Just a quick note that we’ve migrated our corporate blog. The new address is http://www.onstate.com/blog. And if you subscribe via RSS, the new feed address is http://www.onstate.com/blog/feed. We apologies for any hassle switching over may cause, but we look forward to interacting with your on our new website and new blog!

The release on July 30 contained mainly bug fixes and performance enhancements that are not visible from a user perspective. However, there are a few changes and new features which are worth noting.

SUPERVISOR CHANGES

• The biggest change is the introduction of scheduling to open and close skill queues and DNs (dialed numbers/chat names) including custom overrides. This allows you to send callers to your After Hours announcement after your offices close, regardless of whether or not someone is available or forgot to log out.  When a schedule is defined, the system will open and close your skill queue or DN at the appointed times. Here’s how it to set it up.
  • The scheduler is accessed from either the Skill or Routing Tree page. To access it from a skill page, open the Advanced Settings for any skill and click the Schedule button located next to the Queue Open parameter. On the Routing Trees page, click on any DN (dialed number/name) and you will see the button located next to the DN Open parameter.
  • Click the button to open the Schedule Configuration dialog box.
    
  • To set up a schedule, first decide whether you want it applied to a DN or a skill.
  • Next, select a DN or skill name from the drop-down list.
  • (Optional) If you want to set up the schedule, but not apply it until a later date, click on the calendar icon to the right of the Activate starting date. This will open a small calendar where you can choose the date and time when you want to your new schedule to go into effect. After setting the date and time, click the check mark button located in the lower right corner below the calendar. If you want the schedule to take effect immediately, simply omit this step.
    
  • To set up a weekly schedule, do the following for each day:
    • Click the Add button.
    • Choose a day of the week from the drop-down list.
    • Set the Start Time when you want the skill or DN to be open. Note that the time zone used for your schedule will be based on the zone specified in your global attributes (Contact Manager> Advanced Settings> ACD Admin> Global Attributes).
    • Set the End Time when you the skill or DN to be closed.
    • If you make a mistake and want to remove one of the days, check the box at the far left of the row and hit the Delete button.
  • A daily exception is an override of your weekly schedule on certain dates, for example holidays. To set up your daily exceptions, do the following:
    • Click the Add button.
    • Click the calendar icon and select the day that you want to override your weekly schedule. Click the check mark button in the lower right corner of the calendar to select the date.
    • Set the new open and close hours.
    • If it the date is a holiday for which you will be closed all day, check the box at the far end of the row. This will gray out the time settings, and your queue or DN will be closed all day.
  • Click Save to save your new schedule and close the box.
  • Click Save As to apply the schedule to other DNs or skills. Check the box in the left column for each DN or skill which you want using the same schedule. To select them all, check the box in the header row. Click Apply to apply the schedule to your selections. Click Back to close and go back to the configuration buttons.
    
  • Click Close to hide the dialog box.

  Once you have your weekly schedule created, the system will open or close the queue or DN when the next time threshold passes. Here is an example. Let’s say you have configured your DN to open at 8:00 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and it is now 3:30 p.m. on Monday. What will happen? If the DN is currently open, it will remain open and then at 4:00 p.m., the system will close it. If the DN is currently closed, it will remain closed until 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday when the system will open it. The system only opens and closes DNs and queues when it crosses a start or end time. It will not open a closed queue midday, just because it is supposed to be open at that time. So, when you first set it up, make sure the queue is already at the state it should be in and then the system will take over at the next start or end time.
  If you want your queue or DN to automatically close midday during your lunch hour, you will need to configure two start and end periods for each day. For example, you will need one Monday to be from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and another Monday to be open from noon to 5 p.m. You will repeat this for the other days of the week.

• This release includes a new report called Call Volume – By DN, which displays the number of calls for one or more phone numbers and/or chat names  during a certain period of time. This report can help you to identify your peak periods. To run the report, select the DN from the list. You may chose more than one if you want. (If you don’t select any, it will assume you want them all.) Set the report interval to either 15 or 30 minutes, and then specify the report period. The report shows you the number of calls that were received, answered, and not answered for each 15- or 30-minute interval. It also gives you the average duration of calls in that interval, the average wait time, and the total time people spent talking for all calls during the interval.
  
