Guide for Systems Administrators

Simulation and Testing

In order to demonstrate and test the capabilities of Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC), it is possible to run without using real telephony, or live agents. Both can be simulated by Softdial Sim™, a product which simulates contact center resources when real-world resources are unavailable or impractical. This allows the user to set up and get familiar with discrete elements without having to set up a full working operation.

Users not intending to use Softdial Campaign Manager™ (e.g. Market Research / CATI users) can also use Softdial Sim™ to run a simulated campaign.

A simulation of an agent station can be run using the Softdial Scripter™ Demo.

The demonstration described below assumes that SCC is already installed following the instructions on Installing Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC).

The steps required for outbound or inbound calls are similar, but different, and are given below.

  1. On the Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) server, search for or open Softdial Sim™. The following screen appears (Fig. 1):
    Softdial SIM

    Fig. 1 - Softdial Sim

  2. Open a simulated telephony layer by clicking on the Add SwitchSwitch Icon button. The Define CTI/ switch... dialogue opens (Fig. 2):

    Define CTI/ switch

    Fig. 2 - Define CTI/ Switch

  3. Accept the default settings and click OK to start the telephony layer simulation.

Softdial Sim™ may now be minimized, but do not close while performing the steps described in this topic.

SCC is installed with a demo campaign called Mobiles already set up.

Open Softdial Campaign Manager™ by referring to Accessing Client Applications. The Mobiles campaign is shown in the list (Fig. 3).

Mobiles campaign

Fig. 3 - Mobiles Campaign

For this demo, we can either

Whether using the Mobiles campaign or your new test campaign, to start the campaign:

  1. Select it from the list
  2. Click Start
  1. Go back to the Softdial Sim™ application, opened in step 1) above
  2. Click the Add AgentsAgent Icon button . The Define Agent Simulation Characteristics dialogue is shown. (Fig. 4):
    Define Agent Characteristics

    Fig. 4 - Define Agent Characteristics

  3. In the Campaign name field, type the name of the campaign that the Sim agents should log in to; either Mobiles, or your test campaign.
  4. Leave the default settings for the remaining fields and press OK

The campaign will now start dialing calls using the simulated switch and agents.

  1. On the Softdial Contact Center™ (SCC) server, search for and open Softdial Sim™. The following screen appears (Fig. 1)

    Softdial Sim

    Fig. 5 - Softdial Sim™

  2. Open a simulated telephony layer by clicking on the Add SwitchSwitch Icon button. The Define CTI/ switch... dialogue opens (Fig. 2).

    Define CTI/ switch

    Fig. 6 - Define CTI/ switch

    The Inbound Calls/ min field has been superceded by the Generate Inbound Calls button Generate Inbound Calls. See step 2) below

  3. Click OK. The default switch __singlecti appears in the green switch list (Fig. 7)

    Default switch

    Fig. 7 - Default switch added

Softdial Sim™ may now be minimized, but do not close while performing the steps described in this topic.

  1. While in Softdial Sim™, click on the Generate Inbound Calls button Generate Inbound Calls. The Inbound Call Settings dialogue appears (Fig. 8)

    Inbound Call Settings

    Fig. 8 - Inbound Call Settings

    If you wish to use a Campaign/ DN (queue) other than the default, additional steps are required before completing this step. See Setting up a non-default campaign/ queue below

  2. To minimise wait time for your simulated agents, in the Calls/ Min field, enter 9

    The remaining fields can be left as they are:

    • Switch ID - default is __singlecti, the default telephony layer created in step 1) above
    • Campaign - default is system, the default pre-configured campaign for handling inbound calls. Can be the name of a non-default campaign you have set up
    • DN (dialed number or queue) - default is 200, the default pre-configured queue for the system campaign. Can be a non-default queue you have set up
    • Drop call after... - default is 120 secs, so that simulated calls are dropped and not left ringing
  3. Click OK
  1. Back on the SCC server, in Softdial Sim™, click the Add Agents Agent Icon button . The Define Agent Simulation Characteristics dialogue is shown.
  2. In the Number of Agents field, enter the desired number of simulated agents (e.g. 5)
  3. In the Campaign Name field, enter (from step 2 above) either
    • system, the campaign where the inbound calls will be generated , or
    • the name of the non-default campaign you entered in the Campaign field

    Ignore the Queue Address field. With the introduction of Softdial Repository™, this is no longer in use

