Cisco Cisco IPCC Web Option Design Guide

A typical inbound call arrives from the PSTN via an ingress gateway to Unified CVP. Unified CVP then 
announces it to Unified ICM through the VRU PIM, and Unified ICM starts a routing script. The routing 
script can instruct Unified CVP to perform self service, prompt-and-collect, or menu actions, and then 
it uses a Queue to Skill Group node to queue the call to one or more expert advisor skill groups. While 
no expert advisors are available in those skill groups, it queues the call via Unified CVP using the VXML 
gateway.

When at least one expert advisor in one of the relevant skill groups becomes available, Unified ICM asks 
Unified CVP to deliver the call to the Unified Expert Advisor Runtime Server via translation routing. 
Unified CVP sends a SIP Invite to the Runtime Server (optionally via the Cisco Unified Presence SIP 
Proxy Server) and simultaneously begins playing ring tone to the caller. This marks the end of Unified 
ICM queuing support and the beginning of Unified Expert Advisor control.

Unified Expert Advisor closes the translation route with Unified ICM by sending a Route Request via 
the Expert Advisor PG. Unified ICM returns the label for the targeted skill group. At this point it is up 
to Unified Expert Advisor to find an expert advisor in that skill group, called an Assignment Queue (AQ) 
within Unified Expert Advisor, who is willing to accept the call.

Unified Expert Advisor then orders the list of available experts as specified in the AQ configuration and 
begins offering the task to one or more of them at a time. If all advisors reject or do not respond at all 
during the configurable offer-task time-out period, then the next set of advisors in the selected AQ 
receive the offer. If the entire list is exhausted without any advisor accepting the call, then the call 
remains in queue in Unified Expert Advisor, with the caller listening to ring tone until either a new 
advisor becomes available (Unified Expert Advisor will offer the task to him) or Unified CVP withdraws 
the call and invokes a Unified ICM re-query.

Assuming an expert advisor accepts the call, Unified Expert Advisor immediately delivers the call to that 
advisor. If the advisor can be reached at several different addresses, Unified Expert Advisor rings only 
one specific number: either his preferred destination address, one of his non-preferred destination 
addresses, or any other address that he specifies in his response. The selected address could be a 
hardware phone, a software phone, a third-party phone, a home phone, a cell phone, or any other device 
that can be addressed through Cisco Unified CM.

When the expert advisor answers, he and the caller conduct a conversation. If the expert advisor then 
wishes to hand off the call to another destination or back into the contact center, he may do so using the 
normal consult, conference, and transfer functions of his phone (assuming he has contracted for such 
functions from his service provider). That can result in the call returning to Unified Expert Advisor, but 
it does so as a new call. Unified Expert Advisor is not aware of the relationship between the two calls.

This call flow is actually no different from that of an inbound call from the PSTN, as far as Unified 
Expert Advisor is concerned. The call can come from Cisco Unified CM to Unified CCE either on a route 
point through its JTAPI interface to Unified CCE or on a route pattern through a SIP trunk to Unified 
CVP. In either case the same routing script would be executed, and the call flow continues through 
self-service, queuing, and Unified Expert Advisor as described above. However, the actual SIP-level 
routing depends on whether the call ends up passing through Unified CVP. For more information, see