  6. After replication is complete, restart Cisco Finesse Tomcat on the secondary Finesse server.

Note 

For Finesse IP Phone Agent (FIPPA) from 11.0 (1) onwards, the User Device Profile (UDP) must be associated with the FIPPA Application User along with the physical phones for agents using Extension Mobility. The Finesse Service URL must use the complete FQDN of the UCCX server.

Configure Finesse IP Phone Service in Unified CM

The following procedure describes the steps required for both manual and enterprise subscription.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration using administrator credentials.

Step 2

From the Communications Manager menu, select Device > Device Settings > Phone Services.

Step 3

On the IP Phone Services page, click Add New to create a new IP phone service.

Step 4

In the Service Name field, enter Cisco Finesse (or another service name that is appropriate for your environment).

Step 5

In the Service URL field, enter:

http://Finesse FQDN:8082/fippa/#DEVICENAME#

where Finesse FQDN is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your primary Finesse server.

Step 6

Ensure that the Service Category is set to XML Service, and the Service Type is set to Standard IP Phone Service.

Step 7

Check the Enable check box.

Step 8

Do one of the following:

  • To automatically subscribe all phones in the cluster to the Finesse service, check the Enterprise Subscription check box, and click Save. Agents and supervisors can now access Cisco Finesse by selecting it from the Services menu on subscribed IP phones.

    Note 

    One Button Sign In is not supported with enterprise subscriptions.

    Figure 1. Finesse Service Configuration with Enterprise Subscription


  • To subscribe only the desired phones to the Finesse service manually, leave the Enterprise Subscription check box unchecked and click Save.

    Figure 2. Finesse Service Configuration Without Enterprise Subscription


Step 9

With a two-node Finesse setup (primary and secondary Finesse servers), perform the preceding steps again to create a secondary Finesse service that points to the secondary Finesse server. When you create the secondary service, note the following procedural differences:

  • At Step 4, in the Service Name field, enter a name that distinguishes the secondary service from the primary service, such as Cisco Finesse Secondary.

  • At Step 5, in the Service URL field, replace Finesse FQDN with the FQDN of the secondary server.

Note 
Since Finesse IPPA works only over HTTP, avoid using Secured Phone URL Parameters in Unified CM.

Add Service Parameters for One Button Sign In

With One Button Sign In, for any agent credentials that you want prepopulated, you must set up corresponding service parameters in Unified CM.

Only perform this procedure if you are setting up One Button Sign In. Otherwise, skip this procedure.

Procedure

Step 1

From Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration, select the Finesse phone service (under Device > Device Settings > Phone Services).

Step 2

Click New to the right of the Parameters box.

The Configure Cisco IP Phone Service Parameter page displays.

Step 3

Set up service parameters for the agent id, extension, and password credentials in accordance with the following table. Enter only the parameters that you want prepopulated for the agents. For each parameter, enter the required field values and click Save. To add additional parameters, click Add New and enter the required values.

Field

Description

Parameter Name

Enter one of the following parameter names as follows:

  • Id

  • extension

  • password

The values entered are the exact query string parameters used for the subscription URL.

Parameter Display Name

Enter a descriptive parameter name; for example, id, extension, and password.

Default Value

Leave the default value blank for all parameters.

Parameter Description

Enter a description of the parameter. The user can access this text when they subscribe to the service.

Parameter is Required

If the administrator will prepopulate the parameter in Unified CM Administration, check the Parameter is Required check box.

However, if the agent will prepopulate the parameter in the Self Care Portal, two options are available:

  • If the agents will prepopulate all defined parameters, check the Parameter is Required check box for each parameter.

  • If the agent and administrator will share the responsibility of prepopulating the parameters, set only the administrator-defined parameters as required. This configuration ensures that the administrator can save the subscription without prepopulating all parameters. In this case, the administrator first prepopulates the required parameters, and then the agents prepopulate the nonrequired parameters.

Parameter is a Password (mask contents)

Check this check box for the password only.

This check box masks the password entries in the Self Care Portal, to display asterisks rather than the user entry.

When you save the last parameter, click Save and Close.



What to do next

You can prepopulate the agent credentials when you subscribe the agent phones, or the agents can prepopulate their own credentials using the Unified CM Self Care Portal.

Subscribe Agent Phones to Manual Subscription Service

If you set up the Finesse service as a manual subscription, you can subscribe the agent phones to the Finesse service in Unified CM and optionally define agent credentials for One Button Sign In.

If you prefer to allow the agents subscribe to the Finesse service using the Self Care Portal and prefer not to specify One Button Sign In credentials for the agents, you can skip this procedure.

Procedure

Step 1

From the menu bar, select Device > Phone.

Step 2

Select the phone that you want to subscribe to the Finesse service.

Step 3

From the Related Links drop-down list on the upper right side of the window, select Subscribe/Unsubscribe Services and click Go.

The Subscribed IP phone services window displays for this phone.

Step 4

From the Select a Service drop-down list, select Cisco Finesse.

Step 5

Click Next.

Step 6

(Applicable for One Button Sign In only) Enter values for any of the defined service parameters (id, password, and extension) that you do not want the agents to enter using the Self Service Portal or at sign-in.

Step 7

Click the Subscribe button to subscribe this phone to the Cisco Finesse service.

The Cisco Finesse service displays in the Subscribed Services list.

Step 8

Click Save.

The subscribed agents or supervisors can now access Cisco Finesse by selecting it from the Services menu on their IP phones.

Step 9

With a two-node Finesse setup (primary and secondary Finesse servers), perform this procedure again to also subscribe the phones to the secondary Finesse service that points to the secondary Finesse server.

Set Up Agent Access to the Self Care Portal

You can optionally set up the agents with access to the Unified CM Self Care Portal to prepopulate their own credentials and to subscribe to the Finesse service.

If you are not setting up One Button Sign In, or not enabling the agents with access to the Self Care Portal, skip this procedure.

Procedure

Step 1

From the Unified CM Administration page, select System > Enterprise Parameters.

Step 2

Under the Self Care Portal Parameters, in the Self Care Portal Default Server field, select the IP address of the Unified CM Publisher server from the drop-down list and click Save.

Step 3

Select User Management > End User.

Step 4

Select the user that you want to set up with access to the User Care Portal.
Step 5

Under Permissions Information, click Add to Access Control Group.

Step 6

From the list of Access Control groups displayed, check Standard CCM End Users and click Add Selected.

Step 7

Click Save.

With access enabled to the Self Care Portal, agents can sign in to the portal at http://<UCM address>/ucmuser to subscribe to the Finesse service and enter their own credentials under Phones > Phone Settings > Services.


Note

In a two-node Finesse setup with two services configured, the agents must enter their credentials on both the primary and secondary Finesse services.