  4. To minimise waiting, in the Arrival delay field, enter 0
  5. Click OK. The new agents will be listed in the purple Agents section at the top of Softdial Sim™
  1. On the SCC server, with Softdial Sim™ remaining in view, locate/ search for and open Dialer Chat
  2. Open a connection with the Softdial CallGem™ controller by clicking Connect
  3. For each agent simulated in Softdial Sim™, in the message entry field at the bottom of Dialer Chat, enter the following Group Membership [GM] message:

    GM\AN<AgentNumber>\GA<QueueAddress>\ON

    where

    • <AgentNumber> is the number in the AgentNumber column of Softdial Sim™
    • <QueueAddress> is either
      • 200 where the inbound calls will be generated by default (from step 2 above), or
      • a non-default queue you have set up
  4. Click Send. The agent will become active, taking calls on the inbound queue

If you do not wish to use the defaults:

  • campaign - system
  • queue - 200

the following additional steps are required before completing step 2) Generate inbound calls:

  1. Direct a browser to the SCC Softdial Login page. See Accessing Client Applications.
  2. Sign in as Administrator, or as a user with Super User permissions
  3. Open Softdial Campaign Manager™ by clicking on Campaign Manager
  4. Click on New. The New Campaign dialogue opens at the General Settings tab
  5. In the Campaign name field, enter a descriptive name. You will need this in step 3) Simulate agents
  6. In the Campaign type area, select Inbound
  7. Complete the Database Input tab, as described in Creating a Test Campaign. All other tabs may be ignored for this walk through.
  8. Click OK. The new campaign appears in the list of campaigns.
  9. Select the new campaign and click Start. The campaign enters the Running state
  10. From the Navigator menu (bottom left), return to the SCC Home Page by clicking Home
  1. From the SCC Home Page, select Softdial Repository. Softdial Repository™ opens on the default Campaigns & Queuestab
  2. In the Campaigns panel (to the left), click on your newly created campaign
  3. In the Queues panel (to the right), click New. The Add New dialogue is presented.
  4. In the Name field, enter a unique descriptive name. You will need this in step 3) below
  5. Leave all other fields as they are, and click Save. The new queue appears in the list of queues for the selected campaign
  1. While in Softdial Repository™, click the Inbound Routes tab
  2. Double-click the Default Tenant Route to open it for editing
  3. In the Destination Address field, enter the name of the queue created in step 2) above
  4. Click Save
  1. On the SCC server, right-click the Control Center icon , which is located at the bottom right hand side of your screen in the system tray, and select View Campaign Status.
  2. The Server Name dialog box will appear (Fig. 9):
    Server Name

    Fig. 9 - Server Name

  3. Select Other and type localhost. Check the Don't ask me this again check box and click OK.
  4. You will be presented with the following dialog box (Fig. 10). You will be asked to enter your credentials again. The Campaign Status Viewer will open:

    Campaign StatusCampaign Status - inbound

    Fig. 10 - Campaign Status - outbound (left), inbound (right)

The Status Viewer has two main areas of interest:

This is the default view when Status Viewer is opened (Fig. 10)

  • The table and pie chart at the top of the dialog box show
    • the number of agents in each state (talking, waiting, previewing etc.)
    • the total number of agents logged in to the campaign
  • The pie chart and table at the bottom of the dialog box show the breakdown of the results following attempts to contact people.

To view the agent status:

From the Campaign Status window top menu, select View >Agent Status. The Agent Status dialog box appears (Fig. 11).

Agent Status

Fig. 11 - Agent Status

This window gives a breakdown for each individual agent for each running campaign and shows information such as:

  • Current state
  • Total time they have been logged into a campaign
  • Number of completed calls
  • Time spent talking, waiting, etc

For more details about this tool, see the Campaign Status Viewer page.

Once you have run this demo , you may want to re-run and explore some of the rich features and options available. To do this we recommend that you reset the dummy Mobiles calling list to run from scratch, as follows:

  1. Open Softdial Campaign Manager™ by referring to Accessing Client Applications.
  2. Select the Mobiles campaign.
  3. From the Reset menu dropdown:
    1. Select Reset Campaign DatabaseTables. When prompted to confirm, click Yes.
    2. Select Reset Campaign Statistics. When prompted to confirm, click Yes.

You may also wish to delete your test campaign and recreate it. See Deleting a Campaign