• Tracking of internal calls in the Skill-Based Agent Status Chart. Internal calls indicate the direction of the call and the Skill name will be the other user, as shown in the example below where jnwinc.sales1 called jnwinc.sales3. It is an outbound call (dark blue) for jnwinc.sales 1 and an inbound call (light blue) for jnwinc.sales3.
  
• Inclusion of deleted skills in the Skill Summary Report.
• New line item in the Skill Summary Report for all skills.
  
• Correct reporting when using different time zones.
• For calls dialed on a SIP phone when the user has network call recording enabled, the call will be charged at the proper outbound rates.

ONSTATE ANYWHERE CHANGES

• A new pop-up when the user misses or rejects a call and is forced off.

• The browser’s tab text changes to “Forced Off” when a user misses or rejects a call. The text is also visible in the Windows task bar and will be orange until the user sees the pop up.

• The word “Ready” will appear above the state timer to show how long the user has been available for calls. Note that the timer is not reset after each call, only after a state change.

• Removal of pending calls call the user’s personal queue when the caller opts to leave voice mail.

• Ability to search for a person or skill in the Transfer and Make Call dialog boxes. As the user types, the matches are displayed.

SYSTEM CHANGE

Inclusion of the caller ID (if it is available) in the subject line of voice mail sent to your email address. For example, if the message is from +16179340381, the subject now says, “VeMail from +16179340381″ instead of simply “VeMail.”

During the last weekend of July, OnState will be performing some routine maintenance upgrades. On Friday, July 30, 2010, we plan to upload new software that will contain a number of fixes as well as a few new features that are based on the requests of OnState customers. The next evening, we will update our servers with the newest firmware.

Some of the changes that you may notice are as follows:

• Ability to schedule the opening and closing of skill queues and phone numbers, including custom overrides. This allows you to send caller to the After Hours message every week day after 5:00 p.m. or whenever your business day ends. No more manual daily changes!
• A pop-up when the user misses or rejects a call and is forced off.
• The browser’s tab text will change to “Forced Off” when a user misses or rejects a call. The text will also be visible in the task bar.
• The word “Ready” will appear above the time the user has been in the Ready state in OnState Anywhere.
• Better reporting when using different time zones.
• Correct outbound charges for direct dialed SIP calls when network recording is enabled.
• Removal of a pending call from the user’s screen when the caller opts to leave voice mail.
• Ability to search for a person or skill in the Transfer and Make Call dialog boxes. As the user types, the matches will be displayed.
• Inclusion of the caller ID (if it is available) in the subject line of voice mail send to your email address. For example, if the message is from +16179340381, the subject will say, “VeMail from +16179340381.”
• A new report called “Call Volume – By DN” which displays the number of calls for one or more phone numbers during a certain period of time. This can help you to identify when your peak periods are.
• Inclusion of internal calls in the Skill-Based Agent Status report.

More great news for OnState customers.  Google recently announced the general availability of its ground-breaking Google Voice service.  Previously available by invitation only, Google Voice is now available to all U.S. users – free of charge.  Offering rich call management features, free calling within the US and Canada, and low rates on international calls, Google Voice is sure to be a hit with consumers.  The service attracted over 1.4 million subscribers in the invitation-only release alone.

We think plenty of business customers can benefit from Google Voice as well.  Over the years we’ve helped businesses transform Google Apps and GoogleTalk into rich customer-facing communications platforms which increase worker productivity, cut costs and boost customer service.  We’re excited to help our business customers leverage Google Voice as well, and we’re delighted to support Google Voice as an integral component of our Virtual Call Center and Virtual PBX services.  With OnState and Google Voice any business can enjoy all the features and benefits of an enterprise-class call center or PBX at a fraction of the price of a conventional on-premise solution.

OnState adds an intelligent business layer on top of Google’s popular “one number” feature.  Unlike a traditional phone system, OnState manages people, business functions and business rules – not just telephones.  We use business presence information – worker availability, skill-set, spoken language or any other business rules – to direct callers to the Google Voice number of the employee who can serve them best based on the nature of their query.

OnState business-presence lets you use Google Voice in a customer-facing context.  Callers contact your business using your published company phone numbers.  You don’t have to disclose the identity of your employees or their personal Google Voice numbers unless you choose to.  You’ll enhance sales and service and improve customer satisfaction by connecting callers to the right employee on the first attempt – reducing call transfers, telephone tag, missed calls, and overall customer frustration.

