Cisco Cisco Administrative Workstation Installation Guide

Each contact center device (ACD, PBX, or IVR) communicates with an ICM 
Peripheral Gateway (PG). The PG reads status information from the device and 
passes it back to the ICM software. The PG runs one or more Peripheral Interface 
Manager (PIM) processes, which are the software components that communicate 
with proprietary ACD systems. One PIM is required for each peripheral to which 
the PG will interface. So if you have two identical ACDs, your PG will require 
two PIMs.

A single PG can serve multiple peripherals of the same kind. For example, one 
computer with an Aspect PG and several Aspect PIMs can serve several Aspect 
ACDs in the contact center. Another PG and PIM on the same computer might 
serve an IVR.

Beginning with ICM 5.0(0), a single PG can support both ACD PIMs and IVR 
PIMs, though the ACD PIMs must all be of the same kind and the IVR PIMs 
must all be of the same kind.

This chapter provides an overview of how the PG interfaces with ACDs in a 
contact center environment.

Each contact center peripheral (ACD, PBX, or IVR) requires a connection to a 
Cisco Peripheral Gateway (PG). The Peripheral Gateway provides a software 
interface between ACD, PBX, and IVR systems and the ICM routing software.