And business-presence is just the beginning.  You can use OnState for multi-modal customer-facing communications – text chat, video, screen sharing – to enhance customer experiences even further.  You can tie in Google Apps or other cloud services like Salesforce.com to increase productivity and improve customer service.  You can even leverage external application data and business logic to influence OnState call handling. And our extensive reporting and analytics will help you keep an eye on service levels and user activity so you can keep your operation running at peak efficiency.

The general availability of Google Voice is just the beginning for Google.  We see Google Voice as a platform for innovation and growth, and we’ll be there every step of the way.  We were an early supporter of Google Talk and an original participant in the Google Apps Marketplace, and we’ll be there as Google Voice evolves as well.  We look forward to continue helping companies find new and creative ways to extract additional business value from Google.

From CRM solutions to office productivity suites, every day more and more businesses are casting aside traditional software solutions for more convenient and affordable cloud-based services.  It should come as no surprise, really, when you consider everything cloud computing has to offer:

Simplicity – cloud-based services are faster and easier to implement than conventional software applications.  With the cloud you can hit the ground running and let the service provider take care of all the heavy lifting.

Affordability –   with a cloud-based solution there’s no hardware to purchase, no spares to inventory, and no equipment to maintain.  Best of all, since licenses are sold on a subscription basis you only pay for what you need.

Flexibility – with a cloud-based service you can turn-up users, features and capacity on-the-fly so you can respond quickly to rapidly-changing requirements and better support the needs of the business.

Reliability – cloud-based services are inherently reliable so you don’t have to worry about implementing costly backup servers or complex redundancy schemes.

Extensibility – with a cloud-based solution you can say goodbye to disruptive software updates and let the service provider take care of upgrades and technology refreshes for you automatically.

With all these benefits it is no wonder forward-looking businesses are seeking new and creative ways to exploit cloud computing.  Many are now considering cloud computing for the call center.  After all, the cloud is ideal for reaching home-based agents, branch office workers, offshore or outsourced personnel, and mobile sales and service professionals.  When it comes to reach and economics nothing beats the Internet.

But there’s a hitch.  Most SaaS call centers are pure cloud services which won’t work with your existing PBX or call center apps.  To move to the cloud you have to retire your Nortel / Avaya, Cisco or other assets.  And in today’s economy, many businesses simply aren’t interested in ripping out perfectly-working equipment.

At OnState we’ve taken a more flexible and pragmatic approach.  Our cloud-based service runs independently or in conjunction with incumbent solutions.  If you are starting a new business or opening up a new office we can provide all the PBX and call center features you need right in the cloud – all your employees need is a mobile phone or a Google, Skype or SIP endpoint.

On the other hand, if you already have a phone system or call center solution in place, there is no need to throw away the baby with the bathwater.  Our Virtual Call Center service was specifically designed to protect and extend your IT investments, so you can continue to utilize your installed equipment and your users can continue to use their existing PBX phones – on an interim or permanent basis.  We’ll layer on new features and functions right in the cloud.  With OnState you can:

• Internet-enable your workforce – extend call center and corporate voice services to mobile users, teleworkers and home-based agents.

• Introduce intelligent call routing – OnState’s cloud-based business presence tracks users independently of network, PBX or location and connects callers to the right employee on the first attempt using your business rules.

• Integrate with other cloud services – such as salesforce or Google docs.

• Add customer-facing multi-modal communications – text chat, video, screen sharing.

• Bridge together all your separate communications islands – branch offices, offshore sites, outsourced hosting providers.

• Implement affordable disaster recovery and business continuity solutions

Let OnState transform your legacy phone system into a state-of-the-art customer-facing business communications solution.  We’ll help you breathe new life into your incumbent equipment and use the power of the cloud to boost worker productivity and improve customer satisfaction.  You’ll enjoy all the operational and cost advantages of a SaaS solution without retiring your performing IT assets.  Reach for the clouds but keep your feet on the ground with OnState! Learn more about this cloud call center strategy at our webinar, “Going Cloud With Your Call Center While Keeping Your Feet on the Ground.”